| ● | Risks related to employee relations; |
| ● | Risks that the disposition is not completed on the expected timeline, or at all; |
| ● | Risks associated with the transfer and licensing of intellectual property; |
| ● | Risks that we do not realize the anticipated benefits from the disposition; |
| ● | Risks from third-party claims arising out of the disposition; |
| ● | Security risks and other liabilities related to the transition services provided in connection with the disposition; |
| ● | Tax issues associated with dispositions; and |
| ● | Disposition-related disputes, including disputes over earn-outs and escrows. |
Most of our current manufacturers, assemblers, test service providers, distributors and customers are concentrated in the same geographic region, which increases the risk that a natural disaster, epidemic, labor strike, war or political unrest could disrupt our operations or sales
Most of our foundries and several of our assembly and test subcontractors’ sites are located in Taiwan and most of our other foundry, assembly and test subcontractors are located in the Pacific Rim region. In addition, many of our customers are located in the Pacific Rim region. The risk of earthquakes in Taiwan and the Pacific Rim region is significant due to the proximity of major earthquake fault lines in the area. Earthquakes, tsunamis, fire, flooding, lack of water or other natural disasters, an epidemic such as the current COVID-19 outbreak, political unrest, war, labor strikes or work stoppages in countries where our semiconductor manufacturers, assemblers and test subcontractors are located, likely would result in the disruption of our foundry, assembly or test capacity. There can be no assurance that alternate capacity could be obtained on favorable terms, if at all.
A natural disaster, epidemic, labor strike, war or political unrest where our customers’ facilities are located would likely reduce our sales to such customers. In addition, a significant portion of the assembly and testing of our products occurs in South Korea. Any disruption resulting from these events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, could also cause significant delays in shipments of our products until we are able to shift our manufacturing, assembling or testing from the affected subcontractor to another third-party vendor. If the COVID-19 pandemic continues to progress in ways that significantly disrupt the manufacture, shipment and sales of our products or the products of our customers, this may materially negatively impact our operating results for subsequent periods. For example, if the travel restrictions or business shutdowns or slowdowns continue for an extended period of time in Taiwan, South Korea or the other countries in which our current manufacturers, assemblers, test service providers, distributors and customers are located, we may experience delays in product production, a decreased ability to support our customers, reduced design win activity, and overall lack of productivity. Our customers may also experience closures of their manufacturing facilities or inability to obtain other components, either of which could negatively impact demand for our solutions.
The semiconductor manufacturing process is highly complex and, from time to time, manufacturing yields may fall below our expectations, which could result in our inability to satisfy demand for our products in a timely manner and may decrease our gross profit due to higher unit costs
The manufacturing of our products is a highly complex and technologically demanding process. Although we work closely with our foundries and assemblers to minimize the likelihood of reduced manufacturing yields, we have from time to time experienced lower than anticipated manufacturing yields. Changes in manufacturing processes or the inadvertent use of defective or contaminated materials could result in lower than anticipated manufacturing yields or unacceptable performance deficiencies, which could lower our gross profit. If our foundries fail to deliver fabricated silicon wafers of satisfactory quality in a timely manner, we will be unable to meet our customers’ demand for our products in a timely manner, which would adversely affect our operating results and damage our customer relationships.
We depend on our customers to support our products, and some of our customers offer competing products
We rely on our customers to provide hardware, software, intellectual property indemnification and other technical support for the products supplied by our customers. If our customers do not provide the required functionality or if our customers do not provide satisfactory support for their products, the demand for these devices that incorporate our products may diminish or we may otherwise be materially adversely affected. Any reduction in the demand for these devices would significantly reduce our revenues.
In certain products, some of our customers offer their own competitive products. These customers may find it advantageous to support their own offerings in the marketplace in lieu of promoting our products.