UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

SCHEDULE 14A

PROXY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 14(a) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

 

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Soliciting Material Pursuant to§240.14a-12

Ambarella, Inc.

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AMBARELLA, INC.

3101 JAY STREET

SANTA CLARA, CA 95054

NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

To Be Held On June 7, 20164, 2020

Dear Shareholder:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Ambarella, Inc., a Cayman Islands company, will be held on Tuesday,Thursday, June 7, 2016,4, 2020, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time at 3101 Jay Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054 for the following purposes:

 

 1.

To elect the twothree (3) nominees for Class III director named herein to hold office until the 20192023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

 

 2.

To ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of Ambarella, Inc. for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2017.2021.

 

 3.

To approve, on an advisory basis, executive compensation.

 

 4.

To conduct any other business properly brought before the meeting.

These items of business are more fully described in the Proxy Statement, which is available atwww.edocumentview.com/AMBA. This notice, the Notice of Internet Availability, the Proxy Statement, for our Annual Meeting of Shareholders and the 20162020 Annual Report, and the form of proxy are being made available to shareholders on or about April 27, 2016.23, 2020. We are providing access to our proxy materials over the Internet under the rules and regulations adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The record date for the Annual Meeting is April 15, 2016.13, 2020. Only shareholders of record at the close of business on that date may vote at the meeting or any adjournment thereof. We are not aware of any other business to come before the Annual Meeting. You may vote over the Internet, by telephone or by mailing a proxy card. Voting over the Internet, by telephone or by written proxy will ensure your representation at the Annual Meeting if you do not attend in person. Please review the instructions on the proxy card regarding each of these voting options. The Proxy Statement explains proxy voting and the matters to be voted on in more detail. We look forward to your attendance at the Annual Meeting.

Potential Impact of Coronavirus(COVID-19) Pandemic on Annual Meeting

We intend to hold the Annual Meeting in person. However, developments regarding the coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic may impact our ability to do so. In the event it is not possible or advisable to hold our Annual Meeting in person, we will announce alternative arrangements for the meeting as promptly as practicable, which may include holding the meeting in part by means of remote communication. We may also need to change the date or the time of the meeting. We will update shareholders through a press release and a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the event of a change to the date, time or location of the Annual Meeting.

It is important that you retain a copy of the control number found on the proxy card, voting instruction form or Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials, as such number will be required in order for shareholders to gain remote access to any meeting utilizing remote communication.

By Order of the Board of Directors

 

LOGO

Michael Morehead

General Counsel and Secretary

Santa Clara, California

April 27, 201623, 2020

You are cordially invited to attend the meeting in person. Your vote is important. Whether or not you expect to attend the meeting, please vote your shares as instructed in the Notice of Internet Availability, which is being mailed to you on April 27, 2016,23, 2020, as promptly as possible to ensure your representation at the meeting. Even if you have voted by proxy, you may still vote in person if you attend the meeting. Please note, however, that if your shares are held of record by a broker, bank or other nominee and you wish to vote at the meeting, you must obtain a proxy issued in your name from that record holder.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

   Page 

Information Concerning Voting and Solicitation

   1 

General Information About the Annual Meeting

   1 

Notice of Internet Availability

   1 

Appointment of Proxy Holders

1

Who Can Vote

   2 

How YouWho Can Vote

   2 

How You Can Vote

2

Matters to be Voted Upon

   3 

Revocation of Proxies

   3 

Required Vote

   4 

Other Matters Brought Before the Meeting

   4 

Solicitation of Proxies

   4 

Voting Results

   5 

Important Notice Regarding Availability of Proxy Materials

   5 

Proposal 1: Election of Class III Directors

   6 

Vote Required

   9 

Information Regarding the Board of Directors and Corporate Governance

   10 

Board Composition

   10 

Director Independence

   10 

Board Leadership Structure

   10 

Board Committees

   1110 

Role of the Board in Risk Oversight

   12 

Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation

   12 

Evaluation of Board and Director NominationsPerformance

   13 

Director Nominations

13

Communications with the Board

   14 

Corporate Governance Principles and Practices

   14 

Director Compensation

16

Proposal 2: Ratification of Appointment of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

15

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

15

Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures

16

Vote Required

16

Report of the Audit Committee

17

Proposal 3: Advisory Vote to Approve Executive Compensation

   18 

Vote RequiredPrincipal Accountant Fees and Services

   18 

Equity Compensation Plan InformationPre-Approval Policies and Procedures

   19 

Security OwnershipVote Required

19

Report of Certain Beneficial Owners and Managementthe Audit Committee

   20 

Section 16(A) Beneficial Ownership Reporting ComplianceProposal 3: Advisory Vote to Approve Executive Compensation

   21 

Certain Relationships and Related Person TransactionsVote Required

21

Executive Officers

   22 

Executive OfficersCompensation

   23 

Executive Compensation Discussion and Analysis

   2423 

Compensation Discussion and AnalysisCommittee Report

   2438 

Report of the Compensation Committee

34

Summary Compensation Table for Fiscal 20162020

35

Grants of Plan-Based Awards

36

Option Exercises and Stock Vested

37

Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End

37

Potential Payments upon Termination or Change in Control

   39 

Grants of Plan-Based Awards

40

Option Exercises and Stock Vested During Fiscal Year 2020

41

Outstanding Equity Awards at FiscalDirector CompensationYear-End

   42 

Shareholder Proposals for the 2017 Annual Meeting of ShareholdersPotential Payments upon Termination or Change in Control

   44 

Pay Ratio Disclosure

48

Equity Compensation Plan Information

49

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management

50

Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions

52

Shareholder Proposals for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders

53

Householding of Proxy Materials

   4554 

Important Notice Regarding the Availability of Proxy Materials for the Annual Meeting of Shareholders To Be Held on June 7, 20164, 2020

   4554 

Other Matters

   4554 

 

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Ambarella, Inc.

3101 Jay Street

Santa Clara, CA 95054

PROXY STATEMENT

FOR THE 20162020 ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

 

 

INFORMATION CONCERNING VOTING AND SOLICITATION

In connection with the solicitation of proxies by the Board of Directors of Ambarella, Inc., a Cayman Islands company (the “Board”), and pursuant to the rules and regulations adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, we are furnishing our proxy materials to shareholders for use at our 20162020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Annual Meeting”), and any adjournments or postponements thereof. The Annual Meeting will be held on Tuesday,Thursday, June 7, 2016,4, 2020, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the Company’s corporate headquartersour offices located at 3101 Jay Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054.

We have mailed the Notice of Internet Availability to all shareholders and beneficial owners of record as of the record date, April 15, 2016.13, 2020. All shareholders will have the ability to access the proxy materials via the Internet, including this Proxy Statement and our 20162020 Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016.2020. The Notice of Internet Availability includes information on how to access the proxy materials, how to submit your vote over the Internet or by phone or how to request a paper copy of the proxy materials. This Proxy Statement and our 20162020 Annual Report to Shareholders are available atwww.edocumentview.com/AMBA. If you are a shareholder of record, you also may view these materials athttp://www.envisionreports.com/AMBA.

We intend to hold the Annual Meeting in person as indicated above. However, developments regarding the coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic may impact our ability to do so. In the event it is not possible or advisable to hold our Annual Meeting in person, we will announce alternative arrangements for the meeting as promptly as practicable, which may include holding the meeting in part by means of remote communication. We may also need to change the date or the time of the meeting. We will update shareholders through a press release and a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the event of a change to the date, time or location of the Annual Meeting. It is important that you retain a copy of the control number found on the proxy card, voting instruction form or Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials, as such number will be required in order for shareholders to gain remote access to any meeting utilizing remote communication.

References to “the Company,” “Ambarella,” “we,” “us” or “our” throughout this Proxy Statement mean Ambarella, Inc.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ANNUAL MEETING

Notice of Internet Availability

Instead of mailing a paper copy of our proxy materials, we have provided access to our proxy materials over the Internet, which are available atwww.edocumentview.com/AMBA. If you are a shareholder of record, you also may view these materials athttp://www.envisionreports.com/AMBA. In accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Notice of Internet Availability has been sent to our shareholders of record and beneficial owners as of the record date, April 15, 2016.13, 2020. The Notice of Internet Availability includes information on how to access the proxy materials, how to submit your vote via the Internet and how to request a paper copy of the proxy materials. By accessing the proxy materials on the Internet or choosing to receive your future proxy materials by email, you will save us the cost of printing and mailing documents to you and will reduce the impact of our annual meeting of shareholders on the environment.

Appointment of Proxy Holders

The Board asks you to appoint Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, George LaplanteKevin C. Eichler and Michael Morehead as your proxy holders to vote your shares at the Annual Meeting. You make this appointment by voting your shares by proxy, as instructed in the Notice of Internet Availability.

If appointed by you, the proxy holders will vote your shares as you direct on the matters described in this Proxy Statement. In the absence of your direction, they will vote your shares as recommended by the Board.

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Unless you otherwise indicate, you also authorize your proxy holders to vote your shares on any matters not known by the Board at the time this Proxy Statement was made available to shareholders and which may be properly presented for action at the Annual Meeting.

Who Can Vote

Only shareholders of record at the close of business on April 15, 201613, 2020 will be entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. On this record date, there were 32,839,77934,339,388 ordinary shares outstanding and entitled to vote. Each holder of ordinary shares is entitled to one vote for each share held as of April 15, 2016.13, 2020. There is no cumulative voting in the election of directors.

Shareholder of Record: Shares Registered in Your Name

If on April 15, 2016,13, 2020, your shares were registered directly in your name with Ambarella’s transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company, N.A., then you are a shareholder of record. As a shareholder of record, you may vote in person at the meeting or vote by proxy. Whether or not you plan to attend the meeting, we urge you to vote your shares by proxy over the Internet, by telephone, or by mail as instructed in the Notice of Internet Availability to ensure your vote is counted.

Beneficial Owner: Shares Registered in the Name of a Broker or Bank

If on April 15, 2016,13, 2020, your shares were held not in your name, but rather in an account at a brokerage firm, bank, dealer, or other similar organization, then you are the beneficial owner of shares held in “street name” and the Proxy Statement is being forwarded to you by that organization. The organization holding your account is considered to be the shareholder of record for purposes of voting at the Annual Meeting. As a beneficial owner, you have the right to direct your broker or other agent regarding how to vote the shares in your account. You are also invited to attend the Annual Meeting. However, since you are not the shareholder of record, you may not vote your shares in person at the meeting unless you request and obtain a valid proxy from your broker or other agent.

How You Can Vote

You may either vote “For” the nominees for Class III Director or you may “Withhold” your vote for the nominees. For each of the other matters to be voted on, you may vote “For” or “Against” or abstain from voting.

The procedures for voting are fairly simple:as follows:

Shareholder of Record: Shares Registered in Your Name

If you are a shareholder of record, you may vote in person at the Annual Meeting, vote by proxy over the Internet, by telephone or by mail, as instructed in the Notice of Internet Availability. Whether or not you plan to attend the Annual Meeting, we urge you to vote by proxy to ensure your vote is counted. You may still attend the meeting and vote in person even if you have already voted by proxy.

 

To vote in person, come to the Annual Meeting and we will give you a ballot when you arrive.

To vote over the telephone, dial toll-free1-800-652-8683 using a touch-tone phone and follow the recorded instructions. You will be asked to provide the company number and control number from the proxy card. Your vote must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on June 6, 20162, 2020 to be counted.

 

  

To vote through the Internet, go tohttp://www.envisionreports.com/AMBA to complete an electronic proxy card. Your vote must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on June 6, 20162, 2020 to be counted.

 

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To vote using the proxy card (if you requested paper copies of the proxy materials to be mailed to you), simply complete, sign and date the proxy card and return it promptly in the envelope to be provided. If you return your signed proxy card to us before the Annual Meeting, we will vote your shares as you direct.

Beneficial Owner: Shares Registered in the Name of Broker or Bank

If you are a beneficial owner of shares registered in the name of your broker, bank, or other agent, you should receive the Notice of Internet Availability from that organization rather than from Ambarella. Simply follow the voting instructions in the Notice of Internet Availability to ensure that your vote is counted. To vote in person at the Annual Meeting, you must obtain a valid proxy from your broker, bank, or other agent. Follow the instructions from your broker or bank, or contact your broker or bank to request a proxy form.

Matters to be Voted Upon

There are three matters scheduled for a vote at the Annual Meeting:

 

Election of the twothree (3) directors named as nominees for Class III director in this Proxy Statement to hold office until the 20192023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders;

 

Ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2017;2021; and

 

Approval, on an advisory basis, of executive compensation, as described in this Proxy Statement.

If you are a shareholder of record and you vote via the Internet, by telephone or return a proxy card by mail, but do not select a voting preference, the persons who are authorized to vote your shares will vote:

 

FOR each of the twothree (3) nominees for Class III director named herein to hold office until the 2019 annual meeting2023 Annual Meeting of shareholders;Shareholders;

 

FOR the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2017;2021; and

 

FOR the approval, on an advisory basis, of executive compensation, as described in this Proxy Statement.

If you are a beneficial owner of shares registered in the name of your broker, bank, or other agent, you should follow the voting instructions provided by your broker, bank other agent in order to instruct your broker, bank or other agent how to vote your shares.

Revocation of Proxies

Shareholders of record can revoke their proxies at any time before they are exercised in any of three ways:

 

by voting in person at the Annual Meeting;

 

by submitting written notice of revocation to the Secretary of the Company prior to the Annual Meeting; or

 

by submitting another properly executed proxy of a later date prior to the Annual Meeting.

Beneficial owners of shares held in street name must contact their broker, bank or other agent to revoke any prior voting instructions.

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Required Vote

Directors are elected by a plurality vote, which means that the two (2)three (3) nominees for Class III director receiving the most affirmative votes will be elected. All other matters submitted for shareholder approval, including the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2017,2021, require the affirmative vote of the majority of shares present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote.

A quorum of shareholders is necessary to hold a valid Annual Meeting. A quorum will be present if shareholders holding at least a majority of the outstanding shares entitled to vote are present at the meeting in person or represented by proxy. On the record date, there were 32,839,77934,339,388 shares outstanding and entitled to vote. As a result, shareholders holding at least 16,419,89017,169,695 shares will need to be present at the meeting in person or represented by proxy to constitute a quorum. Your shares will be counted towards the quorum only if you submit a valid proxy (or one is submitted on your behalf by your broker, bank or other nominee) over the Internet, by telephone, by mail or if you attend the Annual Meeting in person. Abstentions and brokernon-votes will be counted towards the quorum requirement. If there is no quorum, then either the chairman of the meeting or the holders of a majority of shares present at the meeting in person or represented by proxy may adjourn the meeting to another date.

Abstentions on any matters are treated as shares present or represented and entitled to vote on that matter and have the same effect as a vote “against” such matter.

If your shares are held in street name and you do not instruct your broker on how to vote your shares, your broker, in its discretion, may either leave your shares unvoted or vote your shares on routine matters. Only Proposal 2 (ratifying the appointment of our independent registered public accounting firm) is considered a routine matter. Proposal 1 (election of directors) and Proposal 3 (approval of the advisory vote on executive compensation) are not considered routine matters, and without your instruction, your broker cannot vote your shares as to those proposals. If your broker returns a proxy but does not vote your shares, this results in a “brokernon-vote.” Brokernon-votes will be counted as present for the purpose of determining a quorum. However, as brokers do not have discretionary authority to vote on Proposal 1 or Proposal 3, brokernon-votes will not be counted for the purpose of determining the number of votes cast on Proposal 1 or Proposal 3.

Votes will be counted by the inspector of election appointed for the meeting, who will separately count: with respect to the election of the director, “For” and “Withhold” votes and, with respect to other proposals, votes “For” and “Against,” abstentions and, if applicable, brokernon-votes. Abstentions will be counted towards the vote total for Proposal 2, and will have the same effect as “Against” votes. Brokernon-votes, although counted toward the quorum requirement, will not be counted towards the vote total for any proposal.

Other Matters Brought Before the Meeting

The Board knows of no other matters that will be presented for consideration at the Annual Meeting. If any other matters are properly brought before the meeting, it is the intention of the persons named in the accompanying proxy to vote on those matters in accordance with their best judgment.

Solicitation of Proxies

The Company will pay for the entire cost of soliciting proxies. In addition to these proxy materials, the Company’s directors and employees may also solicit proxies in person, by telephone, or by other means of communication. Directors and employees will not be paid any additional compensation for soliciting proxies. The Company also may reimburse brokerage firms, banks and other agents for the cost of forwarding proxy materials to beneficial owners.

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Voting Results

Preliminary voting results will be announced at the Annual Meeting. In addition, final voting results will be published in a current report on Form8-K that the Company expects to file within four business days after the Annual Meeting. If final voting results are not available in time to file a Form8-K within four business days after the meeting, the Company intends to file a Form8-K to publish preliminary results and, within four business days after the final results are known, file an additional Form8-K to publish the final results.

Important Notice Regarding Availability of Proxy Materials

This Proxy Statement and our 20162020 Annual Report to Shareholders are available atwww.edocumentview.com/AMBA. Please promptly vote your shares as instructed in the Notice of Internet Availability. This will not limit your rights to attend or vote at the Annual Meeting.

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PROPOSAL 1

ELECTION OF CLASS III DIRECTORS

Ambarella’s Board of Directors, or the Board, currently has seven (7)eight (8) members. The authorized number of directors may be changed by resolution of the Board.Board and the Board intends to increase the authorized number of directors to nine (9) members prior to the Annual Meeting. Vacancies on the Board may be filled only by a majority of the remaining directors even if less than a quorum, unless the Board determines that the vacancies shall be filled by the shareholders. A director elected to fill a vacancy in a class, including vacancies created by an increase in the number of directors, shall serve for the remainder of the full term of that class and until the director’s successor is duly elected and qualified.

The Board is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II and Class III, which serve staggered three-year terms:

 

Class I directors are Dr. Chenming C. Hu, Dr. Teresa H. Meng and Dr. Feng-Ming (“Fermi”) Wang and their current terms will expire at the upcoming Annual Meeting.

Class II directors are Leslie Kohn, D. Jeffrey Richardson and Lip-Bu Tan and their current terms will expire at the annual meeting of shareholders to be held in 2017.2022.

Class II directors are Leslie Kohn and D. Jeffrey Richardson and their current terms will expire at the upcoming Annual Meeting to be held on June 4, 2020.

 

Class III directors are Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Christopher B. Paisley and Andrew W. Verhalen and their current terms will expire at the annual meeting of shareholders to be held in 2018.2021.

Two (2) Class I directors will be elected at the Annual Meeting to serve until the annual meeting of shareholders to be held in 2019 or until their successors are elected and qualified. The Board, upon the recommendation of the nominating and corporate governance committee, has selected Dr. HuMr. Kohn, Mr. Richardson and Dr. WangMs. Schwarting as nominees for election as Class III directors at the upcoming Annual Meeting. Ms. Schwarting is not currently a member of the Board and is standing for election for the first time. The proxies given to the proxy holders will be voted or not voted as directed and, if no direction is given, will be voted FOR each of the two (2)three (3) nominees. If any nominee is unable or declines to serve as director at the time of the Annual Meeting, an event not now anticipated, proxies will be voted for any nominee designated by the Board to fill the vacancy. The two (2)three (3) nominees for Class III director receiving the highest number of affirmative votes will be elected as Class I directors.II directors and will serve until the annual meeting of shareholders to be held in 2023 or until their successors are elected and qualified.

The names of the nominees for election as Class III directors, who have been nominated by the Board, and the names of the continuing directors not up for election at the Annual Meeting, along with certain biographical information about the nominees and continuing directors, including the director’s business experience, public company director positions held currently or at any time during the last five years, information regarding involvement in certain legal or administrative proceedings if applicable,(if applicable), and the experiences, qualifications, attributes or skills that caused the nominating and corporate governance committee to recommend that the director should continue to serve on the Board, are set forth below.

 

Names of Nominees for Class III Directors

  

Age

   

Position(s)

Chenming C. Hu, Ph.D. (1)(2)

68Director

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D.

52Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer

(1)Member of Audit Committee
(2)Member of Compensation Committee

Chenming C. Hu, Ph.D. has been a member of our Board since November 2011. Since 1976 Dr. Hu has been a professor in electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been the TSMC Distinguished Chair Professor Emeritus and Professor in the Graduate School since 2010. He was the Chief Technology Officer of TSMC from 2001 to 2004. Dr. Hu was the founding chairman of Celestry Design Technologies, which was acquired by Cadence Design Systems in 2002. Dr. Hu also serves on

-6-


the board of directors of SanDisk Corporation, a provider of flash memory storage solutions, Fortinet, Inc., a provider of unified threat management solutions, and Inphi Corporation, a fabless semiconductor company. Dr. Hu previously served as a director of FormFactor, Inc. from December 2009 to December 2010 and of MoSys, Inc. from January 2005 to June 2010. Dr. Hu is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. Dr. Hu received his B.S. degree from National Taiwan University and his M.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, all in Electrical Engineering. We believe that Dr. Hu possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our board of directors, including his extensive experience in the microelectronics and semiconductor industries as Chief Technology Officer of TSMC and as a current and former board member of a number of technology companies, as well as his experience in academia as a professor of microelectronics, which gives him in-depth knowledge of current technology trends and developments.

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D. has served as our Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer since he co-founded Ambarella in January 2004. Prior to co-founding Ambarella, Dr. Wang was Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Afara Websystems, a developer of throughput-oriented microprocessor technology, from November 2000 to July 2002 when Afara was acquired by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Before founding Afara, Dr. Wang served in various positions at C-Cube Microsystems, Inc., a digital video company, from August 1991 to August 2000, and last served as Vice President and General Manager from 1997 to 2000. Dr. Wang holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University and an M.S. degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Columbia University. We believe that Dr. Wang possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his service as our Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer, his leadership as a co-founder of Ambarella and his years of experience in the digital video industry.

Names of Continuing Directors

Age

Position(s)

Leslie Kohn

   5963   Chief Technology Officer and Director

Christopher B. PaisleyD. Jeffrey Richardson (1)(2)(3)

   6355   Director

D. Jeffrey Richardson (1)(3)Elizabeth M. Schwarting

   5157   Director

Lip-Bu Tan (2)(3)(4)

56Director

Andrew W. Verhalen (2)(3)

60Director Nominee

 

(1)

Member of Audit Committee

(2)

Member of Compensation Committee

(3)

Member of Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee

(4)Lead Independent Director

Leslie Kohn has served as our Chief Technology Officer and a member of our Board since heco-founded Ambarella in January 2004. Prior toco-founding Ambarella, Mr. Kohn was Chief Technology Officer andco-founder of Afara Websystems from November 2000 to July 2002. After Afara’s acquisition by Sun Microsystems in July 2002, Mr. Kohn served as a fellow at Sun Microsystems until August 2003. Mr. Kohn served as Chief Architect ofC-Cube Microsystems from February 1995 to October 2000. Prior to joiningC-Cube

Microsystems, Mr. Kohn served in engineering and management positions with Sun Microsystems, Intel Corporation and National Semiconductor. Mr. Kohn holds a B.S. degree in physics from California Institute of Technology. We believe that Mr. Kohn possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his role in developing our technology, his leadership as ourco-founder and his years of experience in the digital video industry.

Christopher B. Paisley has served as a member of our Board since August 2012. Since January 2001, Mr. Paisley has served as the Dean’s Executive Professor of Accounting at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. Mr. Paisley also serves on the board of directors of Equinix, Inc., a provider of network colocation, interconnection and managed services, Fitbit, Inc., a provider of fitness wearable devices, Fortinet, Inc., a provider of unified threat management solutions, and YuMe, Inc., a digital media advertising company.

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Mr. Paisley holds a B.A. degree in business economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School at the University of California at Los Angeles. We believe that Mr. Paisley has developed expertise in finance, including accounting and financial reporting, as a chief financial officer and in other finance roles and currently as a professor in the field of accounting and finance. Mr. Paisley also has over 15 years of outside board experience, which includes serving as audit committee chairman, at numerous public and private companies.

D. Jeffrey Richardson has been a member of our Board since March 2014. Mr. Richardson served as a senior executive of LSI Corporation (“LSI”), a semiconductor company, from 2005 until LSI’s acquisition by Avago Technologies Company in May 2014, including most recently serving as LSI’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He earlier served as General Manager of the Semiconductor Solutions Group, Executive Vice President of the Networking and Storage Products Group, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Custom Solutions Group and as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Planning. Prior to joining LSI, Mr. Richardson served in several capacities at Intel Corporation, including as its Vice President and General Manager of Server Platform Group and Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Platforms and Services Division. Mr. Richardson currently serves on the board of directors of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, a semiconductor company, and also served on the board of directors of Volterra Semiconductor Corporation, a provider of power management semiconductors, from April 2011 to October 2013, when Volterra was acquired by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.2013. Mr. Richardson received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. We believe that Mr. Richardson possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his extensive managerial experience in the semiconductor industry as Chief Operating Officer of LSI and senior management positions with LSI and Intel, and as a board member of Lattice and Volterra.

Lip-Bu TanElizabeth M. Schwartinghas been nominated by the Board for election to the Board at the upcoming Annual Meeting. Since October 2015, Ms. Schwarting has been the Principal Member of DBS Ventures, LLC. where she serves as a consultant for various audiences relating to the automotive market, including automotive technology (with a special emphasis on ADAS/Automated Driving), regulatory trends and business development. From 2009 to 2015, Ms. Schwarting served as Vice President of the Electronic Controls business unit for Delphi Corporation (now Aptiv PLC), an automotive parts company. As a member of the Executive Committee, she led a global team responsible for the Automotive ADAS and Safety Electronics product lines, the Body Electronics and Security product lines as well Power Electronics (for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles). From 1999 to 2009, Ms. Schwarting held several leadership positions at Delphi, including Vice President, Safety Systems, Global Director, Sales and Marketing, and General Motors Global Customer Director. Prior to joining Delphi, Ms. Schwarting held the position of General Manager and Vice President, Strategic Accounts for Eastman Kodak Company within the Consumer Imaging Division. We believe that Ms. Schwarting possesses specific attributes that qualify her to serve as a member of our Board, including her extensive managerial experience in the automotive industry in senior management positions with Delphi, as well as her sales and customer management experience with Eastman Kodak.

Names of Continuing Directors

Age

Position(s)

Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Ph.D (2)

56Director

Chenming C. Hu, Ph.D. (1)(2)

72Director

Teresa H. Meng, Ph.D (2)

59Director

Christopher B. Paisley (1)(3)

67Director

Andrew W. Verhalen (3)(4)

64Director

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D.

56Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer

(1)

Member of Audit Committee

(2)

Member of Compensation Committee

(3)

Member of Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee

(4)

Lead Independent Director

Hsiao-Wuen Hon, PhD. has been a member of our Board since January 2004. Mr. TanAugust 2017. Dr. Hon is currently the Corporate Vice President, Asia-Pacific R&D Group Chairman of Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”), a position he has held since October 2015. Previously, beginning in November 2007, he served as Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia. Dr. Hon has been employed at Microsoft since 1995 in various capacities, including Deputy Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia, Chief Architect of the Natural Interaction Service Division, and Principal Researcher. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Hon served as Technology Director of theApple-ISS Research Center on behalf of Apple Corporation. Dr. Hon received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, a Master of Science degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Speech Recognition from Carnegie Mellon University. We believe that Dr. Hon possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his extensive experience in artificial intelligence and managerial experience in the technology industry as Corporate Vice President, Asia-Pacific R&D Group Chairman of Walden International, an international venture capital firm,Microsoft.

Chenming C. Hu, Ph.D. has been a member of our Board since November 2011. Since 1976, Dr. Hu has been a professor in electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, where he foundedhas been the firmTSMC Distinguished Chair Professor Emeritus and Professor in 1987.the Graduate School since 2010. He has also served as President andwas the Chief ExecutiveTechnology Officer of TSMC from 2001 to 2004. Dr. Hu was the founding chairman of Celestry Design Technologies, which was acquired by Cadence Design Systems Inc., an electronic design automation software and engineering services company, since January 2009 and as a director since 2004. Mr. Tan currentlyin 2002. Dr. Hu also serves on the board of directors of Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, an information technology enterprise company, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, a semiconductor manufacturing company. He previously served on the board of directors of Inphi Corporation, a fabless semiconductor corporation,company, and ACM Research, Inc., a semiconductor equipment producer. Dr. Hu previously served as a director of Fortinet, Inc. from 20022012 to 2012, Flextronics International Ltd. from 2003 to 2012,2015, and SINASanDisk Corporation from 19992009 to 2015. He holds2016, when it merged with Western Digital Corporation. Dr. Hu is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. Dr. Hu received his B.S. degree in physics from NanyangNational Taiwan University in Singapore, anand his M.S. degree in nuclear engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A.Ph.D. from the University of San Francisco.California, Berkeley, all in Electrical Engineering. We believe that Mr. TanDr. Hu possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his extensive experience in the electronic designmicroelectronics and semiconductor industries as Chief ExecutiveTechnology Officer of Cadence and as Chairman of Walden International,TSMC and as a current and former board member of a number of technology companies, as well as his experience in academia as a professor of microelectronics, which gives himin-depth knowledge of current technology trends and developments.

Teresa H. Meng, Ph.D. has been a member of our Board since October 2018. Dr. Meng is a Professor Emerita and was the Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University until 2013, focusing onlow-power circuit and system design, video signal processing, and wireless communications. Dr. Meng took leave from Stanford in 1998 and founded Atheros Communications Inc., a provider of semiconductor system solutions for wireless network communications products, after which she returned to Stanford in 2000 to continue her teaching and research. Atheros Communications was acquired by Qualcomm Incorporated in 2011. Dr. Meng currently serves as a consultant and member of the advisory board of Atmosic Technologies. Dr. Meng is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She holds a B.S degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. We believe that Dr. Meng possesses specific attributes that qualify her to serve as a member of our board of directors, including her extensive experience inlow-power circuit and system design and video signal processing, as well as her experience in the technology industry as a founder of Atheros Communications.

Christopher B. Paisley has served as a member of our Board since August 2012. Since January 2001, Mr. Paisley has served as the Dean’s Executive Professor of Accounting at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. Mr. Paisley also serves on the board of directors of Equinix, Inc., a provider of network colocation, interconnection and managed services, Fastly, Inc., a cloud computing services provider, and Fortinet, Inc., a provider of unified threat management solutions. Mr. Paisley has decided to not stand forre-election to the board of Fitbit, Inc., a connected health and fitness company, at the end of the current term in May 2020, and so his service on that Board will end at that time. Mr. Paisley also served on the board of directors

of Volterra Semiconductor Corporation, a provider of power management semiconductors, from April 2002 to October 2013, and YuMe, Inc., a digital media advertising company, from November 2012 to February 2018. Mr. Paisley holds a B.A. degree in business economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School at the University of California at Los Angeles. We believe that Mr. Paisley possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including expertise in international operationsfinance, including accounting and corporate governance.financial reporting, as a chief financial officer and in other finance roles and currently as a professor in the field of accounting and finance. Mr. Paisley also has over 15 years of outside board experience, which includes serving as audit committee chairman, at numerous public and private companies.

Andrew W. Verhalen has been a member of our Board since January 2004. Mr. Verhalen has served as a General Partner of Matrix Partners, a venture capital firm, since 1992. He currently serves on the board of directors of several private technology companies in which Matrix Partners has invested and has served in the past on six public technology company boards of directors. Prior to joining Matrix Partners, Mr. Verhalen was an executive at 3Com Corporation from July 1986 through November 1991. He served as Vice President and General Manager of the Network Adapter Division for three years and as a Director or Vice President of Marketing for two years. From July 1981 to July 1986, Mr. Verhalen served in various marketing and strategic planning roles at Intel Corporation. Mr. Verhalen holds a B.S.E.E. degree, a M.Eng. degree and a M.B.A. from Cornell University. We believe that Mr. Verhalen possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his experience as a technology-focused investor, which gives himin-depth knowledge of, and exposure to, current technology and industry trends and developments, providing us with insight into our industry and target markets.

markets, as well as his past experience serving on the boards of directors of six public technology companies.

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D. has served as our Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer since heco-founded Ambarella in January 2004. Prior toco-founding Ambarella, Dr. Wang was Chief Executive Officer andco-founder of Afara Websystems, a developer of throughput-oriented microprocessor technology, from November 2000 to July 2002, when Afara was acquired by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Before founding Afara, Dr. Wang served in various positions atC-Cube Microsystems, Inc., a digital video company, from August 1991 to August 2000, and last served as Vice President and General Manager from 1997 to 2000. Dr. Wang holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University and an M.S. degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Columbia University. We believe that Dr. Wang possesses specific attributes that qualify him to serve as a member of our Board, including his service as our Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer, his leadership as aco-founder of Ambarella and his years of experience in the digital video industry.

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VoteVote Required

The two (2)three (3) nominees for Class III director receiving the highest number of affirmative votes will be elected as Class III directors. Unless otherwise indicated, all proxies received will be voted “FOR” each of the nominees listed above.

The Board recommends a vote FOR the election of the nominees set forth above as Class III directors of Ambarella.

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INFORMATION REGARDING THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Board Composition

The Board is currently composed of seveneight members. The Board and its committees met throughout the year on a set schedule and held special meetings from time to time as appropriate. The Board held eightfive meetings during the 20162020 fiscal year. Each director attended at least 75% of the total aggregate of the regularly scheduled and special meetings held by the Board and the committees on which such director served during his or her tenure in fiscal year 2016.2020. Ournon-management directors meet in regularly scheduled sessions without the presence of management in executive sessions. The lead independent director of the Board presides over each such executive session. We do not have a policy regarding directors’ attendance at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Director Independence

Our Corporate Governance Guidelines provide that a majority of our directors will be independent. Based on the review and recommendation by the nominating and corporate governance committee, the Board has determined that Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Chenming Hu, Teresa Meng, Christopher Paisley, Jeffrey Richardson, Lip-Bu Tan, and Andrew Verhalen, representing a majority of our directors, are independent directors under the rules of NASDAQ. The Board has also determined that Elizabeth Schwarting, director nominee, would be an independent director under the rules of NASDAQ. In making this determination,these determinations, the Board found that none of these directors or nominees for director had a material or other disqualifying relationship with Ambarella.Ambarella that would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ambarella’s Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Leslie Kohn, Ambarella’s Chief TechnicalTechnology Officer, are not independent directors by virtue of their employment with Ambarella.

In evaluating Mr. Tan’s independence, the Board considered Mr. Tan’s position as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cadence Design Systems, Inc., or Cadence, with whom we have an agreement to provide us with automated engineering design tools. However, the Board noted that Mr. Tan did not derive any direct or indirect material benefit from such agreement, Mr. Tan did not participate in the negotiation of the agreement and our Board believes that such agreement is in our best interest and on terms no less favorable than could be obtained from other third parties. In addition, the Board noted that the dollar amounts of payments to Cadence pursuant to the agreement will not constitute a material percentage of the revenue of Cadence, or of our revenue or total operating expenses.

Board Leadership Structure

The Board is currently chaired by Dr. Wang, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ambarella. We believe that combining the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman helps to ensure that the Board and management act with a common purpose. In our view, separating the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman has the potential to give rise to divided leadership, which could interfere with good decision-making or weaken our ability to develop and implement strategy. Instead, we believe that combining the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman provides a single, clear chain of command to execute our strategic initiatives and business plans. In addition, we believe that a combined Chief Executive Officer and Chairman is better positioned to act as a bridge between management and the Board, facilitating the regular flow of information.

The Board determined as part of our corporate governance principles that one of our independent directors should serve as a lead director at any time when the title of chairman is held by an employee director or there is no current chairman. The Board has determined that Lip-Bu Tan qualifies as anlead independent director under the rules of NASDAQ. Accordingly, the Board has appointed Mr. Tan as our lead independent director. Mr. Tan presides over periodic meetings of our independent directors, has the responsibility of raising issues with management on behalf of the outside directors when appropriate and oversees the function of the Board and committees, among other responsibilities. Mr. Verhalen has served as our lead independent director since June 2017. The Board has determined that Mr. Verhalen qualifies as an independent director under the rules of NASDAQ.

We believe that the current leadership structure of the Board is appropriate at the present time and allows the Board to fulfill its duties effectively and efficiently based on our current needs.

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Board Committees

We have established an audit committee, a compensation committee, and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Each of the committees has authority to engage legal counsel or other experts or consultants, as it deems appropriate to carry out its responsibilities. The Board has determined that each member

of each committee meets the applicable NASDAQ rules and regulations regarding “independence” and that each member is free of any relationship that would impair his or her individual exercise of independent judgment with regard to Ambarella. We intend to comply with future requirements as they become applicable to us. Each of the committees operates under a written charter adopted by the Board, each of which can be found on our website athttp://investor.ambarella.com. Each committee has the composition and responsibilities described below.

Audit Committee

The audit committee is currently composed of three directors: Dr. Hu, Mr. Paisley Dr. Hu and Mr. Richardson. Mr. Paisley serves as the chairman of the committee. The audit committee met five times during fiscal year 2016.2020.

The responsibilities of our audit committee include:

 

approving the hiring, discharging and compensation of our independent registered public accounting firm;

 

evaluating the qualifications, independence and performance of our independent registered public accounting firm;

 

reviewing our annual and quarterly financial statements and reports and discussing the statements and reports with our independent registered public accounting firm and management;

 

providing oversight with respect to related party transactions;

 

reviewing, with our independent registered public accounting firm and management, significant issues that may arise regarding accounting principles and financial statement presentation, as well as matters concerning the scope, adequacy and effectiveness of our financial controls; and

 

establishing procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints received by us regarding financial controls, accounting or auditing matters.

The Board has determined that Mr. Paisley qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert,” as defined in applicable SEC rules. The Board made a qualitative assessment of Mr. Paisley’s level of knowledge and experience based on a number of factors, including his formal education and experiences as a chief financial officer for public reporting companies, as well as his service on the audit committees of other publicly traded companies.companies, as well as his role as a professor in the field of accounting and finance. The Board has determined that Mr. Paisley’s simultaneous service on multiple audit committees would not impair his ability to effectively serve on our audit committee.

Compensation Committee

The compensation committee is currently composed of threefour directors: Mr. Verhalen,Dr. Hon, Dr. Hu, Dr. Meng, and Mr. Tan.Richardson. Mr. VerhalenRichardson serves as the chairman of the committee. The compensation committee formally met twofive times during fiscal year 2016,2020, and committee members also met informally on several occasions to review matters relevant to the compensation of our executive officers.

The responsibilities of our compensation committee include:

 

reviewing and recommending policies relating to compensation and benefits of our executive officers and senior members of management;

 

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reviewing and approving or recommending to the Board changes with respect to the compensation levels of our chief executive officer and other executive officers;

 

reviewing and approving corporate goals and objectives relevant to the compensation of our chief executive officer and other executive officers, and evaluating the performance of our chief executive officer and other executive officers in light of the established goals and objectives;

reviewing and recommending to the Board changes with respect to the compensation of our directors; and

 

administering our stock option plans, stock purchase plans, compensation plans and similar programs, including the adoption, amendment and termination of such plans.

Each member of the compensation committee is anon-employee director, as defined pursuant to Rule16b-3 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and an outside director, as defined pursuant to Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code.

Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee

The nominating and corporate governance committee is currently composed of three directors: Mr. Tan,Paisley, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Verhalen. Mr. TanVerhalen, who currently serves as the chairman of the committee. The nominating and corporate governance committee met one timethree times during fiscal year 2016.2020.

The responsibilities of our nominating and corporate governance committee include:

 

reviewing and assessing the performance of the Board, including its committees and individual directors, as well as the size of the Board;

 

identifying, evaluating and recommending candidates for membership on the Board, including nominations by shareholders of candidates for election to the Board;

 

reviewing and evaluating incumbent directors;

 

making recommendations to the Board regarding the membership of the committees of the Board; and

 

reviewing and recommending to the Board changes with respect to corporate governance practices and policies.

Role of the Board in Risk Oversight

One of the key functions of the Board is informed oversight of our risk management process. The Board does not have a standing risk management committee, but rather administers this oversight function directly through the Board as a whole, as well as through its standing committees that address risks inherent in their respective areas of oversight. In particular, the Board is responsible for monitoring and assessing strategic risk exposure. Our audit committee has the responsibility to consider and discuss our major financial risk exposures and the steps our management has taken to monitor and control these exposures, including guidelines and policies to govern the process by which risk assessment and management is undertaken. The audit committee also monitors compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, in addition to oversight of the performance of our external audit function. Our nominating and corporate governance committee monitors the effectiveness of our corporate governance guidelines. Our compensation committee assesses and monitors whether any of our compensation policies and programs has the potential to encourage excessive risk-taking.

Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation

During fiscal year 2016,2020, Dr. Hon, Dr. Hu, Mr. TanDr. Meng, and Mr. VerhalenRichardson served as members of the compensation committee. None of the members of our compensation committee is or has in the past served as an officer or employee of our company.the Company. None of our executive officers currently serves, or in the past year has served, as a member of the Board or compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers serving on the Board or compensation committee.

Evaluation of Board and Director Performance

-12-The Board believes that a regular evaluation process is an essential component of strong corporate governance practices. The nominating and corporate governance committee oversees an evaluation process to evaluate Board effectiveness and aid in succession planning. This process consists of a full Board evaluation as well as evaluations of each of the Board’s standing committees. The evaluations, which are distributed and obtained through outside counsel to promote candidness, seek feedback on Board and committee performance, chairman performance, processes, effectiveness, and opportunities for improvement. The questionnaires are designed to solicit feedback on a range of topics, including overall Board and committee dynamics, leadership, meeting agenda topics, information flow and access to management, director preparation and participation, and succession planning. The results of the evaluations are reviewed and discussed with the Board and its committees.


In addition to the Board and committee evaluation process, in fiscal year 2020 the nominating and corporate governance committee conducted a skill set survey of the current Board members. This survey solicited feedback on areas such as public board experience, relevant industry experience, market sector experience, and technical skills, including technology, accounting/finance, marketing/sales, public relations, strategy development, mergers and acquisitions, human resource management, and risk management and governance. The Board used the survey responses to evaluate the experience and expertise of the existing Board members and to identify the skills and characteristics of future director candidates, including Ms. Schwarting.

Director Nominations

The Board nominates directors for election at each annual meeting of shareholders and elects new directors to fill vacancies when they arise. The nominating and corporate governance committee has the responsibility to identify, evaluate, recruit and recommend qualified candidates to the Board for nomination or election.

Director Criteria. The nominating and corporate governance committee has a policy regarding consideration of director candidates recommended by shareholders. The nominating and corporate governance committee reviews suggestions for director candidates recommended by shareholders and considers such candidates for recommendation based upon an appropriate balance of knowledge, experience and capability. In addition to considering an appropriate balance of knowledge, experience and capability, the Board has as an objective that its membership be composed of experienced and dedicated individuals with diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. Except as may be required by rules promulgated by Nasdaq or the SEC, there are currently no specific, minimum qualifications that must be met by each candidate for the Board, nor are there any specific qualities or skills that are necessary for one or more of the members of the Board to possess. The nominating and corporate governance committee selects candidates for director based on their character, judgment, diversity of experience, independence, corporate experience, length of service, potential conflicts of interest, and his or hertheir willingness and ability to devote sufficient time to effectively carry out his or hertheir duties as a director. The nominating and corporate governance committee believes it appropriate for at least one member of the Board to meet the criteria for an “audit committee financial expert” as defined by SEC rules, and for a majority of the members of the Board to meet the definition of “independent director” under the rules of the NASDAQ.

Prior to each annual meeting of shareholders, the nominating and corporate governance committee will identify nominees first by reviewing the current directors whose term expires at the annual meeting of shareholders and who are willing to continue in service. These candidates are evaluated based on the criteria described above, including as demonstrated by the candidate’s prior service as a director, and the needs of the Board with respect to the particular talents and experience of its directors. In the event that a director does not wish to continue in service, the nominating and corporate governance committee determines not to nominate the director, or a vacancy is created on the Board as a result of a resignation, an increase in the size of the Board or other event, the nominating and corporate governance committee will consider various candidates for Board membership, including those suggested by members of the nominating and corporate governance committee, by other members of the Board, by any executive search firm engaged by the nominating and corporate governance committee and by shareholders. The nominating and corporate governance committee retained an executive

search firm to assist in sourcing potential candidates for our Board, including Ms. Schwarting. Upon review of Ms. Schwarting’s skills and characteristics, including an evaluation of the criteria described above, the nominating and corporate governance committee recommended Ms. Schwarting to the Board for selection as a nominee.

Shareholder Nominees. In addition, our articles of association contain provisions that address the process by which a shareholder may nominate an individual to stand for election to the Board at our annual meeting of shareholders. In order to nominate a candidate for director, a shareholder must give timely notice in writing to Ambarella, Inc.’s Secretary and otherwise comply with the provisions of our articles of association. To be timely, we must have received the shareholder’s notice not more than 120 days nor less than 90 days prior to the anniversary of the date our proxy statement was provided to shareholders in connection with previous year’s annual meeting of shareholders. However, if we did not hold an annual meeting of shareholders in the prior year or if the date of the annual meeting of shareholders is more than 30 days before or after the anniversary date of the prior year’s annual meeting of shareholders, we must receive the shareholder’s notice not earlier than the close of business on the 120th120th day prior to the Annual Meeting and not later than the close of business on the later of 90 days prior to the annual meeting of shareholders and the 10th10th day after the day we provided such public disclosure of the meeting date. Information required by the articles of association to be in the notice include the name and contact information for the candidate and the person making the nomination, the principal occupation or employment of the candidate, the class and number of Ambarella securities held by the candidate, and other information about the nominee that must be disclosed in proxy solicitations under Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the related rules and regulations under that Section. We received no director nominees from our shareholders for the upcoming Annual Meeting. Shareholder nominations must be

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made in accordance with the procedures outlined in, and include the information required by, our articles of association and must be addressed to 3101 Jay Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054, Attn: Secretary. You can obtain a copy of our articles of association by writing to the Secretary at this address.

Communications with the Board

The Board has adopted a formal process by which shareholders may communicate with the Board or any of its directors. Shareholders who wish to communicate with the Board or an individual director may send a written communication addressed as follows: Ambarella Board Communication, 3101 Jay Street, Santa Clara, California 95054. Each communication will be reviewed by the General Counsel of Ambarella who will forward the communication to the Board or to any individual director to whom the communication is addressed unless the communication is of a commercial, frivolous or similarly inappropriate nature, in which case, the General Counsel will discard the communication.

Corporate Governance Principles and Practices

We believe our corporate governance initiatives comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the rules and regulations of the SEC adopted thereunder. In addition, we believe our corporate governance initiatives comply with the rules of The NASDAQ Stock Market.

The Board has adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that applies to each of our directors, officers and employees. This code addresses various topics, including:

 

compliance with laws, rules and regulations, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;

 

conflicts of interest;

 

insider trading;

 

corporate opportunities;

 

competition and fair dealing;

equal employment and working conditions;

 

record keeping;

 

confidentiality;

 

giving and accepting gifts;

 

selecting suppliers and fostering partnerships;

 

protection and proper use of companyCompany assets; and

 

payments to government personnel and political contributions.

The Board also has adopted a Code of Ethics for our Chief Executive Officer and Senior Financial Officers, including our Chief Financial Officer and principal accounting officer, relating to ethical conduct, conflicts of interest and compliance with law. The Code of Conduct and the Code of Ethics for our Chief Executive Officer and Senior Financial Officers is available to shareholders on the investor relations portion of Ambarella’s website atwww.ambarella.com. Any waiver to the Code of Business Conduct for an executive officer or director or any waiver of the Code of Ethics may only be granted by the Board or a committee of the Board and must be timely disclosed as required by applicable law. We also have implemented whistleblower procedures that establish formal protocols for receiving and handling complaints from employees. Any concerns regarding accounting or auditing matters reported under these procedures will be communicated promptly to our audit committee.

DIRECTOR COMPENSATION

Ournon-employee directors receive compensation consisting of annual cash retainers for service on our Board and its standing committees, as well as equity grants awarded on an annual recurring basis as they remain a member of the Board.Non-employee directors joining the Board may also receive an equity grant in connection with their appointment to the Board. If elected to the Board, Ms. Schwarting is expected to receive compensation on the same terms as our other non-employee directors, including an equity grant.

Our compensation committee periodically reviews compensation for ournon-employee directors, including review of competitive practices provided by our compensation consultant. Our compensation committee last modified ournon-employee director compensation program for fiscal year 2017 compensation. We believe ournon-employee director compensation program provides reasonable compensation to ournon-employee directors that is appropriately aligned with our peers and is commensurate with the services and contributions of ournon-employee directors.

Cash Retainers. During fiscal year 2020, ournon-employee directors received an annual retainer of $35,000, prorated for partial service in any year and paid in cash. The chairpersons of our audit committee, compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee each receive an additional annual retainer of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500, respectively. Members of our audit committee, compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee, other than the chairpersons of those committees, receive an additional annual retainer of $10,000, $6,000 and $4,000, respectively. The individual acting as lead independent director, if any, receives an additional $15,000 annually for serving in that role. Cash retainers are paid in arrears at the end of each quarter for service during the previous quarter.

Stock Compensation. For fiscal year 2020, the equity award compensation structure for ournon-employee directors generally remained the same as was adopted for fiscal year 2017 and was continued for subsequent years. Each continuing director received a restricted stock unit award with an initial grant date fair value (determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles) of approximately $200,000 vesting quarterly over 12 months following grant, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting dates. Accordingly, on September 3, 2019, each of thenon-employee directors who were then serving on the Board received a restricted stock unit award covering 3,431 shares.

Equity awards granted to ournon-employee directors are subject to the terms and conditions of our 2012 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”) which provides an annual limit of $500,000 on the total value of equity compensation that may be paid to each continuingnon-employee director under the Plan. The Plan also provides an annual limit of $1,000,000 on the total value of equity compensation that may be paid to a new director in connection with being named to the Board. For these purposes, the value of an equity compensation award is determined as grant date fair value, which is determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Under the terms of the Plan, if awards, including those of our non-employee directors, are not assumed or substituted for in the event of a merger of change in control of the Company, all awards accelerate in full, and for awards with performance-based vesting, all performance goals or other vesting criteria are deemed achieved at 100% of target levels and all other terms and conditions met. The Plan also provides that if equity awards granted to non-employee directors are assumed or substituted for in a change in control but, on or after such assumption or substitution, the individual’s status as a director (or director of the successor) is terminated other than by a voluntary termination not requested by the acquirer, the non-employee director’s equity awards immediately vest in full.

Stock Ownership Guidelines. The Board believes that all directors should maintain a meaningful personal financial stake in the Company to align their long-term interests with those of our shareholders. We maintain stock ownership guidelines that apply to our executive officers andnon-employee directors. This policy requiresnon-employee directors to attain and maintain a minimum share ownership level equal to at least five times the annual cash retainer, i.e., $175,000 within five years of becoming a director. As of January 31, 2020, all of ournon-employee directors satisfy the equity ownership guidelines.

Director Compensation for Fiscal Year 2020

The following table sets forth the compensation paid or accrued by us to ournon-employee directors during fiscal year 2020. The table excludes Mr. Kohn and Dr. Wang, who did not receive any additional compensation from us in their roles as a director because they are employees of Ambarella.

 

Name

  Fees
Earned or
Paid in
Cash ($)
   Restricted
Stock
Awards
($)(1)(2)
  Total ($) 

Hsiao-Wuen Hon

  $41,000   $199,993(3)  $240,993 

Chenming C. Hu

  $51,000   $199,993(4)  $250,993 

Teresa H. Meng

  $41,000   $199,993(5)  $240,993 

Christopher B. Paisley

  $54,000   $199,993(6)  $253,993 

D. Jeffrey Richardson

  $59,000   $199,993(7)  $258,993 

Andrew W. Verhalen

  $57,500   $199,993(8)  $257,493 

-14-

(1)

The dollar amounts in this column represent the aggregate grant date fair value calculated in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 718 for stock awards granted during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020.

(2)

Represents restricted stock unit awards for 3,431 ordinary shares granted on September 3, 2019 to allnon-employee directors.

(3)

As of January 31, 2020, Dr. Hon held an outstanding restricted stock unit award covering 2,574 shares.

(4)

As of January 31, 2020, Dr. Hu held unexercised options to purchase 6,667 shares, and an outstanding restricted stock unit award covering 2,574 shares.

(5)

As of January 31, 2020, Dr. Meng held an outstanding restricted stock unit award covering 2,574 shares.

(6)

As of January 31, 2020, Mr. Paisley held unexercised options to purchase 13,777 shares, and an outstanding restricted stock unit award covering 2,574 shares.

(7)

As of January 31, 2020, Mr. Richardson held unexercised options to purchase 16,111 shares, and an outstanding restricted stock unit award covering 2,574 shares.

(8)

As of January 31, 2020, Mr. Verhalen held unexercised options to purchase 11,110 shares, and an outstanding restricted stock unit award covering 2,574 shares.


PROPOSAL 2

RATIFICATION OF APPOINTMENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

The audit committee of the Board has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Ambarella’s independent registered public accounting firm, or independent auditors, for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2017,2021, and has further directed that management submit the appointment of independent auditors for ratification by the shareholders at the Annual Meeting. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has audited Ambarella’s financial statements since fiscal year 2007. Representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP are expected to be present at the Annual Meeting. They will have an opportunity to make a statement if they so desire and will be available to respond to appropriate questions.

Neither Ambarella’s Articles of Association nor other governing documents or law require shareholder ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Ambarella’s independent auditors. However, the audit committee is submitting the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to shareholders for ratification as a matter of good corporate practice. If the shareholders fail to ratify the appointment, the audit committee will reconsider whether or not to retain that firm. Even if the appointment is ratified, the audit committee in its discretion may direct the appointment of different independent auditors at any time during the year if they determine that such a change would be in the best interests of Ambarella and its shareholders.

The affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the shares present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting will be required to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Abstentions will be counted toward the tabulation of votes cast on proposals presented to the shareholders and will have the same effect as negative votes.

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

The following table represents aggregate fees billed to Ambarella by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for the fiscal years ended January 31, 20152019 and 2016, respectively:2020, respectively, all of which were approved by the audit committee:

 

  Fiscal Year Ended
January 31,
   Fiscal Year Ended
January 31,
 
  2016
($)
   2015
($)
   2020
($)
   2019
($)
 

Audit Fees (1)

   1,229,250     1,501,700     1,427,500    1,418,850 

Audit-Related Fees

   —       —       —      —   

Tax Fees (2)

   54,240     35,050     65,850    66,000 

All Other Fees (3)

   1,800     1,800     2,700    2,700 
  

 

   

 

 

Total Fees

   1,285,290     1,538,550     1,496,050    1,487,550 

 

(1)

Audit Fees. The aggregate fees billed for the fiscal years ended January 31, 20162020 and 20152019 were for professional services rendered for the audits of our consolidated financial statements, statutory audits of our subsidiaries, the review of our interim consolidated financial statements, the audit of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, services rendered in connection with registration statements on FormS-8, comfort letters and other matters related to the SEC.

(2)

Tax Fees. The aggregate fees billed for the fiscal years ended January 31, 20162020 and January 31, 20152019 were for tax advisory and tax compliance services related to tax research and tax planning services in foreign countries in which we do business.

(3)

All Other Fees consists of fees for access to online accounting and tax research software applications and data.

All fees described above were approved by the audit committee.

-15-


Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures

The audit committee has adopted a policy and procedures for thepre-approval of audit andnon-audit services rendered by our independent auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The policy generallypre-approves specified services in the defined categories of audit services, audit-related services and tax services up to specified amounts.Pre-approval may also be given as part of the audit committee’s approval of the scope of the engagement of the independent auditors or on an individual, explicit,case-by-case basis before the independent auditor is engaged to provide each service. Thepre-approval of services may be delegated to one or more of the audit committee’s members, but the decision must be reported to the full audit committee at its next scheduled meeting.

The audit committee has determined that the rendering of the services described above by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is compatible with maintaining the principal accountant’s independence.

Vote Required

Ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares present and voting at the Annual Meeting in person or by proxy. Unless otherwise indicated, proxies received will be voted “FOR” ratification of the appointment. In the event ratification is not obtained, the audit committee will review its future appointment of our independent registered public accountants.

The Board recommends a vote FOR the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm.

-16-


REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE1

The audit committee provides assistance to the Board of Directors in fulfilling its legal and fiduciary obligations in matters involving Ambarella’s accounting, auditing, financial reporting, internal control and legal compliance functions by approving the services performed by Ambarella’s independent accountants and reviewing their reports regarding Ambarella’s accounting practices and systems of internal accounting controls as set forth in a written charter adopted by the Board. Ambarella’s management is responsible for preparing Ambarella’s financial statements and the independent registered public accountants are responsible for auditing those financial statements. The audit committee is responsible for overseeing the conduct of these activities by Ambarella’s management and the independent registered public accountants.

In this context, the audit committee has met and held discussions with management and the independent registered public accountants. Management represented to the audit committee that Ambarella’s consolidated financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and the audit committee has reviewed and discussed the consolidated financial statements with management and the independent registered public accountants. The audit committee has discussed with the independent registered public accountants matters required to be discussed by Statement on Auditing Standards No. 61, as amended.the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the SEC. In addition, the independent registered public accountants provided to the audit committee the written disclosures required by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Rule 3526 (Communication with Audit Committees Concerning Independence) and the audit committee and the independent registered public accountants have discussed such accountants’ independence from Ambarella and its management. The audit committee has discussed with Ambarella’s internal and independent registered public accountants, with and without management present, their evaluations of Ambarella’s internal accounting controls and the overall quality of Ambarella’s financial reporting.

In reliance on the reviews and discussions with management and the independent registered public accountants referred to above, the audit committee recommended to the Board, and the Board has approved, the inclusion of the audited financial statements in Ambarella’s Annual Report on Form10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016,2020, for filing with the SEC.

Christopher B. Paisley (Chairman)

Chenming C. Hu

D. Jeffrey Richardson

 

1 

The material in this report does not constitute soliciting material and shall not be deemed filed or incorporated by reference into any other filing by Ambarella under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

-17-


PROPOSAL 3

ADVISORY VOTE TO APPROVE EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), allows our shareholders to vote to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers. At our annual meeting of shareholders held in 2015, the Company’s shareholders approved, on an advisory basis, soliciting a shareholder advisory vote on the compensation of our named executive officers on an annual basis.basis and the Company holds such advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers annually. Accordingly, this year we again are asking our shareholders to provide an advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers, including the Compensation Discussion and Analysis section, along with the accompanying compensation tables and narrative disclosures as described in this Proxy Statement. This proposal, commonly known as a “say-on-pay”“say-on-pay” proposal, gives our shareholders the opportunity to express their views on the compensation of our named executive officers.

The “say-on-pay”“say-on-pay” vote is advisory, and as such is not binding on the Company, but it does provide the compensation committee with valuable information about shareholder opinion of our executive compensation policies and programs for consideration when determining executive compensation in the future. After the “say on pay” vote at this year’s annual meeting of stockholders, the next“say-on-pay” vote will be scheduled to occur at the Company’s annual meeting of stockholders in 2021.

Please see the Compensation Discussion and Analysis section of this Proxy Statement beginning on page [    ],23, the accompanying compensation tables and the narrative disclosures for greater detail about our executive compensation programs, including information about the fiscal year 20162020 compensation of our named executive officers. We believe that our executive compensation programs have been effective in achieving long-term alignment of management and shareholder interests, consistent with the Company’s philosophy on pay and performance.

We ask that you vote “FOR” the followfollowing resolution:

RESOVLED:RESOLVED: That the shareholders of Ambarella, Inc. hereby approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the named executive officers, including the Compensation Discussion and Analysis, compensation tables and the narrative discussion, as disclosed in the Proxy Statement furnished for the 20162020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Vote Required

Approval, on an advisory basis, of named executive officer compensation requires the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the shares present and voting at the Annual Meeting in person or by proxy. Unless otherwise indicated, proxies received will be voted “FOR” approval, on an advisory basis, of named executive officer compensation.

The Board unanimously recommends a vote “FOR” the approval, on an advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in this Proxy Statement.

-18-


EQUITY COMPENSATION PLAN INFORMATION

The following table provides certain information with respect to all of Ambarella’s equity compensation plans in effect as of January 31, 2016:

Plan Category

  Number of
Securities to be
Issued upon
Exercise of
Outstanding
Options,
Restricted
Stock Units
and Rights
  Weighted Average
Exercise Price of
Outstanding Options
and Rights
   Number of Securities
Remaining Available
for Future Issuance
Under Equity
Compensation Plans
Excluding Securities
Reflected in the first
Column)
 

Equity compensation plans approved by security holders:

     

2004 Stock Option Plan (1)

   1,163,647(4)  $6.74     0  

2012 Equity Incentive Plan (2)

   2,787,643(5)  $38.02     1,076,185  

2012 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (3)

   —     $—       974,273  

Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders

   —     $—       —    

TOTAL:

   3,951,290   $19.36     2,050,458  

(1)Our Board of Directors adopted, and our shareholders approved, the 2004 Stock Option Plan, as amended, or 2004 Plan. The 2004 Plan was last amended on August 28, 2012. A total of 1,163,647 ordinary shares are reserved for issuance under the 2004 Plan pursuant to outstanding options. As a result of our initial public offering in October 2012 and the adoption of the 2012 Equity Incentive Plan at that time, we no longer grant awards under the 2004 Plan; however, all outstanding options issued pursuant to the 2004 Plan prior to our initial public offering continue to be governed by their existing terms.
(2)Our Board of Directors adopted, and our shareholders approved, the 2012 Equity Incentive Plan, or 2012 Plan, which became effective in October 2012 in connection with our initial public offering. A total of 1,104,445 ordinary shares were initially authorized for issuance under the 2012 Plan. Shares reserved for issuance under the 2004 Plan that were not subject to outstanding awards at the completion of our initial public offering or which are subject to awards granted under the 2004 Plan and subsequently expire, terminate or are forfeited to us, are added to the 2012 Plan. In addition, the 2012 Plan provides that the number of ordinary shares available for issuance under the 2012 Plan will be increased on the first day of each fiscal year beginning with the 2014 fiscal year, in an amount equal to the least of (i) 3,500,000 ordinary shares, (ii) four and one-half percent (4.5%) of the outstanding ordinary shares on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year or (iii) such lesser number of ordinary shares determined by the Board.
(3)Our Board of Directors adopted, and our shareholders approved, the 2012 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or ESPP, which became effective in October 2012 in connection with our initial public offering. A total of 460,445 ordinary shares were initially authorized for issuance under the ESPP. The ESPP provides that the number of ordinary shares available for issuance under the ESPP will be increased on the first day of each fiscal year beginning with the 2014 fiscal year, in an amount equal to the least of (i) 1,500,000 ordinary shares, (ii) one and one-quarter percent (1.25%) of the outstanding ordinary shares on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year or (iii) such other amount as may be determined by the Board.
(4)Consists of 57,862 shares granted as restricted stock units and options to purchase 1,105,785 shares.
(5)Consists of 2,040,035 shares granted as restricted stock units or restricted stock and options to purchase 747,608 shares.

-19-


SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT

The following table sets forth certain information regarding the ownership of Ambarella’s ordinary shares as of March 1, 2016 by: (i) each director and nominee for director; (ii) each of the executive officers named in the Summary Compensation Table (referred to in this Proxy Statement as our “named executive officers”); (iii) all executive officers and directors of Ambarella as a group; and (iv) all those known by Ambarella to be beneficial owners of more than five percent of its ordinary shares.

   Beneficial Ownership (1) 

Beneficial Owner

  Number of Shares   Percent of Total 

5% Shareholders:

    

The Vanguard Group (2)

   2,358,462     7.29

Named Executive Officers:

    

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang (3)

   549,981     1.68

Leslie Kohn (4)

   872,330     2.70

George Laplante (5)

   145,804     *  

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen (6)

   31,153     *  

Christopher Day (7)

   23,948     *  

Directors:

    

Chenming C. Hu (8)

   30,637     *  

Christopher B. Paisley (9)

   35,415     *  

D. Jeffrey Richardson (10)

   15,984     *  

Lip-Bu Tan (11)

   22,908     *  

Andrew W. Verhalen (12)

   60,498     *  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

All named executive officers and directors as a group (10 persons) (13)

   1,788,658     5.43

*Less than one percent.
(1)This table is based upon information supplied by officers, directors and, in the case of principal shareholders, Schedules 13G filed with the SEC prior to March 1, 2016. Unless otherwise indicated in the footnotes to this table and subject to community property laws where applicable, Ambarella believes that each of the shareholders named in this table has sole voting and investment power with respect to the shares indicated as beneficially owned. Applicable percentages are based on 32,340,233 of our ordinary shares outstanding on March 1, 2016. Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with the rules of the SEC. In computing the number of shares beneficially owned by a person and the percentage of ownership of that person, stock options held by that person that are currently exercisable or become exercisable within 60 days of March 1, 2016 and restricted stock unit awards held by that person that are subject to release within 60 days of March 1, 2016 are considered to be outstanding and beneficially owned by such person. Those shares, however, are not deemed outstanding for the purpose of computing the percentage ownership of any other person.
(2)Pursuant to a Schedule 13G dated February 10, 2016 filed with the SEC, The Vanguard Group reported that as of December 31, 2015 it had sole voting power over 54,066 shares, shared voting power over 1,700 shares, sole dispositive power over 2,304,596 shares, and shared dispositive power over 53,866 shares, and that its principal address is 100 Vanguard Blvd., Malvern, PA 19355.
(3)Includes (i) 340,914 shares that Dr. Wang has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 16,042 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards.
(4)Includes (i) 12,520 shares that Mr. Kohn has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 10,239 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards.

-20-


(5)Includes (i) 85,778 shares that Mr. Laplante has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 8,414 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards.
(6)Includes (i) 22,281 shares that Mr. Chen has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 4,437 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards.
(7)Includes (i) 8,001 shares that Mr. Day has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 3,550 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards.
(8)Includes (i) 6,667 shares that Dr. Hu has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options, and (ii) 1,153 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.
(9)Includes (i) 27,554 shares that Mr. Paisley has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options, and (ii) 1,153 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.
(10)Includes (i) 9,721 shares that Mr. Richardson has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options, and (ii) 1,570 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.
(11)Includes (i) 18,055 shares that may be acquired pursuant to stock options exercisable within 60 days of March 1, 2016, (ii) 1,153 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award, and (iii) 464 shares held by the Lip-Bu Tan & Ysa Loo Trust. Mr. Tan disclaims beneficial ownership of any shares held by the Lip-Bu Tan & Ysa Loo Trust except to the extent of any pecuniary interest therein.
(12)Includes (i) 11,110 shares that Mr. Verhalen has a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options, (ii) 1,153 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award, and (iii) 1,700 shares held in family trusts.
(13)Includes an aggregate of 591,465 shares that our directors and executive officers have a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2016 pursuant to outstanding options and restricted stock unit awards.

SECTION 16(a) BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REPORTING COMPLIANCE

Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act requires Ambarella’s directors and executive officers, and persons who own more than ten percent of a registered class of Ambarella’s equity securities, to file with the SEC initial reports of ownership and reports of changes in ownership of ordinary shares and other equity securities of Ambarella. Officers, directors and greater than ten percent shareholders are required by SEC regulation to furnish Ambarella with copies of all Section 16(a) forms they file. To Ambarella’s knowledge, based solely on a review of the copies of the reports furnished to Ambarella and written representations that no other reports were required, during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016, we believe that our officers, directors and greater than ten percent beneficial owners complied with all applicable Section 16(a) filing requirements.

-21-


CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS

In addition to the compensation arrangements with directors and executive officers described elsewhere in this Proxy Statement, the following is a description of each transaction since February 1, 2015 and each currently proposed transaction in which:

Ambarella has been or is to be a participant;

the amount involved exceeds or will exceed $120,000; and

any of our directors, executive officers or beneficial holders of more than 5% of our ordinary shares, or any immediate family member of or person sharing the household with any of these individuals (other than tenants or employees), had or will have a direct or indirect material interest.

Indemnification Agreements with Executive Officers and Directors

Ambarella has entered into indemnification agreements with each of its directors and executive officers pursuant to which Ambarella has agreed to indemnify the directors and executive officers against certain liabilities and expenses incurred by such persons in connection with claims by reason of their being such a director or officer. These indemnification agreements and Ambarella’s memorandum and articles of association will indemnify each of our directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by applicable Cayman Islands law.

License Agreements with Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

In fiscal year 2008, Ambarella entered into a master software license agreement with Cadence Design Systems, Inc., or Cadence. From time to time, Ambarella has added additional software license commitments its existing software license agreement. A member of our Board, Lip-Bu Tan, is also the Chief Executive Officer, President and a director of Cadence. Our Board has noted that Mr. Tan did not derive any direct or indirect material benefit from such agreements. Pursuant to license commitments under the master software license agreement, Ambarella currently is committed to pay an aggregate amount of $7.5 million payable through January 2017.

Code of Conduct Policy and Procedures

In 2012, Ambarella adopted a formal written policy that became effective upon completion of Ambarella’s initial public offering that all executive officers, directors, nominees for election as directors, beneficial owners of more than 5% of our ordinary shares and any member of the immediate family of any of the foregoing persons, are not permitted to enter into a related party transaction in which the aggregate amount involved will or may be expected exceed $120,000 in any calendar year with Ambarella without the prior consent of Ambarella’s audit committee, subject to the pre-approval exceptions described below. If advance approval is not feasible then the related party transaction will be considered at the audit committee’s next regularly scheduled meeting. In approving or rejecting any such proposal, the audit committee is to consider the relevant facts and circumstances including, but not limited to, whether the transaction is on terms no less favorable than terms generally available to an unaffiliated third party under the same or similar circumstances and the extent of the related party’s interest in the transaction. The Board has delegated to the chair of the audit committee the authority to pre-approve or ratify any request to enter into a transaction with a related party, in which the amount involved is less than $250,000 and where the chair is not the related party. The audit committee may also review certain types of related party transactions that it has deemed pre-approved even if the aggregate amount involved will exceed $120,000 including, employment of executive officers, director compensation, certain transactions with other organizations, certain charitable contributions, transactions where all shareholders receive proportional benefits, transactions involving competitive bids, regulated transactions and certain banking-related services.

-22-


EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

The following table sets forth certain information about our current executive officers and their respective ages as of March 31, 2016.2020. There are no family relationships among any of our directors or executive officers.

 

Name

  

Age

   

Position(s)

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D.

   5256   Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer

Leslie Kohn

   5963   Chief Technology Officer and Director

George LaplanteKevin C. (Casey) Eichler

   6460   Chief Financial Officer

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen

   5155   Vice President, Business Development

Christopher Day

   5256   Vice President, Marketing and Business Development

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang Ph.D. andLeslie Kohn. For brief biographies of Dr. Wang and Mr. Kohn, please see “Proposal 1 – Election of Class III Directors” above.

George W. LaplanteKevin C. (Casey) Eichler has served as our Chief Financial Officer since March 2011. From May 2009August 2018. Prior to March 2011,joining Ambarella, Mr. LaplanteEichler most recently served as a management consultantPresident and interim chief financial officer to several private technology companies. From March 2007 to May 2009, Mr. Laplante served as the Chief Financial Officer of Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. from March 2015 to July 2016 and Secretary of Santur Corporation, a manufacturer of laser technology for the communications industry. From September 2000 to December 2006, Mr. Laplante served as theExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from July 2009 to February 2015, where he oversaw all the financial reporting for the company, as well as business development and Secretary of 2Wire, Inc., a provider of broadband services platforms.key customer relationships. Prior to joining 2Wire,Ultra Clean Holdings, Mr. LaplanteEichler was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Credence Systems Corporation from January 2008 to November 2008, Executive Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer of MarketTools, Inc. from March 2006 to December 2007, and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of MIPS Technologies Inc. from June 1998 to February 2006. Prior to that, he held finance and management positions at Action Computer Supplies Holdings Plc., ACS Distribution, Inc., Arneson Marine, Inc., Molecular Computer,with several technology companies, including Visigenic Software, NeXT Software and Televideo Systems, Inc.Microsoft. Mr. Laplante began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Company. Mr. LaplanteEichler holds a B.A.Bachelor of Science degree in Economicsaccounting from Southern Connecticut State College and a Masters in Accountancy from Bowling Green StateSt. John’s University.

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen has served as our Vice President, Business Development since June 2011, and was Sr. Director of Sales from January 2005 to June 2011. Prior to joining Ambarella, Mr. Chen was Director of Sales for Marvell Technology, a semiconductor company, from December 2002 to October 2003. From October 1997 to October 2002, Mr. Chen served as Director of Sales for Wintech Microelectronics, a distributor of electronics. Mr. Chen holds a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Tung Hai University in Taiwan.

Christopher Day has served as our Vice President, Marketing and Business Development since March 2010. Prior to joining Ambarella, Mr. Day was President and Chief Executive Officer of Mobilygen, Inc., a video compression company from March 2007 to October 2008, prior to acquisition by Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., and then served as Executive Director of Business Management of Maxim until March 2010. From February 2002 to February 2007, Mr. Day served as General Manager of Media Processing at NXP Semiconductors N.V., formerly Philips Semiconductor. From February 1998 to May 2001, Mr. Day served as Senior Director of Marketing forC-Cube Microsystems. Prior to joiningC-Cube Microsystems, Mr. Day held sales and marketing positions at AuraVision, Inc., Motorola, Inc., and Hitachi, Ltd. Mr. Day holds a B.S. degree in computer and microprocessor systems from Essex University in the United Kingdom, and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.

-23-


EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

Compensation Discussion and Analysis

This Compensation Discussion and Analysis discusses the compensation programs and policies for our named executive officers (“NEOs”) for fiscal year 2016, who2020, ended January 31, 2020. Our NEOs for fiscal year 2020 were:

 

Name

  

Position(s)

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D.

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

George Laplante

Chief Financial Officer (“CEO”)

Leslie Kohn

  Chief Technology Officer and Director

Kevin C. “Casey” Eichler

Chief Financial Officer

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen

Vice President, Business Development

Christopher Day

  Vice President, Marketing and Business Development

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen

Vice President, Business Development

The information contained in this Compensation Discussion and Analysis should be read in connection with the compensation tables below, which provide a detailed view of the compensation paid to our NEOs in fiscal year 2016.2020.

Executive Summary

Shareholder Outreach

Prior to 2018, our shareholders showed strong support for our executive compensation program, and that support guided our compensation committee in making its decisions. The Say on Pay vote at our 2018 annual meeting of shareholders, however, received significantly lower support (56.4%) than prior votes. In response to the lower level of support, we actively engaged in a shareholder outreach program to solicit feedback relating to executive compensation and corporate governance practices. The feedback we received from shareholders informed the compensation committee’s deliberations and decisions, resulting in the adoption of significant changes for our fiscal year 2020 NEO compensation programs:

Revised the annual bonus program to include strategic objectives, equally weighted with revenue and operating profit metrics.

Revised equity program to eliminate annual performance metrics and utilize only a three-year relative TSR metric.

Revised equity program to be 50% RSUs and 50% PRSUs for all NEOs.

Revised peer group to more closely align with the Company’s market cap, revenues, industry and growth profile.

We believe these changes better align executive pay with Company performance, focus the management team on achieving objectives that support the Company’s business transformation and emphasize long-term value creation. These changes were anticipated in our proxy statement for the 2019 annual meeting, at which our Say on Pay vote received strong support of approximately 93%. In light of such support, we have maintained these structural changes for fiscal year 2021.

Fiscal Year 2020 Business Highlights.

We are a leading developer of semiconductor solutions that enable high-definition, or HD, and Ultra HD video capture, analysis, sharing and display. Historically, we primarily focused on providing video and image processors for specialized professional and consumer camera devices, such as internet protocol, or IP, security

cameras, wearable sports cameras, drone cameras and aftermarket automotive video recorders. Over the last several years, our development efforts have focused on creating advanced artificial intelligence, or AI, computer vision, or CV, algorithms and high-performance,low-power hardware platforms to enhance processing acceleration, which we refer to as our CVflow architecture. The CVflow architecture supports a variety of CV algorithms, including stereovision, object identification and motion detection, obstacle detection and avoidance, terrain mapping technology and face recognition, and allows customers to differentiate their products by porting their own algorithms and neural networks to our CVflow-based chips. This CV technology, combined with our traditional video and image processing technology, is allowing us to address a broader range of markets and applications, including the OEM automotive market and industrial and robotics applications, which we believe will be critical to our long term growth.

Our business transformation toCV-centric products continued in fiscal year 2020. Between January 2018 and January 2019, we introduced our first four CV based SoCs to enable our customers to develop intelligent camera systems for a variety of markets at different feature levels. We focused our initial marketing efforts with these new SoCs on the professional IP security market, which tends to have a faster rate of adoption for new video processing technology. However, with our expanded portfolio of CV solutions, we are now targeting the professional IP security market, the home security and monitoring market, the OEM automotive market, as well as industrial and robotics applications. In the automotive market, our solutions address six different camera systems: video recorders,in-cabin and driver monitoring cameras, electronic mirrors, surround view monitoring, front camera advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS), and autonomous driving systems.

We have discussed that we anticipate three initial waves of revenue from our new CV solutions. A first wave from adoption of our CV solutions in the professional IP security camera market, followed by a wave from the adoption of our solutions in the home security and monitoring market, and finally a wave from adoption by the automotive market. Our success in achieving these three waves is dependent upon continued timely research and development of new CV technology and solutions, as well as securing design wins with customers across these primary markets and getting the customers into production with our solutions.

In fiscal year 2020, we made substantial progress against our objectives, including:

Announcing our initial Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) compliant solutions, the CV2FS and CV22FS, for automotive safety applications, such as ADAS and self-driving applications;

Achieving production status with more than five professional IP security customers with our CV solutions;

Achieving initial CV design wins in the home security and monitoring market;

More than 100 different customers purchasing engineering parts, evaluation kits and/or development boards for our AI computer vision products; and

Demonstrating our own stereo vision autonomous driving testing in California and Italy.

Transitioning to new markets and new customers presents significant challenges. For our transformation to be successful, we believe it is important to establish not only the robustness and competitiveness of our technology, but also that the Company is prepared to be a supplier to these markets. The automotive OEM market, in particular, tends to be more conservative than our traditional camera markets and places greater emphasis on quality and reliability. Exiting fiscal year 2020, we believed that we were well positioned to begin to capitalize on ourCV-related efforts, in light of the number of companies that have gone into production with our CV solutions as well as the number of customers that purchased engineering parts, evaluation kits and/or development boards in fiscal year 2020. TheCOVID-19 pandemic, however, has created a significant amount of uncertainty and will likely continue to create uncertainty well into the 2020 calendar year and may have a negative impact on our financial results if the pandemic progresses in ways that significantly disrupt the manufacture, shipment and buying patterns of our products or the products of our customers.

Our executive compensation programs support our long-term strategy, and furthermore, adapt and pivot based on business needs and changes in our strategy. Continuity of leadership is critical during this juncture of our transformation and the compensation committee of our Board (the “compensation committee”) has sought to adapt our compensation programs around strategic initiatives that are critical to our future success. As we strive to balance short-term retention needs against longer-term pay for performance objectives, we have taken in feedback from shareholders and proxy advisors and implemented changes in its executive compensation for fiscal year 2020 and beyond.

Fiscal Year 2020 Executive Compensation Highlights.

In fiscal year 2017, the compensation committee undertook a holistic review of our executive compensation programs, resulting in several changes implemented in fiscal year 2018. These programs were adjusted for fiscal year 2019 and then further adjusted in fiscal year 2020 to address feedback from shareholders and proxy advisors and to align with market pay levels. The largest portion of executive compensation continues to be variable and tied directly to the achievement of annual and longer-term strategic and financial goals. Key compensation highlights from fiscal year 2020 include:

No increase in CEO equity target. In fiscal year 2019, the compensation committee reduced our CEO’s target equity pay, the largest component of our compensation structure, by 15% after a review of market pay levels. This reduced level of target equity pay was maintained for fiscal year 2020.

Reduction inannual executive bonus pool target:In fiscal year 2020, the total size of the target pool available for executive bonuses was reduced 10% year-over-year.

Annual bonus based on strategic objectives and financial targets. Based in part on feedback from shareholders, annual strategic objectives were implemented into the annual bonus program alongside the Company’s traditional revenue and operating profit metrics. Based upon the Company’s fiscal year 2020 performance, the executive bonus pool was funded at 161% of target, primarily driven by increased revenue and operating profit against target:

Revenue was $228.7 million versus a target of $205.5 million, resulting in a payout of 157%. In setting the revenue target, the compensation committee acknowledged that the target was below the prior year’s revenue but noted that the Company continued to be in the midst of its transition to markets focused on CV applications and there was substantial concern of disruption among the Company’s large China IP security camera customers due to new US regulations and the brewing trade dispute between the US and China. The higher than target revenue was primarily attributable to higher revenue from the home security and monitoring portion of the IP security camera market, primarily in the North America region, and the sports camera market.

Operating profit, before bonus accruals was $19.59 million versus a target of $2.30 million, resulting in a payout of 189%. In setting the operating profit target, the compensation committee acknowledged that the target was below the prior year’s operating profit, but noted that revenue was anticipated to be lower than the prior year and to achieve the Company’s long-term objectives required the Company to continue to invest in its development of CV technology and solutions. The higher than target operating profit was primarily due to the increased revenue mentioned above.

The Company achieved 3.75 of 5 possible strategic objectives, resulting in a payout of 137.5%.

Increased focus on long-term performance in fiscal year 2020 equity design:

Removed annual strategic goals from PRSU program, and used only a three-year relative TSR performance metric.

Implemented a 50/50 split between time-based RSUs and performance-based PRSUs for all NEOs. Previously, PRSUs made up only 30% of the mix for NEOs other than the CEO, and RSUs made up 70% of the mix.

Modified the Company’s compensation peer group. Based in part on feedback received from shareholders and proxy advisors, the Company’s compensation peer group was modified for fiscal year 2020 to more closely align with the Company’s size, industry and growth profile. As a result, six companies were removed from the peer group and replaced with six companies that better align with the Company’s size and industry.

Implementing Shareholder Feedback in Fiscal Year 2020 Compensation Structure.

Since our first annual Say on Pay vote in 2015, shareholders historically have shown strong support for our executive compensation program, with votes ranging between 93.3% to 95.8% of votes cast, which guided our compensation committee in making its decisions. Our Say on Pay proposal at our 2018 annual shareholder meeting, which took place during our 2019 fiscal year, received 56.4% shareholder support. In response to this lower level of support, we engaged in a shareholder outreach program to solicit feedback relating to executive compensation and corporate governance practices. The feedback we received from shareholders informed the compensation committee’s deliberations and decisions, resulting in the adoption of significant changes for our fiscal year 2020 NEO compensation programs, including:

Revised the annual bonus program for fiscal year 2020 to include strategic objectives, equally weighted with the Company’s traditional revenue and operating income metrics. We believe the annual strategic goals focus the management team on achieving objectives that support the Company’s transition from traditional consumer based markets to computer vision applications, while maintaining incentives to grow revenue in a profitable manner.

As a result of shareholder feedback, we revised the equity program for fiscal year 2020 to eliminate the inclusion of annual performance metrics, which we had previously included in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, and utilized only a three-year relative TSR metric. This structure has been retained for fiscal year 2021.

Revised our peer group for fiscal year 2020 to more closely align with the Company’s market cap, revenues, industry and growth profile.

These changes were initially disclosed in our 2019 proxy statement, which was prepared during our fiscal year 2020. In voting on the Say on Pay for our fiscal year 2019 executive compensation, our shareholders seemingly supported the changes, resulting in a Say on Pay vote at the 2019 Annual Meeting of approximately 93% in favor of the executive compensation program.

The compensation committee is committed to engaging with shareholders on executive compensation and corporate governance matters. We also conduct ongoing reviews of our corporate governance policies, practices and market trends.

Pay for Performance.The cornerstone of our executive compensation program is pay for performance. Accordingly, while we pay competitive base salaries and other benefits, a significant portion of each of our NEOs’ compensation opportunity is based on variable pay.

Fiscal Year 2016 Business Highlights. We arepay in the form of performance-based bonuses and equity awards. As discussed above, our business has been undergoing a leading developer of semiconductor processing solutions for video that enable high-definition, or HD, video capture, sharing and display. Our system-on-a-chip, or SoC, designs fully integrate HD video processing, image processing, audio processing and system functions onto a single chip, delivering exceptional video and image quality, differentiated functionality and low power consumption. Our technology platform is designed to be easily scalable across multiple applications and enable rapid and efficient product development. In thetransition from our legacy consumer camera market, our solutions enable the creation of high-quality video content primarily formarkets, such as wearable sports cameras, Internet Protocol, or IP, security cameras, automotive aftermarket cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known ascamera enabled drones, or flying cameras. IntoAI-based CV applications for professional, automotive, and industrial and robotic applications. This multi-year effort has presented retention challenges. It is imperative to galvanize our employees and executives around the infrastructure market, our solutions efficiently manage IP video traffic, broadcast encoding, transcodingstrategic initiatives during this transformation, which is critical to the Company’s future success and IP video delivery applications.

In fiscal year 2016, we achieved several significant business results, including

annual revenues of $316.4 million, a 45% year-over-year increase;

operating income of $76.5 million, a 51% year-over-year increase;

cash flows from operating activities of $123.6 million, as compared to $52.3 million in fiscal year 2015;

releasing our H2 SoC, an advanced processor fabricated in 14 nm process node that supports 4K ultra HD HEVC video resolution at 120 frames per second as well as high frame-rate video for capturing fast-action sports with 1080p video at 240 frames per second;

continuing to diversify our business with revenue from UAV and consumer IP security applications contributing revenue in fiscal 2016; and

completing our first acquisition (in June 2015) by acquiring VisLab S.r.l., a developer of computer vision algorithms and intelligent control systems for automotive applications.

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Fiscal Year 2016 Executive Compensation Highlights.direction. For fiscal year 2016, our compensation program2020, we implemented a new framework for our NEOs demonstrated our commitmentannual bonus program by incorporating short-term strategic objectives in addition to our philosophy of payingannual financial metrics. We also recognize that sustainable long-term growth is significant for performance:

We increased the bonuses paid to our NEOs under the fiscal year 2016 plan to reflect our very strong performance during the fiscal year, including annual revenue of $316 million, up 45% over fiscal year 2015,shareholders and, operating profit of $76.5 million, an increase of 51% compared to the prior year;

We provided no salary increases to our NEOsas a result, for fiscal year 2016,2020 the PRSUs granted to all NEOs are based upon a three-year total shareholder return metric.

The composition of the total annual compensation of our CEO for fiscal year 2020, as our compensation committee and our board of directors continued to emphasize incentive compensation for our NEOs; andreported in the Summary Compensation Table further below, was as follows:

 

Our compensation committee and our board of directors approved equity awards to our NEOs at levels that met competitive market concerns, satisfied retention objectives, rewarded individual contributions and company performance, and the majority of which were contingent upon the Company achieving certain financial objectives.LOGO

Corporate Governance Best Practices

 

What we do:

What we don’t do:

•  Link pay and performance by establishing corporate performance objectives under our fiscal year 2020 plan and granting a substantial portion of pay in the form of equity awards, including performance-based awards

•  Have stock ownership guidelines for our NEOs

•  Have a clawback policy for performance-based compensation paid to our NEOs

•  Have double-trigger change in control provisions in our NEO severance agreements

•  Have retained an independent compensation consultant to assist our compensation committee

•  Conduct annual“say-on-pay” advisory votes

•  Engage in discussions with shareholders regarding our executive compensation programs

✗   No employment agreements with NEOs other than standard change in control severance agreements

✗   No hedging or pledging of company stock by directors or NEOs

✗   No excessive perquisites to NEOs

✗   No “taxgross-ups”, except in case of legacy agreements with two company founders

We provide a clear link between pay and performance by establishing corporate performance objectives under our fiscal year 2016 bonus plan, the achievement of which results in the funding of the bonus pool; and granting a substantial portion of executive compensation in the form of equity awards, which are intended to more closely align the interests of our executives with those of our shareholders.

Our fiscal year 2016 bonuses paid to our NEOs reflect our strong financial and operating performance during the fiscal year.

We provided no salary increases to our NEOs for fiscal year 2016, as our compensation committee and our board of directors continued to emphasize incentive compensation for our NEOs.

Our compensation committee receives input from an independent compensation consultant regarding executive compensation, including market trends and peer group data relating to our executive officers.

We provide no special benefits to our NEOs outside of those benefits generally available to our other employees.

We maintain an anti-hedging and anti-pledging policy that applies to all of our executive officers.

Framework for Determining Executive Compensation

Overview

Our executive compensation program has focused primarily on attracting executive talent to manage and operate our business, retaining individuals who are key to our growth and success, and rewarding individuals who help us achieve our business objectives. Our industry is characterized by high demand and intense competition for talent, including engineering personnel as well as management talent. The pool of qualified candidates is often limited, particularly in Silicon Valley, and we often compete for talent with companies much larger than us and our peer group of companies (described below). To support these objectives, we provide a competitive total compensation package to our executive officers that we believe achieves the following:

 

motivates and rewards highly-talented individuals whose skills, knowledge and performance are critical to our success;

 

links overall compensation to achieving corporate and individual objectives set at the beginning of each year and to individual performance during the year;

 

creates long-term incentives for management to increase shareholder value by having a significant portion of compensation tied to our long-term success;success and, in particular, our total shareholder return over a three-year period; and

 

provides total compensation that is fair, reasonable and competitive.

The primary components of compensation for our NEOs are base salary, performance-based annual cash bonuses, equity-based compensation and severance and change of control benefits.

In transitioning from a private company followingSince our initial public offering in the latter part of 2012, weour executive compensation program continues to evolve. We have made gradualcontinued to make incremental changes to our executive compensation program to adopt practices that are appropriate for the

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company Company given our business, industry, size, growth, and other factors. Our compensation committee and board of directors believe it appropriate to continue to fine tune our executive compensation program but generally have avoided disruptive or dramatic changes to our executive compensation program since we became a publicly traded company. We have engaged an independent compensation consultant since our initial public offering, including for fiscal year 2016,2020, which assists our compensation committee in determining executive compensation. Over the last few years, we have considered and used different types of equity awards to grant our NEOs, as we strive to establish the appropriatea mix that continues to provide for emphasis onappropriately emphasize pay for performance, compensation that is competitive with the market, and appropriate incentive to drive our business success and retain our key talent. Consistent with our continued focus on performance,talent, and responsive to shareholder feedback.

Peer Companies

In setting executive compensation for fiscal year 2020, our compensation committee andconsidered the boardcompensation data gathered by Semler Brossy Consulting Group (“Semler Brossy”) for the Company’s peer group of directors havecompanies, although it did not made adjustmentsbenchmark or otherwise target our compensation to any specific percentile or range with respect to our NEOs’ base salaries since our initial public offering, except incompensation peers. The peer group’s primary purpose is to inform on pay program design, relationship of pay and performance, and equity usage at companies with which the case of Mr. Chen when he was appointed anCompany competes for customers and/or executive officer duringtalent.

For fiscal year 2015.2020, based on shareholder and proxy advisor feedback that we received, the compensation committee decided that the peer group should be revised to more closely align with the Company’s market cap, revenues, industry and growth profile. The peer group is formed among semiconductor companies with revenue that is 1/3 to 3 times the revenue of the Company. Based on Semler Brossy’s review of the group used in fiscal year 2019, six companies were removed for size and industry considerations, and one company was removed due to its acquisition. Six semiconductor companies, noted below, were added to ensure a robust comparator group and good industry fit.

Fiscal Year 2020 Peer Group

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor(new)MaxLinear
Aquantia(new)Monolithic Power Systems
CEVA(new)NeoPhotonics(new)
DSP Group(new)Power Integrations
Impinj(new)Rambus
InphiSemtech
Lattice SemiconductorUniversal Display

The Role of the Compensation Committee and Board of Directors

The compensation committee of the board of directors (the “compensation committee”) is responsible for the executive compensation programsprogram for our executive officers. Typically,The compensation committee formally met five times during fiscal year 2020, to review and discuss matters related to compensation of our executive officers and senior management. Some of these meetings were held with members of management in attendance and some were held in closed session. Most of the meetings also included members of our compensation consultant (as described below). The compensation committee reports to the board of directorsBoard on its discussions and actions and, in some cases, recommends to the board of directorsBoard the decisions to be made and other actions to be taken with regard to our executive officers’ compensation. Our compensation committee’s recommendationsdecisions regarding executive compensation are based on the compensation committee’s assessment of the performance of the Company and each individual executive officer, as well as other factors, such as prevailing industry trends. The board of directors (ortrends and the independent members regarding Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) compensation) typically makes the final decisions regardingcompetitive market for executive compensation.talent.

The Role of Management

Our CEO and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) typically make recommendations to our compensation committee, attend certain compensation committee meetings and are involved in the process for setting our executive officers’ compensation, provided that neither our CEO nor our CFO makes recommendations as to his own compensation or participates in compensation committee discussion of their own compensation. Our compensation committee considers theirmanagement’s recommendations but is not required to follow any recommendations and may adjust compensation up or down as it determines in its discretion. Our compensation committee reviews the recommendations and other data and makes recommendations to the board of directorsBoard as to each executive officer’s total compensation, as well as each individual compensation component. Our CEO and CFO attend compensation committee meetings as requested by the compensation committee, provided that each of our CEO and CFO is not present when his own compensation is discussed.

The Role of the Compensation Consultant

The compensation committee has authority to appoint and retain a compensation consultant. The reasonable fees for services rendered by the compensation consultant are paid by the Company. For fiscal year 2016,2020, our compensation committee engaged Compensia, Inc. (“Compensia”)Semler Brossy to provide compensation consulting services and CompensiaSemler Brossy served at the discretion of compensation committee. CompensiaServices provided services to the compensation committee for fiscal year 2016, includingby Semler Brossy included presenting market data includingand our compensation peer group companies (as described further below)above) to the compensation committee; analyzing our NEOs’ salary, and short-term incentive and equity incentive compensation in relation to market data; analyzingassisting the compensation committee with updating our NEOs’ equity award holdings includingincentive program to place greater emphasis on sustained long-term growth and to create incentive to achieve key strategic goals; assisting the value of outstanding and unvested awards;compensation committee with a risk assessment; and attending compensation committee meetings as requested by the compensation committee.

For fiscal year 2017, Semler Brossy provides no services to Ambarella other than those it provides to the compensation committee has retained Semler Brossy Consulting Group to provide executive compensation consulting services.

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Peer Companies

In setting NEO compensation for fiscal year 2016, our compensation committee considered the compensation data gathered by Compensia for the Company’s peer group of companies. The Company’s peer group used for determining NEO compensation for fiscal year 2016 consisted of the following 18 companies:

CaviumMonolithic Power Systems
CognexNimble Storage
Cypress SemiconductorPMC Sierra
InphiPower Integrations
Integrated Device TechnologyRambus
IntersilSemtech
InvenSenseSilicon Laboratories
Lattice SemiconductorTessera Technologies
M/A-Com Technology Solutions HoldingsUniversal Display

Generally, the peer group is determined based on technology companies in the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment and electronic components industries that have revenues between 0.4 to 2.5 times that of the Company and market capitalization of 0.25 to 4 times that of the Company.committee. The compensation committee regularly reviews the listassesses Semler Brossy’s independence annually under SEC and NASDAQ standards and has concluded that Semler Brossy was independent and that no conflict of companies in our peer groupinterest exists as to ensure that they represent comparable peers.its work.

Compensia’s analysis indicated that the Company’s total cash compensation for its NEOs was generally between the 25th and 50th percentiles as compared to the peer group companies, with the exception of Dr. Wang, whose total cash compensation was below the 25th percentile as compared to the peer group. Compensia’s analysis of equity compensation indicated that the Company’s equity compensation for its NEO’s was generally at the 75th percentile as compared to the peer group. In addition, Compensia’s analysis of the Company’s financial performance relative to the peer group indicted that the Company’s 1-year and 3-year performance for revenue, operating margin and total shareholder return fell at or above the 85th percentile as compared to the peer group. Although the compensation committee reviewed and considered the analysis provided by Compensia, it did not set or consider specific benchmarks in determining fiscal year 2016 executive compensation.

Elements of Executive Compensation

The compensation of our NEOs consists of the following principal components:

 

base salary;

 

performance-based cash bonuses;

 

equity incentive awards; and

 

severance and change of control benefits.

We strive to achieve an appropriate mix between cash compensation and equity incentive awards to meet our objectives. We do not apply any formal or informal policies or guidelines for allocating compensation between current and long-term compensation, or between cash and equity compensation. We believe the most important indicator of whether our compensation objectives are being met is our ability to motivate our executive officers to deliver superior performance and retain them to continue their careers with us on a cost-effective basis. Our board of directors,Board, led by our compensation committee, generally conducts an annual review of our executive compensation, as well as the mix of components used to compensate our executive officers.NEOs. In reviewing and setting the executive compensation for fiscal year 2016,2020, our board of directorscompensation committee and Board relied on its collective judgment, recommendations from Dr. Wang (for executives other than Dr. Wang), the relative pay among the management team members, and its assessment of each executive officer’s role, responsibilities and overall contribution to the business in determining the size and mix of compensation for each executive, and Compensia’sSemler Brossy’s analysis of executive pay practices of the Company’s peer group.compensation peers. Given our strong commitment to pay for performance, the large majority of each NEO’s target direct compensation (salary, annual bonus opportunity, and target equity awards) was variable and subject to the achievement of key performance objectives that are important for the growth and success of the Company.

Key changes in executive compensation for fiscal year 2020 include (additional details regarding these changes are provided in the sections that follow):

 

-27-Increase of 3% in base salaries.Base salaries for our NEOs were increased 3% for fiscal year 2020, which was below the merit increase budget for our broader U.S. employee base.


Reduction in annual executive bonus pool target:The total size of the target pool available for executive bonuses was reduced 10% year-over-year in fiscal year 2020. This reduction followed an 18% reduction in the executive bonus pool target in fiscal year 2019 compared to the prior year.

Short-term strategic objectives added to bonus plan. Annual strategic objectives were added to the annual bonus plan, equally weighted with our traditional revenue and operating profit metrics.

No increase in CEO equity target. Our CEO’s target equity pay, the largest component of our compensation structure, was reduced by 15% beginning in fiscal year 2019. This reduced CEO equity target was retained for fiscal year 2020.

Removal of annual strategic objectives from PRSUs:The equity program for fiscal year 2020 was revised to eliminate annual performance metrics in favor of only a three-year relative TSR metric.

Modification of compensation peer group. For fiscal year 2020, the Company’s peer group was revised to more closely align with the Company’s market cap, revenues, industry and growth profile.

Base Salary

Our base salaries are intended to provide financial stability, predictability and security of compensation for our executive officersNEOs for fulfilling their core job responsibilities. The base salaries of our NEOs are based primarily on role, the scope of their responsibilities, experience, performance and contributions, and our compensation committee’s understanding of compensation paid to similarly situated executives. None of our executive officersNEOs has an employment agreement that provides for automatic or scheduled increases in base salary.

Dr. Wang typically recommends base

Our executives did not receive salary increases from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2018. Based upon market data that executive salaries for our NEOs other than himself to ourwere trailing behind market, the compensation committee for consideration during the fourth quarter of each fiscal year. Our compensation committee considers Dr. Wang’s recommendations with respectapproved increases to our NEOs other than himself but is not required to follow any of his recommendations and may adjust the amount ofexecutive salaries, including a recommended base salary up or down as it determines in its discretion. As typically done in past years, our compensation committee also evaluated Dr. Wang’s base salary3% increase for fiscal year 2016.

In February 2015, our compensation committee recommended to our board of directors to approve, and our board of directors approved,2020. The 3% increase in NEO salaries was below the base salariesincrease for our executive officersthe Company’s general employee population, which averaged 3.5% for fiscal year 2016. The salaries for our NEOs were set at the same level as their respective fiscal year 2015 salaries. Base salaries for our NEOs have remained unchanged since our initial public offering in October 2012 (or the NEO’s later appointment as an officer, as applicable). Although the compensation committee has not set specific benchmarks relative to its peer group, Compensia’s analysis indicated that the Company’s base salaries for its NEOs were generally between the 25th and 50th percentiles as compared to the peer group companies, with the exception of Dr. Wang, whose base salary was substantially below the 25th percentile as compared to the peer group. Based substantially on the Company’s philosophy of emphasizing variable pay based on Company performance, our CEO recommended no changes to the base salaries for the other NEOs and the compensation committee and board of directors believed that the salaries at the levels provided were appropriate.2020. The following table sets forth the annual base salary for each of our NEOs for fiscal year 2016:2020:

 

Name

  Fiscal Year 2016
Base Salary
   Year 2020
Base
Salary
   Change from
Fiscal Year 2019
 

Fermi Wang

  $340,000    $367,700    3

George Laplante

  $320,000  

Les Kohn

  $320,000  

Leslie Kohn

  $346,000    3

Casey Eichler

  $334,800    3

Michael Chen(1)

  $250,300    3

Christopher Day

  $245,000    $265,000    3

Michael Chen

  $234,000  

(1)

Mr. Chen’s salary is based in Taiwan and is paid in Taiwan in local currency.

Annual Performance-Based Cash Bonuses

Our executive officersNEOs are eligible to receive cash bonuses under our annual bonus plan established at the beginning of the fiscal year. Annual cash bonuses are intended to motivate our executives to achieve, and reward our executives for achieving, important corporate financial and operational goals, as well as individual objectives. performance.

An annual bonus pool for all employees and executives is established by the board of directorsBoard at the time the Company’s annual operating budget is approved by the board.

Bonus Opportunity. The total amount ofBoard. For fiscal year 2020, the target bonus pool underfor executive bonuses was reduced 10% year-over-year from fiscal year 2019.

In establishing the fiscal year 20162020 annual bonus plan, was generally set at a level consistent with the total amount of bonuses paid out under the fiscal 2015 bonus plan, with sliding scales for over-performance and under-performance to target. This total bonus pool for fiscal year 2016 was comprised of a bonus pool for our executive officers, a separate bonus pool for our worldwide employees, and a discretionary pool that the compensation committee or board of directors could allocate between executives and employees, at its discretion, based upon the company’s performance. Individual bonuses payable to executive officers, including our NEO’s, were based upon the Company’s performance against corporate financial objectives as well as each executive officer’s individual performance against individual objectives, their scope of their responsibilities and contributions to the Company’s performance.

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Corporate Performance Goals. For fiscal year 2016, Dr. Wang and Mr. Laplante recommended the corporate performance objectives to our compensation committee. In establishing the bonus plan for fiscal year 2016, the compensation committee and the board of directorsBoard deemed it appropriate to link compensation to our actual financial and operational performance. As a result,In prior years, the bonus program was based upon two equally weighted performance metrics, which were (i) annual revenue and (ii) annual operating profit, before bonus accruals. The compensation committee and the Board determined it was important to also have bonuses based upon performance against strategic objectives important to the Company’s business transition. Accordingly, for fiscal year 20162020, the bonus pool became funded only if the minimum corporateprogram was based upon three equally weighted performance objectives were achieved. Consistent with the prior two fiscal years, these performance goals includedmetrics: (i) annual revenue, and(ii) annual operating profit, before bonus accruals, and (iii) a set of five strategic objectives. Once achievement of these performance goals has been certified by the compensation committee, the target pool size is adjusted to between a threshold of 70% and a maximum of 200% based upon the level of achievement. The pool is then distributed to individual executives as determined by the Board, with input from the CEO, based on factors such as historical allocation, the executive’s role and individual contribution to the Company’s financial results and strategic objectives.

LOGO

Performance Metric Selection and Goal Setting.

In discussing our executive compensation program with shareholders during our fiscal year 2019, we heard that the annual strategic performance goals previously used in our PRSUs were better suited for an annual compensation program rather than in our long-term equity program. Accordingly, for fiscal year 2020 we included annual strategic performance goals in our fiscal year 2020 annual bonus plan to incentivize our management team to successfully accomplish short term strategic objectives that we believe will create long term value. We maintained the revenue and operating profit metrics in the program as we believe it is important to maintain focus on overall growth of the Company whichbusiness and to ensure that revenue generation is balanced with efforts in achieving profitable growth. For fiscal year 2020, the three metrics were equally weighted. weighted equally.

These performance objectives were chosen because the compensation committee and board of directorsBoard believe that these are important financial metrics that reflect our performance as a growing company. While revenue growth remained an important focus for the Company’s overall growth and business success, the operating profit goal also was important to ensure that suchtop-line growththe pursuit of revenue was balanced with efforts in achieving profitable growthmargins and the management of expenses. The operating profit goal is anon-GAAP measure and refers to our GAAP operating income less the impact of stock-based compensation and the associated tax impact.impact and excluding bonus accruals. The strategic goals are anon-GAAP measure consisting of five short-term strategic objectives significant to the Company’s transition from traditional image and video processors to CV solutions for a broader range of markets, including advanced automotive cameras and industrial and robotics applications.

For fiscal year 2020, we set a revenue target of $205.5 million and an operating profit target of $2.3 million. In setting these targets, the compensation committee and Board considered our then-current operating plan for fiscal year 2020, then-current forecasts and projections, as well as prevailing industry conditions. The compensation committee acknowledged these represented lower targets from the prior fiscal year, but intended that the difficulty of attaining the goals would be relatively consistent with prior years and would require strong operational performance. At targetthe time of the compensation committee’s goal setting, the Company continued to be in the midst of its transition from its traditional specialized consumer camera markets, such as wearable sports cameras and drones, to new markets focused on CV applications, but was unlikely to generate significant revenue from its new CV solutions until late in fiscal year 2020. More significantly, there was substantial concern of disruption among our large China IP security camera customers due to geopolitical and trade factors. The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 was anticipated to negatively impact the ability of two large Chinese IP security camera customers to sell products into the U.S. market, which could decrease those customers’ demand for the Company’s solutions. There was also concern that the brewing trade dispute between the US and China could impact demand for the Company’s solutions in China.

In light of these factors, the primary challenges for fiscal year 2020 also included growing revenue in IP security camera markets outside of China, as well as in the automotive market, while continuing to invest substantially in research and development of the Company’s CV technology without significantly sacrificing profitability. For the fiscal year 2020 annual bonus plan, the five strategic objectives related to the long-term success of the Company’s business transition and were as follows:

Development of our CV22FS SoC, our firstASIL-B solution for safety critical automotive applications such as ADAS applications;

Reaching production status with multiple customers in the professional IP security camera market with the Company’s new CV solutions;

Securing design wins for next generation home security and monitoring cameras using the Company’s new CV solutions;

Securing design wins for an automotive OEM ADAS or Level2+ autonomous application; and

Research and development milestones in autonomous driving applications.

Target achievement of the performance goals of $205.5 million in revenue, $2.3 million in operating profit before bonus accruals and achievement of 3 “points” worth of strategic goals, would result in 100% of the approved bonus pool would becomebecoming funded and available for payment to executives. Maximum achievement of the performance goals at $246.7 million in revenue, $17.3 million in operating profit before bonus accruals, and achievement of five points worth of strategic goals would result in 200% of the bonus pool becoming funded and payable. Threshold performance at $199.4 million in revenue, -$0.7 million in operating profit before bonus, and achievement of 0.5 points of performance goals would result in 70% of approved bonus pool being funded. Failure to achieve threshold performance of any specific metric would result in no payout for that portion of the minimumbonus pool, and failure to achieve threshold performance goalson all metrics would result in none of the bonus pool becoming payable. Maximum achievement of thePayouts between performance goals would result in 135% of the bonus pool becoming payable. Performance achievement between target level and the maximum amount would betargets is based on a linear interpolation. Under our fiscal

year 20162020 annual bonus plan, our compensation committee and board of directors also had a discretionary bonus pool amount tied to performance that it could allocate to executives and employees to reward performance, as well as the discretion to reduce, eliminate or increase the size of the bonus pool and the individual bonuses.

Individual Performance Goals. In addition No discretionary adjustments were made to the corporate performance objectives,bonus pool for fiscal year 2016, Dr. Wang proposed2020.

Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Bonus Metric Weighting

LOGO

Fiscal Year 2020 Performance.

For fiscal year 2020, we exceeded targets of each of the three metrics, resulting in funding of the bonus pool at a level of 161% of target. The higher than target revenue was primarily attributable to higher revenue from the home security and monitoring portion of the IP security camera market, primarily in the North America region, and the sports camera market. In the professional IP security camera market, despite increased adoption of our CV solutions, lower demand from one of our largest China customers and customers in other regions resulted in a net revenue decrease in fiscal year 2020. The higher than target operating profit was primarily due to the increased revenue, along with control over operating costs. For fiscal year 2020, we generated cash flows from operating activities of $39.4 million, as compared to $24.5 million in fiscal year 2019. We achieved or partially achieved 4 of the 5 strategic objectives, including: development of our CV22FS SoC, reaching production status with CV solutions with customers in the professional IP security camera market, securing design wins for next generation home security and monitoring cameras using our new CV solutions; and research and development milestones in autonomous driving applications.

Metric

  Weight   Target
Performance
Goal
   Actual
Results
   Payout
Factor (% of
Target)
 

Revenue

   33 1/3%   $205.5M   $228.7    157.0

Operating Profit

   33 1/3%   $2.30M   $19.59    189.0

Strategic Goals

   33 1/3%    3.0 points    3.75 points    137.5

Total

   100%        161.0

As mentioned above, no discretionary adjustments were made to the bonus pool for fiscal year 2020. The compensation committee, in making its recommendation to the Board, considered whether a downward adjustment would be appropriate in light of the lower metric targets set for fiscal year 2020. The compensation committee determined that in light of a number of factors, including the market’s reaction to the Company’s fiscal year 2020 revenue and operating income, based in terms of shareholder return, as well as the strategic progress made by the Company in gaining traction for its CV products, no adjustment would be made.

Individual Bonus Opportunity.

Typically, actual allocation of the bonus pool to individual performance objectives forexecutive officers, including our NEOs, is made by the Board (with the recommendation of the compensation committee) at the conclusion of the fiscal yearyear. This allocation is generally based on historical allocation, the executive’s individual contribution to the Company’s financial and operational results and with a focus on executive retention in light of prevailing market conditions in our industry, and taking into consideration Dr. Wang’s recommendations for each of our NEOs other than himself. Individual performance objectives typically are tailored to the responsibilities and key objectives of such executive, and may vary from year to year. The achievement of individual objectives may be used by the compensation committee and board of directors to adjust the bonus received by an executive officer. The compensation committee and the board of directors set Dr. Wang’s individual objectives based on input from Dr. Wang, as well as their own understanding of our primary goals and objectives. For Dr. Wang, individual objectives were focused on the Company’s overall operating performance, product development, customer engagement, and managing the Company’s growth. For Mr. Laplante, individual objectives were focused on the Company’s overall financial performance, managing the Company’s growth and headcount, and corporate compliance. For Mr. Kohn, individual objectives were focused around the Company’s technology roadmap, advanced technology efforts and strategic opportunities. For Mr. Day, individual objectives were focused around exploring new market opportunities, establishing product roadmaps and key customer engagements. For Mr. Chen, individual objectives were focused around the Company’s worldwide sales efforts and customer engagements.

Actual Fiscal Year 2016 Performance. During fiscal year 2016, the Company exceeded the target achievement levels under the bonus plan, particularly with regard to operating income, which exceeded the maximum achievement level. Following completion of the fiscal year, our compensation committee and board of directors used its discretionary pool amount to increase amounts payable to both worldwide employees as well as executives, which increased the maximum amounts available for bonus payments to our NEOs. The compensation committee and the board of directors believed that the increase in the bonuses was appropriate given our pay for performance philosophy and the Company’s significant overachievement of the financial and operational objectives in fiscal year 2016, including a 45% year-over-year increase in revenue and 51% annual increase in net income. Additionally, data provided by Compensia had showed that the individual NEO bonus levels were generally at the 25th to 50th percentile compared to the Company’s peer group despite the Company’s performance at or above the 85th percentile compared to peers. Although the total bonus payments to our NEO’s increased in fiscal year 2016, the total size of the fiscal 2016 bonus pool was consistent with the size of the fiscal year 2015 bonus pool as a percentage of annual revenue and was smaller than the fiscal 2015 bonus pool as a percentage of operating income.

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Following the end of fiscal year 2016, our compensation committee reviewed the performance of our company and our NEOs and determined the amount of the performance bonus to be paid to each NEO. Our compensation committee sought and considered input from Dr. Wang regarding the performance of our NEOs other than himself in relation to the individual performance objectives established for the particular year and the amount of any performance bonus for those NEOs. The compensation committee was not required to follow any of his recommendations and could adjust the amount of a recommended performance bonus up or down as it determined in its discretion. The amount of cash bonus awarded to each NEO then was recommended by our compensation committee for approval by the full board of directors in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017.

For fiscal year 2016, our actual revenue was $316 million and operating profit was $76.5 million, which would have resulted in a combined achievement level in excess of the maximum amount available under the bonus plan. Our compensation committee and the board of directors determined that Dr. Wang had substantially achieved the individual objectives set for him for fiscal year 2016. The compensation committee also determined, based on input from Dr. Wang, that the other NEOs had substantially achieved their individual performance objectives for fiscal year 2016.

As a result of the above target performance achievements,2020, our NEOs received the following bonuses for fiscal year 2016:bonuses:

 

Name

  Fiscal Year
2016 Bonus
   Fiscal Year
2020 Bonus
   Fiscal Year
2019 Bonus
   Fiscal Year
2020 Share of
Bonus Pool
 

Fermi Wang

  $625,000    $479,200   $0    22.3

George Laplante

  $290,000  

Les Kohn

  $292,000  

Leslie Kohn

  $336,302   $0    15.6

Casey Eichler

  $242,102   $0    11.3

Michael Chen

  $125,071   $0    5.8

Christopher Day

  $148,000    $111,026   $0    5.2

Michael Chen

  $158,000  

Other Executives (Not NEOs)

       39.8

The bonus awards were paid out to NEOs and other high- andmid-level employees in March 2020 in the form of fully-vested stock awards.

Equity Incentive Awards

Historically, equity-basedEquity-based compensation has been our primary long-term incentive compensation component. Our equity-based compensation is intended to retainoffer both retention incentives and long-term performance, through equity awards with a mix of time-based and performance-based vesting. We continue to believe that shared financial success in long-term incentives motivates our executive officers throughto grow revenue and earnings, enhance shareholder value and more closely align the useinterests of our shareholders and executives. In general, equity awards are made on a quarterly basis on the second business day following the Company’s quarterly earnings release.

Long-Term Incentive Design.

As part of our holistic review of compensation programs in fiscal year 2017 we updated our annual equity grant structure, which was used for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. The primary design change was the introduction of PRSUs into our equity program. This change in design was intended to further focus executive officers on sustained long-term growth in the coming years and to create a significant incentive to achieve key strategic priorities that the compensation committee and Board believed were critical to the Company’s transition from its legacy consumer camera markets to computer vision applications. Under the original design, 50% of equity awards for the CEO (and 30% for other NEOs) was granted as performance-based restricted stock units (PRSUs) and the remainder was granted as restricted stock units subject to time-based vesting whileover multiple years. For fiscal year 2020, all NEOs received 50% of the equity awards as PRSUs and 50% as time-based vesting RSUs. This mix balanced our emphasis on tying our long-term financial performance and shareholder value creation to the executive officer’sofficers’ financial gain. We believe thatgain, with our need to effectively retain our key talent.

For fiscal year 2020, the Board, upon recommendation of the compensation committee, established a target equity award pool, which included both time-based vesting and shared financial success are long-term incentives that motivate our executive officers to grow revenue and earnings, enhance shareholder value and align the interests of our shareholders and executives. The vesting feature of our equity awards contributes to executive officer retention as this feature provides an incentive to our executive officers to remain in our employ during the vesting period. Historically, and prior to our initial public offering, we granted stock options to our employees. Since employees profit from stock options only if our share price increases relative to the stock option’s exercise price, we believe stock options provide meaningful incentives to employees to achieve increases in the value of our shares over time. After becoming a public company, we also began to grantperformance-based restricted stock units, for our NEOs and restricted stock (collectively “RSUs”) which our compensation committee and board of directors believeother executives. Equity award grants were then allocated to be consistent with market practices. The use of RSUs also allows us to manage our burn rate more effectively because RSU grants typically require the issuance ofindividual executives based upon a lesser number of shares than a stock optionfactors, including individual performance, retention needs, historical allocations and competitive market data. The target total equity award for our CEO did not increase from the reduced level implemented in fiscal year 2019. The individual RSU and PRSU grants for our NEOs for fiscal year 2020 were as follows:

Name

  Time-based
RSUs (#)
   Value of
Time-based
RSUs ($)
   PRSUs
(at Target)
(#)
   Value of
PRSUs (at
Target) ($)
 

Fermi Wang

   42,873    1,806,239    42,873    2,457,052 

Leslie Kohn

   35,604    1,499,997    35,604    2,040,465 

Casey Eichler

   14,242    600,015    14,242    816,209 

Michael Chen

   8,492    357,768    8,492    486,677 

Christopher Day

   8,011    337,503    8,011    459,110 

The number of similar value.

The exercise price of stock optionsPRSUs granted to all of our employees iswas determined in the same method as the time-based RSUs, by dividing the target dollar amount by the fair market value of an ordinary share on the underlyingdate of grant. The grant date fair value of the RSUs for accounting purposes was determined by multiplying the number of shares subject to the RSU by the closing price of our ordinary shares on the date of grant whichand is determined by reference to the market price of our ordinary shares as quoted on The NASDAQ Global Market. We do not have a program, plan or practice of selecting grant dates for equity incentive awards to our executive officers in coordination with the release of material non-public information. Typically, stock optionsreflected above and RSUs are granted effective two trading days after our quarterly earnings call that discusses our most recently ended fiscal quarter financial results. The compensation committee and board of directors believe that the granting of awards after the trading window

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opens several days following the earnings call helps to reduce the risk that awards coincide with the possession of material,non-public information.

We encourage our executives to hold a significant equity interest in the Company but we have not adoptedSummary Compensation and Grants of Plan-Based Awards tables below. The grant date fair value of the PRSUs for accounting purposes was determined using a formal policy nor set specific ownership guidelines.Monte Carlo analysis, and is the value reflected above and in the Summary Compensation and Grants of Plan-Based Awards tables below.

Time-Based Restricted Stock Unit Design Detail.

OverviewOne-half of Fiscal Year 2016 Equity Awards.For fiscal year 2016, the compensation committee emphasized granting a significant portion of executive equity awards subject to specific performance goals. As a result, the Company established a program comprised of a mix of (a) time-based vesting RSUs and (b) RSUs contingent upon performance-based criteria. The RSUswas granted as restricted stock units subject to time-based vesting comprised approximately 35% of the NEOs’ target total equity awards, which the compensation committee and board of directors believed generally was in line with our peers. The performance-based awards were made contingent upon the achievement of specific financial performance goals for the fiscal year 2016 (approximately 45% of the total equity awards at target) and fiscal year 2017 (approximately 20% of the total equity awards at target). Similar to the cash bonus program, the number of shares that would be granted pursuant to the structure for the performance grants would be increased if the Company exceeded the target objectives and would be decreased if the Company did not meet the target goals, and were subject to minimum and maximum levels of achievement. The financial goals used to determine the number of shares awardable to the NEO’s for fiscal 2016 were the same revenue and operating income goals used for the fiscal year 2016 bonus program. The fiscal year 2016 performance-based awards were formally granted in March 2016 following a review of our fiscal year 2016 financial results. The equity awards based on fiscal year 2017 financial results will be awarded, if at all, following completion of the Company’s fiscal year 2017.

Our compensation committee and board of directors review the specific equity-based compensation levels for our individual executive officers on anvesting. These annual basis. This review includes data and analysis provided by our compensation consultant on the equity-based compensation provided by peer group companies, although the compensation committee did not set specific benchmarks relative to peer companies. In determining the size of the equity awards, our compensation committee and board of directors considered primarily the functional role and responsibility of the executive officer’s position, along with other factors including the executive’s performance, the amount of equity previously awarded to him and the vesting status of such awards, the total number of equity awards outstanding, the potential dilutive effect of the awards on our shareholders and, in the case of awards to executive officers other than Dr. Wang, the recommendation of Dr. Wang. These factors were considered without any specified weighting or formula.

Time-Based RSU Awards. The following table presents the RSUs subject to time-based vesting that wererestricted stock units granted to our NEOs vest in equal quarterly installments over the three years following grant, subject to continued service of the executive.

Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit Program Design.

Prior to fiscal year 2016:

Name

Number of RSU
Shares Granted (1)

Fermi Wang

30,000

George Laplante

13,696

Les Kohn

14,348

Christopher Day

4,891

Michael Chen

5,652

(1)These awards were granted in October 2015. The awards vest in equal, quarterly installments over four years commencing September 15, 2015, such as to be fully vested on September 15, 2019.

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Fiscal Year 2016 Performance-Based RSU Awards2020, our performance-based equity awards included two types of performance metrics: one metric tied to annual strategic objectives and one metric tied to the Company’s three-year total shareholder return (TSR). Following completion ofFeedback received from shareholders emphasized that annual performance goals were not appropriate for long term equity programs. In direct response to the shareholder feedback that informed our compensation committee’s decisions for fiscal year 2016, our compensation committee determined2020, the Company removed theone-year strategic performance goals form its PRSUs and utilized only a three-year TSR metric under which the Company’s total shareholder return is measured against the median company in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index for the period from February 1, 2019 through January 31, 2022. As structured, 100% of the target number of PRSUs granted for fiscal 2020 each NEO is scheduled to vest subject to the executive’s continued service through March 15, 2022, with the number of RSUPRSUs vesting subject to increase or decrease of up to 100% of the target number of PRSUs based on performance against the TSR metric. As a result, a minimum of 0 shares awardedunder each PRSU may vest, and a maximum of 200% of the target number of PRSUs may vest, based on relative TSR performance during the performance period. As equity is the largest component of our NEO’s compensation, we believe this change, along with the change to make all NEOs 50%/50%, further focuses our management team on long-term value creation for further alignment with shareholder interests. This revised structure was retained for the equity awards made to our NEOs based upon the Company’s 2016for fiscal year financial results. As the Company’s revenue and operating income results substantially exceeded the target goals, the number of shares awarded to our NEOs exceeded the target amounts but were below the maximum levels. The following table presents the RSUs granted to our NEOs based upon fiscal year 2016 financial performance:2021.

Name

  Number of Shares
Granted (1)
   % of Shares
Awarded to Target
  % of Shares Awarded
to Maximum Level
 

Fermi Wang

   65,583     173  87

George Laplante

   29,940     173  87

Les Kohn

   31,366     173  87

Christopher Day

   10,693     173  87

Michael Chen

   12,356     173  87

(1)These awards were granted in March 2016. The awards vest in equal, quarterly installments over 14 quarters commencing March 15, 2016, such as to be fully vested on September 15, 2019.

Severance and Change of Control Benefits

Employment of our executive officers is “at will.” Prior to our initial public offering, we entered into severance and change of control agreements with Dr. Wang and Messrs. Laplante, Kohn and Day, pursuant to which they

are entitled to receive compensation and other benefits in connection with certain terminations of employment and terminations of employment in connection with a change of control event. Following his hiring, we entered into a change of control agreement with Mr. Eichler in substantially the same form as Dr. Wang’s and Mr. Kohn’s agreement, except without a tax“gross-up” provision.

Our goal in providing certain severance and change of control benefits is to offer sufficient cash continuity protection such that the executive will focus his full time and attention on the requirements of our business rather than the potential implications for his respective position. We prefer to have certainty and internal parity regarding the potential severance amounts payable to our NEOs under certain circumstances, rather than negotiating severance at the time that an NEO’s employment terminates. We have also determined that accelerated vesting provisions are appropriate because they will encourage our NEOs to stay focused in such circumstances, rather than the potential implications for them.

These agreements are described in more detail below under “Employment, Severance and Change of Control Arrangements.”

Broad Based Employee Benefits

We believe that establishing competitive benefit packages for our employees is an important factor in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel. Each NEO is eligible to participate in all of our employee benefit plans generally applicable to employees on a broad basis in the country in which hethe executive is located. Our U.S.-based NEOs are eligible to participate in ourU.S.-based employee benefits plans, such as medical, dental, disability, vision, group life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, our patent incentive program and our 401(k) plan, in each case on the same basis as otherU.S.-based salaried employees. Mr. Chen is based in Taiwan and as a result, he participates in the generally available employee benefit plans maintained for our Taiwan employees.

We do not offer excessive perquisites to any of our NEOs as that would be inconsistent with our egalitarian corporate culture.

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Anti-hedging and Anti-pledging

Under our insider trading policy, all of our independent directors and executive officers, including all of our NEOs, are prohibited from any hedging or similar transactions designed to decrease the risks associated with holding our securities. In addition, our executive officersNEOs may not pledge our securities as collateral for loans.

Stock Ownership Guidelines

We have established stock ownership guidelines applicable to our NEOs andnon-employee directors. The guidelines promote share ownership by requiring NEOs andnon-employee directors to attain and maintain a minimum share ownership level equal to a multiple of his or her base salary or annual cash retainer. The required ownership levels under the guidelines are as follows:

Position

Ownership Requirement

Chief Executive Officer

5x Annual Base Salary

Other Executive Officers

3x Annual Base Salary

Non-Employee Director

5x Annual Cash Retainer

Should any NEO ornon-employee director not satisfy the stock ownership guidelines (as described above) such NEO ornon-employee director must retain at least 50% of any net shares derived from vested restricted stock or restricted stock units, exercised stock options or stock purchase plan holdings until his or her guideline is met. “Net shares” are those shares that remain after shares are sold or netted to pay the exercise price (if any) of

equity awards and applicable taxes. As of January 31, 2020, all of our NEOs andnon-employee directors satisfy their equity ownership requirements.

Clawback Policy

Our Board has adopted an Executive Compensation Clawback Policy. Under the policy, if we are required to prepare an accounting restatement due to material noncompliance with any financial reporting requirements under the securities laws caused by misconduct, we can seek recoupment from current or former NEOs who participated in the misconduct of an amount corresponding to any performance-based compensation (including any annual bonus or equity-based awards) that the Company determines would not have been granted, vested or paid had the Company’s results as originally reported been equal to the Company’s results as subsequently restated. The policy applies to incentive compensation granted for fiscal years commencing after January 31, 2017.

Accounting and Tax Considerations

Section 162(m) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code generally disallows a tax deduction for compensation in excess of $1.0 million paid to anyour CEO, CFO and eachcertain other executives. While the Board and our compensation committee generally consider the financial accounting and tax implications of compensation decisions, neither element has been a material consideration in the compensation awarded to our Chief Executive Officer and three other highest paid officers in office, excluding our Chief Financial Officer, at year end. However, qualifying performance-based compensation is not subject to the deduction limitation if specified requirements are met and, in addition, certain compensation may be excluded from the deduction limitation during the first several years after an initial public offering, if certain requirements are met. We intend to review periodically the consequences of Section 162(m), and expect to balance the desirability of having compensation qualify for deductibility with our need toNEOs historically. To maintain flexibility in structuringcompensating our executive officers in a manner designed to achieve our corporate objectives, the Board and compensation programs. As a result, we have not adopted and currentlycommittee do not expect to adopt a policy requiringrequire that all compensation be deductible.

We account for equity compensation paid to our employees under applicable accounting guidance for stock-based compensation arrangements, which requires us to estimate and record an expense over the service period of the award. Accordingly, stock-based compensation cost is measured and recorded at grant date, based on the fair value of the awards, and is recognized as an expense over the requisite employee service period.

Compensation Risk Assessment

Our compensation committee assesses and considers potential risks when considering and approving the compensation programs for our executive officers and employees. Based upon this assessment, we believe our compensation programs are structured in a manner that does not create risks reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on us in the future. Our compensation committee retains oversight of all compensation decisions relating to our executive officers. Our compensation programs are designed with features to address potential risks while rewarding employees and executives for achieving financial and corporate objectives. The primary component of executive incentive compensation is equity awards with multiple-year vesting, which are intended to encourage long-term growth and appreciation in the value of our business and reduce the incentive for executives and other employees to take risks that might increase short-term compensation at the expense of long term companyCompany performance and results. In addition, the total amount of performance-based cash incentives is capped. Moreover, we do not offer unusual benefits or specialexcessive perquisites.

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REPORT OF THE COMPENSATION COMMITTEE REPORT2

The compensation committee has reviewed and discussed the Compensation Discussion and Analysis contained in this Proxy Statement with Ambarella’s management. Based on this review and discussion, the compensation committee has recommended to the Board of Directors that the Compensation Discussion and Analysis be included in Ambarella’s Proxy Statement.

Andrew VerhalenD. Jeffrey Richardson (Chairman)

Hsiao-Wuen Hon

Chenming C. Hu

Lip-Bu TanTeresa H. Meng

 

2 

The material in this report is not “soliciting material,” is not deemed “filed” with the SEC, and is not to be incorporated by reference into any filing by Ambarella under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, other than Ambarella’s Annual Report on Form10-K, where it shall be deemed to be “furnished,” whether made before or after the date hereof and irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.

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Summary Compensation Table for Fiscal 2016Year 2020

The following table summarizes the compensation that we paid or was earned by our chief executive officer, our chief financial officer and each of our three most highly compensated executive officers during the 2020 fiscal year ended January 31, 2016.2020. We refer to these executive officers in this proxy statement as our “named executive officers.”officers” (or “NEOs”).

 

Name and Principal Position

 Fiscal
Year
 Salary ($) Stock
Option
Awards
($)(1)
 Restricted
Stock
Awards
($)(1)(2)
 Non-Equity
Incentive Plan
Compensation

($)(3)
 All Other
Compensation
($)(4)
 Total ($)  Fiscal
Year
 Salary ($)   Option
Awards
($)(1)
   Stock
Awards
($)(1)(2)
 Non-Equity
Incentive Plan
Compensation
($)(3)
 All Other
Compensation
($)(4)
 Total ($) 

Feng Ming (Fermi) Wang,

  2016    340,000    —      5,367,941    625,000    —      6,332,941   2020  367,700    —      4,263,291  479,200   —    5,110,191 

Chairman of the Board of

Directors, President and

Chief Executive Officer

  

 

2015

2014

  

  

  
 
340,000
340,000
  
  
  
 
820,210
—  
  
  
  
 
3,269,280
1,747,200
  
  
  
 
425,000
255,000
  
  
  

 

—  

—  

  

  

  
 
4,854,490
2,342,200
  
  
  

2019

2018

 

 

  

357,000

340,000

 

 

   

—  

—  

 

 

   

3,738,780

4,564,044

 

 

  

0

160,000

 

 

  

—  

—  

 

 

  

4,095,780

5,064,044

 

 

Leslie Kohn

  2016    320,000    —      2,561,414    292,000    9,000    3,182,414   2020  346,000    —      3,540,462  336,302  8,000  4,230,764 

Chief Technology Officer and

Director

  

 

2015

2014

  

  

  
 
320,000
320,000
  
  
  
 
464,785
—  
  
  
  
 
1,852,592
1,164,800
  
  
  
 
200,000
120,000
  
  
  
 
3,000
9,000
  
  
  
 
2,840,377
1,613,800
  
  
  

2019

2018

 

 

  

338,000

320,000

 

 

   

—  

—  

 

 

   

3,062,899

2,129,266

 

 

  

0

160,000

 

 

  

4,000

13,500

 

 

  

3,414,899

2,622,766

 

 

George Laplante,

  2016    320,000    —      2,451,135    290,000    —      3,061,135  

Chief Financial Officer and

Secretary

  

 

2015

2014

  

  

  
 
320,000
320,000
  
  
  
 
444,280
—  
  
  
  
 
1,770,860
873,600
  
  
  
 
200,000
120,000
  
  
  

 

—  

—  

  

  

  
 
2,735,140
1,313,600
  
  

Kevin C. (Casey) Eichler

 2020  334,800    —      1,416,224  242,102   —    1,993,126 

Chief Financial Officer(5)

  2019   158,958    385,366    3,811,000   0   —     4,355,324 

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen (5)

  2016    234,000    —       158,000    —      1,409,213   2020  250,300    —      844,445  125,071   —    1,219,816 

Vice President, Business

Development(6)

  2015    223,374    181,130    

 

1,017,213

721,966

  

  

  110,000    —      1,236,470    

2019

2018

 

 

  

243,075

232,350

 

 

   

—  

—  

 

 

   

969,891

757,422

 

  

0

80,000

 

 

  

—  

—  

 

 

  

1,212,966

1,069,772

 

 

Christopher Day

  2016    245,000    —      876,259    148,000    4,000    1,273,259   2020  265,000    —      796,613  111,026  8,000  1,180,639 

Vice President, Marketing and

Business Development

  

 

2015

2014

  

  

  
 
245,000
245,000
  
  
  

 

150,372

—  

  

  

  
 
599,368
364,000
  
  
  
 
100,000
70,000
  
  
  

 

—  

—  

  

  

  

 

1,094,740

679,000

  

  

  

2019

2018

 

 

  

257,250

245,000

 

 

   

—  

—  

 

 

   

918,860

714,527

 

  

0

80,000

 

 

  

3,000

2,000

 

 

  

1,179,110

1,041,527

 

 

 

(1)

The dollar amounts in this column do not reflect dollar amounts actually received by our named executive officers.NEOs. Instead, these amounts represent the aggregate full grant date fair value calculated in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 718 for equity awards granted during the fiscal years ended January 31, 2016, 20152020, 2019 and 2014.2018. Stock option awards are valued using the Black Scholes option valuation model and the assumptions outlined in Note 811 of our financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form10-K for the year ended January 31, 2015,2020, as filed with the SEC on March 30, 2015.27, 2020.

(2)For

The dollar amounts in this column include aggregate grant date fair values of the PRSUs granted in fiscal year 2016, a portion2020, calculated pursuant to FASB ASC 718. The grant date fair values of the compensation reflects restricted stockPRSUs were calculated based on the application of a Monte Carlo simulation model to determine the probable outcomes of the market-based performance conditions. The grant date fair values of the PRSUs do not correspond to the actual values that may be recognized by the holders of these awards, that were grantedwhich may be higher or lower based on a number of factors, including Ambarella’s performance, the performance of the companies included in March 2016 based upon the company’s fiscal year 2016 financialPhiladelphia Semiconductor Index, and the satisfaction of applicable time-based vesting conditions. Since certain vesting conditions related to the PRSUs are considered market conditions and not performance asconditions pursuant to FASB ASC 718, maximum grant date fair values are not provided in this column. The vesting conditions and other terms of the PRSUs are discussed abovein more detail in the tables entitled “Grants of Plan-Based Awards in Fiscal Year 2020” and “Outstanding Equity Awards at 2020 Fiscal Year End” and in “Compensation Discussion and Analysis.”

The table below sets forth the maximum grant date fair values of the PRSUs granted to Ambarella’s NEOs in fiscal year 2020 assuming all performance conditions are achieved at maximum levels and based upon the fair market value of the awards on the date of grant:

Name

  Shares   PRSU Awards
Per Share ($)
   Maximum Aggregate
Value ($)
 

Fermi Wang

   85,746    42.13    3,612,479 

Leslie Kohn

   71,208    42.13    2,999,993 

Casey Eichler

   28,484    42.13    1,200,031 

Michael Chen

   16,984    42.13    715,536 

Christopher Day

   16,022    42.13    675,007 

(3)

Reflects performance-based cash bonuses paid to our executive officers for performance infor the fiscal years 2014 - 2016.ended January 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018.

(4)

Reflects payments made under our patent incentive program.

(5)

Mr. Chen was not an executive officerEichler joined the Company in fiscal year 2014. Mr. Chen’sAugust 2018 as Chief Financial Officer. His annual base salary was increased to $234,000 duringfor fiscal year 2015 following his appointment as an executive officer.2019 was $325,000.

(6)

Mr. Chen is based in Taiwan and paid in Taiwan local currency.

-35-


Grants of Plan-Based Awards for Fiscal Year 2020

The following table shows, for each of the named executive officers,NEOs, certain information concerning all plan-based awards made in fiscal year ended January 31, 2016.2020. This information supplements the information about these awards set forth in the Summary Compensation Table.

 

  

 

 

Estimated Future Payouts Under Non-Equity
Incentive Plan Awards

   All Other
Stock
Awards:
Number of
Shares of
Stock or

Units
(#)(2)
  All Other
Option
Awards:
Number of
Securities
Underlying

Options
(#)
  Exercise
or Base
Price of
Option

Awards
($)
  Grant Date
Fair Value
of Stock
and Option

Awards
($)(2)
    Estimated Future Payout
UnderNon-Equity Incentive
Plan Awards
 Estimated Future Payouts
Under Equity Incentive Plan
Awards
  All Other
Stock
Awards:
Number of
Shares of
Stock or
Units
(#)(3)
 Grant Date
Fair Value
of Stock
and
Option
Awards
($)(4)
 

Name

  Grant
Date
   Threshold
($)
   Target
($)(1)
   Maximum
($)(1)
       Grant
Date
 Threshold
($)(1)
 Target
($)(1)
 Maximum
($)(1)
 Threshold
(#)(2)
 Target
(#)(2)
 Maximum
(#)(2)
 

Fermi Wang

   

 

 

N/A

10/8/2015

3/7/2016

  

  

  

   —       255,000     625,000     

 

30,000

65,583

(3) 

(4) 

      

 

1,684,800

3,683,141

  

  

  0  337,500  675,000      
 3/7/2019     0  42,873  85,746   2,457,052 

Les Kohn

   

 

 

N/A

10/8/2015

3/7/2016

  

  

  

   —       96,000     292,000     

 

14,348

31,366

(3) 

(4) 

      

 

805,784

1,755,631

  

  

 3/7/2019        42,873  1,806,239 

George Laplante

   

 

 

N/A

10/8/2015

3/7/2016

  

  

  

   —       96,000     290,000     

 

13,696

29,940

(3) 

(4) 

      

 

769,167

1,681,968

  

  

Leslie Kohn

  0  230,000  460,000      
 3/7/2019     0  35,604  71,208   2,040,465 
 3/7/2019        35,604  1,499,997 

Casey Eichler

   202,500  405,000      
 3/7/2019      14,242  28,484   816,209 
 3/7/2019        14,242  600,015 

Michael Chen

   

 

 

N/A

10/8/2015

3/7/2016

  

  

  

   —       70,000     158,000     

 

5,652

12,356

(3) 

(4) 

      

 

317,416

699,797

  

  

  0  108,000  216,000      
 3/7/2019     0  8,492  16,984   486,677 
 3/7/2019        8,492  357,768 

Christopher Day

   

 

 

N/A

10/8/2015

3/7/2016

  

  

  

   —       73,500     148,000     

 

4,891

10,693

(3) 

(4) 

      

 

274,679

601,580

  

  

  0  108,000  216,000      
 3/7/2019     0  8,011  16,022   459,110 
 3/7/2019        8,011  337,503 

 

(1)

Ournon-equity incentive plan awards, and how they were determined, are based upon a structure that includes some discretion as to amounts paid to each NEO, as discussed above in the “Compensation Discussion and Analysis.” The amounts listed in this table represent the threshold, target and maximum amounts that would have been earned under the initial fiscal 2016year 2020 annual bonus plan assuming each NEO

received the average percentage of the bonus pool that was awarded to the individual for the most recent fiscal years in which was subsequently amendedbonuses were awarded to our NEOs. No amounts are earned for failure to achieve any of the threshold revenue, operating profit before bonus or strategic objectives goals. The actual percentage of the bonus pool allocated to each individual is determined following completion of the fiscal year 2016 based uponon a variety of factors, including historical allocation, the Company’s financial performance. Actual amountsexecutive’s individual contributions and retention considerations, as well as taking into consideration the CEO’s recommendations. The actual allocation of bonuses paid out to the executive officers are includedour NEOs for fiscal year 2020 is reflected in the “Summary Compensation Table” above.above and in the “Compensation Discussion and Analysis.”
(2)

The amounts shown represent shares potentially issuable pursuant to performance-based restricted stock units (or PRSUs) granted on March 7, 2019, under our 2012 Equity Incentive Plan. These awards have both “performance” and “continued service” conditions that must be met in order for the executive to receive the shares. Pursuant to the time-based vesting requirements, the target number of shares underlying the equity awards is scheduled to vest on March 15, 2022, subject to continued service through the scheduled vesting date and subject to increase or decrease by 100% of target based on attainment of specified levels of the Company’s total stockholder return (TSR) over the three-year period ending January 31, 2022. The “maximum” level represents the best case TSR performance scenario.

(3)

Represents restricted stock unit grants vesting quarterly over a period of three years, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting dates.

(4)

The dollar amounts in this column do not reflect dollar amounts actually received by our named executive officers.NEOs. Instead, these amounts represent the aggregate full grant date fair value calculated in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 718.

(3)The shares subject to each stock award vest over a four-year period commencing on September 15, 2015, with 1/16 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.
(4)The stock award was granted effective March 7, 2016 based upon our board of director’s determination that the performance-based objectives of the award relating to fiscal year 2016 financial performance were achieved. The shares subject to each stock award vest over three and one-half years commencing on March 15, 2016, with 1/14 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.

-36-


Option Exercises and Stock Vested During Fiscal Year 2020

The following table shows certain information concerning option exercises and value realized upon the exercise of stock options and the vesting of restricted stock unit grants by the named executive officersNEOs during fiscal 2016.year 2020.

 

 Option Awards Stock Awards   Option Awards   Stock Awards 

Name

 Number of
Shares Acquired
on Exercise (#)
 Value Realized
on Exercise
($)(1)
 Number of
Shares Acquired
on Vesting (#)
 Value Realized
on Vesting ($)(2)
   Number of
Shares Acquired
on Exercise (#)
   Value Realized
on Exercise
($)(1)
   Number of
Shares Acquired
on Vesting (#)
   Value Realized
on Vesting ($)(2)
 

Fermi Wang

  6,667   $408,620    66,041   $5,158,264     111,110    5,674,884    49,216    2,487,855 

Les Kohn

  67,552   $4,558,639    41,852   $3,275,100  

George Laplante

  —      —      34,509   $2,698,001  

Leslie Kohn

   —      —      42,302    2,168,987 

Casey Eichler

   —      —      34,810    2,157,687

Michael Chen

  8,321   $415,482    16,684   $1,305,705     2,037   76,225    13,734    701,199 

Christopher Day

  9,015   $668,344    14,502   $1,134,964     1,000   23,915   12,687    648,020 

 

(1)

The value realized on exercise is calculated as the difference between the market price of the shares underlying the options exercised and the applicable exercise price of those options.

(2)

The value realized on vesting is calculated by multiplying the number of shares of stock by the market value of the underlying shares on each vesting date.

Outstanding Equity Awards at FiscalYear-End

The following table shows certain information regarding outstanding equity awards held by our named executive officersNEOs at the end of fiscal year 2016.2020.

 

  Option Awards  Stock Awards 

Name

 Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Exercisable (1)
  Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Unexercisable (1)
  Option
Exercise
Price
($)
  Option
Expiration
Date
  Number
of Shares
or Units
of Stock
That
Have Not
Vested
(#)
  Market
Value of
Shares or
Units of
Stock That
Have Not
Vested

($)(2)
 

Fermi Wang

  104,444    —     $2.93    7/9/2018    
  111,110    —     $6.62    10/28/2019    
  66,666    —     $8.82    11/02/2020    
  44,444    —     $8.82    8/29/2021    
  12,000    24,000(3)  $38.92    9/7/2024    3,126(4)  $124,040  
      4,500(5)  $178,560  
      36,750(6)  $1,458,240  
      57,750(7)  $2,291,520  
      28,125(8)  $1,116,000  
      65,583(9)  $2,602,333  

Les Kohn

  4,445    —     $8.82    8/29/2021    
  6,800    13,600(3)  $38.92    9/7/2024    2,292(4)  $90,947  
      3,000(5)  $119,040  
      24,500(6)  $972,160  
      32,725(7)  $1,298,528  
      13,452(8)  $533,775  
      31,366(9)  $1,244,603  

-37-


 Option Awards Stock Awards   Option Awards   Stock Awards 

Name

 Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Exercisable (1)
 Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Unexercisable (1)
 Option
Exercise
Price
($)
 Option
Expiration
Date
 Number
of Shares
or Units
of Stock
That
Have Not
Vested
(#)
 Market
Value of
Shares or
Units of
Stock That
Have Not
Vested

($)(2)
   Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Exercisable
   Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Unexercisable(1)
 Option
Exercise
Price
($)
   Option
Expiration
Date
   Number
of Shares
or Units
of Stock
That
Have Not
Vested
(#)(1)
 Market
Value of
Shares or
Units of
Stock That
Have Not
Vested
($)(2)
 

George Laplante

  74,912    —     $8.82    3/7/2021    

Fermi Wang

   66,666    —    $8.82    11/02/2020    
  3,148    —     $8.82    8/29/2021       44,444    —    $8.82    8/29/2021    
  6,500    13,000(3)  $38.92    9/7/2024    2,084(4)  $82,693     36,000    —    $38.92    9/7/2024    
      2,250(5)  $89,280     50,000    —    $41.36    3/06/2026    
      18,375(6)  $729,120            39,437(3)  $2,332,304 
      31,282(7)  $1,241,270            41,667(4)  $2,464,186 
      12,840(8)  $509,491            20,834(5)  $1,232,123 
      29,940(9)  $1,188,019            42,873(6)  $2,535,509 
          32,155(7)  $1,901,647 

Leslie Kohn

   4,445    —    $8.82    8/29/2021    
   20,400    —    $38.92    9/7/2024    
          11,199(3)  $662,309 
          20,761(4)  $1,227,806 
          24,222(5)  $1,432,489 
          35,604(6)  $2,105,621 
          26,703(7)  $1,579,215 

Casey Eichler

   7,083    12,917(8)  $38.11    9/3/2028    
          68,750(9)  $4,065,875 
          14,242(6)  $842,272 
          10,682(7)  $631,733 

Michael Chen

  2,037    —     $3.20    7/08/2019       5,555    —    $8.82    11/02/2020    
  5,555    —     $8.82    11/02/2020    
  8,289    —     $8.82    8/29/2021       8,289    —    $8.82    8/29/2021    
  3,852    1,389(10)  $9.99    7/9/2022       5,241    —    $9.99    7/9/2022    
  662    5,301(3)  $38.92    9/7/2024    1,459(4)  $57,893     5,963    —    $38.92    9/7/2024    
      1,125(5)  $44,640            3,984(3)  $235,614 
      9,188(6)  $364,580            6,574(4)  $388,786 
      12,754(7)  $506,079            7,670(5)  $453,604 
      5,299(8)  $210,264            8,492(6)  $502,217 
      12,356(9)  $490,286            6,369(7)  $376,663 

Christopher Day

  926    —     $8.82    8/29/2021       2,300    —    $38.92    9/7/2024    
  4,589    1,482(10)  $9.99    7/9/2022              3,758(3)  $222,248 
  963    4,400(3)  $38.92    9/7/2024    1,667(4)  $66,147            6,228(4)  $368,324 
      938(5)  $37,220            7,267(5)  $429,770 
      7,657(6)  $303,830            8,011(6)  $473,771 
      10,588(7)  $420,132            6,009(7)  $355,372 
      4,586(8)  $181,972  
      10,693(9)  $424,298  

 

(1)

Vesting of each optionequity award pursuant to the vesting schedules described in the footnotes to the above table is contingent upon the executive officer’s continued service.service to the Company through the applicable vesting dates.

(2)

The amounts under “Market Value of Shares of Stock or Units That Have Not Vested” were calculated as the product of the closing price of our ordinary shares on the NASDAQ Global Market on January 29, 2016,31, 2020, which was $39.68,$59.14, and the number of shares pursuantsubject to the applicable stock option or restricted stock unit award grant.award.

(3)

Shares represent an award of performance-based restricted stock units covering a target number of shares. Pursuant to time-based vesting requirements, 100% of this portion of the award was scheduled to vest on March 15, 2020, subject to continued service requirements. The number of shares eligible to vest on

March 15, 2020 could be increased or decreased by 25%, or remain the same, based upon attainment of specified levels of the Company’s total stockholder return over the three-year period ending January 31, 2020. The number of shares that vested on March 15, 2020 was decreased by 25%.
(4)

Shares represent an award of performance-based restricted stock units covering a target number of shares. Pursuant to time-based vesting requirements, 200% of this award is scheduled to vest on March 15, 2021, subject to continued service requirements. The number of shares eligible to vest on March 15, 2021 may be increased or decreased by 25%, or may remain the same, based upon attainment of specified levels of the Company’s total stockholder return over the three-year period ending January 31, 2021.

(5)

The shares subject to the restricted stock unit award vest over a three-year period commencing on June 15, 2018, with 1/12 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.

(6)

Shares represent an award of performance-based restricted stock units covering a target number of shares. Pursuant to time-based vesting requirements, up to 100% of this award is scheduled to vest on March 15, 2022, subject to continued service requirements. The number of shares eligible to vest on March 15, 2022 may be increased or decreased by 100%, or may remain the same, based upon attainment of specified levels of the Company’s total stockholder return over the three-year period ending January 31, 2022.

(7)

The shares subject to the restricted stock unit award vest over a three-year period commencing on March 15, 2019, with 1/12 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.

(8)

The shares subject to the stock option vest over a four-yearfour- year period commencing on September 8, 2014,August 6, 2018, with 1/484 of the shares vesting on a monthly basis.August 6, 2019 and the remainder vesting ratably over the remaining 36 months.

(4)(9)

The shares subject to the restricted stock unit grantaward vest over a four-year period commencing on September 15, 2012,2018, with 1/164 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.

(5)The shares subject to the restricted stock unit grant vest over a two-year period commencing on March 15, 2014, with 1/8 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.
(6)The shares subject to the restricted stock unit grant vest over a four-year period commencing on September 15, 2013, with 1/16 of2019 and the sharesremainder vesting on a quarterly basis.
(7)The shares subject toratably over the restricted stock unit grant vest over a four-year period commencing on September 15, 2014, with 1/16 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.
(8)The shares subject to the restricted stock unit grant vest over a four-year period commencing on September 15, 2015, with 1/16 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.
(9)

The stock award was granted effective March 7, 2016 based upon the Board of Director’s determination that the performance-based objectives of the award relating to the Company’s fiscal year 2016 financialremaining 12 quarters.

-38-


performance were achieved. The shares subject to each stock award vest over 3 and one-half years commencing on March 15, 2016, with 1/14 of the shares vesting on a quarterly basis.
(10)The shares subject to the stock option vest over a four-year period commencing on July 10, 2012, with 1/48 of the shares vesting on a monthly basis.

Broad Based Employee Benefits

We believe that establishing competitive benefit packages for our employees is an important factor in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel. Our named executive officersNEOs are eligible to participate in all of our employee benefit plans, such as medical, dental, disability, vision, group life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, our patent incentive program and our 401(k) plan, in each case on the same basis as other U.S.-based salaried employees. Mr. Chen is based in Taiwan and as a result, he participates in the generally available employee benefit plans maintained for our Taiwan employees. We do not offer club memberships, automobile allowances, tickets to sporting events or concerts or other perquisites to any of our named executive officersNEOs as that would be inconsistent with our egalitarian corporate culture.

Pension Benefits

Aside from our 401(k) plan, we do not maintain any pension plan or arrangement under which our NEOs are entitled to participate or receive post-retirement benefits.

Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation

We do not maintain any nonqualified deferred compensation plans or arrangements under which our NEOs are entitled to participate.

Potential Payments upon Termination or Change in Control

Severance Arrangements

UponWe have entered into change of control and severance agreements with Dr. Wang and Messrs. Eichler, Kohn and Day. Pursuant to such agreements, upon a termination of a named executive officersuch NEO by us other than for cause occurring more than three months before or twelve months following a change of control, subject to the execution of a general release of claims, such named executive officerNEO is entitled to:

 

the payment of accrued salary and vacation;

 

payment of a lump sum equal to 100% (Dr. Wang and Messrs. LaplanteEichler and Kohn) or 50% (Mr. Day) of the executive officer’s then-current annual base salary;

 

payment of a prorated portion of the executive officer’s annual target bonus;

 

immediate acceleration of twelve months (Dr. Wang and Messrs. LaplanteEichler and Kohn) or six months (Mr. Day) of vesting of outstanding options and RSUrestricted stock unit (“RSU”) awards; however, the award agreement governing the performance-based restricted stock units modify this treatment with respect to such awards, to the extent such equity grants vest based solely on service to the company over time;as described below; and

 

company-paidCompany-paid premiums for COBRA continuation coverage for up to twelve months (Dr. Wang and Messrs. LaplanteEichler and Kohn) or six months (Mr. Day) after the date of termination.

Change of Control Arrangements

UponPursuant to the change of control and severance agreements, upon a termination of a named executive officerthe NEO by us other than for cause or, if such officer resigns for good reason, within three months before or twelve months following a change of control, subject to the execution of a general release of claims, our named executive officersNEOs are entitled to:

 

the payment of accrued salary and vacation;

 

payment of a lump sum equal to 100% of the executive officer’s then-current annual base salary;

 

payment of a prorated portion of the executive officer’s annual target bonus;

 

immediate acceleration of vesting of 100% (Dr. Wang and Messrs. LaplanteEichler and Kohn) or 50% (Mr. Day) of outstanding options and RSU awards; however, the award agreement governing the performance-based restricted stock units modify this treatment with respect to such awards, to the extent such equity grants vest based solely on services to the company over time;as described below; and

 

company-paidCompany-paid premiums for COBRA continuation coverage for up to twelve months after the date of termination.

Severance Upon Death or Disability

Pursuant to the change of control and severance agreements, if the NEO terminates due to the NEO’s death or disability (as defined in the agreements) subject to the execution of a general release of claims, such NEO is entitled to payment of a lump sum equal to 100% of the executive officer’s then-current annual base salary. With respect to Mr. Day only, this amount is reduced to 50% of his then-current annual base salary if such termination occurs more than three months before or twelve months following a change of control.

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In addition to the foregoing benefits, Dr. Wang and Messrs. Laplante andMr. Kohn also would receive agross-up payment if such officer is required to pay excise tax under Section 4999 of the Code, with the amount of suchgross-up payment equal to the amount of excise tax. No other executive would receive agross-up payment. In the event that the severance and other benefits payable to Mr.Messrs. Eichler and Day constitute “parachute payments” under Section 280G of the Code and would be subject to the excise tax imposed by Section 4999 of the Code, then such executive’s benefits will be either (i) delivered in full or (ii) delivered to such lesser extent which would result in no portion of such benefits being subject to the excise tax, whichever results in the receipt by such executive on anafter-tax basis of the greatest amount of benefits.

For purposes of the change of control and severance agreements above, the term “cause” generally means the occurrence of any of the following events: (i) the executive officer’s willful and continued failure to substantially perform the duties of his position (other than failure resulting from the executive officer’s complete or partial incapacity due to physical or mental illness or impairment); (ii) the executive officer’s willful and continued failure to substantially perform the lawful and specific directives of the Board, as reasonably determined by the Board (other than failure resulting from the executive officer’s complete or partial incapacity due to physical or mental illness or impairment); (iii) the executive officer’s willful commission of an act of fraud or dishonesty resulting in, or is likely to result in, material economic or financial injury to us; or (iv) the executive officer’s willful engagement in illegal conduct that was or is reasonably likely to be materially injurious to us; provided that we have provided to the executive officer any requisite notice in a timely manner and, if permitted to correct the deficiency, the executive officer has failed to do so.

For purposes of the change of control and severance agreements above, “change of control” generally means the occurrence of any of the following events: (i) any person becomes the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly,acquires ownership of our securities representing more than 50% or more of the total voting power represented byof our then-outstanding voting securitiesstock (except that any change in the ownership of our ordinary shares as a result of a private financing that is approved by the Board will not be considered a change of control); (ii) any person acquires 50% or more than 50% of the total gross fair market value of our assets over a twelve-month period; (iii) the consummation of aour merger or consolidation with any other entity, other than a merger or consolidation that would result in our voting securities outstanding immediately prior thereto continuing to represent at leastmore than 50% of the totalcombined voting power represented by our voting securities orof the voting securities of suchthe surviving entity (or its parent) outstanding immediately after such merger or consolidation;consolidation and with the power to elect at least a majority of the Board or other governing body of such surviving entity; or (iv) the replacement of a majority of the Board during any twenty-four month period by directors whose appointment or election is not approved by a majority of the members of the Board prior to the date of the appointment or election.

For purposes of the change of control and severance agreements above, “good reason” generally means the executive officer’s voluntary resignation from all positions such officer holds with us, effective within 90 days following the expiration of the cure period described below, after the occurrence of:of any of the following without the NEO’s written consent: (i) a reduction by us of the executive officer’s base salary or annual target bonus in effect immediately prior to such reduction (other than reductions in connection with similar percentage reductions imposed on all executive-level employees); (ii) a reduction by us of the executive officer’s health or welfare benefits in effect immediately prior to such reduction (other than reductions in connection with similar percentage reductions imposed on all executive-level employees); (iii) our requiring the executive officer to move his primary work location to a location that increases his one-way commute byis more than 30 miles from ourhis then-current location;location unless such relocation does not increase his commuting distance; (iv) our failure to continue in effect any material compensation or benefit plan or practice in which the executive officer is eligible to participate in immediately prior to the change of control;control unless certain equitable arrangements embodied in an ongoing substitute or alternative plan have been made; (v) our failure to obtain the assumption, in all material respects, of the change of control agreement by any of our successors; or, for certain of the executive officers, (vi) a material diminution in such executive officer’s authority, duties, responsibilities, title or reporting structure;structure, provided that a material diminution in the executive officer’s title or reporting structure solely by virtue of the Company being acquired and made part of a larger entity will not by itself be sufficient to constitute good reason. In all cases, the executive officer must provide written notice to us of the existence of one of these conditions within 60 days after its initial existence, and we must be provided with a period of 30 days during which we may cure the circumstances giving rise to the condition, in which case no good reason will exist.

Performance-Based Restricted Stock Units

In the event of our change in control, as defined in our 2012 Equity Incentive Plan, the three-year relative total shareholder return (or TSR) goal under the PRSUs would be treated as follows. If TSR has not yet been measured, then our relative TSR performance will be measured in connection with the change in control by basing our TSR performance on the merger consideration payable with respect to Company shares in connection with the change in control, and the TSR measurement period would be shortened to reflect earlier measurement

-40-

as a result of the change in control. To the extent that the actual relative TSR performance would increase the number of shares underlying the PRSUs that can vest, the adjustment will be applied to the PRSUs. However, no adjustment would be made to reduce the number of shares underlying the PRSUs that can vest as a result of actual relative TSR performance. Any shares that do not become eligible to vest based on the above treatment of the performance objectives would be forfeited at the change in control, and the shares underlying the PRSUs that have become eligible to vest will be scheduled to vest on the fifteenth day of each of June, September, December and March through the first March 15th following the end of the TSR measurement period, with the first scheduled vesting date occurring on the first June 15th following the date of grant, in equal installments, subject to the executive’s continued service through the applicable vesting dates. Further, the portion of the PRSUs that have become eligible to vest that are outstanding as of the change in control will be treated in accordance with the terms of our 2012 Equity Incentive Plan and any change of control and severance agreement then in effect.


If on or after the last day of fiscal year 2020 but before the end of the TSR measurement period, the NEO’s employment is terminated by us other than for cause (as defined in the change of control and severance agreement) (and other than due to the NEO’s death or disability, as defined in the change of control and severance agreement) or, if he resigns for good reason (as defined in the change of control and severance agreement), and he otherwise satisfies the other requirements under the change of control and severance agreement for the payment of other severance benefits to him, then a prorated number of shares underlying the award will accelerate vesting, with respect to the portion of the award eligible to vest based on the extent to which any performance goals have been met on or before the employment termination but during the performance period (and as adjusted by the relative TSR performance if the TSR measurement period had concluded by the employment termination date). The proration generally is determined by measuring the number of shares under the award that would have vested through the last day of the NEO’s employment with us, had the award been scheduled to vest in equal, quarterly installments through the final vesting date, with a first vesting date of the first June 15th following the date of grant.

If on or after a change in control, the NEO’s employment is terminated by us other than for cause (as defined in the change of control and severance agreement) (and other than due to the NEO’s death or disability, as defined in the change of control and severance agreement) or if he resigns for good reason (as defined in the change of control and severance agreement), the PRSU award will be eligible for the vesting acceleration under the NEO’s change of control and severance agreement then in effect (as described further above). Otherwise, the terms of the PRSU award agreement generally supersede the vesting acceleration benefits under the NEO’s change of control and severance agreement.

For purposes of the PRSU awards above, “change in control,” as defined in our 2012 Equity Incentive Plan generally means the occurrence of any of the following events: (i) any person acquires ownership of more than 50% of the total voting power of our stock (except that acquisition of additional stock by a person already considered to own more than 50% of the voting power of our stock will not be considered a change in control); (ii) a change in our effective control that occurs when a majority of members of our Board is replaced during a12-month period by directors whose appointment or election is not endorsed by a majority of members of the Board prior to the date of the appointment or election; or (iii) a change in ownership of a substantial portion of our assets that occurs when a person acquires 50% or more of the total gross fair market value of our assets over a twelve-month period (subject to certain exceptions, such as the transfer of our assets to our stockholders in exchange for or with respect to our stock).

Potential Payments upon Termination or Change in Control

The following table summarizes the payments that would be made to our named executive officersNEOs upon the occurrence of a termination of employment qualifying for severance benefits or upon a change of control, assuming that each named executive officer’sNEO’s termination of employment with our companyCompany occurred on January 31, 20162020, or in the event that a qualifying termination of employment in connection with a change of control of our companyCompany occurred on

January 31, 2016,2020, as applicable. Amounts shown do not include (i) accrued but unpaid salary through the date of termination, or (ii) other benefits earned or accrued by the named executive officerNEO during his employment that are available to all salaried employees, such as accrued vacation.

Potential Payments upon Termination or Change in Control

  Termination
Without Cause
(No change of
control) ($)
   Termination
Without Cause
(Within three
months before or
twelve months
after change of
control) ($)
   Termination
Without Cause
(No change of
control) ($)
   Termination
Without Cause
(Within three
months before or
twelve months
after change of
control) ($)
 

Fermi Wang

        

Cash Severance Attributable to Salary

  $340,000    $340,000    $367,700   $367,700 

Cash Severance Attributable to Bonus

   345,000     345,000     337,500    337,500 

Acceleration of Stock Options (1)

   6,840     18,240     —      —   

Acceleration of RSUs (2)

   2,266,760     5,168,360  

Acceleration of RSUs, PRSUs and Restricted Stock Awards (2)

   4,110,565    10,465,769 

Continued Health Benefits (3)

   31,300     31,300     40,317    40,317 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Total

  $2,989,900    $5,902,900    $4,856,082   $11,211,286 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Les Kohn

    

Leslie Kohn

    

Cash Severance Attributable to Salary

  $320,000    $320,000    $346,000   $346,000 

Cash Severance Attributable to Bonus

   130,000     130,000     230,000    230,000 

Acceleration of Stock Options (1)

   3,876     10,336     —      —   

Acceleration of RSUs (2)

   1,380,031     3,014,450  

Acceleration of RSUs, PRSUs and Restricted Stock Awards (2)

   2,988,758    7,007,439 

Continued Health Benefits (3)

   19,200     19,200     28,195    28,195 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Total

  $1,853,107    $3,493,986    $3,592,953   $7,611,635 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

George Laplante

    

Casey Eichler

    

Cash Severance Attributable to Salary

  $320,000    $320,000    $334,800   $334,800 

Cash Severance Attributable to Bonus

   130,000     130,000     202,500    202,500 

Acceleration of Stock Options (1)

   3,705     9,880     295,700    763,911 

Acceleration of RSUs (2)

   1,175,837     2,651,854  

Acceleration of RSUs, PRSUs and Restricted Stock Awards (2)

   2,040,015    5,539,880 

Continued Health Benefits (3)

   19,200     19,200     27,679    27,679 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Total

  $1,648,742    $3,130,934    $2,900,694   $6,868,770 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Christopher Day

        

Cash Severance Attributable to Salary

  $122,500    $245,000    $132,500   $265,000 

Cash Severance Attributable to Bonus

   100,000     100,000     108,000    108,000 

Acceleration of Stock Options (1)

   44,628     45,673     —      —   

Acceleration of RSUs (2)

   268,733     504,651  

Acceleration of RSUs, PRSUs and Restricted Stock Awards (2)

   399,599    1,455,179 

Continued Health Benefits (3)

   15,600     31,200     20,159    40,317 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

Total

  $551,461    $926,524    $660,258   $1,868,496 
  

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

(1)

The value of accelerated stock options was calculated by multiplying (x) the number of shares subject to acceleration by (y) the difference between the fair market value of an ordinary share on January 29, 2016,31, 2020, which was $39.68,$59.14, and the per share exercise price of the unvested shares subject to acceleration.

(2)

The value of accelerated RSUs, PRSUs and restricted stock awards was calculated by multiplying (x) the number of shares subject to acceleration by (y) the fair market value of an ordinary share on January 29, 2016,31, 2020, which was $39.68.$59.14.

(3)

Represents the aggregate premium payments that would be required to be paid to or on behalf of the named executive officerNEO to provide continued health insurance coverage under COBRA (based on the executive’s health insurance coverage as of January 31, 2016)2020) for the period available to the executive.

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DIRECTOR COMPENSATIONPAY RATIO DISCLOSURE

Following completionPursuant to Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and Item 402(u) of RegulationS-K, we are required to disclose the ratio of our initial public offeringprincipal executive officer’s annual total compensation to the annual total compensation of our median employee. As discussed above in October 2012,the “Compensation Discussion and Analysis,” we are engaged in a very competitive industry, and our non-employee directors receivesuccess depends on our ability to attract, motivate and retain highly qualified, talented and creative employees. Consistent with our executive compensation consistingprogram, our global compensation program is designed to be competitive in terms of annual cash retainersboth the position and the geographic location in which an employee is located. Accordingly, our pay structures vary among our employees based on position and geographic location, with significant consideration given to local competitive market practices. We believe our compensation philosophy and process yield an equitable result for service onall of our employees.

As of January 31, 2020, the Board and its standing committees, as well as equity grants awarded to non-employee directors upon joining the Board and on an annual recurring basis as they remain a memberend of the Board.

Cash Retainers. During our fiscal year 2016, our non-employee directors receive an annual retainer2020, we had a total of $35,000, prorated for partial service in any year and paid in cash. Membersapproximately 761 employees, of which approximately 23% of our audit committee, compensation committeeemployees were located in the U.S., primarily in Santa Clara, California, and nominating and corporate governance committee, other than the chairpersons of those committees, receive an additional annual retainer of $10,000, $6,000 and $4,000, respectively. The chairpersons of our audit committee, compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee each receive an additional annual retainer of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500, respectively and the individual acting as lead independent director, if any, receives an additional $15,000 annually. Cash retainers are paid in arrears at the end of each quarter for service during the previous quarter.

Stock Compensation. At the time of our initial public offering in 2012, we established a stock compensation program for our non-employee directors. Under this program, a non-employee director will be granted an initial nonstatutory option for 13,333 ordinary shares and a restricted stock unit award for 6,667 shares upon first becoming a member77% were located outside of the Board. These initial awards would vest ratably over four years. Under the program establishedU.S., primarily in 2012, each continuing non-employee director received annual grants of a nonstatutory optionChina and a restricted stock unit award, with each award vesting ratably over 12 months. In fiscal year 2016, following consultation with Compensia,Taiwan. There were no changes in our employee compensation committee determined to simplify the equity compensation program for continuing non-employee directors. Rather than receiving both an option and a restricted stock unit award,or employee population in fiscal year 20162020 as compared to fiscal years 2018 and 2019 that would significantly affect the pay ratio.

Pay Ratio

During fiscal year 2020, the principal executive officer of Ambarella was our non-employee directors received only a restricted stock unit awardChief Executive Officer, Dr. Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang. For fiscal year 2020, the annual total compensation for 4,611 shares, which had substantiallyDr. Wang was $5,110,191, as disclosed under the Summary Compensation Table above, and the annual total compensation for our median employee was $107,103, calculated using the same methodology as applied for Dr. Wang in the Summary Compensation Table above, resulting in an estimated pay ratio of 48:1.

Identification of Median Employee

Consistent with SEC rules, the fiscal year 2020 CEO to median employee pay ratio was calculated using the median employee identified in fiscal year 2018. For purposes of identifying the median employee for fiscal year 2018, we considered the aggregate of all the following compensation elements for each of our employees, as compiled from our internal records as of January 16, 2018:

an estimate of the annual base salary or wages for fiscal year 2018

bonuses or other cash incentives paid in fiscal year 2018

the grant date fair value as theof equity awards granted to the non-employee directors in fiscal year 2015. This restricted stock award vests quarterly over 12 months commencing September 15, 2015.2018

We selected the above compensation elements because they represent Ambarella’s principal broad-based compensation elements. For purposes of identifying the median employee, any compensation paid in foreign currencies was converted to U.S. dollars based on the average of the monthly exchange rates for the twelve-month period ended January 16, 2018. In identifying the median employee, we did not make anycost-of-living adjustments or exclude any foreign jurisdictions in accordance with Item 402(u) of RegulationS-K. There were no material changes in our employee compensation or employee population in fiscal year 2020 as compared to fiscal year 2018 that would significantly affect the pay ratio.

Director CompensationThe pay ratio reported above is a reasonable estimate calculated in a manner consistent with SEC rules based on our internal records and the methodology described above. Because the SEC rules for Fiscal 2016identifying the median employee and calculating the pay ratio based on that employee’s annual total compensation allow companies to utilize different methodologies and to make reasonable estimates and assumptions that reflect their employee populations and compensation practices, the pay ratio reported by other companies may not be comparable to the pay ratio reported above.

EQUITY COMPENSATION PLAN INFORMATION

The following table provides certain information with respect to all of Ambarella’s equity compensation plans in effect as of January 31, 2020:

Plan Category

  Number of
Securities to be
Issued upon
Exercise of
Outstanding
Options,
Restricted
Stock Units
and Rights
  Weighted Average
Exercise Price of
Outstanding Options
and Rights
  Number of Securities
Remaining
Available
for Future Issuance
Under Equity
Compensation Plans
Excluding Securities
Reflected in the first
Column)
 

Equity compensation plans approved by security holders:

    

2004 Stock Plan (1)

   359,825(4)  $8.91   0 

2012 Equity Incentive Plan (2)

   3,382,090(5)  $44.24   2,303,193 

2012 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (3)

   —    $—    1,833,574 

Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders

   —    $—    —   

TOTAL:

   3,741,915  $32.93(6)   4,136,767 

(1)

Our Board of Directors adopted, and our shareholders approved, the 2004 Stock Plan, as amended, or 2004 Plan. The 2004 Plan was last amended on August 28, 2012. As a result of our initial public offering in October 2012 and the adoption of the 2012 Equity Incentive Plan at that time, we no longer grant awards under the 2004 Plan; however, all outstanding options issued pursuant to the 2004 Plan prior to our initial public offering continue to be governed by their existing terms. A total of 359,825 ordinary shares are reserved for issuance under the 2004 Plan pursuant to outstanding options.

(2)

Our Board of Directors adopted, and our shareholders approved, the 2012 Equity Incentive Plan, or 2012 Plan, which became effective in October 2012 in connection with our initial public offering. A total of 1,104,445 ordinary shares were initially authorized for issuance under the 2012 Plan. Shares reserved for issuance under the 2004 Plan that were not subject to outstanding awards at the completion of our initial public offering or which are subject to awards granted under the 2004 Plan and subsequently expire, terminate or are forfeited to us, are added to the 2012 Plan. In addition, the 2012 Plan provides that the number of ordinary shares available for issuance under the 2012 Plan will be increased on the first day of each fiscal year beginning with the 2014 fiscal year, in an amount equal to the least of (i) 3,500,000 ordinary shares, (ii) four andone-half percent (4.5%) of the outstanding ordinary shares on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year or (iii) such lesser number of ordinary shares determined by the Board.

(3)

Our Board of Directors adopted, and our shareholders approved, the 2012 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or ESPP, which became effective in October 2012 in connection with our initial public offering. A total of 460,445 ordinary shares were initially authorized for issuance under the ESPP. The ESPP provides that the number of ordinary shares available for issuance under the ESPP will be increased on the first day of each fiscal year beginning with the 2014 fiscal year, in an amount equal to the least of (i) 1,500,000 ordinary shares, (ii) one andone-quarter percent (1.25%) of the outstanding ordinary shares on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year or (iii) such other amount as may be determined by the Board.

(4)

Consists of options to purchase 359,825 shares.

(5)

Consists of 2,617,266 shares granted as restricted stock units and options to purchase 764,824 shares.

(6)

The weighted average exercise price does not take into account outstanding restricted stock units or restricted stock awards, which have no exercise price.

SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT

The following table sets forth certain information regarding the compensation paid or accrued by usownership of Ambarella’s ordinary shares as of March 1, 2020 by: (i) each director and nominee for director; (ii) each of the executive officers named in the Summary Compensation Table (referred to in this Proxy Statement as our non-employee“named executive officers”); (iii) all executive officers and directors during fiscal year 2016. The table excludes Mr. Kohn and Dr. Wang, who did not receive any additional compensation from us in their rolesof Ambarella as a director because they are employeesgroup; and (iv) all those known by Ambarella to be beneficial owners of Ambarella.more than five percent of its ordinary shares.

 

Name

  Fees
Earned or
Paid in
Cash ($)
   Restricted
Stock
Awards

($)(1)(2)
  Total ($) 

Chenming C. Hu

  $51,000    $232,302(3)  $283,302  

Christopher B. Paisley

  $50,000    $232,302(4)  $282,302  

D. Jeffrey Richardson

  $49,000    $232,302(5)  $281,302  

Lip-Bu Tan

  $63,500    $232,302(6)  $295,802  

Andrew W. Verhalen

  $49,000    $232,302(7)  $281,302  
   Beneficial Ownership (1) 

Beneficial Owner

  Number of Shares   Percent of Total 

5% Shareholders:

    

BlackRock, Inc. (2)

   3,377,561    9.98

The Vanguard Group (3)

   2,916,078    8.62

Named Executive Officers, Directors and Director Nominee:

    

Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang (4)

   682,753    2.00

Leslie Kohn (5)

   967,019    2.85

Kevin C. (Casey) Eichler (6)

   36,164    * 

Yun-Lung (Michael) Chen (7)

   59,558    * 

Christopher Day (8)

   12,029    * 

Hsiao-Wuen Hon (9)

   7,096    * 

Chenming C. Hu (10)

   37,736    * 

Teresa H. Meng (11)

   4,794    * 

Christopher B. Paisley (12)

   38,737    * 

D. Jeffrey Richardson (13)

   27,817    * 

Elizabeth M. Schwarting (14)

   —      —   

Andrew W. Verhalen (15)

   72,804    * 
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

All executive officers, directors and director nominee as a group (12 persons) (16)

   1,946,507    5.69

 

*

Less than one percent.

(1)The dollar amounts

This table is based upon information supplied by officers, directors and, in the case of principal shareholders, Schedules 13G filed with the SEC prior to March 1, 2020. Unless otherwise indicated in the footnotes to this table and subject to community property laws where applicable, Ambarella believes that each of the shareholders named in this column representtable has sole voting and investment power with respect to the aggregate full grant date fair value calculatedshares indicated as beneficially owned. Applicable percentages are based on 33,843,158 of our ordinary shares outstanding on March 1, 2020. Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 718the rules of the SEC. In computing the number of shares beneficially owned by a person and the percentage of ownership of that person, stock options held by that person that are currently exercisable or become exercisable within 60 days of March 1, 2020 and restricted stock unit awards held by that person that are subject to release within 60 days of March 1, 2020 are considered to be outstanding and beneficially owned by such person. Those shares, however, are not deemed outstanding for stock awards granted during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016.purpose of computing the percentage ownership of any other person.

(2)Represents

Pursuant to a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on January 10, 2020, BlackRock, Inc. reported that as of December 31, 2019 it had sole voting power over 3,178,912 shares and sole dispositive power over 3,377,561 shares, and that its principal address is 55 East 52nd Street, New York, NY 10055.

(3)

Pursuant to a Schedule 13G/A filed with the SEC on February 12, 2020, The Vanguard Group reported that as of December 31, 2019 it had sole voting power over 44,667 shares, shared voting power over 6,522 shares, sole dispositive power over 2,868,820 shares, and shared dispositive power over 47,258 shares, and that its principal address is 100 Vanguard Blvd., Malvern, PA 19355.

(4)

Includes (i) 197,110 shares that Dr. Wang has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 36,623 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards for 4,611 ordinarywithin 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(5)

Includes (i) 24,845 shares granted on October 29, 2015.that Mr. Kohn has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 15,403 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(3)(6)As of January 31, 2016, Dr. Hu held unexercised

Includes (i) 8,333 shares that Mr. Eichler has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options to purchase 6,667 shares, and 3,459(ii) 7,437 shares expected to vestbe vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(7)

Includes (i) 25,048 shares that Mr. Chen has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 4,973 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(8)

Includes (i) 2,300 shares that Mr. Day has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options and (ii) 4,698 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(9)

Includes 858 shares expected to be vested and delivered to Dr. Hon pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(10)

Includes (i) 6,667 shares that Dr. Hu has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options, and (ii) 858 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.

(4)(11)As of January 31, 2016, Mr. Paisley held unexercised options to purchase 29,777 shares, and 3,459

Includes 858 shares expected to vestbe vested and delivered to Dr. Meng pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(12)

Includes (i) 13,777 shares that Mr. Paisley has a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options, and (ii) 858 shares expected to be vested and delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.award within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

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(5)(13)As of January 31, 2016,

Includes (i) 16,111 shares that Mr. Richardson held unexercisedhas a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options, to purchase 16,111 shares, and 7,210(ii) 858 shares expected to vestbe vested and be delivered pursuant to outstanding restricted stock unit awards.

(6)As of January 31, 2016, Mr. Tan held unexercised options to purchase 18,055 shares, and 3,459 shares expected to vest and be delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.award within 60 days of March 1, 2020.

(7)(14)As

Ms. Schwarting, nominee for director, does not hold any shares or have the right to acquire any shares as of January 31, 2016,March 1, 2020.

(15)

Includes (i) 11,110 shares that Mr. Verhalen held unexercisedhas a right to acquire pursuant to outstanding options, to purchase 11,110 shares, and 3,459(ii) 858 shares expected to vestbe vested and be delivered pursuant to an outstanding restricted stock unit award.award within 60 days of March 1, 2020, and (iii) 1,700 shares held in family trusts.

(16)

Includes an aggregate 379,583 shares that our directors and executive officers have a right to acquire within 60 days of March 1, 2020 pursuant to outstanding options and restricted stock unit awards.

CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS

In addition to the compensation arrangements with directors and executive officers described elsewhere in this Proxy Statement, the following is a description of each transaction since February 1, 2019 and each currently proposed transaction in which:

 

-43-Ambarella has been or is to be a participant;

the amount involved exceeds or will exceed $120,000; and

any of our directors, executive officers or beneficial holders of more than 5% of our ordinary shares, or any immediate family member of or person sharing the household with any of these individuals (other than tenants or employees), had or will have a direct or indirect material interest.

Indemnification Agreements with Executive Officers and Directors


Ambarella has entered into indemnification agreements with each of its directors and executive officers pursuant to which Ambarella has agreed to indemnify the directors and executive officers against certain liabilities and expenses incurred by such persons in connection with claims by reason of their being such a director or officer. These indemnification agreements and Ambarella’s memorandum and articles of association will indemnify each of our directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by applicable Cayman Islands law.

Code of Conduct Policy and Procedures

In 2012, Ambarella adopted a formal written policy that became effective upon completion of Ambarella’s initial public offering that all executive officers, directors, nominees for election as directors, beneficial owners of more than 5% of our ordinary shares and any member of the immediate family of any of the foregoing persons, are not permitted to enter into a related party transaction in which the aggregate amount involved will or may be expected exceed $120,000 in any calendar year with Ambarella without the prior consent of Ambarella’s audit committee, subject to thepre-approval exceptions described below. If advance approval is not feasible, then the related party transaction will be considered at the audit committee’s next regularly scheduled meeting. In approving or rejecting any such proposal, the audit committee is to consider the relevant facts and circumstances including, but not limited to, whether the transaction is on terms no less favorable than terms generally available to an unaffiliated third party under the same or similar circumstances and the extent of the related party’s interest in the transaction. The Board has delegated to the chair of the audit committee the authority topre-approve or ratify any request to enter into a transaction with a related party, in which the amount involved is less than $250,000 and where the chair is not the related party. The audit committee may also review certain types of related party transactions that it has deemedpre-approved even if the aggregate amount involved will exceed $120,000 including, employment of executive officers, director compensation, certain transactions with other organizations in which the relevant person is not an executive officer or beneficial owner of more than 10%, certain charitable contributions, transactions where all shareholders receive proportional benefits, transactions involving competitive bids, regulated transactions and certain banking-related services.

SHAREHOLDER PROPOSALS FOR THE 20172021 ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

If a shareholder wishes to present a proposal to be included in our Proxy Statement for the 20172021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the proponent and the proposal must comply with the proxy proposal submission rules of the SEC. One of the requirements is that the proposal be received by the Secretary no later than January 28, 2017.December 24, 2020. Proposals we receive after that date will not be included in the Proxy Statement. We urge shareholders to submit proposals by Certified Mail—Return Receipt Requested.

A shareholder proposal not included in our proxy statement for the 20172021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be ineligible for presentation at the 20172021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders unless the shareholder gives timely notice of the proposal in writing to the Secretary of Ambarella at the principal executive offices of Ambarella. Under our articles of association, in order for a matter to be deemed properly presented by a shareholder, timely notice must be delivered to, or mailed and received by, us not more than one hundred twenty (120) days nor less than ninety (90) days in advance of theone-year anniversary of the date of our proxy statement provided in connection with the previous year’s Annual Meeting of shareholders;shareholders, which dates are December 24, 2020 and January 23, 2021, respectively, for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders; provided, however, that in the event that we did not hold an Annual Meeting in the prior year or if the date of the Annual Meeting is more than 30 days before or after the anniversary date of the prior year’s Annual Meeting, we must receive the shareholder’s notice not earlier than the close of business on the 120th day prior to the Annual Meeting and not later than the close of business on the later of 90 days prior to the Annual Meeting and the 10th day after the day we provided such public disclosure of the meeting date.

The shareholder’s notice must set forth, as to each proposed matter, the following: (a) a brief description of the business desired to be brought before the meeting and reasons for conducting such business at the meeting; (b) the name and address, as they appear on our books, of the shareholder proposing such business; (c) the class and number of shares of our securities that are beneficially owned by the shareholder; (d) any material interest of the shareholder in such business; and (e) any other information that is required to be provided by such shareholder pursuant to our articles of association or the proxy proposal submission rules of the SEC. The presiding officer of the meeting may refuse to acknowledge any matter not made in compliance with the foregoing procedure.

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HOUSEHOLDING OF PROXY MATERIALS

To reduce the expense of delivering duplicate proxy materials to shareholders who may have more than one account holding ordinary shares of Ambarella but who share the same address, we have adopted a procedure approved by the SEC called “householding.” Under this procedure, certain shareholders of record who have the same address and last name will receive only one copy of the Notice of Internet Availability for our proxy materials until such time as one or more of these shareholders notifies us that they want to receive separate copies. This procedure reduces duplicate mailings and saves printing costs and postage fees, as well as natural resources. Shareholders who participate in householding will continue to have access to and utilize separate proxy voting instructions.

If you receive a single copy of the Notice of Internet Availability as a result of householding, and you would like to have separate copies mailed to you or if you receive multiple copies and would like to receive a single copy, please submit a request to Corporate Secretary, Ambarella, Inc., 3101 Jay Street, Santa Clara, California 95054 or make a request bye-mail atir@ambarella.com, and we will promptly send you what you have requested. Shareholders who hold shares in street name may contact their brokerage firm, bank, broker-dealer or other similar organization to request information about householding.

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING THE AVAILABILITY OF PROXY MATERIALS FOR THE

ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS TO BE HELD ON JUNE 7, 20164, 2020

The notice of annual meeting, proxy statement and annual report are available atwww.edocumentview.com/AMBA. If you are a shareholder of record, you also may view these materials athttp://www.envisionreports.com/AMBA.

OTHER MATTERS

The Board of Directors knows of no other matters that will be presented for consideration at the Annual Meeting. If any other matters are properly brought before the meeting, it is the intention of the persons named in the accompanying proxy to vote on such matters in accordance with their best judgment.

By Order of the Board of Directors

 

LOGO

MICHAEL MOREHEAD

General Counsel and Secretary

April 27, 201623, 2020

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LOGOLOGO

IMPORTANT ANNUAL MEETING INFORMATION Using a black ink pen, mark your votes with an X as shown in this example. Please do not write outside the designated areas. 2020 Annual Meeting Proxy Card PLEASE FOLD ALONG THE PERFORATION,IF VOTING BY MAIL, SIGN, DETACH AND RETURN THE BOTTOM PORTION IN THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE. A Proposals — The Board of Directors recommendsrecommend a vote FOR alleach of the nominees listed nominees, and a vote FOR Proposals 2 and 3. 1. Election of Directors: 01 - Chenming C. Hu, Ph.D.01—Leslie Kohn For Withhold 02 - Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, Ph.D.02—D. Jeffrey Richardson For Withhold 03—Elizabeth M. Schwarting For Withhold 2. Proposal to ratify the appointmentRatification of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Ambarella’sAmbarella, Inc.’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending on January 31, 2017.2021. For Against Abstain 3. ToAdvisory vote to approve on an advisory basis, the compensation of Ambarella, Inc.’s named executive officers. For Against Abstain B Authorized Signatures — This section must be completed for your vote to be counted. — Datecount. Please date and Sign Belowsign below. Please sign exactly as name(s) appears hereon. Joint owners should each sign. When signing as attorney, executor, administrator, corporate officer, trustee, guardian, or custodian, please give full title. Date (mm/dd/yyyy) — Please print date below. Signature 1 — Please keep signature within the box. Signature 2 — Please keep signature within the box. 1UP X 2788862 02CHDA1UPX 460930 038ZAA


LOGOLOGO

PLEASE FOLD ALONG THE PERFORATION,IF VOTING BY MAIL, SIGN, DETACH AND RETURN THE BOTTOM PORTION IN THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE. Proxy — Ambarella, Inc. Notice of 20162020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders 3101 Jay Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054 Proxy Solicited by Board of Directors for Annual Meeting June 7, 20164, 2020 Feng-Ming (Fermi) Wang, George LaplanteKevin C. Eichler and Michael Morehead, or any of them, each with the power of substitution, are hereby authorized to represent and vote the shares of the undersigned, with all the powers which the undersigned would possess if personally present, at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Ambarella, Inc. to be held on June 7, 2016 at 9:00 am Pacific Time,4, 2020 or at any postponement or adjournment thereof. This proxy, when properly executed, will be voted in the same manner as directed herein. If no such direction is made, this proxy will be voted in accordance with the board’s recommendationsrecommendation of the Board of Directors as described on the reverse side. In their discretion, the Proxies are authorized to vote upon such other business as may properly come before the meeting. (Items to be voted appear on reverse side.)side)