Product revenue increased $54.0 million or 11.1%, to $542.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 from $488.2 million for the nine months ended October 1, 2016. This increase was primarily due to higher salesProduct revenue generated through our direct and distribution sales channels increased $55.1 million, or 13.1%, to $474.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017, compared to $419.3 million for the nine months ended October 1, 2016. Revenues from our OEM channel decreased $1.1 million, or 1.7%, to $67.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 as compared to $68.9 million for the nine months ended October 1, 2016. Total rainbow® product revenue increased by $2.8 million, or 5.5%, to $52.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017, compared to $49.8 million for the nine months ended October 1, 2016.
Royalty and other revenue increased by $7.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the nine months ended October 1, 2016, primarily due to higher revenue from NRE services.
Gross Profit. Gross profit consists of total revenue less cost of goods sold. Our gross profit for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016 was as follows (dollars in thousands):
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Nine Months Ended |
| September 30, 2017 | | Gross Profit Percentage | | October 1, 2016 | | Gross Profit Percentage | | Increase/ (Decrease) | | Percentage Change |
Product gross profit | $ | 351,190 |
| | 64.8 | % | | $ | 316,229 |
| | 64.8 | % | | $ | 34,961 |
| | 11.1 | % |
Royalty and other revenue gross profit | 30,045 |
| | 97.7 |
| | 23,241 |
| | 100.0 |
| | 6,804 |
| | 29.3 |
|
Total gross profit | $ | 381,235 |
| | 66.5 | % | | $ | 339,470 |
| | 66.4 | % | | $ | 41,765 |
| | 12.3 | % |
Cost of goods sold increased $19.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the nine months ended October 1, 2016, primarily due to higher product revenue and higher production costs associated with the expansion of our manufacturing capacity. Product gross margins remained unchanged at 64.8% for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016. Royalty and other revenue gross profit increased by $6.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the nine months ended October 1, 2016, primarily due to NRE services.
Selling, General and Administrative. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016 were as follows (dollars in thousands):
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| | | | | |
Selling, General and Administrative |
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Nine Months Ended October 1, 2016 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Increase/ (Decrease) | Percentage Change |
$197,339 | 34.4% | $184,244 | 36.0% | $13,095 | 7.1% |
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $13.1 million, or 7.1%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the nine months ended October 1, 2016. This increase was primarily attributable to higher payroll and employee-related expenses of approximately $10.3 million, higher marketing-related costs of approximately $4.6 million and higher
occupancy costs of approximately $2.4 million, which were partially offset by approximately $4.0 million of lower legal fees. Stock-based compensation expense of approximately $8.7 million and $7.3 million was included in selling, general and administrative expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016, respectively.
Research and Development. Research and development expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016 were as follows (dollars in thousands):
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| | | | | |
Research and Development |
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Nine Months Ended October 1, 2016 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Increase/ (Decrease) | Percentage Change |
$45,859 | 8.0% | $44,856 | 8.8% | $1,003 | 2.2% |
Research and development expenses increased $1.0 million, or 2.2%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the nine months ended October 1, 2016, primarily due to higher payroll-related costs of approximately $3.0 million, higher project related costs of $0.3 million, higher outside services costs of approximately $0.2 million and higher occupancy costs of $0.2 million, which were partially offset by capitalized costs related to customer NRE services of approximately $2.9 million. Included in research and development expenses was approximately $2.3 million and $2.1 million of stock-based compensation expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016, respectively.
Non-operating Income. Non-operating income consists primarily of interest income, interest expense and foreign exchange losses. Non-operating income for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016 was as follows (dollars in thousands):
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| | | | | |
Non-operating Income |
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Nine Months Ended October 1, 2016 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Increase/ (Decrease) | Percentage Change |
$1,319 | 0.2% | $423 | 0.1% | $896 | 211.8% |
Non-operating income increased by $0.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the nine months ended October 1, 2016. Non-operating income for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 consisted of approximately $1.6 million in net interest income, which was partially offset by approximately $0.2 million of net realized and unrealized gains on foreign currency denominated transactions. Non-operating income for the nine months ended October 1, 2016 consisted of approximately $2.6 million of net realized and unrealized gains on foreign currency denominated transactions and an approximate $0.3 million gain resulting from our deconsolidation of Cercacor, which was partially offset by $2.7 million of interest expense.
Provision for Income Taxes. Our provision for income taxes for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016 was as follows (dollars in thousands):
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| | | | | |
Provision for Income Taxes |
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Nine Months Ended October 1, 2016 | Percentage of Net Revenues | Increase/ (Decrease) | Percentage Change |
$8,108 | 1.4% | $25,420 | 5.0% | $(17,312) | (68.1)% |
For the nine months ended September 30, 2017, we recorded a provision for income taxes of approximately $8.1 million, or an effective tax benefit rate of 5.8%, as compared to a provision for income taxes of approximately $25.4 million, or an effective tax rate of 22.9%, for the nine months ended October 1, 2016. The decrease in the tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 resulted primarily from a discrete tax benefit of approximately $35.1 million related to excess tax benefits realized from stock-based compensation pursuant to ASU 2016-09, which substantially exceeded the discrete tax provision of approximately $7.7 million recorded for such excess tax benefits during the nine months ended October 1, 2016. Partially offsetting this discrete tax benefit was an increase in our effective tax rate resulting from differences in our expected fiscal 2017 geographic composition of our pre-tax income compared to our expected fiscal 2016 geographic composition as of October 1, 2016.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity consist of our existing cash and cash equivalent balances, future funds expected to be generated from operations and funds available borrowing capacity under our revolving credit agreement. At SeptemberCredit Facility. As of March 30, 2017,2024, we had approximately $374.0$661.4 million in working capital, andof which approximately $289.9$157.6 million was in cash and cash equivalents as comparedequivalents. In addition to approximately $286.9 million innet working capital, andas of March 30, 2024, we had approximately $306.0$135.8 million in cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2016. We carry cash equivalents at cost that approximates fair value. of available borrowing capacity (net of outstanding letters of credit) under our Credit Facility.
We currently do not maintain ana Credit Facility which provides for $705.0 million of unsecured borrowings. The Credit Facility also provides for a sublimit of up to $50.0 million for the issuance of letters of credit. Proceeds from the Credit Facility are being used for general corporate, capital investment portfolio but haveand expenditures and working capital needs. For additional information regarding the abilityCredit Facility, see Note 15, “Debt”, to investour accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in various security holdings, types and maturities that meet credit quality standards in accordance with our investment guidelines.Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
As of September 30, 2017, we had cash totaling $170.8 million held outside of the U.S., of which approximately $18.3 million was accessible without additional tax cost and approximately $152.5 million was accessible at an incremental estimated tax cost of approximately $47.4 million. In managing our day-to-day liquidity and capital structure, we generally do not rely on foreign earnings as a source of funds. As of March 30, 2024, we had cash totaling $62.4 million held outside of the U.S., of which approximately $25.5 million was accessible without additional tax cost and approximately $36.9 million was accessible at an incremental estimated tax cost of up to $0.3 million. We currently have sufficient funds on-hand and cash held outside the U.S. that is available under our line of creditwithout additional tax cost to fund our domestic operations and do not anticipate the need to repatriate funds associated with our permanently reinvested foreign earnings.global operations. In the event funds that are treated as permanently reinvested are repatriated, we may be required to accrue and pay additional U.S. taxes with respect to any such repatriation.repatriate these funds.
We are currently evaluatingOur cash requirements depend on numerous factors, including, but not limited to, market acceptance of our technologies, our continued ability to commercialize new products and to create or improve our technologies and applications, expansion of our global footprint through acquisitions and/or strategic investments in technologies or technology companies, hedging and derivative activities, investments in property and equipment, the collectabilityrenewal of certain amounts that have been paidour Credit Facility, the impact of disruptions to the manufacturing industry supply chain for key components, inflation, repurchases of our stock under our authorized stock repurchase program, costs related to our appointed foreign agent in connection with a foreign government tender that have not been timely remitted by such agentdomestic and international regulatory requirements and other long-term commitment and contingencies. For further details regarding our commitment and contingencies, see Note 24 to us. As of September 30, 2017, the net amount due to us from such agent was approximately $8.6 million. See Note 6 to theour accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I,IV, Item 115(a) of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional information.10-Q.
Our Amendedtotal cash and Restatedcash equivalents and related cash flows may be affected by certain discretionary actions we may take with customers and suppliers to accelerate or delay certain cash receipts or payments to manage liquidity for our strategic business requirements. These actions can include, among others, negotiating with suppliers to optimize our payment terms and conditions, adjusting the timing of cash flows associated with customer sales programs and collections, managing inventory levels and purchasing practices, and selling certain of our accounts receivables on a non-recourse basis to third party financial institutions.
Despite recent acquisitions and strategic investment expenditures, we anticipate that our existing cash and cash equivalents, amounts available under our Credit Agreement (Restated Credit Facility) with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as Administrative AgentFacility, and a Lender, Bank of America, N.A., as Syndication Agentcash provided by operations, taken together, provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operating and a Lender, Citibank, N.A., as Documentation Agentcapital expenditures, working capital requirements, and a Lender, and various other Lenders (collectively,operational funding needs for the Lenders) provides for up to $250.0 million in borrowings in multiple currencies, with an option, subject to certain conditions, for us to increase the aggregate borrowing capacity to up to $550.0 millionnext 12 months.
Should we require additional funds in the future. The Restated Credit Facility also providesfuture to support our working capital requirements or for a sublimit of upother purposes, we may seek to $50.0 million for the issuance of letters of credit and a sublimit of $125.0 million in specified foreign currencies. All unpaid principal under the Restated Credit Facility will become due and payable on January 8, 2021. See Note 10 to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Reportraise such additional funds through debt financing, as well as from other sources such as through our effective automatic shelf registration statement on Form 10-Q forS-3 (File No. 333-262770) on file with the SEC, pursuant to which we may offer an unspecified amount of debt, equity, and other securities. No assurance can be given that additional information.financing will be available in the future or that if available, such financing will be obtainable on terms favorable when required.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows (in thousands):flows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Three Months Ended March 30, 2024 |
(in millions) | March 30, 2024 | | April 1, 2023 |
Net cash provided by (used in): | | | |
Operating activities | $ | 45.8 | | | $ | 0.4 | |
Investing activities | (18.9) | | | (11.1) | |
Financing activities | (26.5) | | | (35.2) | |
Effect of foreign currency exchange rates on cash | (4.6) | | | 17.4 | |
Decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | (4.2) | | | $ | (28.5) | |
|
| | | | | | | | |
| | Nine Months Ended |
| | September 30, 2017 | | October 1, 2016 |
Net cash (used in) provided by: | | | |
Operating activities | $ | 9,027 |
| | $ | 88,030 |
|
Investing activities | (41,195 | ) | | (18,629 | ) |
Financing activities | 13,030 |
| | (75,348 | ) |
Effect of foreign currency exchange rates on cash | 3,112 |
| | (382 | ) |
Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents | $ | (16,026 | ) | | $ | (6,329 | ) |
Operating Activities. Cash provided by operating activities was approximately $9.0$45.8 million for the ninethree months ended SeptemberMarch 30, 2017. Net2024, generated primarily from net income from operations was $131.2 million, which was offset by non-cashof $18.9 million. Non-cash activity includingincluded depreciation and amortization of $14.4approximately $24.3 million and stock-based compensationbenefit of $11.2approximately $9.6 million. These sources of cash were offset by other
Other major changes in operating assets and liabilities includinginclude a decrease in accruedaccounts payable, inventories, accounts receivable, deferred revenue and other contract-related liabilities and other non-current liabilities of $66.9approximately$40.6 million, primarily related to tax payments for the year ended December 31, 2016; a decrease in deferred revenue of $5.9$23.9 million, primarily due to decreased channel inventory; increases in inventories and deferred cost of goods sold of $26.0$22.4 million, $13.9 million and $16.2$5.4 million, respectively; an increase in accounts receivable of $17.3 million, primarily due to the timing of cash receipts; an increase in other current assets of $11.1 million, primarily related to estimated tax payments for the current fiscal year; a decrease in accrued compensation of $9.1 million,respectively, primarily due to the timing of payments and inventory build-up; an increase in accounts payableaccrued compensation and accrued liabilities of $3.7approximately $3.2 million and $2.3 million, respectively, primarily due to the timing of payments.payments and the Company’s costs reduction strategies.
CashFor the three months ended April 1, 2023, cash provided by operating activities was approximately $88.0$0.4 million, for the nine months ended October 1, 2016, arisinggenerated primarily from net income from operations of $85.4$21.3 million. Non-cash activity included depreciation and amortization of $12.4approximately $26.1 million and stock-based compensation of $9.7 million and deferred income taxes of $5.0approximately $7.3 million. In addition, deferred revenue decreased by $10.9 million and accounts payable increased by $9.4 million during the nine months ended October 1, 2016. These sources of cash were primarily offset by otherOther changes in operating assets and liabilities including an increaseinclude a decrease in accounts receivablepayable, accrued liabilities, accrued compensation and income tax payables of $13.4approximately $27.1 million, $21.8 million, $16.5 million and $8.3 million, primarily due to the timing of collections,payments; an increase in deferred cost of goods sold of $11.3 million, an increase in inventory of $5.1 million and increases in prepaid income taxes,lease receivables, net, inventories, other current assets, deferred costs and prepaid expensesother contract assets of $5.6approximately $8.8 million, $4.4$7.1 million, $5.9 million and $2.9$1.0 million, respectively, all due to the timing of related payments.respectively.
Investing Activities. Cash used in investing activities for the ninethree months ended SeptemberMarch 30, 20172024 was $41.2approximately $18.9 million, consisting primarily of $37.8approximately $8.2 million for purchases of property and equipment, of which approximately $25.3$10.6 million related to the purchase of a corporate aircraft; capitalized intangible asset costs of $2.2 million related primarily to patent and trademark costs and an increase in long-term investmentslicense fees, and approximately $0.1 million of $1.1 million. Cashstrategic investments.
For the three months ended April 1, 2023, cash used in investing activities for the nine months ended October 1, 2016 was $18.6approximately $11.1 million, consisting primarily of $13.7approximately $9.7 million of capitalized intangible asset costs related primarily to patent and trademark costs and license fees, approximately $8.5 million for purchases of property and equipment, capitalized intangible asset costsapproximately $0.4 million of $4.0 million related to patent and trademark costs and $0.8 million related to the deconsolidation of Cercacor. See Note 3 to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional information related to the deconsolidation of Cercacor.
Financing Activities. Cash provided by financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 was $13.0 million, primarily driven by proceeds from the exercise of employee options totaling $55.7 million,strategic investments which were offset by common stock repurchase transactionsapproximately $7.5 million from return of $42.6 million.escrow funds associated with a business combination.
Financing Activities. Cash used in financing activities for the ninethree months ended October 1, 2016March 30, 2024 was $75.3approximately $26.5 million, consisting primarily driven by common stock repurchase transactions duringof repayment on the nine month period totaling $68.2line of credit of approximately $92.3 million, and net repayments under our Restated Credit Facilitywithholding of $32.5shares for employee payroll taxes for vested equity awards of approximately $5.3 million, which were offset by proceeds from borrowings under the line of credit of approximately $64.0 million and the issuance of common stock (upon exerciserelated to employee equity awards of options) totaling $26.1approximately $7.1 million.
For the three months ended April 1, 2023, cash used in financing activities was approximately $35.2 million, consisting primarily of repayment on the line of credit of approximately $72.4 million, withholding of shares for employee payroll taxes for vested equity awards of approximately $12.1 million, which were offset by proceeds from borrowings under the line of credit of approximately $44.4 million and the issuance of common stock related to employee equity awards of approximately $4.9 million.
Capital Resources and Prospective Capital Requirements
As of September 30, 2017, we did not have any outstanding loan draws and had $0.3 million in outstanding letters of credit under our Restated Credit Facility, leaving available borrowing capacity of $249.7 million. We also had outstanding capital lease obligations of less than $0.1 million related primarily to office and computer equipment. We had no other debt obligations and were in compliance with all bank covenants.
In September 2015, the Board authorized a stock repurchase program for the repurchase of up to 5.0 million shares of our common stock over a period of up to three years. The stock repurchase program may be carried out at the discretion of a committee comprised of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer through open market purchases, one or more Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, block trades and in privately negotiated transactions. As of September 30, 2017, approximately 2.4 million shares remained authorized for repurchase under this stock repurchase program. For additional information regarding our stock repurchase program, see Note 12 to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
We expect to fund our future operating, investing and financing activities through our available cash, future cash from operations, funds available under our Restated Credit Facility and other potential sources of capital. In addition to funding our normal working capital requirements, we anticipate additional capital purchasesexpenditures primarily related to renovating our new corporate headquarters. We also anticipate that we will continue to repurchaseinvestments in infrastructure growth. Possible additional uses of cash may include acquisitions of and/or strategic investments in technologies or technology companies, investments in property, repurchases of common stock under our authorized stock repurchase program and continued legal defense of our intellectual property. However, any repurchases of common stock will be subject to numerous factors, including the availability of our common stock, general market conditions, the trading price of our common stock, availableavailability of capital, alternative uses for capital and our financial performance. Possible additional uses of cash may includeIn addition, the acquisition of technologies or technology companies.
The amount and timing of our actual operating, investing and financing activities will vary significantly depending on numerous factors, including changes in working capital, the leveltiming and amount of our capital expenditures, costs of product development efforts, our timetable for infrastructure expansion, any stock repurchase activity and costs related to our domestic and international regulatory requirements. However,Despite these strategic investment requirements and potential expenditures, we anticipate that our existing cash and cash equivalents, as well as amounts available under the Restatedour Credit Facility will be sufficientand cash provided by operations, taken together, provide adequate resources to meet ourfund ongoing operating and capital expenditures, working capital requirements, capital expenditures and other operational funding needs for at least the next 12 months.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not currently have, nor have we ever had, any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities referredmay require additional funds in the future to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangementssupport our working capital requirements or for other contractually narrowpurposes and may seek to raise such additional funds through debt financing, as well as from other sources. No assurance can be given that additional financing will be available in the future or limited purposes. In addition, we do not engagethat if available, such financing will be obtainable on terms favorable when required. For additional information related to our Credit Facility, please see Note 15, “Debt”, to our accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in trading activities involving non-exchange traded contracts. As a result, we are not materially exposed to any financing, liquidity, market or credit risk that could arise if we engaged in these relationships. AsPart I, Item 1 of September 30, 2017, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC.this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our condensed consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these condensed consolidated financial statements requires management to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of net revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities. We regularly evaluate our estimates and assumptions related to our critical accounting policies, including revenue recognition, inventory valuation, stock-based compensation, impairment of long-lived assets, intangible assets and deferred revenue, inventory and related reserves for excess or obsolete inventory, allowance for doubtful accounts, stock-based compensation, goodwill, deferredgoodwill; business combinations, deferred taxes and related valuation allowances, uncertain tax positions, tax contingencies, litigation costs and loss contingencies. We base our
These estimates and assumptionsjudgments are based on current facts, historical experience and on various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of whichand form the basis for making management’s most difficult, subjective or complex judgments, often as a result of the need to make estimates about the carrying valueseffects of assets and liabilities and the recording of revenue, costs and expensesmatters that are not readily apparent from other sources. Changesinherently uncertain. Although we regularly evaluate these estimates and assumptions, changes in judgments and uncertainties relating to these estimates could potentially result in materially different results under different assumptions and conditions. If these estimates differ significantly from actual results, the impact on ourthe condensed consolidated financial statements and future results of operations may be material.
There have been no material changes to any of our critical accounting policies during the three months ended March 30, 2024.
For a description of our critical accounting policies, please refer to “Critical Accounting Estimates” in Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016,30, 2023, which was filed with the SEC on February 15, 2017. There have been no material changes to28, 2024.
RecentAccounting Pronouncements
For details regarding any of our criticalrecently adopted and recently issued accounting policies during the nine months ended September 30, 2017.
RecentAccounting Pronouncements
Seestandards, see Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies”, to theour accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for a description of recently issued or adopted accounting standards.10-Q.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Market risk represents the risk of changes in the value of market risk sensitive instruments caused by fluctuations in interest rates, foreign exchange rates and commodity prices. We are exposed to various market risks that may arise from adverse changes in market rates and prices, such as interest rates, foreign exchange fluctuations and inflation. We do maintain a derivative instrument for cash flow hedging, but do not enter into derivatives including forward contracts, or other financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.
Interest Rate Risk
Our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates to the increase or decrease in the amount of interest income we can earn on our investment portfoliocash and cash equivalents and on the increase or decrease in the amount of interest expense we must pay with respect to our various outstanding debt instruments. OurAs of March 30, 2024, the carrying value of our cash equivalents
approximated fair value. We manage our risk associated with interest rates fluctuations in interest expense is currently limitedrelated to interest expenses under our Credit Facility by engaging in hedging activities. Since July 2022, we entered into various interest rate swap contracts to hedge our exposure to changes in cash flows associated with our outstanding capital lease arrangements, which have fixeddebt with variable interest rates, and any borrowings under our Restated Credit Facility and any amendments thereto. Under our current policies, we do not userates. The interest rate derivative instruments swap contracts have maturities averaging five years or less. See Note 17, “Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities”, to manage exposure to interest rate changes. We ensure the safety and preservationour accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of our invested principal funds by limiting default risk, market risk and reinvestment risk. We reduce default risk by investing in investment grade securities. this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Qfor further details.
A hypothetical 100 basis point change in interest rates along the entire interest rate yield curve would not significantlyincrease or decrease our interest rate yields on our investments, interest income and credit facilities by approximately $0.1 million for each $10.0 million in interest-bearing investments and by $0.1 million for each additional $10.0 million of debt.
Our ultimate realized gain or loss with respect to interest rate fluctuations will depend on interest rates, the exposures that arise during the period and our hedging strategies at that time. A hypothetical 100 basis point change in interest rates would increase or decrease our annual interest expense by approximately $0.2 million based on average debt outstanding, after consideration of our interest rate swap contracts, for the quarter ended March 30, 2024 and approximately $2.0 million based on average debt outstanding, after consideration of our interest rate swap contracts, for the three months ended March 30, 2024.
We sponsor multiple defined benefit pension plans covering certain international employees. The aggregate fair value of the plans’ investments was $22.9 million as of March 30, 2024. The plans’ assets may be subject to market risk, interest rate risk, and credit risk, which may affect the value of the plans’ assets and the funding of the plans.
Increases in interest rates globally may impact the value of pension plan assets held by us. When interest rates increase, the value of fixed income securities, such as bonds, may decrease, which can negatively impact the fair value of the pension plan assets. However, interest rate increases may also improve the funded status of plan by increasing the discount rate used to measure the present value of the pension obligations and potentially decreasing our interest-sensitive financial instruments at September 30, 2017. Declinesrequirement to make contributions to the plan. The most significant actuarial assumption affecting pension expense and pension obligations is discount rates. A hypothetical increase of 100 basis point in discount rates would result in a decrease of approximately $0.3 million in the projected benefit obligation. The impact of interest rates over time will, however, reduce our interest incomerate increases on the pension plan assets and expense while increases in interest rates will increase our interest incomefunded status may not be predictable and expense.may vary from period to period.
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk
A majority of our assets and liabilities are maintained in the United States in U.S. Dollars and a majority of our sales and expenditures are transacted in U.S. Dollars. However, we also transact with foreign customers in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. These foreign currency revenues, when converted into U.S. Dollars, can vary depending on average exchange rates during a respective period. In addition, certain of our foreign subsidiaries transact in their respective country’s local currency, which is also their functional currency. As a result, expenses of these foreign subsidiaries, when converted into U.S. Dollars can also vary depending on the average monthly exchange rates during a respective period.
We are exposed to foreign currency gains or losses on outstanding foreign currency denominated receivables and payables, as well as our foreign currency denominated cash balances and certain intercompany transactions. Realized and unrealized foreign currency gains or losses on these transactions are included in our statements of comprehensive income as incurred. Furthermore,In addition, other transactions between us or our subsidiaries and a third-party, denominated in a currency different from the functional currency, are foreign currency transactions. Realized and unrealized foreign currency gains or losses on these transactions are also included in our statements of comprehensive incomeoperations as incurred, and are converted to U.S. Dollars at the average exchange rates for a respective period.incurred.
The balance sheets of each of our foreign subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar are translated into U.S. Dollars at the rate of exchange at the balance sheet date and the statements of comprehensive income and cash flows are translated into U.S. Dollars using an approximation of the average monthly exchange raterates applicable during the period. Any foreign exchange gain or loss as a result of translating the balance sheets of our foreign subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar is included in equity as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income.
income Our primary foreign currency exchange rate exposures are primarily with the Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, Swedish Krona, Canadian Dollar,the British Pound, Mexican Peso, andTurkish Lira, Australian Dollar againstand the U.S. Dollar.Chinese Yuan. Foreign currency exchange rates have experiencedmay experience significant movements in recent years, and such volatility may continue in the future. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, we estimate that changes in the exchange rates of the U.S. Dollar, relative primarilyfrom one period to the Euro and British Pound, unfavorably impacted our revenues by $0.2 million and $1.7 million, respectively, when compared to foreign exchange rates from the prior year period. next.
We currently do not enter into forward exchange contracts to hedge exposures denominated in foreign currencies and do not use derivativederivatives or financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes. The effect of additional changes in foreign currency exchange rates could have a material effect on our future operating results or cash flows, depending on which foreign currency exchange rates change and depending on the directional change (either a strengthening or weakening against the U.S. Dollar). We estimate that the potential impact of a hypothetical 10% adverse change in all applicable foreign currency exchange rates from the rates in effect as of SeptemberMarch 30, 20172024 would have resulted in an estimated reduction of $10.6$9.7 million in
reported pre-tax income for the ninethree months ended SeptemberMarch 30, 2017.2024. As our foreign operations continue to grow, our exposure to foreign currency exchange rate risk may become more significant.
Inflation Risk
Inflation has continued to increase in the first quarter of 2024 and is expected to continue to increase for the near future. Consumer demand and discretionary spending continue to be impacted by inflationary pressures, which could materially impact our financial results, in particular, our consumer products and non-healthcare business segment. We do not believe thatare unable to determine the exact impact of inflation has had a material effect on our global business, financial condition or results of operations during the periods presented.
If our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regulations, rules and forms and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive OfficerCEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as appropriate, to allow for timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
In designing and evaluating theour disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. As required by Rule 13a-15(b) or Rule 15d-15(b) promulgated by the SEC under the Exchange Act, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive OfficerCEO and Chief Financial Officer,CFO, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Based on the foregoing, our Chief Executive OfficerCEO and Chief Financial OfficerCFO concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
There has beenDuring the three months ended March 30, 2024, there were no changechanges in our internal control over financial reporting during(as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the quarter ended September 30, 2017Exchange Act) that hashave materially affected, or isare reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1. Legal Proceedings
The information set forth in Note 1424, “Commitments and Contingencies”, to theour accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements under the caption “Litigation” included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Before you decide to invest or maintain an interest in our common stock, you should consider carefully the risks described below, which have been updated since the filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, filed with the SecuritiesThe following risk factors and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 15, 2017, together with the other information containedincluded in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q should be carefully considered. The risks and any recent Current Reports on Form 8-K. We believe the risksuncertainties described below are not the risks that are material to us as of the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Otheronly ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties including those not presently known to us or that we do not currently consider material,presently deem less significant may also impair our business operations. If any of the following risks comescome to fruition, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects would likely be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment or interest.
investment. Risk factors marked with an asterisk (*) below include a substantive change from or an update to the risk factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016,30, 2023, filed with the SEC on February 15, 2017.28, 2024.
Summary of Material Risk Factors
Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our securities speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this summary, and other risks that we face, can be found following this summary and should be carefully considered together with all of the other information appearing in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
•We currently derive a significant portion of our revenue from our Masimo SET® platform, Masimo rainbow SET® platform and related products. If these technologies and related products do not continue to achieve market acceptance, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
•Some of our products are in development or have been recently introduced into the market and may not achieve market acceptance, which could limit our growth and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•Our ability to commercialize new products, new or improved technologies and additional applications for Masimo SET® and our licensed rainbow® technology is limited to certain markets by our Cross-Licensing Agreement with Willow Laboratories, Inc. (Willow), formerly known as Cercacor Laboratories, Inc., which may impair our growth and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•We depend on our domestic and international original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners for a portion of our revenue. If they do not devote sufficient resources to the promotion of products that use our technologies, our business would be harmed.
•If we fail to maintain or develop relationships with GPOs, sales of our healthcare products would decline.
•Inadequate levels of coverage or reimbursement from governmental or other third-party payers for our healthcare products, or for procedures using our healthcare products, may cause our revenue to decline or prevent us from realizing revenues from future products.
•*The loss of any large customer or distributor, or any cancellation or delay of a significant purchase by a large customer, could reduce our net sales and harm our operating results.
•Counterfeit Masimo sensors and third-party reprocessed single-patient-use Masimo sensors may harm our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•Competition and other conflicts with our non-healthcare distribution partners could harm our business and operating results.
•If the patents we own or license, or our other intellectual property rights, do not adequately protect our technologies, we may lose market share to our competitors and be unable to operate our business profitably.
•If third-parties claim that we infringe their intellectual property rights, we may incur liabilities and costs and may have to redesign or discontinue selling certain products.
•*We believe competitors may currently be violating and may in the future violate our intellectual property rights. As a result, we may initiate litigation to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights, which may result in substantial expense and may divert management’s attention from implementing our business strategy.
•Our failure to obtain and maintain FDA clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all, would prevent us from commercializing our current, upgraded or new healthcare products in the U.S., which could severely harm our business.
•If our healthcare products cause or contribute to a death or serious injury, or malfunction in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury, we will be subject to medical device reporting regulations and other applicable laws, and may need to initiate voluntary or mandatory corrective actions, such as the recall of our healthcare products.
•Promotion of our healthcare products using claims that are off-label, unsubstantiated, false or misleading could subject us to substantial penalties.
•The regulatory environment governing information, data security and privacy is increasingly demanding and evolving. Many of the laws and regulations in this area are subject to uncertain interpretation, and our failure to comply could result in claims, penalties or increased costs or otherwise harm our business.
•We may be subject to or otherwise affected by federal and state healthcare laws, including fraud and abuse laws, and could face substantial penalties if we are unable to fully comply with these laws.
•We may experience conflicts of interest with Willow with respect to business opportunities and other matters.
•We will be required to assign to Willow and pay Willow for the right to use certain products and technologies we develop that relate to the monitoring of non-vital sign parameters, including improvements to Masimo SET®.
•In the event that the Cross-Licensing Agreement is terminated for any reason, or Willow grants a license to rainbow® technology to a third-party, our business would be adversely affected.
•Rights provided to Willow in the Cross-Licensing Agreement may impede a change in control of our company.
•If we are unable to obtain key materials and components from sole or limited source suppliers, we will not be able to deliver our products to customers.
•Future strategic initiatives, including acquisitions of businesses and strategic investments, could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations if we fail to integrate the acquired businesses and their employees successfully into our existing operations or achieve the desired results of our initiatives.
•Our new products and changes to existing products, including as a result of our acquisition of Sound United could fail to attract or retain users or generate revenue and profits. Further, we may not be successful in our non-healthcare expansion, which could adversely affect our business, reputation or financial results.
•Our Credit Facility contains certain covenants and restrictions that may limit our flexibility in operating our business.
•We have incurred impairment charges for other intangible assets, and may incur further impairment charges in the future, which would negatively impact our operating results.
•We may need additional capital and failure to raise additional capital on terms favorable to us, or at all, could limit our ability to grow our business and develop or enhance our service offerings to respond to market demand or competitive challenges.
•Concentration of ownership of our stock among our existing directors, executive officers and principal stockholders may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.
•We may be unable to accurately forecast our financial and operating results and appropriately plan our expenses in the future or we may fail to meet our publicly announced guidance about our business and future operating results.
•Our corporate documents, and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, prevent attempts to replace or remove current management and reduce the market price of our stock.
•*Shareholder activism could cause us to incur significant expense, disrupt our business, result in a proxy contest or litigation and impact our stock price.
•Exclusive forum provisions in our bylaws could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Risks Related to Our Revenues
We currently derive the majoritya significant portion of our revenue from our Masimo SET® platform, Masimo rainbow SET™® platform and related products. If these technologies and related products do not continue to achieve market acceptance, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
We areOur healthcare business is highly dependent upon the continued success and market acceptance of our proprietary Masimo SET® technology and Masimo rainbow SET® technologies that servesserve as the basis of our primary healthcare product offerings. Continued market acceptance of products incorporating Masimo SET®these technologies will depend upon us continuing to provide evidence to the medical community that our products are cost-effective and offer significantly improved performance compared to conventional pulse oximeters. Health careHealthcare providers that currently have significant investments in competitive pulse oximetry products may be reluctant to purchase our products. If hospitals and other health carehealthcare providers do not believe our Masimo SET® platform is and Masimo rainbow SET® platforms are cost-effective, safe or more accurate or reliable than competitive pulse oximetry products, they may not buy our healthcare products in sufficient quantities to enable us to generate revenue growth from the sale of these products. In addition, allegations regarding the safety and effectiveness of our products, whether or not substantiated, may impair or impede the acceptance of our products. If we are unable to achieve additional market acceptance of our core technology or products incorporating Masimo SET®, we will not generate significant revenue growth from the sale of our products, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*Some of our products are in development or have been recently introduced into the market and may not achieve market acceptance, which could limit our growth and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Products that we have introduced into the market in recent years may not be accepted in the market. In general,Many of our recent noninvasive measurement technologies are considered disruptive. These recent technologies have performance levels that we believe are acceptable for many clinical environments but may be insufficient in others. In addition, these technologies may perform better in some patients and settings than others. Over time, we hope to continue to improve the performance of these technologies and educate the clinical community on how to properly evaluate them. If we are successful in these endeavors, we expect these technologies will become more useful in more environments and will become more widely adopted. While this is the adoption pattern experienced historically with other new noninvasive measurements, such as regional oximetry,Our product portfolio continues to expand, and we are unableinvesting significant resources to guarantee that such adoption pattern will applyenter into, and in some cases create, new markets for our products. For example, our acquisition of Sound United expanded our business and product strategy to additionally focus on non-healthcare products to integrate with our recentsuccessful medical technology.See the risk factor with the heading “Our new products and future technologies.
Even if our customers recognize the benefitschanges to existing products, including as a result of our products,acquisition of Sound United could fail to attract or retain users or generate revenue and profits. Further, we cannot assure you thatmay not be successful in our customers will purchase them in quantities sufficientnon-healthcare expansion, which could adversely affect our business, reputation or financial results” for usadditional risks related to be profitable or successful. this expansion of our business.
We are continuing to invest in significant sales and marketing resources to achieve market acceptance of theseour products, with no assurance of success.but are unable to guarantee that our technologies will achieve general market acceptance.
The degree of market acceptance of theseour healthcare products will depend on a number of factors, including:including but not limited to:
•perceived clinical benefits from our products;
•perceived cost effectiveness of our products;
•perceived safety and effectiveness of our products;
•reimbursement available through Centers for Medicaregovernment and Medicaid Services (CMS)private healthcare programs for using some of our products; and
•introduction and acceptance of competing products or technologies.
Further, market acceptance of our non-healthcare products will depend on certain additional factors, including but not limited to:
•perceived quality of our non-healthcare brands and technology;
•our ability to accurately forecast consumer demand and maintain manufacturing capacity to meet such demand;
•our ability to introduce new innovative products that align with rapidly changing consumer tastes; and
•implementation of pricing and marketing strategies that drive consumer adoption without eroding our premium market position.
If our products do not gain market acceptance or if our customers prefer our competitors’ products, our potential revenue growth would be limited, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*
Our ability to commercialize new products, new or improved technologies and additional applications for Masimo SET® and our licensed rainbow® technology is limited to certain markets by our Cross-Licensing Agreement with Willow Laboratories, Inc. (Willow), formerly known as Cercacor Laboratories, Inc. (Cercacor), which may impair our growth and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We areSince 1998, we have been a party to a cross-licensing agreement with Cercacor, which has beenWillow (as amended, several times, most recently in an Amended and Restated Cross-Licensing Agreement, effective January 1, 2007 (the Cross-Licensing Agreement). Under the Cross-Licensing Agreement,Agreement), under which we granted Cercacor:Willow:
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• | an exclusive, perpetual and worldwide license, with sublicense rights, to use all Masimo SET® technology owned by us, including all improvements on this technology, for the monitoring of non-vital signs parameters and to develop and sell devices incorporating Masimo SET® for monitoring non-vital signs parameters in any product market in which a product is intended to be used by a patient or pharmacist rather than by a professional medical caregiver, which we refer to as the Cercacor Market; and
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• | a non-exclusive, perpetual and worldwide license, with sublicense rights, to use all Masimo SET® technology owned by us for measurement of vital signs in the Cercacor Market.
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•an exclusive, perpetual and worldwide license, with sublicense rights, to use all Masimo SET® technology owned by us, including all improvements to this technology, for the monitoring of non-vital signs parameters and to develop and sell devices incorporating Masimo SET® for monitoring non-vital signs parameters in any product market in which a product is intended to be used by a patient or pharmacist rather than by a professional medical caregiver, which we refer to as the “Willow Market”; and
•a non-exclusive, perpetual and worldwide license, with sublicense rights, to use all Masimo SET® technology owned by us for measurement of vital signs in the “Willow Market”.
Non-vital signs measurements consist of body fluid constituents other than vital signs measurements, including, but not limited to, carbon monoxide, methemoglobin, blood glucose, hemoglobin and bilirubin. Under the Cross-Licensing Agreement, we are only permitted to sell devices utilizing Masimo SET® for the monitoring of non-vital signs parameters in markets where the product is intended to be used by a professional medical caregiver, including, but not limited to, hospital caregivers and alternate care facility caregivers, rather than by a patient or pharmacist, which we refer to as the Masimo Market.“Masimo Market”. Accordingly, our ability to commercialize new products, new or improved technologies and additional applications for Masimo SET® is limited. In particular, our inability to expand beyond the Masimo Market“Masimo Market” may limit our ability to maintain or increase our revenue and impair our growth.
Pursuant to the Cross-Licensing Agreement, we have licensed from CercacorWillow the right to make and distribute products in the Masimo Market“Masimo Market” that utilize rainbow® technology for certain noninvasive measurements. As a result, the opportunity to expand the market for our products incorporating rainbow® technology is also limited, which could limit our ability to maintain or increase our revenue and impair our growth.
*We face competition from other companies, many of which have substantially greater resources than we do. If we do not successfully develop and commercialize enhanced or new products that remain competitive with products or alternative technologies developed by others, we could lose revenue opportunities and customers, and our ability to grow our business would be impaired, adversely affecting our financial condition and results of operations.
The medical device industry is intensely competitive and is significantly affected by new product introductions and other market activities of industry participants. A number of our competitors have substantially greater capital resources, larger product portfolios, larger customer bases, larger sales forces and greater geographic presence, have established stronger reputations with specific customers, and have built relationships with Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) that may be more effective than ours. Our Masimo SET® platform faces additional competition from companies developing products for use with third-party monitoring systems, as well as from companies that currently market their own pulse oximetry monitors. In addition, competitors with larger product portfolios than ours may offer increased discounts to hospitals that purchase their requirements for a variety of different products from the competitor, including products that we do not offer.
Rapid product development and technological advances within the medical device industry place our products at risk of obsolescence. Our long-term success depends upon the development and successful commercialization of new products, new or improved technologies and additional applications for Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology. The research and development process is time-consuming and costly and may not result in products or applications that we can successfully commercialize. In particular, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our products for applications other than arterial blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate monitoring, such as for respiration rate, hemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin monitoring.
If we do not successfully adapt our products and applications both within and outside these measurements, we could lose revenue opportunities and customers. Furthermore, one or more of our competitors may develop products that are substantially equivalent to our U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared products, or those of our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners, in which case a competitor of ours may use our products or those of our OEM partners as predicate devices to more quickly obtain FDA clearance of their competing products. Competition could result in pressure from our customers to reduce the price of our products and in fewer orders for our products, which could, in turn, cause a reduction in our revenues and product gross margins, thereby adversely impacting our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend on our domestic and international OEMoriginal equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners for a portion of our revenue. If they do not devote sufficient resources to the promotion of products that use Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology,our technologies, our business would be harmed.
We are, and will continue to be, dependent upon our domestic and international OEM partners for a portion of our revenue through their marketing, selling and distribution of certain of their products that incorporate Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology.our technologies. Although we expect that our OEM partners will accept and actively market, sell and distribute products that incorporate licensed rainbow® technology,our technologies, they may not elect, and have no contractual obligation, to do so. Because products that incorporate our technologies may represent a relatively small percentage of business for some of our OEM partners, they may have less incentive to promote these products over other products that do not incorporate these technologies.
In addition, some of our OEM partners offer products that compete with ours and also may be involved in intellectual property disputes with us. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that our OEM partners, or any company that may acquire any of our OEM partners, will vigorously promote products incorporating Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology.our technologies. The failure of our OEM partners to successfully market, sell or distribute products incorporating theseour technologies, the termination of OEM agreements, the loss of OEM partners or the inability to enter into future OEM partnership agreements would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*If we fail to maintain or develop relationships with GPOs, sales of our healthcare products would decline.
Our ability to sell our healthcare products to U.S. hospitals depends, in part, on our relationships with GPOs. Many existing and potential customers for our products are members of GPOs. GPOs negotiate beneficial pricing arrangements and contracts which are sometimes exclusive, with medical supply manufacturers and distributors.distributors that may include provisions for sole sourcing and bundling, which generally reduce the choices available to member hospitals.
These negotiated prices are made available to a GPO’s affiliated hospitals and other members. If we are not one of the providers selected by a GPO, the GPO’s affiliated hospitals and other members may be less likely or unlikely to purchase our products. If a GPO has negotiated a strict sole source, market share compliance or bundling contract for another manufacturer’s products, we may be prohibited from making sales to members of such GPO for the duration of such contractual arrangement. For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016, shipmentsShipments of our pulse oximetry products to customers that are members of GPOs representedrepresent approximately $308.0 million and $279.8 million, respectively,94% of our revenue from sales to U.S. hospitals.healthcare product sales. Our failure to renew our contracts with GPOs may cause us to lose market share in our healthcare business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we are unable to develop new relationships with GPOs, our competitive position would likely suffer and our opportunities to grow our revenues and business would be harmed.
Certain GPOs are creating, coordinating and facilitating regional purchasing coalition (RPC) supply chain networks that include anti-competitive practices such as sole sourcing and bundling. These RPCs circumvent and potentially violate rules of conduct for GPOs and have the effect of reducing product purchasing decisions available to the hospitals that belong to these regional organizations. If the GPOs and RPCs are permitted to continue practices that limit, reduce or eliminate competition, we could lose customers who are no longer able to choose to purchase our products, resulting in lower sales that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*Inadequate levels of coverage or reimbursement from governmental or other third-party payers for our healthcare products, or for procedures using our healthcare products, may cause our revenue to decline.decline or prevent us from realizing revenues from future products.
Sales of our healthcare products depend in part on the reimbursement and coverage policies of governmental and private health carehealthcare payers. The abilitylack of our health care provider customers, including hospitals, to obtain adequate coverage and reimbursement for our healthcare products or the procedures in which our healthcare products are used may impactdeter customers from purchasing our customers’ purchasing decisions. Therefore, our customers’ inability to obtain adequate coverage and reimbursement for our products or reimbursement for the procedures in which our products are used would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Third-party payers have adopted, and are continuing to adopt, health care policies intended to curb rising health care costs. These policies include, among others:
controls on reimbursement for health care services and price controls on medical products and services;
limitations on coverage and reimbursement for new medical technologies and procedures; and
the introduction of managed care and prospective payment systems in which health care providers contract to provide comprehensive health care for a fixed reimbursement amount per person or per procedure.products.
We cannot guarantee that governmental or third-party payers will reimburse or continue to reimburse,begin reimbursing a customer for the cost of our healthcare products or the procedures in which our products are used. In fact, some payers have indicated that they are not willing to reimburse for certain of our products or for certain of the procedures in which ourhealthcare products are used. For example, some insurance carriers have issued policies denying coverage for transcutaneous hemoglobin measurement on the grounds that the technology is investigational in the outpatient setting. Other payers are continuing to investigate our products to determine if they will provide reimbursement for the use of such products. In addition, we may incur significant expenses to generate clinical data to demonstrate not only the safety and efficacy, but also the cost-effectiveness of our customers. products in order to obtain favorable reimbursement policies from payers.
These trends could lead to pressure to reduce prices for our current and future healthcare products, and couldhinder our ability to obtain market adoption, cause a decrease in the size of the market or a potentialpotentially increase in competition, thatany of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We do not control payorpayer decision-making with respect to coverage and payment levels for our products. Additionally, we expect many payorspayers to continue to explore cost-containment strategies (e.g., comparative and cost-effectiveness analyses, so-called ”pay-for-performance”“pay-for-performance” programs implemented by various public government health carehealthcare programs and private third-party payors,payers, and expansion of payment bundling initiatives, and other such methods that shift medical cost risk to providers) that may potentially impact coverage and/or payment levels for our current products or products we develop in the future.
Outside of the U.S., reimbursement systems vary by country. These systems are often subject to the same pressures to curb rising healthcare costs and control healthcare expenditures as those in the U.S. In addition, as economies of emerging markets develop, these countries may implement changes in their healthcare delivery and payment systems. If adequate levels of reimbursement from third-party payers outside of the U.S. are not obtained, sales of our products outside of the U.S. may be adversely affected.
*Our healthcare customers may reduce, delay or cancel purchases due to a variety of factors, such as lower hospital census levels or third-party guidelines, or may require that we reduce the price of our products, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our healthcare customers are facing growing levels of uncertainties, including variations in overall hospital census for paying patients and the impact of such census variations on hospital budgets. As a result, many hospitals are reevaluating their entire cost structure, including the amount of capital they allocate to medical device technologies and products. Such developmentsIn addition, certain of our products, including our rainbow® measurements such as carbon monoxide, methemoglobin and hemoglobin, that are sold with upfront license fees and more complex and expensive sensors, could also be impacted by hospital budget reductions. Any reductions in capital spending budgets by hospitals could have a significant negative impact on our OEM customers who, due to their traditionally larger capital equipment sales model, could see declines in purchases from their hospital customers. This, in turn, could reduce our board sales to our OEM customers.
In addition, certain of our products, including our rainbow® measurements such as carbon monoxide, methemoglobin and hemoglobin, that are sold with upfront license fees and more complex and expensive sensors, could also be impacted by hospital budget reductions.
StatesFrom time to time, states and other local regulatory authorities may issue guidelines regarding the appropriate scope and use of our products from time to time.products. For example, some of our noninvasive monitoring devices may be subject to authorization by individual states as part of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) scope of practice procedures. Although aA lack of inclusion into scope of practice procedures does not prohibit usage, it may limit adoption.adoption of our products.
Additionally, increases in demand resulting from global medical crises, such as the increase in demand we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be short lived. If the increased demand results in a stockpiling of our healthcare products by, or excess inventory at, our customers, future orders may be delayed or canceled until such on-hand inventory is consumed. We may be unable to accurately forecast our financial and operating results and appropriately plan our expenses in the future or we may fail to meet our publicly announced guidance about our business and future operating results. For example, during the second half of 2023, customers maintained elevated levels of single-patient use sensors and consumables in inventory due to the softer demand and lower hospital census, which had an adverse impact on our second half of 2023 healthcare revenue. Continued stockpiling or excess inventory as a result of the continued consolidationlower hospital census in the health care industry, we may experience decreasing prices forfuture quarters could also negatively impact our products due to the potential increased market pricing power of our health care provider customers. If these and other competitive forces drive down the price of our products, and we are not able to counter that pressure with cost reductions to our existing products or the introduction of new higher priced products, our product gross profit margins will decline. This, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.healthcare revenue.
*The loss of any large customer or distributor, or any cancellation or delay of a significant purchase by a large customer, could reduce our net sales and harm our operating results.
We haveOur healthcare business has a concentration of OEM, distributiondistributor and direct customers. customers. For example, sales to one just-in-time distributor represented 10% or more of our consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2024. There were no revenue concentrations for our non-healthcare business, which represented 10% or more of our consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2024.
We cannot provide any assuranceassurances that we will retain our current customers, groups of customers or distributors, that they will maintain their current or forecasted demand for our products, or that we will be able to attract and retain additional customers in the future. If for any reason we were to lose our ability to sell to a specific group or class of customers or through a distributor, we could experience a significant reduction in revenue or loss of market share, which would adversely impact our operating results. For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016, we had sales through two just-in-time distributors, which in total represented approximately 24.6% and 27.4% of our total revenue, respectively.
Our salesrevenues could also be negatively affected by any rebates, discounts or fees that are required by, or offered to, GPOs and customers, including wholesalers or distributors. Additionally, someone just-in-time distributor of our just-in-time distributors have been demandinghealthcare products has demanded higher fees, which we may be forcedobligated to pay in order to continue to offer products to our customers through this distributor or which may forceobligate us to distribute our products directly to our customers. Specifically, in February 2024, we were notified by this just-in-time distributor of its intent to terminate our distribution agreement as a result of our refusal to increase distribution fees. The loss of this or any large customer or distributor, or an increase in distributor fees, or the risks associated with selling directly to our customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
ImitationCounterfeit Masimo sensors and third-party medical device reprocessors that reprocess ourreprocessed single-patient-use Masimo sensors may harm our reputation. Also, these imitationreputation and third-party reprocessed sensors, as well as genuine Masimo reprocessed sensors, are sold at lower prices than new Masimo sensors and could cause our revenue to decline, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are awarebelieve that other organizationsentities are manufacturing and selling imitationcounterfeit Masimo sensors. In addition, we are aware that certain medical device reprocessors have been collecting our used single-patient-use sensors from hospitals and then reprocessing, repackaging and reselling those sensors to hospitals. These imitationcounterfeit and third-party reprocessed sensors are sold at lower prices than new Masimo sensors.Our experience with both these imitationcounterfeit sensors and third-party reprocessed sensors is that they provide inferior performance, increased sensor consumption, reduced comfort and a number of monitoring problems. Notwithstanding these limitations, some of our customers have indicated a willingness to consider purchasingpurchase some of their sensor requirements from these imitationcounterfeit manufacturers and third-party reprocessors in an effort to reduce their sensor costs.
These imitationcounterfeit and reprocessed sensors have led and may continue to lead to confusion with our genuine Masimo products;products, have reduced and may continue to reduce our revenue;revenue, and, in some cases, have harmed and may continue to harm our reputation if customers conclude incorrectly that these imitationcounterfeit or reprocessed sensors are original Masimo sensors.
In addition, we have expended a significant amount of time and expense investigating issues caused by imitationcounterfeit and reprocessed sensors, troubleshooting problems stemming from such sensors, educating customers about why imitationcounterfeit and reprocessed sensors do not perform to their expectations, enforcing our proprietary rights against the imitationcounterfeit manufacturers and reprocessors, and enforcing our contractual rights under our customer contracts.rights.
In response to these imitationcounterfeit sensors and third-party reprocessors, we offer to our customers our own Masimo reprocessed sensors, which we re-manufacture and test to ensure that they meet the same performance specifications as our new Masimo sensors. In addition, we have incorporated X-Cal® technology into certain products to ensure our customers get the performance they expect by using genuine Masimo sensors and that such sensors do not continue to be used beyond their useful life. We believe this technology will help ensure that hospitals, clinicians and, ultimately, their patients receive true Masimo measurement quality and performance, and will curtail some of the harm to us that results when customers experience performance and other problems with imitation and reprocessed sensors. However, some customers may object to the X-Cal® technology, potentially resulting in the loss of customers and revenues. In addition,
We also offer our own Masimo reprocessed sensors, which meet the same performance specifications as our new Masimo sensors, to our customers. Reprocessed sensors sold by us are generallyalso offered at a lower price and, therefore, may reduce certain customer demand for our new sensors. As a result, increased sales of genuineour own Masimo reprocessed sensors may result in lower revenues, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Competition and other conflicts with our non-healthcare distribution partners could harm our business and operating results.
Several of our existing non-healthcare products compete, and future products may compete, with the product offerings of some of our significant channel and distribution partners. These partners may choose to time, we may carry out strategic initiatives that may not be viewed favorably bymarket and promote their own products over ours or could cease or reduce selling or promoting our customers,products. Any reduction in our ability to place and promote our non-healthcare products, or thatincreased competition from our distribution partners for available shelf or website placement, especially during peak retail sales periods, could negativelyadversely affect our non-healthcare business. In addition, the expansion of our direct-to-consumer channel in our non-healthcare business through our brand websites could increase our competition with our channel partners and cause these partners to reduce their purchases of our non-healthcare products. Conflicts in our sales channels could arise and cause channel partners to divert resources away from the promotion and sale of our products. Any of these situations could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We expect to continue to carry out strategic initiatives and investments that we believe are necessary to grow our revenues and expand our business, both in the U.S. and abroad. For example, since 2013, we have made incremental investments in additional sales force resources whose primary focus is to work with hospitals to identify new opportunities for certain noninvasive measurement technologies. We also intend to continue to invest in international expansion programs designed to increase our worldwide presence and take advantage of market expansion opportunities around the world. Although we believe these initiatives and investments continue to be in the long-term best interests of Masimo and our stockholders, there are no assurances that such initiatives and investments will yield favorable results for us. Accordingly, if these initiatives and investments are not viewed favorably by our customers, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If the patents we own or license, or our other intellectual property rights, do not adequately protect our technologies, we may lose market share to our competitors and be unable to operate our business profitably.
Our success depends significantly on our ability to protect our rights to the technologies used in our products, including Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology. We rely onproducts. Our utilization of patent protection, trade secrets and a combination of copyright and trademark laws, as well as nondisclosure, confidentiality and other contractual arrangements, to protect our technology and rights. However, these legal meansintellectual property afford us only limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or maintain any competitive advantage.
Certain of our patents related to our technologies have begun to expire. Upon the expiration of our issued or licensed patents, we generally lose some of our rights to exclude competitors from making, using, selling or importing products using the technology based on the expired patents.
Furthermore, in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases and several laws have been enacted that, in certain situations, potentially narrow the scope of patent protection available and weaken the rights of patent owners. As a result, we believe large technology companies may be pursuing an “efficient infringement” strategy, having concluded that it is cheaper to infringe third-party intellectual property rights than to acquire, license or otherwise respect them. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in securing additional patents on commercially desirable improvements, that such additional patents will adequately protect our innovations or offset the effect of expiring patents, or that competitors will not be able to design around our patents.
In addition, we cannot be assured that any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of a patent to us. The PTOthird-parties have challenged, and may deny or require a significant narrowing of claims in our pending patent applications, and patents issued as a result of the pending patent applications, if any, may not provide us with significant commercial protection or may not be issued in a form that is advantageous to us. We could also incur substantial costs in proceedings before the PTO.
As part of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the Leahy-Smith Act), which was enacted in 2011, the PTO has introduced procedures that provide additional administrative pathways for third partiescontinue to challenge, our issued patents. IPR is one of these procedures. The number ofpatents through procedures such as Inter-Partes Review (IPR). In many IPR challenges, filed is increasing,the U.S. Patent and in many cases, the PTO is cancelingTrademark Office (PTO) cancels or significantly narrowingnarrows issued patent claims. Accordingly, even if a patent is granted by the PTO, there is a risk that it may not withstand an IPR challenge. IPR challenges could increase the uncertainties and costs associated with the maintenance, enforcement and defense of our issued and future patents and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, recent caseSimilarly, changes in patent law has increased uncertainty regarding the availability of patent protection for certain technologies and the costs associated with obtaining patent protection for those technologies. Some of our patents related to our Masimo SET® algorithm technology began to expireregulations in March 2011. Additionally, upon the expiration of other issuedcountries or licensed patents, we may lose some of our rights to exclude competitors from making, using, sellingjurisdictions or importing products using the technology based on the expired patents. While we seek to offset potential losses relating to important expiring patents by securing additional patents on commercially desirable improvements, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in securing such additional patents, or that such additional patents will adequately offset the effect of expiring patents. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations.
In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patentschanges in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect togovernmental bodies that enforce them or changes in how the value of patents once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts and the PTO, therelevant governmental authority enforces patent laws andor regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that wouldmay weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we mighthave licensed or that we may obtain in the future. Additionally,For example, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws have also increased in recent years. In Europe, in June 2023, a new unitary patent system was introduced, which will significantly impact European patents, including those granted before the introduction of the system. Under the unitary patent system, after a European patent is granted, the patent proprietor can request unitary effect, thereby getting a European patent with unitary effect (Unitary Patent). Each Unitary Patent is subject to the jurisdiction of the Unitary Patent Court (UPC). As the UPC is a new court system, there is no assuranceprecedent for the court, increasing the uncertainty of any litigation. Patents granted before the implementation of the UPC will have the option of opting out of the jurisdiction of the UPC and remaining as national patents in the UPC countries. Patents that competitors will notremain under the jurisdiction of the UPC may be ablepotentially vulnerable to design around our patents.a single UPC-based revocation challenge that, if successful, could invalidate the patent in all countries who are signatories to the UPC. We cannot predict with certainty the long-term effects of the new unitary patent system.
We also rely on contractual rights with the third parties that license technology to us to protect our rights in such licensed technology. In addition, we rely on unpatented proprietary technology. We cannot assure you that we can meaningfully protect all of our rights in ourutilize unpatented proprietary technology or that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary products or processes or otherwise gain access to our unpatented proprietary technology.
We seek to protect ourand know-how and other unpatented proprietary technology withoften rely on confidentiality agreements and intellectual property assignment agreements with our employees, OEM partners, independent distributors and consultants.consultants to protect such unpatented proprietary technology and know-how. However, such agreements may not be enforceable or may not provide meaningful protection for our proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure or other breaches of the agreements, or in the event that our competitors discover or independently develop similar or identical designs or other proprietary information. In addition, we
We rely on the use of registered and common law trademarks with respect to our brands and the brand names of some of our products. Common law trademarks provide less protection than registered trademarks. Loss of rights in our trademarks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Furthermore, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. If we fail to apply for intellectual property protection or if we cannot adequately protect our intellectual property rights in these foreign countries, our competitors may be able to compete more effectively against us, which could adversely affect our competitive position, as well as our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If third partiesthird-parties claim that we infringe their intellectual property rights, we may incur liabilities and costs and may have to redesign or discontinue selling certain products.
Searching for existing intellectual property rights may not reveal important intellectual property and our competitors may also have filed for patent protection, which ismay not be publicly-available information, or claimed trademark rights that have not been revealed through our searches. In addition, some of our employees were previously employed at other medical device companies.our competitors. We may be subject to claims that our employees have disclosed, or that we have used, trade secrets or other proprietary information of our employees’ former employers. Our efforts to identify and avoid infringing on third parties’third-parties’ intellectual property rights may not always be successful. Any claims of patent or other intellectual property infringement against us, even those without merit, could:
increase the cost of our products;
•be expensive and time consumingtime-consuming to defend;
defend and result in us being required to paypayment of significant damages to third parties;third-parties;
•force us to ceasestop making or selling products that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;
•require us to redesign, reengineer or rebrand our products, product candidates and technologies;
•require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements in order to obtainthat would increase the right to use a third-party’s intellectual property on terms that may not be favorable or acceptable to us;costs of our products;
•require us to indemnify third partiesthird-parties pursuant to contracts in which we have agreed to provide indemnification for intellectual property infringement claims;
•divert the attention of our management and other key employees; and
•result in our customers or potential customers deferring or limiting their purchase or use of the affected products impacted by the claims until the claims are resolved; and
otherwiseany of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, new patents obtained by our competitors could threaten the continued commercialization of our products in the market even after they have already been introduced.
*We believe competitors may currently be violating and may in the future violate our intellectual property rights, andrights. As a result, we may bring additionalinitiate litigation to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights, which may result in substantial expense and may divert management’s attention from implementing our business strategy.
We believe that the success of our business depends, in significant part, on obtaining patent protection for our products and technologies, defending our patents and preserving our trade secrets. We were previously involved in significant litigation to protect our patent positions related to some of our pulse oximetry signal processing patents that resulted in various settlementssettlements. We believe some of the new market entrants in 2006, 2015the healthcare and 2016,monitoring space, including some of the world’s largest technology companies, and some consumer audio companies may be infringing our intellectual property, and we may be required to engage in additional litigation to protect our intellectual property in the future. In addition, we believe that certain individuals who previously held high level technical and clinical positions with us misappropriated our intellectual property for the benefit of themselves and other companies. For example, on January 9, 2020, we initiated litigation against Apple Inc. for infringement of a number of patents, for trade secret misappropriation and for ownership and correction of inventorship of a number of Apple Inc. patents that list one of our former employees as an inventor. For additional information on the current status of our litigation with Apple Inc., please see Note 24, “Commitments and Contingencies”, to our accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Our ongoing and future litigation could result in significant additional costs and further divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations and the implementation of our business strategy and may not be successful or adequate to protect our intellectual property rights. Furthermore, in January 2024, we entered into a one year alternative fee agreement (Fee Agreement) with respect to certain on-going legal fees and costs incurred by a vendor. The Fee Agreement imposes certain limits on a quarterly and annual basis for actual legal fees incurred by the vendor that are payable based on work performed related to litigation matters against Apple. If the vendor is successful in obtaining a favorable judgement for us on any claim or counterclaim after exhaustion or dismissal of any appeals, or upon settlement resulting in monetary consideration to us, the vendor will be paid a success fee equal to three times the amount of the excess of the annual legal fee limit within 60 days after entry of a judgement or the effective date of any settlement. Therefore, to the extent that we may be successful in our litigation against Apple, we could be required to make a payments to this vendor in excess of the actual amount of fees incurred in connection with our litigation against Apple.
Risks Related to Our Regulatory Environment
*Our failure to obtain and maintain FDA clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all, would prevent us from commercializing our current, upgraded or upgradednew healthcare products in the U.S., which could severely harm our business.
EachUnless an exemption applies, each medical device that we wish to market in the U.S. generally must first undergo premarket review by the FDA and receive clearance or approval pursuant to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) by receiving clearance of a 510(k) premarket notification, receiving clearance through the de novo classification review process or obtaining approval of a premarket approval (PMA) application. Even if regulatory clearance or approval of a product is granted, the FDAU.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may clear or approve our products only for limited indications for use, which would limit our ability to market the product to only such indications for use. We cannot guarantee thatAdditionally, the FDA willmay not grant 510(k) clearance on a timely basis, if at all, for new products or new uses that we propose for Masimo SET® or licensed rainbow® technology.
The traditional FDA 510(k) clearance process for our productsmedical devices has generally taken between threefour to sixnine months. However, our more recent experience and interactions with the FDA, along with information we have received from other medical device manufacturers, suggests that, in some cases, the FDA is requiring applicants to provide additional or different information and data for 510(k) clearance than it had previously required;required, and that the FDA may not rely on approaches that it had previously accepted to support 510(k) clearance.
These changes could lead to more review cycles or to decisions by the FDA that our products are not substantially equivalent or require greater amounts of information to demonstrate substantial equivalence. As a result, we have experienced lengthier FDA 510(k) review periods over the past few years, which haveclearance can be delayed the 510(k) clearance process for our products.products in some cases.
To support our product applications to the FDA, we frequently are required to conduct clinical testing of our products. Such clinical testing must be conducted in compliance with FDA requirements pertaining to human research. Among other requirements, we must obtain informed consent from humanstudy subjects and approval by institutional review boards before such studies may begin. We must also comply with other FDA requirements such as monitoring, record-keeping, reporting and the submission of information regarding certain clinical trials to a public database maintained by the National Institutes of Health. In addition, depending onif the study involves a significant risk posed by a study,device, we may beare required to obtain the FDA’s approval of the study under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE). Compliance with these requirements can require significant time and resourcesresources. In addition, public health emergencies and ifother extraordinary circumstances may disrupt the conduct of our clinical trials. If the FDA determines that we have not complied with such requirements, itthe FDA may refuse to consider the data to support our applications or may initiate enforcement actions.
Even though 510(k) clearances have been obtained, if safety or effectiveness problems are identified with our pulse oximeters incorporating Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology, patient monitor devices, sensors, cables and other products, we may need to initiate a recall of such devices.products. Furthermore, our new products or significantly modified marketed products could be denied 510(k) clearance and be required to undergo the more burdensome PMA or de novo classification review processes. The process of obtaining clearance of a de novo request classification or PMA approval of a PMA is much more costly, lengthy and uncertain than the process for obtaining 510(k) clearance. Clearance of a de
De novo request classification review generally takes six months to one year from the time of submission of the de novo request, although it can take longer. Approval of a PMA generally takes one to three yearsyear from the time of submission of the PMA, but may be longer.
We sell consumer versions of our iSpO2®and MightySat™ pulse oximeters that are not intended for medical use. We are marketing these products in accordance with the FDA’s current policy for products that are intended for wellness or fitness uses. Some of our products or product features may alsonot be exempted fromsubject to the 510(k) process and/or other regulatory requirements in accordance with specific FDA guidance and policies, such as the FDA guidance related to mobile medical applications. In addition,additions, some of our products or product features may not be subject to device regulation underpursuant to Section 520(o) of the FDCA, which was enacted as part of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) in December 2016 and excludes certain software functions from the statutory definition of a device. We cannot assure you that the FDA will not change its policy regarding the regulation of these products. If the FDA changes its policypolicies or concludes that our marketing of these products is not in accordance with its current policypolicies and/or Section 520(o) of the FDCA, we may be required to seek clearance or approval of these devices through the 510(k), de novo classification review or PMA processes.
The failure of our OEM partners to obtain required FDA clearances or approvals for products that incorporate our healthcare technologies could have a negative impact on our revenue.
Our healthcare OEM partners are required to obtain their own FDA clearances for products incorporating Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology to market these products in the U.S. We cannot guarantee that thefor most products incorporating our technologies. The FDA clearances we have obtained willmay not make it easier for our OEM partners to obtain clearances of products incorporating these technologies, or that the FDA willmay not grant clearances on a timely basis, if at all, for any future productproducts incorporating Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow®technologyour technologies that our OEM partners propose to market.
*If we or our suppliers fail to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements, or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products, these products could be subject to restrictions or withdrawal from the market.
Our products, along with the manufacturing processes, labeling and promotional activities for our products, are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory bodies. Among other requirements, we and our suppliers are required to comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation (QSR), which covers the methods and documentationIn 2013, the FDA inspected our facility in Irvine, California and issued an FDA Form 483 listing observations the investigator believed may constitute violations of statutes or regulations administered by the FDA, including observations relating to complaint handling, medical device reporting and corrective and preventative action (CAPA) procedures. We submitted responses to the Form 483. In August 2014, we received a warning letter (the Warning Letter) related to the Irvine inspection. We submitted a response (the Response Letter) to the Warning Letter and attended a regulatory meeting with the FDA in September 2014. At the meeting, in addition to discussing our Response Letter, the FDA raised issues beyond the scope of the Warning Letter in the areas of Good Manufacturing Practices, quality, bioresearch monitoring and labeling/promotion.
In January 2016, the FDA issued certificates to foreign governments (CFGs) for products manufactured in our Irvine, California facility, which allows us to continue to register and import products into certain countries that require CFGs. In May 2017, the FDA inspected the Irvine facility and evaluated our corrective actions in response to the Warning Letter. At the close of that inspection, the FDA did not issue a Form 483 and later issued a letter indicating that, based on the FDA’s evaluation, it appeared that we had addressed the violations contained in the Warning Letter. The letter indicated that future FDA inspections and regulatory activities will further assess the adequacy and sustainability of the corrections.
In addition to the FDA, from time to time we are subject to inspections by the California Food and Drug Branch, international regulatory authorities, and other similar governmental agencies. The standards used by these regulatory authorities are complex and may differ from those used by the FDA.
Failure by us or one of our suppliers to comply with statutes and regulations administered by the FDA and other regulatory bodies or failure to adequately respond to any FDA Form 483 observations, any Food and Drug Branch notices of violation or any similar reports could result in, among other things, any of the following items:
warning letters or untitled letters issued by the FDA;
fines, civil penalties, in rem forfeiture proceedings, injunctions, consent decrees and criminal prosecution;
import alerts;
unanticipated expenditures to address or defend such actions;
delays in clearing or approving, or refusal to clear or approve, our products;
withdrawal or suspension of clearance or approval of our products or those of our third-party suppliers by the FDA or other regulatory bodies;
product recall or seizure;
orders for physician notification or device repair, replacement or refund;
interruption of production or inability to export to certain foreign countries; and
operating restrictions.
If any of these items were to occur, it would harm our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to obtain regulatory authorizations in foreign jurisdictions may prevent us from marketing our products abroad.
We currently market and intend to continue to market our products internationally. Outside of the U.S., we can generally market a productour healthcare products only if we receive a marketing authorization (and/or meet certain pre-marketing requirements) and, in some cases, pricing approval, from the appropriate regulatory authorities. The regulatory registration/licensing process varies among international jurisdictions and may require additional or different product testing and may differ from thatthan required for obtainingto obtain FDA clearance. FDA clearance does not ensure new product registration/licensing by foreign regulatory authorities, and we may be unable to obtain foreign regulatory registration/licensing on a timely basis, if at all.
In addition, clearance by one foreign regulatory authority does not ensure clearance by any other foreign regulatory authority or by the FDA. If we fail to receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products in foreign jurisdictions on a timely basis, or at all, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Furthermore, foreign regulatory requirements may change from time to time, which could adversely affect our ability to market new products, and/or continue to market existing products, internationally. Certain significant changes in the international regulatory landscape have recently taken place or will take place in the near future. These include the new EU Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (MDR), which came into effect on May 26, 2021 and a regulatory regime in the UK effective since January 1, 2021 as a result of the UK’s exit from the EU (Brexit).
Modifications to our marketed medical devices may require new regulatory clearances or premarket approvals, or may require us to cease marketing or to recall the modified devices until clearances or approvals are obtained.
We have made modifications to our medical devices in the past and we may make additional modifications in the future. Any modificationsmodification to an FDA-cleareda medical device that is cleared by the FDA that could significantly affect its safety or effectiveness or that wouldcould constitute a major change in its intended use would require a new 510(k) clearance or possiblyapproval and certain modifications to devices cleared or approved by foreign regulatory authorities may also require a de novo reviewnew clearance or PMA. approval.
We may not be able to obtain such clearances or approvals in a timely fashion, or at all. Delays in obtaining future clearances would adversely affect our ability to introduce new or enhanced products in a timely manner, which in turn would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The standards for determining which modifications require a new 510(k) clearance are ambiguous, and the FDA may disagree with our conclusions.
For thosedevice modifications that we conclude do not require a new 510(k), if the FDA disagrees with our conclusion and requires new clearancesregulatory clearance or approvals for the modifications,approval, we may be required to recall and to stop marketing the modified devices whichif the government agency disagrees with our conclusion and requires new clearances or approvals for the modifications. This could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*Federal regulatory reforms may make it difficult to maintain or attain approval to develop and commercialize our products and technologies.
From time to time, legislation is drafted and introduced in Congress that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the clearance or approval, manufacture and marketing of medical devices. For example, in December 2016, Congress enacted the Cures Act, which contained several provisions related to the review and approval of new medical technologies. Along with other changes, the Cures Act established a statutory program for “breakthrough” devices, defined as a device intended to treat or diagnose a life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating disease or condition and (1) that represents a breakthrough technology, (2) that has no approved/cleared alternatives, (3) that offers significant advantages over approved/cleared alternatives or (4) the availability of the device is in the best interest of patients. The FDA will apply additional resources to help speed the approval or clearance of devices that are designated as breakthrough devices. The Cures Act also included provisions related to the “least burdensome” principle with respect to demonstrating substantial equivalence or reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness and expanded the number of patients that could be treated by a device approved under a Humanitarian Device Exemption, among other provisions.
In August 2017, Congress enacted the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017 (FDARA). FDARA reauthorized the FDA to collect device user fees, including a new user fee for de novo classification requests, and contained substantive amendments to the device provisions of the FDCA. Among other changes, FDARA required that the FDA update and revise its processes for scheduling inspections of device establishments, communicating about those inspections with manufacturers and providing feedback on the manufacturer’s responses to Form 483s. The statute also required that the FDA study the impact of device servicing, including third party servicers, and creates a new process for device sponsors to request classification of accessory devices as part of the PMA application for the parent device or to request a separate classification of accessory devices.
In addition, the FDA regulations and guidance are often revised or reinterpreted by the FDA in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. It is impossible to predict whether additional legislative changes will be enacted or whether FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, and what the impact of such changes, if any, may be. However, any future regulatory changes could make it more difficult for us to maintain or attain approval to develop and commercialize our products and technologies.
*If our healthcare products cause or contribute to a death or serious injury, or malfunction in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury, we will be subject to medical device reporting regulations which can result inand other applicable laws, and may need to initiate voluntary or mandatory corrective actions, or agency enforcement actions, includingsuch as the recall of our healthcare products.
UnderRegulatory agencies in many countries require us to report anytime our healthcare products cause or contribute to a death or serious injury, or malfunction in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury. For example, under the FDA medical device reporting regulations, we are required to report to the FDA any incident in which a product of ours may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or in which a product of ours malfunctioned and, if the malfunction were to recur, would be likely to cause or contribute to death or serious injury. In addition, all manufacturers placing medical devices on the market in the European Union (EU)EU are legally required to report any serious or potentially serious incidents involving devices produced or sold by the manufacturer to the relevant authority in those jurisdictions where any such incident occurred.
The FDA and similar foreign governmentalregulatory authorities have the authority to require the recall of our commercialized healthcare products in the event of material deficiencies or defects in, for example, design, labeling or manufacture. In the case of theThe FDA the authority to require a recall generally must be based on an FDA findingfind that there is a reasonable probability that the device would cause serious adverse health consequences or death.death in order to require a recall. The standard for recalling deficient products may be different in foreign jurisdictions. Manufacturers may, under their own initiative, recall a product if any material deficiency is found in a device is found or they become aware of a safety issue involving a marketed product. A government-mandated or voluntary recall by us or by one of our distributors could occur as a result of component failures, manufacturing errors, design or labeling defects or other deficiencies and issues.
We may initiate certain field actions, such as a product correction or removal of our products in the future. A correction is a repair, modification, adjustment, relabeling, destructionIn addition, third- parties that commercialize products incorporating our technologies may initiate similar actions or inspection of a device, without its physical removal from its point of use to some other location. A removal is the physical removal of a device from its point of use to some other location for repair, modification, adjustment, relabeling, destruction or inspection. If aproduct corrections. Any correction or removal is initiated by us to reduce a health risk posed by our device, or to remedy a violation of the FDCA or other regulations caused by the device that may present a risk to health, the correction or removal must be reported to the FDA. If the FDA subsequently determines that a report was required for a correction or removal of our products that we did not believe required a report, we could be subject to enforcement actions.
In addition, our non-healthcare products, including components we source from third parties, may be found to have design or manufacturing defects. Such defects may result in additional costs for product modifications, voluntary or mandated product recalls or other liabilities resulting from product malfunctions. For example, defects in our audio products may result in overheating or electrical shock, creating a risk of personal injury or property damage.
Any recalls or corrections of our products or third-party products that incorporate our technologies, or enforcement actions would divert managerial and financial resources and could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
From time to time, we have initiated various field actions related to our products as required by applicable law and regulations, including device corrections and removals, none of which were material to our operating results. Some of these field actions involved “reportable events” that were reported to the FDA and other foreign regulatory agencies within the appropriate regulatory timeframes. Because of In addition, given our dependence upon patient, physician and physicianconsumer perceptions, any negative publicity associated with these or any future voluntary recalls could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
*In August 2023, we determined to initiate a voluntary recall of select Rad-G® products in connection with an issue that can result in an unintentional change in the power state of the device. On February 14, 2024, we initiated the voluntary recall. On February 21, 2024, we received a subpoena from the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking documents and information related to our Rad-G® and Rad-97® products, including information relating to complaints surrounding the products and our decision to recall the Rad-G®. Additionally, on March 25, 2024, we received a civil investigative demand from the DOJ seeking documents and information related to customer returns of our Rad-G® and Rad-97® products, including returns related our recall of select Rad-G® products in 2024. We are investigating the reasons for the delay between August 2023 and February 2024 when the recall was initiated. We are cooperating with the government and may expend significant financial and managerial resources in connection with responding to the subpoena and the investigative demand and any related investigation or any other future requests for information.
Promotion of our healthcare products using claims that are off-label, unsubstantiated, false or misleading could subject us to substantial penalties.
Obtaining 510(k) clearance permits us to promote our products for the uses cleared by the FDA. Use of a device outside its cleared or approved indications is known as “off-label” use. Physicians may use our products off-label because the FDA does not restrict or regulate a physician’s choice of treatment within the practice of medicine.medicine, but we may not promote our products “off-label”. While we may request additional cleared indications for our current products, the FDA may deny those requests, require additional expensive clinical data to support any additional indications or impose limitations on the intended use of any cleared product as a condition of clearance. If the FDA determines that we or our OEM partners have promoted our products were promoted for off-label use or have madethat false, or misleading or inadequately substantiated promotional claims have been made by us or our OEM partners, it could request that we or our OEM partners modify those promotional materials or it could take regulatory or enforcement actions, including the issuance of an untitled letter, warning letter, injunction, seizure, civil fine and criminal penalties. While certain U.S. courts have held that truthful, non-misleading, off-label information is protected under the First Amendment under certain circumstances, the FDA continues to take the position that off-label promotion is subject to enforcement action.
It is also possible that other federal, state or foreign enforcement authorities may take action if they consider our communications, including promotional or training materials, or other communications, to constitute promotion of an uncleared or unapproved use. Although, depending on the facts and circumstances, such promotion might be protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, we cannot be sure that government authorities or a court would accept such an argument. If not successfully defended, enforcement actions related to off-label promotion could result in significant fines or penalties under other statutory authorities, such as laws prohibiting false claims for reimbursement. In any such event, in addition to potential extensive fines and penalties, our reputation could be damaged, and adoption of our products would be impaired. Although our policy is to refrain from statements that could be considered off-label promotion of our products, the regulatory standards regarding off-label promotion are ambiguous,impaired and the FDA or another regulatory agencywe could conclude that we have engaged in off-label promotion.be subject to extensive fines and penalties.
In addition to promoting our products in a manner consistent with our clearances,Additionally, we must have adequate substantiation for the claims we make for our products. If any of our claims are determined to be false, misleading or deceptive, our products could be considered to be misbranded under the FDCA or to violatein violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. We could also face lawsuits from our competitors under the Lanham Act alleging that our marketing materials are false or misleading.
*Government agencies in the EU, UK, Japan and other countries and jurisdictions have similar regulations on the advertising and promotion of medical devices. If we fail to comply with any of these regulations, our reputation could be damaged, adoption of our products could be impaired and we could be subject to extensive fines and penalties.
The regulatory environment governing information, data security and privacy is increasingly demanding and evolving. Many of the laws and regulations in this area are subject to uncertain interpretation, and our failure to comply could result in claims, penalties or increased costs or otherwise harm our business.
Personal privacy and data security have become significant issues in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Canada, China and many other jurisdictions where we offer our products. The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future.
Several U.S. states have passed comprehensive privacy laws. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) amended and expanded the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) effective January 1, 2023. Other states have also enacted data privacy laws that took effect in 2023, including the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the Colorado Privacy Act, Utah’s Consumer Privacy Act, and the Connecticut Data Privacy Act. Further, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas also adopted privacy laws, which take effect from July 1, 2024 through 2026. These state laws govern the processing of residents’ personal information. Among many new requirements, some of the state privacy laws expand consumers’ rights (such as opting out of certain data sales to third parties and targeted advertising, restricting certain uses and disclosures of sensitive data, and requesting access, deletion, or correction of personal information). These state laws also minimize what data that can be collected from consumers and how businesses may use and disclose it. These state privacy laws also require businesses to make disclosures to consumers about data collection, use and sharing practices. In addition, some of these laws (including the CPRA) subject health-related information to additional safeguards and disclosures and some specifically regulate consumer health data, such as the Washington My Health My Data Act, which will become effective in 2024. There is significant uncertainty regarding how regulators will interpret and enforce this patchwork of new laws, particularly to the extent there are inconsistencies or differences in their requirements.
We continue to be subject to federal privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), in certain circumstances, in connection with any personal health information or medical information that we may obtain or have access to in connection with the operation of our business. Moreover, a comprehensive federal data privacy legislation has been proposed and, if passed, will further change the privacy and data security compliance landscape. In addition, on July 26, 2023, the SEC adopted rules requiring registrants to disclose material cybersecurity incidents they experience and to disclose on an annual basis material information regarding their cybersecurity risk management, strategy and governance.
All 50 U.S. states have data breach notification laws that, if violated, could result in penalties, fines and litigation. In addition, many states have implemented or are in the process of implementing related legislation, including state-specific biometric privacy laws that have resulted in class-action lawsuits against businesses. The full impact of these laws on our business is yet to be determined, but it could result in increased operating expenses as well as additional exposure to the risk of litigation by or on behalf of consumers.
Internationally, the European Data Protection Board continues to release guidelines for industries and impose fines related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some of which have been very significant. To improve coordination among EU supervisory authorities, the European Commission has proposed a new regulation that would help to streamline enforcement of the GDPR in cross-border cases. Meanwhile, there continues to be persistent uncertainty relating to the transfer of personal data from Europe to the U.S., or other non-adequate countries, following the Schrems II decision. On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF). The decision, which took effect on the day of its adoption, concludes that the United States ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EEA to companies certified to the DPF.However, it remains too soon to tell how the future of Privacy Shield 2.0 will evolve and what impact it will have on our international activities. At least one challenge to the DPF is pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Further, Brexit has led and could also lead to legislative and regulatory changes that may increase our compliance costs. As of January 1, 2021 and the expiry of transitional arrangements agreed to between the UK and the EU, data processing in the UK is governed by a UK version of the GDPR (combining the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), exposing us to two parallel regimes, each of which authorizes similar fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations. On June 28, 2021, the European Commission adopted an Adequacy Decision for the UK, allowing for the relatively free exchange of personal information between the EU and the UK, (as the UK correspondingly allows transfers back to the EU). However, the European Commission may suspend the Adequacy Decision if it considers that the UK no longer provides for an adequate level of data protection. A bill to amend the existing UK framework is now pending, but is not expected to be passed before the new UK election.
Other international jurisdictions, including Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, India and Brazil, among others, have also implemented, or are in the process of implementing laws relating to data privacy and protection that are all already in effect or are anticipated to go into effect soon,
or are amending existing laws. In addition, several jurisdictions such as South Korea have shown increased enforcement of their existing data privacy and security laws. Although we believe that we are complying with the GDPR and similar laws, these laws are still relatively new. Therefore, as international data privacy and protection laws continue to evolve, and as new regulations, interpretive guidance and enforcement information become available, we may incur additional costs to modify our business practices to comply with these requirements.
We may be required to make costly system modifications to comply with applicable data privacy and security laws. Violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, could subject us to criminal or civil, monetary or and non-monetary penalties, disrupt our operations, involve significant management distraction, negatively impact our brand image, subject us to class action lawsuits and result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be subject to or otherwise affected by federal and state health carehealthcare laws, including fraud and abuse laws and health information privacy and security laws, and could face substantial penalties if we are unable to fully comply with these laws.
Although we do not provide health care services or receive payments directly from Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payers for our products or the procedures in which our products are used, health care regulation by federal and state governments will impact our business. Health careHealthcare fraud and abuse laws potentially applicable to our operations include, but are not limited to:
•the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving any bribe, kickback or other remuneration intended to induce the purchase, order or recommendation of an item or service reimbursable under a federal health carehealthcare program (such as the Medicare or Medicaid programs);
•the federal False Claims Act and other federal laws which prohibit, among other things, knowingly and willfully presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid, other government payers or other third-party payers that are false or fraudulent;
•the provisionsPhysician Payments Sunshine Act, which requires medical device companies to track and publicly report, with limited exceptions, all payments and transfers of value to certain healthcare professionals and teaching hospitals in the federal Health Insurance PortabilityU.S.; and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which established federal crimes for knowingly and willfully executing a scheme to defraud any health care benefit program or making false statements in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, items or services; and
•state laws analogous to each of the above federal laws, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws that may apply to items or services reimbursed by governmental programs and non-governmental third-party payers, including commercial insurers, and state laws governing the privacy of certain patient identifiable health information (PHI).insurers.
Federal and state false claims laws prohibit anyone from presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment to third-party payers that are false or fraudulent. For example, the federal Civil False Claims Act imposes liability on any person or entity that, among other things, knowingly and willfully presents, or causes to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment by a federal health care program, including Medicaid and Medicare.
Some suits filed under the Civil False Claims Act, known as “qui tam” actions, can be brought by a private individual, referred to as a “whistleblower” or “relator,” on behalf of the government, and such individuals may share in any amounts paid by the entity to the government in fines or settlement. Such complaints are filed under seal and remain sealed until the applicable court orders otherwise. In recent years, the number of suits brought by private individuals has increased dramatically. Manufacturers, like us, can be held liable under false claims laws, even if they do not submit claims to the government, if theyIf we are found to have caused medical care providers to have submitted claims to the government for payment for a service or the use of a device that is not properly covered for government reimbursement.
A number of states also have false claims laws, and some of these laws may apply to claims for items or services reimbursed under Medicaid and/or commercial insurance. Sanctions under these federal and state laws may include civil monetary penalties, exclusion of a manufacturer’s products from reimbursement under government programs and imprisonment. In particular, when an entity is determined to have violated the federal Civil False Claims Act, it may be required to pay up to three times the actual damages sustained by the government, plus civil penalties of $10,975 to $21,916 (adjusted for inflation) for each separate false claim.
We have certain arrangements with hospitals that may be affected by health care fraud and abuse laws. For instance, under our standard customer arrangements, we provide hospitals with free pulse oximetry monitoring devices in exchange for their agreement to purchase future pulse oximetry sensor requirements from us. In addition, we occasionally provide our customers with rebates in connection with their annual purchases. While we believe that these arrangements are structured such that we are currently in compliance with applicable federal and state health care laws, one or more of these arrangements may not meet the federal Anti-Kickback Statute’s safe harbor requirements, which may result in increased scrutiny by government authorities that are responsible for enforcing these laws.
There can be no assurance that we will not be found to be in violation of any of such laws or other similar governmental regulations, to which weincluding their foreign counterparts, that are directly or indirectly subject and, as a result,applicable to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, exclusion of our products from reimbursement under Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health carehealthcare programs, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. Any penalties could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against such action, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business.
Further, we are required to comply with federal and state laws governing the transmission, security and privacy of individually identifiable PHI that we may obtain or have access to in connection with the manufacture and sale of our products. We may be required to make costly system modifications to comply with the HIPAA privacy and security requirements.In addition, if we do not properly comply with existing or new laws and regulations related to the protection of health information, we could be subject to criminal or civil sanctions, the potential enforcement of which is greater as a result of the Health Information Technology of Economic and Clinical Health Act.
Numerous other federal and state laws protect the confidentiality of PHI, including state medical information privacy laws, state social security number protection laws and state and federal consumer protection laws. In some cases, more protective state privacy and security laws are not preempted by HIPAA and may be subject to interpretation by various governmental authorities and courts, resulting in potentially complex compliance issues for us and our customers.
In addition, state and federal human subject protection laws apply to our receipt of individually identifiable PHI in connection with clinical research. These laws could create liability for us if one of our research collaborators uses or discloses research subject information without authorization and in violation of applicable laws.
We may incur significant costs and potential liabilities in defending our new products and technologies in various legal and other proceedings.
Our noninvasive measurement technologies are new and not yet widely understood or accepted. These new technologies may become the subject of various legal and other proceedings. We may incur significant costs in explaining and defending our new products and technologies in these proceedings, often to non-technical audiences. The outcomes of these proceedings are unpredictable and may result in significant liabilities, regardless of the merits of the claims made in the proceedings.
*Legislative and regulatory changes in the health care industry could have a negative impact on our financial performance. Furthermore, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be significantly and adversely affected by health care reform legislation in the U.S. or if reform programs are adopted in our key international markets.
Changes in the health care industry in the U.S. and elsewhere could adversely affect the demand for our products as well as the way in which we conduct our business. In 2010, President Obama signed health care reform legislation into law that required most individuals to have health insurance, established new regulations on health plans, created insurance pooling mechanisms and reduced Medicare spending on services provided by hospitals and other providers. Beginning in January 2013, this legislation also imposed significant new taxes on medical device makers in the form of a 2.3% excise tax on U.S. medical device sales, as well as related compliance and reporting obligations. Although President Obama signed into law a bill that included a two-year suspension of the medical device tax beginning in January 2016, such tax will be reimposed on medical device makers beginning in January 2018 if such suspension is not extended or the medical device tax is not permanently repealed.
Moreover, the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (the Sunshine Act), which was enacted by Congress as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act) in March 2010, requires medical device companies to track and publicly report, with limited exceptions, all payments and transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals in the U.S. Implementing regulations for these tracking and reporting obligations were finalized in 2013, and companies are now required to track payments made since August 2013. If we fail to comply with the data collection and reporting obligations imposed by the Sunshine Act, we may be subject to substantial civil monetary penalties.
In general, an expansion in the government’s role in the U.S. health care industry may lower reimbursements for our products, reduce demand for innovative products, reduce medical procedure volumes and adversely affect our business and results of operations, possibly in a material manner. In addition, as a result of the continued focus on health care reform, there is a risk that Congress may implement changes in laws and regulations governing health care service providers, including measures to control costs or reductions in reimbursement levels, which could result in pricing pressures, have an adverse effect on the demand for our products and/or negatively impact the prices that the market is willing to accept for our current and future products. We cannot predict the effect any future legislation or regulation will have on us or what health care initiatives, if any, will be implemented at the state level. Furthermore, many private payers look to Medicare’s coverage and reimbursement policies in setting their coverage policies and reimbursement amounts such that federal reforms could influence the private sector as well. Finally, many states also may attempt to reform their Medicaid programs such that either coverage for certain items or services may be narrowed or reimbursement for them could be reduced. These health care reforms may adversely affect our business.
Consistent with or in addition to Congressional or state reforms, CMS, the federal agency that administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs, could change its current policies that affect coverage and reimbursement for our products. For example, in 2007, CMS determined that certain uses of pulse oximetry monitoring are eligible for separate Medicare payment in the hospital outpatient setting when no separately payable hospital outpatient services are reported on the same date of service. However, CMS re-examines the reimbursement rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient and physician office settings each year and could either increase or decrease the reimbursement rate for procedures utilizing our products. We are unable to predict when legislation or regulation that affects our business may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effect any such legislation or regulation would have on our business. Any such legislation, regulation or policies that affect the coverage and reimbursement of our current or future products, or the procedures utilizing our current or future products, could cause our sales to decrease and our revenue to decline.
Our success in international markets also may depend upon the eligibility of reimbursement for our products through government-sponsored health care payment systems and other third-party payers. Outside of the U.S., reimbursement systems vary by country. These systems are often subject to the same pressures to curb rising health care costs and control health care expenditures as those in the U.S. In addition, as economies of emerging markets develop, these countries may implement changes in their health care delivery and payment systems. If adequate levels of reimbursement from third-party payers outside of the U.S. are not obtained, sales of our products outside of the U.S. may be adversely affected.
In addition, the requirements or restrictions imposed on us or our products may change, either as a result of administratively adopted policies or regulations or as a result of the enactment of new laws. Moreover, there have been recent U.S. Congressional actions to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and Medicare, and future actions are expected. Even if the Affordable Care Act is not amended or repealed, proposed changes impacting implementation or existing provisions of the Affordable Care Act could materially and adversely affect our financial position or operations.
Although we cannot predict the ultimate content or timing of any healthcare reform legislation, potential changes resulting from any amendment, repeal or replacement of these programs, including any reduction in the future availability of healthcare insurance benefits or reimbursement rates, could adversely affect our business and future results of operations.
Our medical devices and business activities are subject to rigorous regulation by the FDA and other federal, state and international governmental authorities. These authorities and members of Congress have been increasing their scrutiny over the medical device industry. In recent years, the U.S. Congress, Department of Justice, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Defense have issued subpoenas and other requests for information to medical device manufacturers, primarily related to financial arrangements with health care providers, regulatory compliance and marketing and product promotional practices. Furthermore, certain state governments have enacted legislation to increase transparency of interactions with health care providers, pursuant to which we are required by law to disclose payments and other transfers for value to health care providers licensed by certain states. We anticipate that the government will continue to scrutinize our industry closely, and any new regulations or statutory provisions could result in delays or increased costs during the periods of product development, clinical trials and regulatory review and approval, as well as increased costs to assure compliance.
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
We may experience conflicts of interest with CercacorWillow with respect to business opportunities and other matters.
Prior to our initial public offering in August 2007, our stockholders owned 99% of the outstanding shares of capital stock of CercacorWillow, and we believe that as of September 30, 2017, a number of our stockholders, including certain of our directors and executive officers, continue to own shares of CercacorWillow stock. Joe Kiani, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), is also the Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerCEO of Cercacor.Willow.
Due to the interrelated nature of CercacorWillow with us, conflicts of interest willmay arise with respect to transactions involving business dealings between us and Cercacor,Willow, potential acquisitions of businesses or products, the development and ownership of technologies and products, the sale of products, markets and other matters in which our best interests and the best interests of our stockholders may conflict with the best interests of the stockholders of Cercacor.Willow. In addition, we and CercacorWillow may disagree regarding the interpretation of certain terms in the Cross-Licensing Agreement. We cannot guarantee that any conflict of interest will be resolved in our favor, or that, with respect to our transactions with Cercacor,Willow, we will negotiate terms that are as favorable to us as if such transactions were with another third-party.
We will be required to assign to CercacorWillow and pay CercacorWillow for the right to use certain products and technologies we develop that relate to the monitoring of non-vital sign parameters, including improvements to Masimo SET®.
Under the Cross-Licensing Agreement, if we develop certain products or technologies that relate to the noninvasive monitoring of non-vital sign parameters, including improvements to Masimo SET® for the noninvasive monitoring of non-vital sign parameters, we would be required to assign these developments to CercacorWillow and then license the technology back from CercacorWillow in consideration for upfront payments and royalty obligations to Cercacor.Willow. Therefore, these products and technologies would be deemed to have been developed or improved exclusively by Cercacor. Willow.
In addition, we will not be reimbursed by CercacorWillow for our expenses relating to the development or improvement of any such products or technologies, which expenses may be significant. As a result of these terms, we may not generate any revenue from the further development of certain products and technologies for the monitoring of non-vital sign parameters, including improvements to Masimo SET®, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In the event that the Cross-Licensing Agreement is terminated for any reason, or CercacorWillow grants a license to rainbow® technology to a third-party, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
CercacorWillow owns all of the proprietary rights to certain rainbow® technology developed with our proprietary Masimo SET® for products intended to be used in the Cercacor Market,“Willow Market”, and all rights to any non-vital signs measurement for which we do not exercise an option pursuant to the Cross-Licensing Agreement. In addition, CercacorWillow has the right to terminate the Cross-Licensing Agreement or grant licenses covering rainbow® technology to third partiesthird-parties if we breach certain terms of the agreement, including any failure to meet our minimum royalty payment obligations or failure to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop or market products incorporating licensed rainbow® technology. If we lose our exclusive license to rainbow® technology, we would lose the ability to prevent others from making, using, selling or importing products using rainbow® technology in our market. As a result, we would likely be subject to increased competition within our market, and CercacorWillow or competitors who obtain a license to rainbow® technology from CercacorWillow would be able to offer related products.
We may not be able to commercialize our products incorporating licensed rainbow® technology cost-effectively or successfully.
As a result of the royalties that we must pay to Cercacor,Willow, it is generally more expensive for us to make products that incorporate licensed rainbow® technology than products that do not include licensed rainbow® technology.
We cannot assure you thatAccordingly, we willmay not be able to sell products incorporating licensed rainbow® technology at a price the market is willing to accept. If we cannot commercialize our products incorporating licensed rainbow® technology successfully, we may not be able to generate sufficient product revenue from these products to be profitable, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Rights provided to CercacorWillow in the Cross-Licensing Agreement may impede a change in control of our company.
Under the Cross-Licensing Agreement, a change in control includes the resignation or termination of Joe Kiani from his position as Chief Executive OfficerCEO of either Masimo or Cercacor.Willow. A change in control also includes other customary events, such as the sale or merger of Masimo or CercacorWillow to a non-affiliated third-party or the acquisition of 50% or more of the voting power of Masimo or CercacorWillow by a non-affiliated third-party. In
Among other things, the event we undergo a change in control, we are required to immediately pay a $2.5 million fee to exercise an option to license technology developed by Cercacor for use in blood glucose monitoring. Additionally, our per product royalties payable to Cercacor will become subject to specified minimums, and the minimum aggregate annual royalties for licensed rainbow® measurements payable to Cercacor related to carbon monoxide, methemoglobin, fractional arterial oxygen saturation, hemoglobin and blood glucose will increase to $15.0 million, plus up to $2.0 million for other rainbow® measurements. Also,Cross-Licensing Agreement provides that if the surviving or acquiring entity ceases to use “Masimo” as a company name and trademark following a change in control, all rights to the “Masimo” trademark will automatically be assigned to Cercacor.Willow. This could delay or discourage transactions involving an actual or potential change in control of us, including transactions in which our stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares over our then-current trading price. In addition, our requirement to assign all future improvements for non-vital signs to CercacorWillow could impede a change in control of our company.
*We may experience significant fluctuations in our quarterly and annual results in the future, we may not maintain our current levels of profitability, and changes to existing accounting pronouncements or taxation rules may affect how we conduct our business and our results of operations.
Our operating results have fluctuated in the past and are likely to fluctuate in the future. We may experience fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations as a result of:
delays or interruptions in manufacturing and shipping of our products;
varying demand for and market acceptance of our technologies and products;
delayed acceptance of our new products, negatively impacting the carrying value of our inventory;
design, technology or other market changes that could negatively impact the carrying value of our inventory;
the effect of competing technological and market developments resulting in lower selling prices or significant promotional costs;
changes in the timing of product orders and the volume of sales to our OEM partners;
actions taken by GPOs;
delays in hospital conversions to our products and declines in hospital patient census;
our legal expenses, particularly those related to litigation matters;
changes in our product or customer mix;
movements in foreign currency exchange rates;
market seasonality of our sales due to quarterly fluctuations in hospital and other alternative care admissions;
our ability to renew existing long-term sensor contract commitments;
changes in the total dollar amount of annual contract renewal activities;
changes in the mix and, therefore, the related costs of products that we supply at no upfront costs to our customers as part of their long-term sensor commitments;
changes in hospital and other alternative care admission levels;
our inability to efficiently scale operations and establish processes to accommodate business growth;
unanticipated delays or problems in the introduction of new products, including delays in obtaining clearance or approval from the FDA;
high levels of returns and repairs; and
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• | changes in reimbursement rates for SpHb®, SpCO® and SpMet® parameters.
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In addition, a change in accounting pronouncements or taxation rules or practices, or the interpretation of them by the SEC or other regulatory bodies, could have a significant effect on our reported results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. New accounting pronouncements or taxation rules and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements or taxation practice have occurred and may occur in the future. Moreover, there have been recent public announcements by members of the U.S. Congress, President Trump and his administration regarding their plans to make substantial changes in the taxation of U.S. companies and their foreign operations, including the possible implementation of a border tax, tariff or increase in custom duties on products manufactured outside of and imported into the U.S., as well as the renegotiation of U.S. trade agreements. Certain of our manufacturing facilities are located in Mexico and Sweden, and the imposition of a border tax, tariff or higher customs duties on our products imported into the U.S., or any potential corresponding actions by other countries in which we do business, could negatively impact our financial performance. Furthermore, changes to existing rules, the adoption of new rules, changes in tax laws, changes in trade policies or the expiration of existing favorable tax holidays may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business.
If our operating results fail to meet or exceed the expectations of securities analysts or investors, our stock price could drop suddenly and significantly. Our expense levels are based, in part, on our expectations regarding future revenue levels and are relatively fixed in the short term. As a result, if our revenue for a particular period was below our expectations, we would not be able to proportionately reduce our operating expenses for that period. Any revenue shortfall would have a disproportionately negative effect on our operating results for the period. Due to these and other factors, you should not rely on our results for any one quarter as an indication of our future performance.
*Our results of operations could be harmed if we fail to effectively manage our growth or, alternatively, our spending during economic downturns.
Our ability to offer our products and implement our business plan in evolving markets successfully requires an effective planning and management process. We must effectively manage our spending and operations to ensure our competitive position during economic downturns, and must preserve our future opportunities when the economy improves. A failure to manage our spending and operations effectively could disrupt our business and harm our operating results. A growth in sales, combined with the challenges of managing geographically dispersed operations, can place a significant strain on our management systems and resources, and growth in future operations could continue to place such a strain. The failure to manage our growth effectively could disrupt our business and harm our operating results.
*Our results of operations could vary as a result of the methods, estimates and judgments that we use in applying our accounting policies.
The methods, estimates and judgments that we use in applying our accounting policies have a significant impact on our results of operations. Such methods, estimates and judgments are, by their nature, subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions and factors may arise over time that lead us to change our methods, estimates and judgments. Changes in those methods, estimates and judgments could significantly affect our results of operations. See “Critical Accounting Estimates” contained in Part II, Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, which we filed with the SEC on February 15, 2017.
*If we lose the services of our key personnel, or if we are unable to attract and retain other key personnel, we may not be able to manage our operations or meet our growth objectives.
We are highly dependent on our senior management, especially Joe Kiani, our Chief Executive Officer, and other key officers. We are also heavily dependent on our engineers and field sales team, including sales representatives and clinical specialists. Additionally, from time to time, some of our key personnel may hold stock options with an exercise price that is greater than our recent closing prices, which may minimize the retention value of these options. The loss of the services of members of our key personnel or the inability to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future could prevent the implementation and completion of our objectives, including the development and introduction of our products. In general, our key personnel may terminate their employment at any time and for any reason without notice, unless the individual is a participant in our 2007 Severance Protection Plan, in which case the individual has agreed to provide us with six months’ notice if such individual decides to voluntarily resign.
*Changes to government immigration regulations may materially affect our workforce and limit our supply of qualified professionals, or increase our cost of securing workers.
We recruit professionals on a global basis and must comply with the immigration laws in the countries in which we operate, including the U.S. Some of our employees are working under Masimo-sponsored temporary work visas, including H1-B visas. The H-1B visa classification enables U.S. employers to hire certain qualified foreign workers in positions that require an education at least equal to a four-year bachelor degree in the United States in specialty occupations such as engineering. Statutory law limits the number of new H1-B temporary work permit petitions that may be approved in a fiscal year, and if we are unable to obtain H1-B visas for our employees in sufficient quantities or at a sufficient rate for a significant period of time, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
The subject of H1-B visas has recently become a topic of political discussion, and there are indications that the H1-B visa program may be significantly overhauled. If a new or revised visa program is implemented, there could be elements of any new or revised visa program that may impact our ability to recruit, hire and retain qualified skilled personnel, which could adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
*The risks inherent in operating internationally and the risks of selling and shipping our products and purchasing our components and products internationally may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We derive a portion of our net sales from international operations. For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and October 1, 2016, approximately 31.7% and 29.3%, respectively, of our product revenue was derived from our international operations. In addition, we purchase a portion of our raw materials and components on the international market. The sale and shipment of our products across international borders, as well as the purchase ofkey materials and components from international sources, subject us to extensive U.S. and foreign governmental trade regulations. Compliance with such regulations is costly andsole or limited source suppliers, we could be exposed to potentially significant penalties if we are found not to be in compliance with such regulations. Any failure to comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations could impact us in a variety of ways that include, but are not limited to, significant criminal, civil and administrative penalties, including imprisonment of individuals, fines and penalties, denial of export privileges, seizure of shipments, restrictions on certain business activities, and exclusion or debarment from government contracting. Also, the failure to comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations could result in the disruption of our shipping, manufacturing and sales activities. Any material decrease in our international sales would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are currently evaluating the collectability of certain amounts that have been paid by a foreign government customer to our appointed foreign agent in connection with a foreign government tender, but which have not been timely remitted to us by such agent in accordance with the agency agreement. We are actively working with such agent to arrange for payment, possibly under an extended payment plan, as well as exploring other potential remedies for recovery of this receivable. As of September 30, 2017, the net amount due to us from such agent was approximately $8.6 million. Any failure to collect any amounts from this foreign agent or any other foreign agent could adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
In June 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) held a referendum pursuant to which voters elected to leave the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit. As a result of UK voters’ election to leave the EU, the British government is expected to begin negotiating the terms of the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Although the long-term effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements the UK makes to retain access to the EU markets, Brexit has created additional uncertainties that may ultimately result in new regulatory costs and challenges for medical device companies and increased restrictions on imports and exports throughout Europe, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct and expand our operations in Europe and which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, Brexit may increase the possibility that other countries may decide to leave the EU in the future.
In addition, our international sales operations expose us and our representatives, agents and distributors to risks inherent in operating in foreign jurisdictions. These risks include, but are not limited to:
the imposition of additional U.S. and foreign governmental controls or regulations;
the imposition of costly and lengthy new export licensing requirements;
a shortage of high-quality sales people and distributors;
the loss of any key personnel that possess proprietary knowledge, or who are otherwise important to our success in certain international markets;
changes in duties and tariffs, license obligations and other non-tariff barriers to trade;
the imposition of new trade restrictions;
the imposition of restrictions on the activities of foreign agents, representatives and distributors;
the inability to collect amounts paid by foreign government customers to our appointed foreign agents;
scrutiny of foreign tax authorities which could result in significant fines, penalties and additional taxes being imposed on us;
pricing pressure that we may experience internationally;
changes in foreign currency exchange rates;
laws and business practices favoring local companies;
political instability and actual or anticipated military or political conflicts;
financial and civil unrest worldwide;
outbreaks of illnesses, pandemics or other local or global health issues such as the Zika virus;
longer payment cycles, increased credit risk and different collection remedies with respect to receivables; and
difficulties in enforcing or defending intellectual property rights.
The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from promising or making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining an advantage to secure or retain business. Because of the predominance of government-sponsored health care systems around the world, many of our customer relationships outside of the U.S. are with governmental entities and are therefore subject to such anti-bribery laws. Our policies mandate compliance with these anti-bribery laws.
Personal privacy and data security have become significant issues in the United States, Europe and in many other jurisdictions where we offer our products. The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. Future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations, and changes in the interpretation of existing laws, regulations, standards and other obligations could result in increased regulation, cost of compliance and limitations on data collection, use, disclosure and transfer. For example, in October 2015, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that the US-EU Safe Harbor framework that had been in place since 2000, which allowed companies to meet certain European legal requirements for the transfer of personal data from the European Economic Area to the United States, was invalid. In July 2016, a new data transfer framework referred to as the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield was adopted, which may provide a new mechanism for companies to transfer EU personal data to the U.S. While we have adopted the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework for the transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S., our means for transferring personal data from the EU may not be adopted by all of our customers and suppliers and may be subjectable to legal challenge or risk of enforcement actions by data protection authorities. In addition, in April 2016, the EU approved a new data protection regulation, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will become effective in May 2018. The GDPR will include new operational requirements for companies that receive or process personal data of EU residents, as well as significant penalties for non-compliance. Complying with the GDPR may cause us to incur substantial operational costs or require us to change our business practices. Despite our training and compliance programs, our internal control policies and procedures may not always protect us from reckless or criminal acts committed by our employees or agents. Violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, could subject us to cash and non-cash penalties, disrupt our operations, involve significant management distraction and result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our operations may be adversely impacted by our exposure to risks related to foreign currency exchange rates.
We marketdeliver our products in certain foreign markets through our subsidiaries and other international distributors. As a result, events that result in global economic uncertainty could significantly affect our results of operations in the form of gains and losses on foreign currency transactions and potential devaluation of the local currencies of our customers relative to the U.S. Dollar. For example, the announcement of Brexit caused significant volatility in global economic markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations that resulted in the strengthening of the U.S. Dollar relative to certain other foreign currencies in which we conduct business. While a majority of our sales are transacted in U.S. Dollars, some of our sales agreements with foreign customers provide for payment in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. These foreign currency revenues, when converted into U.S. Dollars, can vary depending on average exchange rates during a respective period. Similarly, certain of our foreign sales support subsidiaries transact business in their respective country’s local currency, which is also their functional currency. In addition, certain production costs related to our manufacturing operations in Mexico are denominated in Mexican Pesos. As a result, expenses of these foreign subsidiaries and certain production costs, when converted into U.S. Dollars, can vary depending on average monthly exchange rates during a respective period.
We are also exposed to foreign currency gains or losses on outstanding foreign currency denominated receivables and payables. When converted to U.S. Dollars, these receivables and payables can vary depending on the monthly exchange rates at the end of the period. In addition, certain intercompany transactions may give rise to realized and unrealized foreign currency gains or losses based on the currency underlying such intercompany transactions. Accordingly, our operating results are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
The balance sheets of our foreign subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar are translated into U.S. Dollars at the rate of exchange at the balance sheet date and the statements of operations and cash flows are translated into U.S. Dollars using the average monthly exchange rate during the period. Any foreign currency exchange gain or loss as a result of translating the balance sheets of our foreign subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar is included in equity as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss).
We currently do not hedge our foreign currency exchange rate risk. Should we decide in the future to hedge such exchange rate risk by entering into forward contracts, these contracts may not mitigate the potential adverse impact on our financial results due to the variability of timing and amount of payments under these contracts. In addition, our failure to sufficiently hedge, forecast or otherwise manage such foreign currency risks properly could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*We currently manufacture our products at several locations and any disruption to or expansion of our manufacturing operations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on our manufacturing facilities in Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico; Irvine, California; Hudson, New Hampshire; and Danderyd, Sweden. These facilities and the manufacturing equipment we use to produce our products would be difficult to replace and could require substantial time to repair. Our facilities may be affected by natural or man-made disasters. Earthquakes are of particular significance since some of our facilities are located in an earthquake-prone area. We are also vulnerable to damage from other types of disasters, including power loss, attacks from extremist or terrorist organizations, epidemics, communication failures, fire, floods and similar events. In the event that one of our facilities is affected by a natural or man-made disaster, we would be forced to rely on third-party manufacturers if we could not shift production to our other manufacturing facilities. Furthermore, our insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business from casualties may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are forced to seek alternative facilities, or if we voluntarily expand one or more of our manufacturing operations to new locations, we may incur additional transition costs and we may experience a disruption in the supply of our products until the new facilities are available and operating.
We also purchase materials and components from international sources. Any disruption in the supply of such materials, including transportation or port delays, could adversely impact our manufacturing operations. Disruptions may also occur as a result of local, regional and worldwide health risks. Such disruptions may include the inability to manufacture and distribute our products due to the direct effects of illness on individuals or due to constraints on supply and distribution that may result from either voluntary or government imposed restrictions.
Any disruption or delay at our manufacturing facilities, any expansion of our operations to additional locations, or any changes in market conditions could create operational hurdles and have an adverse impact on our ability to produce sufficient inventory of our products or may require us to incur additional expenses in order to produce sufficient inventory, depending on changes in product demand. Furthermore, if we are unable to meet the demand of our customers, our customers may cancel orders or purchase products from our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Conversely, if product demand decreases, we may be unable to timely adjust our manufacturing cost structure, resulting in excess capacity, which would lower gross product margins. Similarly, if we are unable to forecast demand accurately, we could be required to record charges related to excess or obsolete inventory, which would also lower our gross margin.
Our suppliers may not supply us with a sufficient amount of materials and components or materials and components of adequate quality.customers.
We depend on certain sole or limited source suppliers for certain key materials and components, including digital signal processor chips and analog-to-digital converter chips for certain products. These suppliers are located around the world, and the production and shipment of our noninvasive patient monitoring solutions, and if we are unable to obtain thesesuch materials and components may be constrained globally due to freight carrier delays and other disruptions to the supply chain. We may experience manufacturing problems related to these suppliers and other outside sources if such suppliers fail to develop, manufacture or ship products and components to us on a timely basis, we will not be able to deliver our noninvasive patient monitoring solutions to customers. Also, we cannot guarantee that any of the materials or provide us with products and components that we purchase, if available at all, will be of adequatedo not meet our quality standards and at acceptable price levels. Fromrequired quantities. We previously experienced supply constraints with regard to certain digital signal processor chips and other components during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected our sales during 2022. In addition, from time to time there arehave been industry-wide shortages of several electroniccertain components that we use in our noninvasive blood constituent patient monitoring solutions.certain products. We may also experience price increases for materials, or components and shipping with no guarantee that such increases can be passed along to our customers.
We may experience delays in production of our products if we fail to identify alternate vendors for materials and components, if any parts supply is interrupted or reduced or if there is a significant increase in production costs, each ofcustomers, which could adversely affectimpact our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we rely on third party manufacturers to supply some of our products and components, including digital signal processor chips and analog to digital converter chips.gross margins.
Manufacturing problems may occur with these and other outside sources, as a supplier may fail to develop and supply products and components to us on a timely basis, or may supply us with products and components that do not meet our quality, quantity and cost requirements. If any of these problems occur, we may be unable to obtain substitute sources for these products and components on a timely basis or on terms acceptable to us, which could harm our ability to manufacture our own products and components profitably or on time.
If we fail to comply with the reporting obligations
As a public company, we are required to comply with the periodic reporting obligations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended,Future strategic initiatives, including preparing annual reports, quarterly reports and current reports. Our failure to prepare and disclose this information in a timely manner and meet our reporting obligations in their entirety could subject us to penalties under federal securities laws and regulations of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, expose us to lawsuits and restrict our ability to access financing on favorable terms, or at all.
In addition, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended (the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), we are required to evaluate and provide a management report on our systems of internal control over financial reporting, and our independent registered public accounting firm is required to attest to our internal control over financial reporting. During the course of the evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting, we may identify areas requiring improvement and may be required to design enhanced processes and controls to address issues identified through this review. This could result in significant delays and costs to us and require us to divert substantial resources, including management time, from other activities. In addition, if we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to ensure that we can conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Moreover, effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent fraud. Any failure to maintain compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or any material weakness in our internal control environment could result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could harm our business, negatively impact the trading price of our stock, and adversely affect investors’ confidence in our company and our ability to access capital markets for financing.
Changing laws and increasingly complex corporate governance and public disclosure requirements could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, the UK Modern Slavery Act and new regulations issued by the SEC and The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, have and will create additional compliance requirements for companies such as ours. To maintain high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure, we have invested in, and intend to continue to invest in, reasonably necessary resources to comply with evolving standards.
For example, the Dodd-Frank Act includes provisions regarding “conflict minerals” (generally tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) that are mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries (the DRC region), and in June 2016, the EU adopted its own regulation on conflict minerals that covers the sourcing of conflict minerals from anywhere in the world. The provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act require us to undertake comprehensive due diligence to determine whether conflict minerals used in our products, including any portion of our products manufactured by third parties, financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC region. The rules also require us to file conflict mineral reports with the SEC annually. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, additional costs to comply with these rules, including costs related to determining the source of origin of conflict minerals used in our products. Given the complexity of our supply chain, we may face difficulties if our suppliers are unwilling or unable to verify the origin of all conflict minerals used in our products.
Furthermore, our ongoing compliance with these rules could affect the pricing, sourcing and availability of minerals used in the manufacture of our products. We may also encounter challenges with our customers and stockholders if we are unable to certify that our products are free of conflict minerals. To maintain high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure, we have invested in, and intend to continue to invest in, reasonably necessary resources to comply with such evolving standards. These investments have resulted in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities and may continue to do so in the future.
In addition, stockholder litigation surrounding executive compensation and disclosure of executive compensation has increased with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. Furthermore, in recent years, our stockholders have not approved our advisory vote on named executive officer compensation that is required to be voted on by our stockholders annually pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act. If we are involved in a lawsuit related to compensation matters or any other matters not covered by our directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, we may incur significant expenses in defending against such lawsuits, or be subject to significant fines or required to take significant remedial actions, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*If product liability claims are brought against us, we could face substantial liability and costs.
The manufacture and sale of products using Masimo SET® and licensed rainbow® technology expose us to product liability claims and product recalls, including, but not limited to, those that may arise from unauthorized off-label use, which is use of a device in a manner outside the indications for use cleared by the FDA, malfunctions, design flaws or manufacturing defects related to our products or the use of our products with incompatible components or systems. For example, in April 2014, an amended putative class action complaint was filed against us alleging product liability and negligence claims in connection with pulse oximeters that we modified and provided at the request of the study investigators for use in a randomized trial at the University of Alabama. In August 2015, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of Masimo, rejecting the plaintiffs’ claims. The plaintiffs have appealed the Court’s decision. The appellate hearing before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was held on December 13, 2016. On July 7, 2017, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (Eleventh Circuit) issued a Certification to the Supreme Court of Alabama seeking guidance on a legal question. In that Certification, the Eleventh Circuit stated that the plaintiffs failed to establish that participation in the clinical study caused any injuries, and that the negligence, negligence per se, breach of fiduciary duty, and products liability claims, which includes the claims currently alleged against us, were properly dismissed. While we believe we have good and substantial defenses to the claims, there is no guarantee that we will ultimately prevail. In addition, we cannot be certain that our product liability insurance will be sufficient to cover any or all damages or claims asserted in this case or any other product liability claims that may be brought against us in the future. Furthermore, we may not be able to obtain or maintain insurance in the future at satisfactory rates or in adequate amounts to protect us against any product liability claims.
Additionally, the laws and regulations regarding product liability are constantly evolving, both through the passage of new legislation at the state and federal levels and through new interpretations of existing legislation. For example, in February 2017, the Washington Supreme Court determined that, under the Washington Product Liability Act, medical device manufacturers have a duty to warn hospitals of any potential risks posed by their products. As the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding product liability change, we may become exposed to greater liability than currently anticipated.
Any losses that we may suffer from product liability claims, and the effect that any product liability litigation may have upon the reputation and marketability of our technology and products, together with the corresponding diversion of the attention of our key employees, may subject us to significant damages and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
*Future acquisitions of businesses and strategic investments, could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations if we fail to integrate the acquired businesses and their employees successfully into our existing operations or if we discover previously undisclosed liabilities.achieve the desired results of our initiatives.
We have acquired sixseveral businesses since our inception and we may acquire additional businesses in the future, which may be larger in magnitude thanfuture. For example, on April 11, 2022, we completed our previous acquisitions. Successful acquisitions depend upon our abilityacquisition of Sound United. In connection with the Sound United acquisition, on April 11, 2022, we entered into a Credit Facility to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate suitable acquisitions and to obtain any necessary financing.partially fund the acquisition. Future acquisitions may require additional debt or equity financing, either of which could be dilutive to our existing stockholders andor reduce our earnings per share or debt financing, whichother financial metrics. Even if we complete acquisitions, we may experience:there are many factors that could affect whether such acquisition, including our acquisition of Sound United, will be beneficial to our business, including, without limitation:
•payment of above-market prices for acquisitions and incurring higher than anticipated acquisition costs;
a need to issue shares•issuance of common stock as part of the acquisition price or a need to issue stock options or other equityequity-based compensation to newly-hired employees of target companies, resulting in dilution of ownership to our existing stockholders;
•reduced profitability as future acquisitions mayif an acquisition is not result in accretive contributions to theour business over either the short-term or the long-term;
•difficulties in integrating any acquired companies, personnel, products and other assets into our existing business;
•delays in realizing the benefits of the acquired company, products or other assets;
•regulatory challenges;challenges and becoming subject to additional regulatory requirements;
•cybersecurity and compliance relatedcompliance-related issues;
•diversion of our management’s time and attention from other business concerns;
•limited or no direct prior experience in new markets or countries we may enter;
•unanticipated issues dealing with unfamiliar suppliers, service providers or other collaborators of the acquired company;
•higher costs of integration than we anticipated;
•write-downs or impairments of goodwill or other intangible assets associated with the acquired company;
•difficulties in retaining key employees of the acquired business who are necessary to manage these acquisitions;
•negative impacts on our relationships with our employees, clients, customers or collaborators;
•intellectual property and other litigation, or other claims or liabilities in connection with the acquisition; and
•changes in the overall financial model as certain acquired companies may have a different revenue, gross profit margin or operating expense profile.
Further, our ability to benefit from future acquisitions and/or external strategic investments depends on our ability to successfully conduct due diligence, negotiate acceptable acquisition terms, evaluate prospective acquisitionsopportunities and bring acquired technologies and/or products to market at acceptable margins and operating expense levels. Our failure in any of these tasks could result in unforeseen liabilities associated with an acquired company, acquiring a company on unfavorable terms or selecting and eventually acquiring a suboptimal acquisition target.
We may also discover deficiencies in internal controls, data adequacy and integrity, product quality, regulatory compliance, and product liabilities or other undisclosed liabilities that we did not uncover prior to our acquisition of such businesses,or investment, which could result in us becoming subject to penalties, other liabilities or other liabilities. Ifasset impairments. In addition, if we do not achieve the anticipated benefits of an acquisition or other external investment as rapidly as expected, or at all, investors or analysts may downgrade our stock.
We also expect to continue to carry out internal strategic initiatives that we believe are necessary to grow our revenues and expand our business, both in the U.S. and abroad. For example, we have continued to invest in international expansion programs designed to increase our worldwide presence and take advantage of market expansion opportunities around the world. Although we believe our investments in these initiatives continue to be in the long-term best interests of Masimo and our stockholders, there are no assurances that such initiatives will yield favorable results for us. Accordingly, if these initiatives are not perceive the same benefitssuccessful, our business, financial condition and results of the acquisition as we do. operations could be adversely affected.
If these risks materialize, our stock price could be materially adversely affected. Any difficulties in the integration of acquired businesses or unexpected penalties, liabilities or liabilitiesasset impairments in connection with such businessesacquisitions or investments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our new products and changes to existing products, including as a result of our acquisition of Sound United could fail to attract or retain users or generate revenue and profits. Further, we may incur environmental and personal injury liabilities related to certain hazardous materials usednot be successful in our operations.
Our manufacturing processes involve the use, generation and disposal of certain hazardous materials and wastes, including silicone adhesives, solder and solder paste, sealants, epoxies and various solvents such as methyl ethyl ketone, acetone and isopropyl alcohol. As a result, we are subject to stringent federal, state and local laws relating to the protection of the environment, including those governing the use, handling and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. For example, products that we sell in Europe are subject to regulation in the EU markets under the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). RoHS prohibits companies from selling products that contain certain hazardous materials, including lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in EU member states. In addition, the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals Directive also restricts substances of very high concern in products. Compliance with such regulations may be costly and, therefore, we may be forced to incur significant costs to comply with environmental regulations.
From time to time, new regulations are enacted and it is difficult to anticipate how such regulations will be implemented and enforced. We continue to evaluate the necessary steps for compliance with environmental regulations as they are enacted. Future environmental laws may significantly affect our operations by, for example, requiring our manufacturing processes to be altered or requiring us to use different types of materials in manufacturing our products. Any changes to our operations may increase our manufacturing costs, detrimentally impact the performance of our products, add greater testing lead-times for product introductions or have other similar effects. In our research and manufacturing activities, we use, and our employees may be exposed to, materials that are hazardous to human health, safety or the environment. These materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our facility pending ultimate use and disposal.
The risk of accidental injury to our employees or contamination from these materials cannot be eliminated. In the event of such an accident, we could be held liable for any resulting damages and any such liability could exceed our reserves. Although we maintain general liability insurance, we do not specifically insure against environmental liabilities. If an enforcement action were to occur, our reputation and our business and financial condition may be harmed, even if we were to prevail or settle the action on terms favorable to us.
We rely significantly on information technology and any failure, inadequacy, interruption or security lapse of that technology, including any cybersecurity incidents, could harm our ability to operate our business effectively.
Increased global cybersecurity vulnerabilities, threats and more sophisticated and targeted cybersecurity attacks pose a risk to the security of Masimo’s and our customers’, partners’, suppliers’ and third-party service providers’ products, systems and networks, and the confidentiality, availability and integrity of any underlying information and data. Our ability to effectively manage and maintain our internal business information, and to ship products to customers and invoice them on a timely basis, depends significantly on our enterprise resource planning system and other information systems. Portions of our information technology systems may experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with ongoing systems implementation work. In addition, interfaces between our products and our customers’ computer network could provide additional opportunities for cybersecurity attacks on us and our customers. The techniques used to attack computer systems are sophisticated, change frequently and may originate from less regulated and remote areas of the world. Cybersecurity attacks in particular are evolving and include, but are not limited to, malicious software, attempts to gain unauthorized access to data and other electronic security breaches that could lead to disruptions in systems, misappropriation of confidential or otherwise protected information and corruption of data. As a result, there can be no assurance that our protective measures will prevent or detect security breaches that could have a significant impact on our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations. The failure of these systems to operate or integrate effectively with other internal, customer, supplier or third-party service provider systems and to protect the underlying information technology system and data integrity, including from cyber-attacks, intrusions or other breaches or unauthorized access of these systems, or any failure by us to remediate any such attacks or breaches, may also result in damage to our reputation or competitiveness, delays in product fulfillment and reduced efficiency of our operations, and could require significant capital investments to remediate any such failure, problem or breach, all ofnon-healthcare expansion, which could adversely affect our business, reputation or financial conditionresults.
In connection with the Sound United acquisition, we have expanded our business and resultsproduct strategy to additionally focus on non-healthcare consumer products to integrate with our successful medical technology businesses. Further, we may introduce certain changes to our existing healthcare products or introduce new and unproven products. Prior to the Sound United acquisition, we did not have significant experience with consumer hardware products, and Sound United does not have experience with healthcare products, which may adversely affect our ability to successfully develop and market these products and technologies and integrate them with our existing products and platforms. We expect this will be a complex, evolving, and long-term strategic initiative that will involve the development of operations.
Our operating resultsnew and emerging technologies, continued investment in medical technology and consumer products, and collaboration with other companies, developers, partners and other participants. However, our non-healthcare business may not develop in accordance with our vision and expectations, and market acceptance of features, products or services we build for our consumer business may be adversely affected by unfavorable economicuncertain. We may be unsuccessful in our research and market conditions.
Manyproduct development efforts, including if we are unable to develop relationships with key participants in the consumer products business. Our new strategic efforts may also divert resources and management attention from other areas of the countriesour business. In addition, as our non-healthcare business continues to evolve, we may be subject to a variety of laws and regulations in which we operate, including the U.S. and severalinternational jurisdictions, which we were not previously affected by, including in the areas of privacy, which may delay or impede the membersdevelopment of our products and services, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, or otherwise harm our business. As a result of these or other factors, our non-healthcare expansion and investments may not be successful in the EU, have experienced and continue to experience uncertain economic conditions resulting from global as well as local factors, such as Brexit. Ourforeseeable future, or at all, which could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results may be adversely impacted by these uncertain economic conditions, including: adverse changes in interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, tax laws or tax rates; inflation; contraction in the availability of credit in the marketplace due to legislation or other economic conditions, which may potentially impair our ability to access the capital markets on terms acceptable to us or at all; and the effects of government initiatives to manage economic conditions.results.
In addition, we cannot predict how future economic conditions will affect our critical customers, suppliers and distributors and any negative impact on our critical customers, suppliers or distributors may also have an adverse impact on our results of operations or financial condition.
*Our Amended and Restated Credit AgreementFacility contains certain covenants and restrictions that may limit our flexibility in operating our business.
Our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, dated January 8, 2016 (Restated Credit Facility), with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as Administrative Agent and a Lender, Bank of America, N.A., as Syndication Agent and a Lender, Citibank, N.A., as Documentation Agent and a Lender, and various other Lenders (collectively, the Lenders),Facility contains various affirmative covenants and restrictions that limit our ability to engage in specified types of transactions, including:
•incurring specified types of additional indebtedness, there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain any additional debt or equity financing at the time needed or that such financing will be available on terms that are favorable or acceptable to us (including guarantees or other contingent obligations);
•paying dividends on, repurchasing or making distributions in respect of our common stock or making other restricted payments, subject to specified exceptions;
•making specified investments (including loans and advances);
•selling or transferring certain assets;
•creating certain liens;
•consolidating, merging, selling or otherwise disposing of all or substantially all of our assets; and
•entering into certain transactions with any of our affiliates.
In addition, under our Restated Credit Facility, we are required to satisfy and maintain specified financial ratios and other customary affirmative and negative covenants. Our ability to meet those financial ratios and affirmative and negative covenants could be affected by events beyond our control and, therefore, we cannot be assured that we will be able to continue to satisfy these requirements. A breach of any of these ratios or covenants could result in a default under the Restatedour Credit Facility. Upon the occurrence of an event of default, the Lenders could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under the Restatedour Credit Facility immediately due and payable, terminate all commitments to extend further credit and pursue legal remedies for recovery, all of which could adversely affect our business and financial condition. AsSee Note 15, “Debt”, to our accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional information on our Credit Facility.
Further, if we do not achieve the anticipated benefits from the Sound United acquisition, our ability to service our indebtedness may be adversely impacted. Even if we achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquisition, we may be required to raise substantial additional financing to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, or other general corporate purposes. Our ability to arrange additional financing and make payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness will depend on our future performance, which will be subject to general economic, financial, and business conditions as well as other factors affecting our operations, many of which are beyond our control.
We have incurred impairment charges for other intangible assets, and may incur further impairment charges in the future, which would negatively impact our operating results.
During the third quarter of 2023, we experienced continued declines in our stock price and certain worsening macro-economic market conditions, including continued slowing in demand for consumer audio products, which contributed to a significant decline in our market capitalization. Based on these factors, we determined that there was a triggering event for the three months ended September 30, 2023, which required an interim impairment assessment. Accordingly, we performed an interim impairment test of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangibles, and a recoverability test for other long lived assets with finite lives. This quantitative assessment indicated that the carrying value of certain trademarks in the non-healthcare reporting unit were impaired by approximately $7.0 million. No impairment of goodwill was identified, as the fair value of each reporting unit exceeded its carrying value as of September 30, 2017,2023.
During the fourth quarter of 2023, although we had noexperienced a recovery in our stock price and stabilization in our market capitalization, we also experienced continued softening in customer demand for our non-healthcare core audio products and additional supply chain inefficiencies. Based on these factors and further quantitative assessment, we determined the carrying value of certain trademarks in the non-healthcare reporting unit were impaired by approximately $3.0 million.
We review goodwill, other intangibles and other long-lived assets with finite lives for impairment at least annually in the fourth quarter of the year or more frequently if an event occurs indicating the potential for impairment. In the event we are required to record additional non-cash impairment charges to our goodwill, other intangibles and other long-lived assets with finite lives in the future, such a non-cash charge could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated statements of operations and balance sheets in the reporting period in which we record the charge.
We may need additional capital and failure to raise additional capital on terms favorable to us, or at all, could limit our ability to grow our business and develop or enhance our service offerings to respond to market demand or competitive challenges.
We anticipate that our existing cash and cash equivalents, amounts outstandingavailable under the Restatedour Credit Facility, and werecash provided by operations, taken together, provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operating and capital expenditures, working capital requirements, and other operational funding needs for the next 12 months. However, we may require additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other future developments. If our existing resources are insufficient to satisfy cash requirements, we may seek to obtain one or more additional credit facilities, sell equity or debt securities or pursue other forms of financing. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in complianceincreased debt service obligations and could require us to agree to operating and financing covenants that could potentially restrict our operations. The sale of additional equity securities, or securities convertible into equity securities, could result in dilution to stockholders. In addition, actual events involving limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other companies in the financial services industry or the financial services industry generally, or concerns or rumors about any events of these kinds or other similar risks, have in the past and may in the future lead to market-wide liquidity problems and could increase our costs of borrowing.
Our ability to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including investors’ perception of, and demand for, our securities, conditions in the capital markets in which we may seek to raise funds, our future results of operations and financial condition, and general economic, macro-economic, political and geopolitical conditions. In addition, even if debt financing is available, the cost of additional financing may be significantly higher than those provided for in our current Credit Facility. Moreover, financing may not be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, or at all, or at times when we require it, each of which could limit our ability to grow and expand our business and operations and develop or enhance our products and offerings to respond to market demand or competitive or other business challenges.
*The potential separation of our consumer business is subject to various risks and uncertainties, and may not be completed on the terms currently contemplated, if at all, and, if completed, may not achieve the intended benefits.
On March 22, 2024, we announced that our Board has authorized management to evaluate a proposed separation of our consumer business. Our Board and management are currently evaluating the proposed structure of the proposed separation, but we currently expect the proposed separation will include our consumer audio and consumer health products, including the Stork baby monitor and the Freedom smart watch and band. The proposed separation is complex, and completion of the proposed separation and the timing of its completion will be subject to a number of factors and conditions, including the finalization of the structure of the proposed separation and final approval by our Board, as well as the satisfaction of conditions to completing the proposed separation, among other things. The uncertainties associated with all applicable covenants.this process, foreseen and unforeseen costs incurred, and efforts involved, may negatively affect our operating results, business and our relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and vendors. Unanticipated developments could delay, prevent or otherwise adversely affect the proposed separation, including, but not limited to, changes in general economic and financial market conditions and material adverse
changes in business or industry conditions. There can be no assurances that we will be able to complete the proposed separation or that the proposed separation will maximize shareholder value or be the best path for success. In addition, we cannot assure that we will be able to complete the proposed separation within any specified timeline, or at all. Delays or failure to consummate the proposed separation could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. The execution of the proposed separation has required and may continue to require significant time and attention from our senior management and employees, which could cause disruption in business processes and adversely affect our financial results and our results of operations, and our employees may be distracted due to uncertainty regarding the future state of our company. Additionally, foreseen and unforeseen costs may be incurred with the proposed separation, including fees such as advisory, accounting, tax, legal, reorganization, restructuring, and various other fees, some of which may be incurred regardless if the proposed separation occurs. Furthermore, if the proposed separation is completed, we may not be able to achieve the full strategic and financial benefits that are expected to result from the proposed separation.
Risks Related to Our Stock
*Our stock price may be volatile, and your investment in our stock could suffer a decline in value.
There has been significant volatility in the market price and trading volumeConcentration of equity securities, which is often unrelated to the financial performance of the companies issuing the securities. These broad market fluctuations may negatively affect the market price of our stock. From January 3, 2017 to September 30, 2017, our closing stock price ranged from $67.40 to $104.46 per share. You may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid for them due to fluctuations in the market priceownership of our stock caused by changes in our operating performance or prospects and other factors.
In addition to the other risk factors previously discussed above, there are many other factors that we may not be able to control that could have a significant effect on our stock price. These include, but are not limited to:
actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results or future prospects;
our announcements or our competitors’ announcements of new products;
the public’s reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;
strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions or restructurings;
new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles;
changes in our growth rates or our competitors’ growth rates;
developments regarding our patents or proprietary rights or those of our competitors;
ongoing legal proceedings;
our inability to raise additional capital as needed;
concerns or allegations as to the safety or efficacy of our products;
changes in financial markets or general economic conditions, including the effects of recession or slow economic growth in the U.S. and abroad;
sales of stock by us or members of our management team, our Board of Directors (Board) or certain institutional stockholders; and
changes in stock market analyst recommendations or earnings estimates regarding our stock, other comparable companies or our industry generally.
*Concentration of ownership among our existing directors, executive officers and principal stockholders may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.
As of SeptemberMarch 30, 2017,2024, our current directors and executive officers and their affiliates, in the aggregate, beneficially owned approximately 12.0%18.6% of our outstanding stock. Subject to any fiduciary duties owed to our other stockholders under Delaware law, these stockholders may be able to exercise significant influence over matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, and will have some control over our management and policies.policies in their roles as stockholders. Some of these persons or entities may have interests that are different from yours. For example, these stockholders may support proposals and actions with which you may disagree or which are not in your best interests.
The concentration of ownership could delay or prevent a change in control of us, or otherwise discourage a potential acquirer from attempting to obtain control of us, which in turn could reduce the price of our stock.
In addition, these stockholders could use their voting influence to maintain our existing management and directors in office or support or reject other management and Board proposals that are subject to stockholder approval, such as amendments to our employee stock plans and approvals of significant financing transactions.
We may be unable to accurately forecast our financial and operating results and appropriately plan our expenses in the future or we may fail to meet our publicly announced guidance about our business and future operating results.
From time to time, we release earnings guidance or other financial guidance in our quarterly and annual earnings conference calls or otherwise, regarding our future performance that represents our management’s estimates as of the date of release. Our guidance includes forward-looking statements based on projections prepared by our management. Projections are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that are based on information known when they are issued, and, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies relating to our business, many of which are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future business decisions, some of which will change. Some of those key assumptions include broader macro-economic conditions and the resulting impact of these factors on future consumer spending patterns and our business. These assumptions are inherently difficult to predict, particularly in the long term. Additionally, forecasted financial and operating results may differ materially from actual results, which may materially adversely affect our financial condition and stock price. For example, if certain of our assumptions or estimates prove to be wrong, including any of the economic trends and developments affecting our business discussed in Part I, Item 2 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, this could cause us to miss our earnings guidance or negatively impact the results we report, either of which could negatively impact our stock price and expose us to potential shareholder litigation.
We generally state possible outcomes as high and low ranges which are intended to provide a sensitivity analysis as variables are changed but are not intended to imply that actual results could not fall outside of the suggested ranges. Furthermore, analysts and investors may develop and publish their own projections of our business, which may form a consensus about our future performance. Our actual business results may vary significantly from such guidance or estimates or that consensus due to a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including global economic uncertainty and financial market conditions, geopolitical events, rising inflation, and rising interest rates, potential recessionary factors, and foreign exchange rate volatility, which could adversely affect our business and future operating results. We use the reports and models of economic experts in making assumptions relating to consumer discretionary spending and predictions as to timing and pace of any future economic impacts. If these models are incorrect or incomplete, or if we fail to accurately predict the full impact of certain factors, such as macro-economic factors, the guidance and other forward-looking statements we provide may also be
incorrect or incomplete. Furthermore, if we make downward revisions of our previously announced guidance, or if our publicly announced guidance of future operating results fails to meet expectations of analysts, investors, or other interested parties, the price of our common stock could decline. Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions underlying the guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged not to rely upon our guidance in making an investment decision regarding our common stock.
Our corporate documents, and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, prevent attempts to replace or remove current management and reduce the market price of our stock.
Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition involving us that our stockholders may consider favorable. For example, our certificate of incorporation authorizes our Board to issue up to 5.0 million shares of “blank check” preferred stock. As a result, without further stockholder approval, our Board has the authority to attach special rights, including voting and dividend rights, to this preferred stock, including pursuant to a stockholder rights plan, such as those underlying the Rights Agreement we previously adopted on September 9, 2022, which we terminated in accordance with the terms of the Amendment to the Rights Agreement we entered into effective as of March 22, 2023. However, we may implement a new stockholder rights plan in the future, which may have the effect of discouraging or preventing a change in control by, among other things, making it uneconomical for a third party to acquire us without the consent of our Board. With such rights, preferred stockholders could make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us.
In addition, our certificate of incorporation previously provided for a staggered Board, whereby directors serve for three-year terms, with one-third of the directors coming up for reelection each year. However, at our 2023 annual meeting of stockholders held on June 26, 2023, our stockholders approved an amendment to our certificate of incorporation, pursuant to which we will phase-in the declassification of our Board over four years, whereby all members of our Board that are elected after our 2023 annual meeting of stockholders would be elected for annual terms. Accordingly, the three-year term for the Class I directors elected at our 2023 annual meeting of stockholders will expire at our 2026 annual meeting of stockholders, the three-year term for the Class II directors elected at our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders will expire as originally scheduled at our 2024 annual meeting of stockholders and the three-year term for the Class III directors elected at our 2022 annual meeting of stockholders will expire as originally scheduled at our 2025 annual meeting of stockholders. The implementation of the declassification of our Board will commence at our 2024 annual meeting of stockholders. Director nominees standing for election at our 2024 annual meeting of stockholders and each annual meeting of stockholders thereafter will be elected to serve a one-year term. Beginning with our 2026 annual meeting of stockholders, all directors would stand for annual elections.
We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (DGCL). Under these provisions, if anyone becomes an “interested stockholder,” we may not enter into a “business combination” with that person for three years without special approval, which could discourage a third-party from making a takeover offer and could delay or prevent a change in control of us. For purposes of these provisions, an “interested stockholder” generally means someone owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock or an affiliate of ours that owned 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock during the past three years, subject to certain exceptions as described in the DGCL.
*Shareholder activism could cause us to incur significant expense, disrupt our business, result in a proxy contest or litigation and impact our stock price.
We have been subject to shareholder activism and may be subject to such activism in the future, which as before could result in substantial costs and divert management’s and our Board’s attention and resources from our business. Such shareholder activism could give rise to perceived uncertainties as to our future, adversely affect our relationships with our employees, customers, suppliers, or business partners, make it more difficult to attract and retain key personnel, and result in a change in control pursuant to the employment agreement between us and Joe Kiani, our Chairman and CEO.
We value input from investors and regularly engage in dialogue with our stockholders regarding strategy and performance. Activist shareholders who disagree with the composition of our Board, our strategy or the way our Company is managed may seek to effect change through various strategies and channels, such as through commencing another proxy contest, making public statements critical of our performance or business or engaging in other similar activities. Responding to shareholder activism can be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations, and divert the attention of management and our employees from our strategic initiatives, and we may be required to incur significant fees and other expenses related to activist shareholder matters, including for third-party advisors. For example, in 2022, Politan Capital Management LP and Politan Capital NY LLC and certain of their affiliates (Politan), acquired a material portion of our outstanding shares and filed a proxy statement with the SEC seeking an election of two of its nominees to our Board at our 2023 Annual Meeting. At the 2023 Annual Meeting held on June 26, 2023, our stockholders voted to elect both nominees designated by Politan to serve on our Board. As a result of the contested director election, we incurred significant costs, as well as Board and management distraction during the fourth quarter of 2022 and majority of the 2023 fiscal year. In March 2024, Politan nominated two additional persons for election to our Board at our upcoming 2024 Annual Meeting. As a result of the contested director election, we expect to again incur significant costs, as well as endure Board and management distractions during the first and second quarters of 2024 and possibly through the remainder of 2024.
Responding to the upcoming proxy contest from Politan or proxy contests from any other activist shareholders will be costly and time-consuming and will again divert management’s and our Board’s attention and resources from our business activities. This could have a material adverse effect on us for at least the following reasons:
•shareholders may attempt to effect changes in our strategic direction and governance or to acquire control over our Board or our Company;
•while we welcome the opinions of all shareholders, responding to proxy contests is likely to be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations, and potentially divert the attention of our Board, management team and other employees away from their regular duties and the pursuit of business opportunities to enhance shareholder value;
•perceived uncertainties as to our future direction as a result of potential changes to the composition of our Board may lead to the perception of a change in the strategic direction of the business, the loss of key employees, including our executive officers, instability or lack of continuity, particularly if the activism campaign results in the appointment of one or more activist shareholders on the Board, which may cause concern to our existing or potential collaboration partners, employees and shareholders; may be exploited by our competitors; may result in the loss of potential business opportunities or limit our ability to timely initiate or advance clinical trials; and may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel and business partners;
•if additional individuals are elected to our Board who may have a specific agenda, including a plan to terminate our Chief Executive Officer or other executive officers, initiate a hostile takeover, or sell our healthcare or non-healthcare business, it may result in operational disruptions and adversely affect our ability to effectively implement our strategic plans in a timely manner and create additional value for our shareholders;
•activist directors may make overly burdensome demands of Company management and materially and unnecessarily increase management’s workload; and
•proxy contests and related litigation by shareholders could cause significant fluctuations in our share price based on temporary or speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.
The occurrence of any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Exclusive forum provisions in our bylaws could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our bylaws provide that the state or federal courts located within the State of Delaware are the sole and exclusive forum for: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees or stockholders to our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or as to which the DGCL confers jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, or (iv) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. However, this choice of forum provision does not apply to (a) actions in which the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware concludes that an indispensable party is not subject to the jurisdiction of Delaware courts, or (b) actions in which a federal court has assumed exclusive jurisdiction to a proceeding. This choice of forum provision is not intended to apply to any actions brought under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees or stockholders, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees or stockholders.
Furthermore, the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
General Risk Factors
We may experience significant fluctuations in our periodic financial results and may not maintain our current levels of profitability in the future.
Our operating results have fluctuated in the past and are likely to fluctuate in the future. Many of the countries in which we operate, including the U.S. and several of the members of the EU, have experienced and continue to experience uncertain economic conditions resulting from global as well as local factors. In addition, continuing uncertainty in the U.S. economy may result in continued inflationary pressures globally and in the U.S. in particular, which may contribute to future interest rate volatility.
Our business or financial results may be adversely impacted by these uncertain economic conditions, including: adverse changes in interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, tax laws or tax rates; inflation; contraction in the availability of credit in the marketplace due to legislation or other economic conditions, which may potentially impair our ability to access the capital markets on terms acceptable to us or at all; changes in consumer spending during a recession; and the effects of government initiatives to manage economic conditions.
We are also unable to predict how changing global economic conditions or potential global health concerns will affect our critical customers, suppliers and distributors. Any negative impact of such matters on our critical customers, suppliers or distributors may also have an adverse impact on our results of operations or financial condition. Our expense levels are based, in part, on our expectations regarding future revenue levels and are relatively fixed in the short-term.
As a result, if our revenue for a particular period was below our expectations, we would not be able to proportionately reduce our operating expenses for that period. Any revenue shortfall would have a disproportionately negative effect on our operating results for the period.
In addition, the methods, estimates and judgments that we use in applying our accounting policies are, by their nature, subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Factors may arise over time that lead us to change our methods, estimates and judgments, the impact of which could significantly affect our results of operations. See “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” contained in Part I, Item 2 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Recent accounting changes related to our embedded leases within certain deferred equipment agreements have also resulted in the acceleration of the timing related to our recognition of revenue and expenses associated with certain equipment provided to healthcare customers at no up-front charge. Since we cannot control the timing of when our customers will request us to deliver such equipment, our revenue and costs with respect to leased equipment could vary substantially in any given quarter or year, which could further increase quarterly or annual fluctuations within our financial results.
Due to these and other factors, you should not rely on our results for any one quarter as an indication of our future performance. If our operating results fail to meet or exceed the expectations of securities analysts or investors, our stock price could drop suddenly and significantly.
Adverse developments affecting the financial services industry, such as actual events or concerns involving liquidity, defaults or non-performance by financial institutions or transactional counterparties, could adversely affect our current and projected business operations and its financial condition and results of operations.
Actual events involving limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other companies in the financial services industry or the financial services industry generally, or concerns or rumors about any events of these kinds or other similar risks, have in the past and may in the future lead to market-wide liquidity problems. For example, on March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. Similarly, on March 12, 2023, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital Corp. were each swept into receivership. Although a statement by the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC stated all depositors of SVB would have access to all of their money after only one business day of closure, including funds held in uninsured deposit accounts, borrowers under credit agreements, letters of credit and certain other financial instruments with SVB, Signature Bank or any other financial institution that is placed into receivership by the FDIC may be unable to access undrawn amounts thereunder. Although we are not a borrower or party to any such instruments with SVB, Signature or any other financial institution currently in receivership, if any of our lenders or counterparties to any such instruments were to be placed into receivership, we may be unable to access such funds. In addition, counterparties to SVB credit agreements and arrangements, and third parties such as beneficiaries of letters of credit (among others), may experience direct impacts from the closure of SVB and uncertainty remains over liquidity concerns in the broader financial services industry. Similar impacts have occurred in the past, such as during the 2008-2010 financial crisis.
Although we assess our banking relationships as we believe necessary or appropriate, our access to funding sources and other credit arrangements in amounts adequate to finance or capitalize our current and projected future business operations could be significantly impaired by factors that affect us, the financial institutions with which we have credit agreements or arrangements directly, or the financial services industry or economy in general. These factors could include, among others, events such as liquidity constraints or failures, the ability to perform obligations under various types of financial, credit or liquidity agreements or arrangements, disruptions or instability in the financial services industry or financial markets, or concerns or negative expectations about the prospects for companies in the financial services industry. These factors could involve financial institutions or financial services industry companies with which we have financial or business relationships, but could also include factors involving financial markets or the financial services industry generally.
The results of events or concerns that involve one or more of these factors could include a variety of material and adverse impacts on our current and projected business operations and our financial condition and results of operations. These could include, but may not be limited to, the following:
•delayed access to deposits or other financial assets or the uninsured loss of deposits or other financial assets;
•loss of access to revolving existing credit facilities or other working capital sources and/or the inability to refund, roll over or extend the maturity of, or enter into new credit facilities or other working capital resources;
•potential or actual breach of contractual obligations that require us to maintain letters or credit or other credit support arrangements;
•potential or actual breach of financial covenants in our credit agreements or credit arrangements;
•potential or actual cross-defaults in other credit agreements, credit arrangements or operating or financing agreements; or
•termination of cash management arrangements and/or delays in accessing or actual loss of funds subject to cash management arrangements.
Any decline in available funding or access to our cash and liquidity resources could, among other risks, adversely impact our ability to meet our operating expenses, financial obligations or fulfill our other obligations, result in breaches of our financial and/or contractual obligations or result in violations of federal or state wage and hour laws. Any of these impacts, or any other impacts resulting from the factors described above or other related or similar factors not described above, could have material adverse impacts on our liquidity and our current and/or projected business operations and financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, any further deterioration in the macro-economic economy or financial services industry could lead to losses or defaults by our customers or suppliers, which in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our current and/or projected business operations and results of operations and financial condition. For example, a customer may fail to make payments when due, default under their agreements with us, become insolvent or declare bankruptcy, or a supplier may determine that it will no longer deal with us as a customer. In addition, a customer or supplier could be adversely affected by any of the liquidity or other risks that are described above as factors that could result in material adverse impacts on our company, including but not limited to delayed access or loss of access to uninsured deposits or loss of the ability to draw on existing credit facilities involving a troubled or failed financial institution. Any customer or supplier bankruptcy or insolvency, or the failure of any customer to make payments when due, or any breach or default by a customer or supplier, or the loss of any significant supplier relationships, could result in material losses to our company and may have material adverse impacts on our business.
A regional or global recession and other negative macro-economic trends could adversely affect our consumer business.
Our consumer products are generally considered non-essential, discretionary products. As such, many of these products can be especially sensitive to general downturns in the economy. Negative macro-economic conditions, such as high inflation, recession, changes to monetary policy, increasing interest rates and decreasing consumer confidence can adversely impact demand for these products, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Future changes in accounting pronouncements and tax laws, or the interpretation thereof, could have a significant impact on our reported results, and may affect our historical reporting of previous transactions.
New accounting pronouncements or taxation rules, and evolving interpretations thereof, have occurred and are likely to occur in the future. Future changes made by new accounting standards may apply prospectively or retrospectively, depending on the method of adoption, and may recast previously reported results. For additional information related to the impact of new accounting pronouncements, please see Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies”, to our accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
In addition, future changes to the U.S. tax code and its regulations could have a material impact on our effective tax rate and the implementation of these changes could require us to make substantial changes to our business practices, allocate resources, and increase our costs, which could negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) has proposed a global minimum tax of 15% of reported profits (Pillar Two) that has been agreed upon in principle by over 140 countries. The OECD continues to release additional guidance, including administrative guidance on how Pillar Two rules should be interpreted and applied by jurisdictions as they adopt Pillar Two. A number of countries have utilized the administrative guidance as a starting point for legislation that is effective January 1, 2024. The Company is continuing to evaluate the potential impact on future periods of Pillar Two, pending legislative adoption by individual countries.
Our retirement and post-retirement pension benefit plans are subject to financial market risks that could adversely affect our future results of operations and cash flows.
We sponsor several defined benefit plans with post-retirement benefits to certain employees in certain international markets. These defined benefit plans are funded with trust assets invested in a diversified portfolio of securities and other investments. Changes in interest rates, mortality rates, early retirement rates, investment returns, discount rates and the market value of plan assets could affect the funded status of our defined benefit plan and post-retirement benefit obligations, causing volatility in the net periodic benefit cost and future funding requirements of the plans. A significant increase in our obligations or future funding requirements could have a negative impact on our results of operations and cash flows from operations.
If we lose the services of our key personnel, or if we are unable to attract and retain other key personnel, we may not be able to manage our operations or meet our growth objectives.
We are highly dependent on our senior management, especially Joe Kiani, our CEO, and other key officers. We are also heavily dependent on our engineers and field sales team, including sales representatives and clinical specialists. We believe certain of our competitors with greater financial resources than us have targeted our key personnel for recruitment and will likely continue to do so in the future. To the extent that key personnel depart, we may be required to bring on new hires that require training and take time before they achieve full productivity. New employees may not become as productive as we expect, and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals. The loss of the services of members of our key personnel or the inability to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future could prevent the implementation and completion of our objectives, including the development and introduction of our products. In general, our key personnel may terminate their employment at any time and for any reason without notice, unless the individual is a participant in our 2007 Severance Protection Plan, in which case the individual has agreed to provide us with six months’ notice if such individual decides to voluntarily resign. In addition, Politan Capital Management LP and Politan Capital NY LLC, which are managed by Quentin Koffey, a member of our Board, previously filed a lawsuit against us and members of our Board seeking to invalidate the employment agreement of Mr. Kiani, our Chief Executive Officer. Although Politan subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the complaint without prejudice, which was approved by the court in September 2023, Politan can refile this or any other complaint against us, our Board or any individual director at any time. We do not maintain any “key person” life insurance policies with respect to any of our key personnel.
In addition, regulation or legislation impacting the workforce, such as the proposed rule published by the Federal Trade Commission which would, if issued, generally prevent employers from entering into non-competition agreements with employees and require employers to rescind existing non-competition agreements, may lead to increased uncertainty in hiring and competition for talent.
We are involved, and may become involved in the future, in disputes and other legal or regulatory proceedings that, if adversely decided or settled, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are, and may in the future become, party to litigation, regulatory proceedings or other disputes. In general, claims made by or against us in disputes and other legal or regulatory proceedings can be expensive and time-consuming to bring or defend against, requiring us to expend significant resources and divert the efforts and attention of our management and other personnel from our business operations. These potential claims may include, but are not limited to personal injury and class action lawsuits, intellectual property claims and regulatory investigations relating to the advertising and promotional claims about our products and employee claims against us based on, among other things, discrimination, harassment or wrongful termination. In addition, we may become subject to claims against companies we acquire based on circumstances arising prior to the acquisition, and the sellers of the acquired company may have no obligation to reimburse us for any resulting damages or expenses.
Due to the complexity of our business and the variety of risks that we face, our internal risk mitigation policies and procedures may not always be sufficient to allow us to identify issues and take corrective action before a claim, lawsuit or regulatory action is initiated against us. Failure to detect and remediate issues at an early stage could have a material adverse effect on our business and result in increased liability in any ensuing proceeding.
Any litigation, proceedings or dispute, even those without merit, may divert our financial and management resources that would otherwise be used to benefit the future performance of our operations. Any adverse determination against us in these proceedings, or even the allegations contained in the claims, regardless of whether they are ultimately found to be without merit, may also result in settlements, injunctions or damages that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes to government immigration regulations may materially affect our workforce and limit our supply of qualified professionals, or increase our cost of securing workers.
We recruit professionals on a global basis and must comply with the immigration laws in the countries in which we operate, including the U.S. Some of our employees are working under Masimo-sponsored temporary work visas, including H1-B visas. Statutory law limits the number of new H1-B temporary work permit petitions that may be approved in a fiscal year. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the current U.S. immigration visa program may be significantly overhauled, and the number of H1-B visas available, as well as the process to obtain them, may be subject to significant change. Any resulting changes to this visa program could impact our ability to recruit, hire and retain qualified skilled personnel. If we are unable to obtain work visas in sufficient quantities or at a sufficient rate for a significant period of time, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
The risks inherent in operating internationally, including the purchase, sale and shipment of our components and products across international borders, may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We currently derive approximately 45% of our net sales from international operations. In addition, we purchase a portion of our raw materials and components from international sources. The sale and shipment of our products across international borders, as well as the purchase of materials and components from international sources, subject us to extensive U.S. and foreign governmental trade regulations, including those related to duties, tariffs and conflict minerals. Compliance with such regulations is costly and we could be exposed to potentially significant penalties, fines and interest if we are found not to be in compliance with such regulations. Any failure to comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations could impact us in a variety of ways that include, but are not limited to, significant criminal, civil and administrative penalties, including imprisonment of individuals, fines and penalties, denial of export privileges, seizure of shipments, restrictions on certain business activities, and exclusion or debarment from government contracting. We have historically engaged in transactions with entities related to or located in countries subject to certain U.S. export restrictions. For example, we have had sales of medical products destined for Iran.
In addition, changes in policy in the U.S. and other countries regarding international trade, including import and export regulation and international trade agreements, could negatively impact our business. In recent years, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on goods imported from China and certain other countries, which has resulted in retaliatory tariffs by China and other countries. Changes or uncertainty in tariffs or further retaliatory trade measures taken by China or other countries in response could affect the demand for our products and services, impact the competitive position of our products, prevent us from being able to sell products in certain countries or otherwise adversely impact our results of operations. The implementation of more restrictive trade policies, such as more detailed inspections, higher tariffs or new barriers to entry, could negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
In addition, our international operations expose us and our representatives, agents and distributors to risks inherent in operating in foreign jurisdictions. These risks include, but are not limited to:
•the imposition of additional U.S. and foreign governmental controls or regulations;
•the imposition of costly and lengthy new export licensing requirements;
•a shortage of high-quality sales people and distributors;
•the loss of any key personnel who possess proprietary knowledge, or who are otherwise important to our success in certain international markets;
•changes in duties and tariffs, license obligations and other non-tariff barriers to trade;
•the imposition of new trade restrictions;
•the imposition of restrictions on the activities of foreign agents, representatives and distributors;
•compliance with foreign tax laws, regulations and requirements;
•pricing pressure;
•changes in foreign currency exchange rates;
•laws and business practices favoring local companies;
•political instability and actual or anticipated military or political conflicts, including the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the global impact of restrictions and sanctions imposed on Russia and the Israel-Palestine-Iran war;
•financial and civil unrest worldwide;
•outbreaks of illnesses, pandemics or other local or global health issues;
•the inability to collect amounts paid by foreign government customers to our appointed foreign agents;
•longer payment cycles, increased credit risk and different collection remedies with respect to receivables; and
•difficulties in enforcing or defending intellectual property rights.
The U.S. government initiated substantial changes in U.S. trade policy and U.S. trade agreements, including tariffs on certain foreign goods. In response to these tariffs, certain foreign governments instituted or are considering imposing tariffs on certain U.S. goods. In addition, the U.S. has negotiated new trade agreements that could impact us, including the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which went into force on July 1, 2020 and replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement. A trade war, trade barriers or other governmental actions related to tariffs, international trade agreements, import or export restrictions or other trade policies could adversely impact demand for our products, our costs, customers, suppliers and/or the U.S. economy or certain sectors thereof and, therefore, adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from promising or making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining an advantage to secure or retain business. Because of the predominance of government-sponsored healthcare systems around the world, many of our customer relationships outside of the U.S. are with governmental entities and are therefore subject to such anti-bribery laws. We have adopted policies and practices that help us ensure compliance with these anti-bribery laws. However, such policies and practice may require us to invest in additional monitoring resources or forgo certain business opportunities in order to ensure global compliance with these laws. Additionally, any alleged or actual violation could subject us to government scrutiny, severe criminal or civil fines, or sanctions on our ability to export product outside the U.S., which could adversely affect our reputation and financial condition.
Although these activities have not been financially material to our business, financial condition or results of operations, and were undertaken in accordance with general licenses authorizing such activities issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, we may not be successful in ensuring compliance with limitations or restrictions on business in Iran or any other countries subject to economic sanctions and embargoes imposed by the U.S. Additionally, the export of U.S. technology or goods manufactured in the U.S. to some jurisdictions requires special U.S. export authorization or local market controls that may be influenced by factors, including political dynamics, outside our control. Also, the failure to comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations could result in the disruption of our shipping, manufacturing and sales activities. Any material decrease in our international sales would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The laws of foreign countries may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property protection laws in foreign countries differ substantially from those in the U.S. If we fail to apply for intellectual property protection in foreign countries, or if we cannot adequately protect our intellectual property rights in these foreign countries, our competitors may be able to compete more effectively against us, which could adversely affect our competitive position, as well as our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our operations may be adversely impacted by our exposure to risks related to foreign currency exchange rates.
We market our products in certain foreign markets through our subsidiaries and other international distributors. As a result, events that result in global economic uncertainty could significantly affect our results of operations in the form of gains and losses on foreign currency transactions and potential devaluation of the local currencies of our customers relative to the U.S. Dollar.
While a majority of our sales are transacted in U.S. Dollars, some of our sales agreements with foreign customers provide for payment in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. These foreign currency revenues, when converted into U.S. Dollars, can vary depending on the approximation of the exchange rates applied during a respective period. Similarly, certain of our foreign subsidiaries transact business in their respective country’s local currency, which is also their functional currency. In addition, certain production costs related to our manufacturing operations are denominated in local currency. As a result, expenses of these foreign subsidiaries and certain production costs, when converted into U.S. Dollars, can vary depending on average monthly exchange rates during a respective period.
We are also exposed to foreign currency gains or losses on outstanding foreign currency denominated receivables and payables, as well as cash deposits. When converted to U.S. Dollars, these receivables, payables and cash deposits can vary depending on the monthly exchange rates at the end of the period. In addition, certain intercompany transactions may give rise to realized and unrealized foreign currency gains or losses based on the currency underlying such intercompany transactions. Accordingly, our operating results are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
The balance sheets of our foreign subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar are translated into U.S. Dollars at the rate of exchange at the balance sheet date and the statements of operations and cash flows are translated into U.S. Dollars using an approximation of the average monthly exchange rates applicable during the period. Any foreign currency exchange gain or loss as a result of translating the balance sheets of our foreign subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar is included in equity as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss).
We currently do not hedge our foreign currency exchange rate risk. As a result, changes in foreign exchange rates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For additional information related to our foreign currency exchange rate risk, please see “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk” in Part I, Item 3 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
We currently manufacture our products at a limited number of locations and any disruption to, expansion of, or changes in trade programs related to such manufacturing operations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Mexico, Asia and Europe that may be affected by natural or man-made disasters. Earthquakes are of particular significance since some of our facilities are located in earthquake-prone areas. We are also vulnerable to damage from other types of disasters, including power loss, attacks from extremist or terrorist organizations, epidemics, communication failures, fire, floods, hurricanes and similar events. Our facilities and the manufacturing equipment we use to produce our products would be difficult to replace and could require substantial time to repair if significant damage were to result from any of these occurrences.
If one of our manufacturing facilities was affected by a natural or man-made disaster, we would be forced to rely on third-party manufacturers if we could not shift production to our other manufacturing facilities. Furthermore, our insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business from casualties may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If the lease for any of our leased facilities is terminated, we are unable to renew any of our leases or we are otherwise forced to seek alternative facilities, or if we voluntarily expand one or more of our manufacturing operations to new locations, we may incur additional transition costs and experience a disruption in the supply of our products until the new facilities are available and operating. Additionally, we have occasionally experienced seasonality and other shortages among our manufacturing workforce, and if we continue to experience such seasonality or other workforce shortages or otherwise have issues retaining employees or contractors at our manufacturing facilities, we may not be able to meet our customers’ demands.
Our global manufacturing and distribution are dependent upon our manufacturing facilities in multiple countries, and the expedient importation of raw materials and exportation of finished goods between these facilities. Undue delays and/or closures of cross-border transit facilities, or any restrictions by local governments related to the movement of goods to or from the U.S., may adversely affect our ability to fulfill orders and supply our customers, as well as adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
In addition, delays and closures of shipping ports, or ports of entry into and out of the U.S., including as a result of labor strikes or shortages, may delay our ability to fulfill order and supply of our non-healthcare consumer products, which could also adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our manufacturing facilities in Mexico are authorized to operate under the Mexican Maquiladora (IMMEX) program. The IMMEX program allows us to import certain items from the U.S. into Mexico duty-free, provided that such items, after processing, are exported from Mexico within a stipulated timeframe. Maquiladora status, which is renewed periodically, is subject to various restrictions and requirements, including compliance with the terms of the IMMEX program and other local regulations. Failure to comply with the IMMEX program regulations, including any changes thereto, could increase our manufacturing costs and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we do not accurately forecast customer demand, we may hold suboptimal inventory levels that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to meet the demand of our customers, our customers may cancel orders or purchase products from our competitors, which could reduce our revenue and gross profit margin. Conversely, if product demand decreases, we may be unable to timely adjust our manufacturing cost structure, resulting in excess capacity, which would lower gross product margins. Similarly, if we are unable to forecast demand accurately, we could be required to record charges related to excess or obsolete inventory, which would also lower our gross margin. Each of our business segments is individually influenced by many factors, including but not limited to: new product releases, acquisitions, regulatory approvals, holiday schedules, hospital census, the timing of the influenza season, holiday seasons, consumer pressures, inflationary and recessionary pressures, consumer demand and preferences, and competitors’ marketing promotions and sales incentives; among many other factors.
In addition, we may experience seasonal demand for our products and demand for such products could decrease significantly during a recession. For example, healthcare revenues in the third quarter of our fiscal years have generally historically represented a lower percentage of segment revenues due to the seasonality of the U.S., European and Japanese markets, where summer vacation schedules normally result in fewer elective procedures utilizing our healthcare products. The flu season concluded abnormally early and faded quickly in the first quarter of 2023, resulting in reduced inpatient census. In addition, some customers held elevated sensor inventory levels due to discounting in prior quarters, which was discontinued during the second quarter. Healthcare facilities and hospitals experienced fewer flu-related hospitalizations and medical office visits, which decreased consumption of our single-patient use sensors and consumables. The corresponding delays in reordering for our single-patient use sensors and consumables had an adverse impact on our second,third and fourth quarter 2023 healthcare revenue. Similarly, our non-healthcare revenues in the fourth quarter of a fiscal year generally produce a higher percentage of our segment revenues than the other quarters of our fiscal year due to the holiday shopping season and our corresponding promotional activities. Our promotional discounting activity may negatively impact our gross margin during the holiday periods.Any shortfalls in expected revenue due to a mismatch in supply of and demand for our products, could cause our operating results to suffer significantly, and seasonal or similar variances may also result in fluctuations in our revenues.
If we fail to comply with the reporting obligations of the Exchange Act or if we fail to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting, our business, results of operations and financial condition and investors’ confidence in us could be adversely affected.
We are required to prepare and disclose certain information under the Exchange Act, in a timely manner and meet our reporting obligations in their entirety, and our failure to do so could subject us to penalties under federal securities laws and regulations of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, expose us to lawsuits and restrict our ability to access financing on favorable terms, or at all.
If we fail to maintain adequate internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Moreover, any material weakness in our internal control environment could result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could harm our business, negatively impact the trading price of our stock, and adversely affect investors’ confidence in our company and our ability to access capital markets for financing.
Changing laws and increasingly complex corporate governance and public disclosure requirements could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, the UK Modern Slavery Act and new regulations issued by the SEC and The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, have created, and will create, additional compliance requirements for us. For example, the Dodd-Frank Act includes provisions regarding, among other things, advisory votes on named executive officer compensation and “conflict minerals” reporting. Complying with these rules and regulations has increased and will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increase demand on our systems and resources. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may also need to hire additional employees or engage outside consultants to comply with these requirements, which will increase our costs and expenses. To maintain high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure, we have invested in, and intend to continue to invest in, reasonably necessary resources to comply with evolving standards.
In addition, stockholder litigation surrounding executive compensation and disclosure of executive compensation has increased with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. Furthermore, our stockholders in certain instances have not approved our advisory vote on named executive officer compensation that is being voted on by our stockholders annually pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act. If we are involved in a lawsuit related to compensation matters or any other matters not covered by our directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, we may incur significant expenses in defending against such lawsuits, or be subject to significant fines or required to take significant remedial actions, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If product liability claims are brought against us, we could face substantial liability and costs.
Our products expose us to product liability claims and product recalls, including, but not limited to, those that may arise from unauthorized off-label use, malfunctions, design flaws or manufacturing defects related to our products or the use of our products with incompatible components or systems. In addition, as we continue to expand our product portfolio, we may enter or create new markets, including consumer markets, which may expose us to additional product liability risks. For example, with our previous acquisition of TNI®, we added softFlow® technology to our product portfolio. While this technology provides efficient, quiet and comfortable respiratory support to patients, it may present increased risk of infection to caregivers. In addition, with the Sound United Acquisition, we added multiple broadly distributed premium audio brands to our product portfolio and significantly expanded our consumer base worldwide, which could expose us to increased product liability claims.
We cannot be certain that our product liability insurance will be sufficient to cover any or all damages for product liability claims that may be brought against us in the future. Furthermore, we may not be able to obtain or maintain insurance in the future at satisfactory rates or in adequate amounts to protect us against any product liability claims.
Additionally, the laws and regulations regarding product liability are constantly evolving, both through the passage of new legislation at the state and federal levels and through new interpretations of existing legislation. For example, in February 2017, the Washington Supreme Court determined that, under the Washington Product Liability Act, medical device manufacturers have a duty to warn hospitals of any potential risks posed by their products. As the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding product liability change, we may become exposed to greater liability than currently anticipated.
Any losses that we may suffer from product liability claims, and the effect that any product liability litigation may have upon the reputation and marketability of our technology and products, together with the corresponding diversion of the attention of our key employees, may subject us to significant damages and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may incur environmental and personal injury liabilities related to certain hazardous materials used in our operations.
Certain manufacturing processes for our products may involve the storage, use, generation and disposal of certain hazardous materials and wastes, including silicone adhesives, solder and solder paste, sealants, epoxies and various solvents such as methyl ethyl ketone, acetone and isopropyl alcohol. As a result, we are subject to certain environmental laws, as well as certain other laws and regulations, that restrict the materials that can be used in our products or in our manufacturing processes. For example, products that we sell in Europe are subject to regulation in the EU markets under the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). RoHS prohibits companies from selling products that contain certain hazardous materials in EU member states. In addition, the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals Directive also restricts substances of very high concern in products. Compliance with such regulations may be costly and, therefore, we may incur significant costs to comply with these laws and regulations.
In addition, new environmental laws may further affect how we manufacture our products, how we use, generate or dispose of hazardous materials and waste, or further affect what materials can be used in our products. Any required changes to our operations or products may increase our manufacturing costs, detrimentally impact the performance of our products, add greater testing lead-times for product introductions or have other similar effects.
In connection with our research and manufacturing activities, we use, and our employees may be exposed to, materials that are hazardous to human health, safety or the environment. The risk of accidental injury to our employees or contamination from these materials cannot be eliminated, and we could be held liable for any resulting damages, the related liability for which could exceed our reserves. We do not specifically insure against environmental liabilities. If an enforcement action were to occur, our reputation and our business and financial condition may be harmed, even if we were to prevail or settle the action on terms favorable to us.
We rely significantly on information technology and any failure, inadequacy, interruption or security lapse of that technology, including any cybersecurity incidents, could harm our ability to operate our business effectively.
Increased global cybersecurity vulnerabilities, cybersecurity threats and sophisticated and targeted cybersecurity attacks pose a risk to the security of our systems and networks, including the confidentiality, availability and integrity of any underlying information and data, and those of our customers, partners, suppliers and third-party service providers. Our ability to effectively manage and maintain our internal business information, and to ship products to customers and invoice them on a timely basis, depends significantly on our enterprise resource planning system and other information systems.
Portions of our information technology systems may experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with ongoing systems implementation work. In addition, interfaces between our products and our customers’ computer networks could provide additional opportunities for cybersecurity attacks on us and our customers. The techniques used to attack computer systems are sophisticated, change frequently and may originate from less regulated and remote areas of the world. We have experienced cybersecurity incidents in the past and expect that we will continue to be subject to cybersecurity attacks in the future. Cybersecurity attacks in particular are evolving and include, but are not limited to: threats, malicious software, ransomware, attempts to gain unauthorized access to data and other electronic security breaches that could lead to disruptions in systems, misappropriation of confidential or otherwise protected information and corruption of data. As a result, there can be no assurance that our protective measures will prevent or detect security breaches that could have a significant impact on our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.
The failure of these systems to operate or integrate effectively with other internal, customer, supplier or third-party service provider systems and to protect the underlying information technology system and data integrity, including from cyber-attacks, intrusions or other breaches or unauthorized access of these systems, or any failure by us to remediate any such attacks or breaches, may also result in damage to our reputation or competitiveness, delays in product fulfillment and reduced efficiency of our operations, and could require significant capital investments to remediate any such failure, problem or breach, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the war in Israel, on the global economy, energy supplies and raw materials is uncertain, but may prove to negatively impact our business and operations.
The short and long-term implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the war in Israel are difficult to predict at this time. We continue to monitor any adverse impact that the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the subsequent institution of sanctions against Russia by the U.S. and several European and Asian countries; along with the war in Israel, may have on the global economy in general, on our business and operations and on the businesses and operations of our suppliers and customers. For example, a prolonged conflict may result in challenges associated with timely receipt of customer payments and banking transactions in Russia, increased inflation, escalating energy prices and constrained availability, and thus increasing costs, of raw materials. In addition, as a result of the current conflict, we have stopped selling non-healthcare products in Russia indefinitely. Furthermore, the Israel-Palestine-Iran war could result in disruption in the Middle East more broadly and negatively impact our operations in that region. We will continue to monitor these fluid situations and develop contingency plans as necessary to address any disruptions to our business operations as they develop. To the extent the wars in Ukraine or Israel may adversely affect our business as discussed above, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described herein. Such risks include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on macro-economic conditions, including inflation; disruptions to our global technology infrastructure, including through cyberattack, ransom attack, or cyber-intrusion; adverse changes in international trade policies and relations; our ability to maintain or increase our product prices; disruptions in global supply chains; our exposure to foreign currency fluctuations; and constraints, volatility, or disruption in the capital markets, any of which could negatively affect our business and financial condition.
*Our stock price may be volatile, and your investment in our stock could suffer a decline in value.
There has been and could continue to be significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of equity securities. For example, our closing stock price ranged from $109.17 to $146.85 per share from December 31, 2023 to March 30, 2024. Factors contributing to our stock price volatility may include our financial performance, as well as broader economic, political and market factors. In addition to the other risk factors previously discussed in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, there are many other factors that we may not be able to control that could have a significant effect on our stock price. These include, but are not limited to:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results or future prospects;
•our announcements or our competitors’ announcements of new products;
•the public’s reaction to our press releases, including those relating to our earnings or financial guidance, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;
•strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions or restructurings;
•new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles;
•changes in our growth rates or our competitors’ growth rates;
•developments regarding our patents or proprietary rights or those of our competitors;
•ongoing legal proceedings;
•our inability to raise additional capital as needed;
•concerns or allegations as to the safety or efficacy of our products;
•changes in financial markets or general economic conditions, including the effects of recession or slow economic growth in the U.S. and abroad;
•effects of public health crises, epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
•sales of stock by us or members of our management team, our Board or certain institutional stockholders;
•shareholder activism;
•changes in stock market analyst recommendations or earnings estimates regarding our stock, other comparable companies or our industry generally; and
•short selling or other hedging activity in our stock.
Therefore, you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid for them.
*Our investors could experience substantial dilution of their investments as a result of subsequent exercises of our outstanding options, vesting of outstanding restricted stock units (RSUs) and performance stock units (PSUs), or the grant of future equity awards by us.
As of SeptemberMarch 30, 2017,2024, approximately 14.19.7 million shares of our common stock were reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans, of which approximately 7.12.7 million shares were subject to options outstanding at such date at a weighted-average exercise price of $35.48$91.51 per share, approximately 2.73.6 million shares were subject to outstanding RSUs, approximately 0.20.4 million shares were subject to outstanding PSUs and approximately 4.03.1 million shares were available for future grantawards under our 2017 Equity Incentive Plan. Over the past 1248 months, we have experienced higher rates of stock option exercises compared to many earlier periods, and this trend may continue. To the extent outstanding options are exercised or outstanding RSUs or PSUs vest, our existing stockholders may incur dilution.
We rely on equity awards to motivate current employees and to attract new employees. The grant of future equity awards by us to our employees and other service providers may further dilute our stockholders.
Future resales of our stock, including those by our insiders and a few investment funds, may cause our stock price to decline.
A significant portion of our outstanding shares are held by our directors, our executive officers and a few investment funds. Resales by these stockholders of a substantial number of such shares, announcements of any proposed resale of substantial amounts of our stock or the perception that substantial resales may be made, could significantly reduce the market price of our stock. Some of our directors and executive officers have entered into Rule 10b5-1 trading plans pursuant to which they have arranged to sell shares of our stock from time to time in the future. Generally, these sales require public filings. Actual or potential sales by these insiders, including those under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, could be interpreted by the market as an indication that the insider has lost confidence in our stock and reduce the market price of our stock.
We have registered and expect to continue to register shares reserved under our incentive equity plans pursuant to Registration Statements on Form S-8. All shares issued pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-8 can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to restrictions on our affiliates under Rule 144. If a large number of these shares are sold in the public market, the sales could reduce the trading price of our stock.
Our corporate documents and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, prevent attempts to replace or remove current management and reduce the market price of our stock.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition involving us that our stockholders may consider favorable. For example, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes our Board to issue up to 5.0 million shares of “blank check” preferred stock. As a result, without further stockholder approval, our Board has the authority to attach special rights, including voting and dividend rights, to this preferred stock, including pursuant to a stockholder rights plan. With these rights, preferred stockholders could make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides for a staggered board of directors, whereby directors serve for three year terms, with one-third of the directors coming up for reelection each year. A staggered Board will make it more difficult for a third-party to obtain control of our Board through a proxy contest, which may be a necessary step in an acquisition of us that is not favored by our Board.
We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware. Under these provisions, if anyone becomes an “interested stockholder,” we may not enter into a “business combination” with that person for three years without special approval, which could discourage a third-party from making a takeover offer and could delay or prevent a change in control of us. For purposes of these provisions, an “interested stockholder” generally means someone owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock or an affiliate of ours that owned 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock during the past three years, subject to certain exceptions as described in the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.
*We may elect not to declare cash dividends on our stock, may elect to only pay dividends on an infrequent or irregular basis, or may elect not to make any additional stock repurchases. As a result, any return on your investment may be limited to the value of our stock. In addition, the payment of any future dividends or the repurchase of our stock might limit our ability to pursue other growth opportunities.
Our Board may from time to time declare, and we may pay, dividends on our outstanding shares in the manner and upon the terms and conditions provided bypermitted under applicable law. However, we may elect to retain all future earnings for the operation and expansion of our business, rather than paying cash dividends on our stock. In addition, under certain circumstances, our Credit Facility may limit our ability to pay cash dividends, repurchase our common stock or make other distributions to stockholders. Any payment of cash dividends on our stock will be at the discretion of our Board and will depend upon our results of operations, earnings, capital requirements, financial condition, business prospects, contractual restrictions and other factors deemed relevant by our Board. In addition, under certain circumstances, our Restated Credit Facility may limit or restrictplaces limitations on our ability to pay cash dividends. In the event our Board declares any dividends, there is no assurance with respect to the amount, timing or frequency of any such dividends.
In September 2015, our Board authorized a stock repurchase program, whereby we may purchase up to 5.0 million shares
Any repurchase of our common stock under the stock repurchase plan authorized by our Board in June 2022 (Repurchase Program) will be at the discretion of a committee comprised of our Chief Executive OfficerCEO and Chief Financial Officer, and will depend on several factors, including, but not limited to, results of operations, capital requirements, financial conditions, available capital from operations or other sources, including debt, and the market price of our common stock. In addition, on August 16, 2022, the U.S. enacted the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which, among other things, imposes an excise tax of 1% tax on the fair market value of net stock repurchases made after December 31, 2022. Therefore, there is no assurance with respect to the amount, price or timing of any such repurchases. We may elect to retain all future earnings for the operation and expansion of our business, rather than repurchasing additional outstanding shares. In addition, under certain circumstances,For additional information related to our Restated Credit Facility may limit or restrictRepurchase Program, please see Note 19, “Equity”, to our ability to repurchase our stock. accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
In the event we pay dividends, or make any stock repurchases in the future, our ability to finance any material expansion of our business, including through acquisitions, investments or increased capital spending, or to fund our operations, may be limited. In addition, any repurchases we may make in the future may not prove to be at optimal prices. Our Board may modify or amend ourthe Repurchase Program, or adopt a new stock repurchase program, at any time at its discretion without stockholder approval.
Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) regulations, global climate change, corporate citizenship and related matters may adversely affect our business.
There is an increasing focus on ESG risks. Our customers, including distributors and retail partners have adopted, or may adopt, procurement policies that include ESG provisions that their suppliers or manufacturers must comply with, or they may seek to include such provisions in their terms and conditions. An increasing number of participants in our industries are also joining voluntary ESG groups or organizations. These ESG provisions and initiatives are subject to change, can be unpredictable, and may be difficult and expensive for us to comply with, given the complexity of our supply chain and the outsourced manufacturing of certain components of our products. If we are unable to comply, or are unable to cause our suppliers to comply, with such policies or provisions, a customer may cease purchasing products from us, and may take legal action against us, which could harm our reputation, revenue and results of operations.
Further, increased public awareness and concern regarding global climate change may result in new or enhanced legal requirements. There continues to be a lack of consistent climate legislation, which creates economic and regulatory uncertainty. Such uncertainty may have an impact on our business, from the demand for our products to our costs of compliance in the manufacturing and servicing of our products, all of which may impact our results of operations. In addition, climate change initiatives and legislation could also disrupt our operations by impacting the availability and cost of materials within our supply chain, and could also increase insurance and other operating costs. In addition, on March 6, 2024, the SEC finalized new rules for public companies that will require extensive climate-related disclosures and significant analysis of the impact of climate-related issues on our business strategy, results of operations, and financial condition (the SEC Climate Disclosure Rules), and extensive attestation requirements. The new rules require disclosure of, among other things, our material climate-related risks and opportunities, greenhouse gas emissions inventory, climate-related targets and goals, and financial impacts of physical and transition risks. Subsequently, in April 2024, the SEC issued an order staying implementation of the SEC Climate Disclosure Rules pending the resolution of certain challenges. Nonetheless, our legal, accounting, and other compliance expenses may increase significantly, and compliance efforts may divert management time and attention as we prepare for the potential implementation of the SEC Climate Disclosure Rules, and such expenses, efforts and diversions of management time and attention may be even greater if the SEC Climate Disclosure Rules ultimately go into effect. We may also be exposed to legal or regulatory action or claims as a result of these new regulations. Separately, the SEC has also announced that it is scrutinizing existing climate-change related disclosures in public filings, increasing the potential for enforcement if the SEC were to allege our existing climate disclosures are misleading or deficient. All of these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, and/or stock price.
Investors, stockholders, consumers, customers, suppliers and other third-parties are increasingly focusing on ESG and corporate social responsibility endeavors and reporting and transparency. Certain institutional investors, investment funds, other influential investors, customers, suppliers and other third-parties are also increasingly focused on ESG practices. If we do not adapt to or comply with evolving investor or stakeholder expectations and standards, or if we are perceived to have not responded appropriately, we may suffer from reputational damage and our business, financial condition and/or stock price may be materially and adversely affected. Further, this increased focus on ESG issues may result in new regulations and/or third-party requirements that could adversely impact our business, or certain shareholders reducing or eliminating their holdings of our stock, causing our stock price to decline.
*Loss of or inability to continue to obtain or maintain high-quality endorsers of our consumer audio products could harm our business.
From time to time, we have established, and expect to continue to establish, relationships with public figures, music artists, automotive designers, sound studios, social media influencers and other endorsers, to develop, evaluate and promote our consumer audio products, as well as establish product authenticity with consumers. However, as competition in our consumer segment has increased, the costs associated with establishing and retaining such relationships have increased, and competition to attract and retain high-quality endorsers has also increased. If we are unable to maintain our current associations with public figures, music artists, automotive designers, sound studios, social media influencers or other endorsers, or to do so at a reasonable cost, we could lose the high visibility associated with our products, and we may be required to modify and substantially increase our marketing investments. As a result, our brands, consumer product revenues, expenses and profitability could be harmed. Furthermore, if certain public figures, music artists, automotive designers, sound studios, social media influencers or other endorsers, were to stop using our products contrary to their agreements, our business could be adversely affected. In addition, certain negative actions taken or statements made by those associated with our products or brands, could impact or harm the reputations of our consumer products, and our decisions to cease collaborating with certain endorsers in light of actions that may be taken or statements that may be made by them, could impact have an adverse effect on our sales and financial condition. Poor or non-performance by those associated with our products, a failure to continue to correctly identify promising public figures, music artists, automotive designers, sound studios, social media influencers or other endorsers to use our products and brands or a failure to enter into cost-effective fee arrangements with any of such endorsers could adversely affect our brands, reputation, sales and profitability.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales5. Other Information
During the fiscal quarter ended March 30, 2024, none of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
Stock Repurchase Program
Stock repurchases during each fiscal monthour directors or officers (as defined in Section 16 of the quarter ended September 30, 2017 wereSecurities Exchange Act of 1934, as follows:amended) adopted or terminated any contract, instruction or written plan for the purchase or sale of our securities that was intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5-1(c) or any “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement,” as defined in Item 408(a) of Regulation S-K.
On May 3, 2024, Rolf Classon notified our Board of Directors (the “Board”) of his decision to resign from the Board and the Audit Committee of the Board, effective as of May 10, 2024.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Period | | Total Number of Shares Purchased | | Average Price Paid Per Share | | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | | Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs(1) |
July 2, 2017 to July 29, 2017 | | — |
| | $ | — |
| | — |
| | 2,901,215 |
|
July 30, 2017 to August 26, 2017 | | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 2,901,215 |
|
August 27, 2017 to September 30, 2017 | | 533,335 |
| | 84.86 |
| | 533,335 |
| | 2,367,880 |
|
Total | | 533,335 |
| | $ | 84.86 |
| | 533,335 |
| | 2,367,880 |
|
Item 6. Exhibits
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EXHIBIT INDEX |
(1) Exhibit
Number | | In September 2015, our board | | Description of directors authorized a stock repurchase program, whereby we may purchase upDocument |
3.1 | | | | |
3.2 | | | | |
3.3 | | | | |
3.4 | | | | |
4.1 | | | | |
4.2#+ | | | | |
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31.1* | | | | |
31.2* | | | | |
32.1** | | | | |
101.INS* | | | | Inline XBRL Instance Document - The instance document does not appear in privately negotiated transactions.the interactive data file because its XBRL tags are embedded within the inline XBRL document. |
101.SCH* | | | | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema With Embedded Linkbase Documents |
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104 | | | | Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the inline XBRL document) |
EXHIBIT INDEX
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Exhibit Number | | | | Description of Document |
3.1 | | (1) | | |
3.2 | | (2) | | |
4.1 | | (1) | | |
4.2 | | (1) | | |
4.3# | | (3) | | |
10.1# | | (4) | | |
10.2# | | (5) | | |
12.1* | | | | |
31.1* | | | | |
31.2* | | | | |
32.1* | | | | |
101.INS* | | | | XBRL Instance Document |
101.SCH* | | | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document |
101.CAL* | | | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document |
101.DEF* | | | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document |
101.LAB* | | | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document |
101.PRE* | | | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document |
Attached as Exhibit 101 to this report are the following formatted in XBRL (ExtensibleiXBRL (Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language): (i) Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of SeptemberMarch 30, 20172024 and December 31, 2016,30, 2023, (ii) Condensed Consolidated Statements of IncomeOperations for the ninethree months ended SeptemberMarch 30, 20172024 and OctoberApril 1, 2016,2023, respectively, (iii) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income(Loss) for the ninethree months ended SeptemberMarch 30, 20172024 and OctoberApril 1, 2016,2023, respectively, (iv) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the ninethree months ended SeptemberMarch 30, 20172024 and OctoberApril 1, 2016,2023, respectively, and (v) Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
___________________________________________
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(1) | Incorporated by reference to the exhibits to the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-142171), originally filed on April 17, 2007. The number given in parentheses indicates the corresponding exhibit number in such Form S-1, as amended. |
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(2) | Incorporated by reference to the exhibit to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on October 26, 2011. The number given in parentheses indicates the corresponding exhibit number in such Form 8-K. |
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(3) | Incorporated by reference to the exhibit to the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on February 11, 2008. The number given in parentheses indicates the corresponding exhibit number in such Form S-8. |
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(4) | Incorporated by reference to the exhibit to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on August 2, 2017. The number given in parentheses indicates the corresponding exhibit number in such Form 8-K. |
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(5) | Incorporated by reference to the exhibit to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on September 25, 2017. The number given in parentheses indicates the corresponding exhibit number in such Form 8-K. |
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# | Indicates management or compensatory plan. |
# Indicates management or compensatory plan.
* Filed herewith.
** Furnished herewith.
+ Non-material schedules and exhibits have been omitted pursuant to Item 601(b)(2) of Regulation S-K. The Registrant hereby undertakes to furnish supplemental copies of any of the omitted schedules and exhibits upon request by the SEC.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
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| | | | | | | | |
| | | | MASIMO CORPORATION |
| | | | | | |
Date: October 31, 2017May 7, 2024 | | | | By: | | | By: | | /s/ JOE KIANI |
| | | | | | Joe Kiani |
| | | | | | Chief Executive Officer and Chairman |
| | | | | | |
Date: October 31, 2017May 7, 2024 | | | | By: | | | By: | | /s/ MICAHYOUNG |
| | | | | | Micah Young |
| | | | | | Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |