UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the quarterly period ended
or
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of Each Class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of Each Exchange on which Registered |
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
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Smaller reporting company | ||
Emerging growth company |
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The number of shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding as of October 28, 2024:
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
FORM 10-Q FOR THE QUARTERLY PERIOD ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
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Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations | 18 | |
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PART II — OTHER INFORMATION | ||
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1
PART I — FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1.Financial Statements (unaudited)
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(Unaudited)
September 30, | March 31, | ||||||
2024 |
| 2024 |
| ||||
(In thousands, except share | |||||||
ASSETS | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Accounts receivable, net |
| |
| | |||
Inventories |
| |
| | |||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets ($ |
| |
| | |||
Assets held for sale | — | | |||||
Total current assets |
| |
| | |||
Property and equipment, net |
| |
| | |||
Operating lease right-of-use assets | | | |||||
Goodwill | | | |||||
Intangible assets, net | | | |||||
Deposits |
| |
| | |||
Total assets |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY | |||||||
Accounts payable ($ |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Lease liabilities, current | | | |||||
Accrued expenses and other liabilities |
| |
| | |||
Total current liabilities |
| |
| | |||
Deferred tax liability |
| |
| | |||
Lease liabilities, non-current | | | |||||
Contingent consideration, non-current | | | |||||
Total liabilities |
| |
| | |||
Commitments and contingencies (Note 9) | |||||||
Stockholders’ equity: | |||||||
Preferred stock: $ |
|
| |||||
Common Stock: $ |
| |
| | |||
Additional paid-in capital |
| |
| | |||
Accumulated other comprehensive loss |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Retained deficit |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Total stockholders’ equity |
| |
| | |||
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity |
| $ | |
| $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.
2
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| |||||||||
(In thousands, except per share amounts) | (In thousands, except per share amounts) | ||||||||||||
Net revenues |
| $ | |
| $ | |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Cost of revenues ($ |
| |
| |
| |
| | |||||
Gross profit |
| |
| |
| |
| | |||||
Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||
Research and development |
| | | | | ||||||||
Selling, general and administrative |
| | | | | ||||||||
Gain from sale and leaseback transaction | — | — | ( | — | |||||||||
Total operating expenses |
| |
| |
| |
| | |||||
Loss from operations | ( | ( | ( | ( | |||||||||
Interest income |
| | | | | ||||||||
Other expense, net |
| ( | ( | ( | ( | ||||||||
Loss before income taxes |
| ( |
| ( |
| ( |
| ( | |||||
Provision for income taxes |
| | | | | ||||||||
Net Loss |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | |
Net loss per share: | |||||||||||||
Basic |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | |
Diluted |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | |
Weighted average shares used in per share calculations: | |||||||||||||
Basic |
| |
| | | | |||||||
Diluted |
| |
| | | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.
3
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| |||||||||
(In thousands) | (In thousands) | ||||||||||||
Net loss |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | |
Net unrealized gain on available-for-sale investments |
| — |
| |
| — |
| | |||||
Total comprehensive loss |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.
4
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
(Unaudited)
Accumulated | |||||||||||||||||
Additional | Other | Total | |||||||||||||||
Common Stock | Paid-in | Comprehensive | Retained | Stockholders' | |||||||||||||
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Loss |
| Deficit |
| Equity | ||||||
Three months ended September 30, 2024 | (In thousands, except share amounts) | ||||||||||||||||
Balance, June 30, 2024 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Issuance of common stock under employee stock option plans | | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Stock-based compensation expense | — | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | — | ( | ( | |||||||||||
Balance, September 30, 2024 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Accumulated | |||||||||||||||||
Additional | Other | Total | |||||||||||||||
Common Stock | Paid-in | Comprehensive | Retained | Stockholders' | |||||||||||||
Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Loss |
| Deficit |
| Equity | |||||||
Three months ended September 30, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||
Balance, June 30, 2023 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Issuance of common stock pursuant to an At-the-Market offering, net of offering costs of $ | | | | ||||||||||||||
Stock-based compensation expense | — | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | — | ( | ( | |||||||||||
Net unrealized gain on available-for-sale investments | — | — | — | | — | | |||||||||||
Balance, September 30, 2023 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Accumulated | |||||||||||||||||
Additional | Other | Total | |||||||||||||||
Common Stock | Paid-in | Comprehensive | Retained | Stockholders' | |||||||||||||
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Loss |
| Deficit |
| Equity | ||||||
Six months ended September 30, 2024 | (In thousands, except share amounts) | ||||||||||||||||
Balance, March 31, 2024 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Issuance of common stock under employee stock option plans | | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Stock-based compensation expense | — | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | — | ( | ( | |||||||||||
Balance, September 30, 2024 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Accumulated | |||||||||||||||||
Additional | Other | Total | |||||||||||||||
Common Stock | Paid-in | Comprehensive | Retained | Stockholders' | |||||||||||||
Shares |
| Amount |
| Capital |
| Loss |
| Earnings |
| Equity | |||||||
Six months ended September 30, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||
Balance, March 31, 2023 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | | ||||||
Issuance of common stock under employee stock option plans | | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Issuance of common stock pursuant to an At-the-Market offering, net of offering costs of $ | | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Stock-based compensation expense | — | — | | — | — | | |||||||||||
Net loss | — | — | — | — | ( | ( | |||||||||||
Net unrealized gain on available-for-sale investments | — | — | — | | — | | |||||||||||
Balance, September 30, 2023 | | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.
5
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(Unaudited)
Six Months Ended September 30, | |||||||
2024 | 2023 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Cash flows from operating activities: | |||||||
Net loss |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | |
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: | |||||||
Allowance for credit losses |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Provision for excess and obsolete inventories |
| |
| | |||
Non-cash lease expense | | | |||||
Change in fair value of contingent consideration | ( | ( | |||||
Depreciation and amortization |
| |
| | |||
Gain on sale and leaseback transaction | ( | — | |||||
Stock-based compensation |
| |
| | |||
Amortization of premium on investments |
| — |
| ( | |||
Changes in assets and liabilities: | |||||||
Accounts receivable |
| |
| | |||
Inventories |
| |
| | |||
Prepaid expenses and other assets |
| |
| | |||
Accounts payable |
| |
| ( | |||
Accrued expenses and other liabilities |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Net cash used in operating activities |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Cash flows from investing activities: | |||||||
Proceeds from sale of assets | | — | |||||
Maturities of short-term investments |
| — | | ||||
Purchases of property and equipment |
| ( | ( | ||||
Net cash provided by investing activities |
| |
| | |||
Cash flows from financing activities: | |||||||
Proceeds from issuance of common stock under At-the-Market offering, net of offering costs of $ | — | | |||||
Proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee stock plans |
| | | ||||
Net cash provided by financing activities |
| |
| | |||
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents |
| |
| ( | |||
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the period |
| | | ||||
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the period |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Non-cash investing and financing activities: | |||||||
Operating lease right-of-use assets exchanged for lease obligations | $ | | $ | | |||
Supplemental cash flow information: | |||||||
Net cash paid for income taxes |
| $ | |
| $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.
6
GSI TECHNOLOGY, INC.
NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Unaudited)
NOTE 1—THE COMPANY AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of presentation
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of GSI Technology, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“GSI” or the “Company”) have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, the interim financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for annual financial statements. These interim financial statements contain all adjustments (which consist of only normal, recurring adjustments) that are, in the opinion of management, necessary to state fairly the interim financial information included therein. The Company believes that the disclosures are adequate to make the information not misleading. However, these financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.
The consolidated results of operations for the six months ended September 30, 2024 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the entire fiscal year.
Significant accounting policies
There have been no material changes to our significant accounting policies that were disclosed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.
Government Agreements
From time to time, the Company may enter into agreements with federal government agencies. GAAP does not have specific accounting standards covering agreements between the government and business entities. The Company applies International Accounting Standards 20 (“IAS 20”), Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, by analogy when accounting for agreements entered into with the government. Under IAS 20, government grants or awards are initially recognized when there is reasonable assurance the conditions of the grant or award will be met and the grant or award will be received. After initial recognition, government grants or awards are recognized on a systematic basis in a manner consistent with the manner in which the Company recognizes the underlying costs for which the grant or award is intended to compensate. The Company follows ASC 832, Disclosures by Business Entities about Government Assistance, with respect to the disclosures of government grants or awards.
Credit Losses—Marketable Securities
For marketable securities in an unrealized loss position, the Company periodically assesses its portfolio for impairment. The assessment first considers the intent or requirement to sell the marketable security. If either of these criteria are met, the amortized cost basis is written down to fair value through earnings.
Beginning April 1, 2023, if the criteria above are not met, the Company evaluates whether the decline resulted from credit losses or other factors by considering the extent to which fair value is less than amortized cost, any changes to the rating of the marketable security by a rating agency, and any adverse conditions specifically related to the marketable security, among other factors. If this assessment indicates that a credit loss exists, the present value of cash flows expected to be collected from the marketable security is compared to the amortized cost basis of the marketable security. If the present value of cash flows expected to be collected is less than the amortized
7
cost basis, a credit loss exists and an allowance for credit losses is recorded, limited by the amount that the fair value is less than the amortized cost basis. Any other impairment that has not been recorded through an allowance for credit losses is recognized in other comprehensive loss.
Credit Losses—Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable are recorded at the amounts billed less estimated allowances for credit losses for any potential uncollectible amounts. The Company continually monitors customer payments and maintains an allowance for estimated losses resulting from a customer’s inability to make required payments. The Company considers factors such as historical experience, credit quality, age of the accounts receivable balances, and economic conditions that may affect a customer’s ability to pay. Accounts receivable are written-off and charged against an allowance for credit losses when the Company has exhausted collection efforts without success.
Risk and uncertainties
The decline in the global economic environment due to, among other things, higher interest rates and worldwide inflationary pressures has affected the business activities of the Company, its customers, suppliers, and other business partners in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 and into the six months ended September 30, 2024.
Our software development and certain regional sales activities for our APU product offerings occur in Israel. Our Vice President, Associative Computing, along with a team of software development experts are based in our Israel facility. This team is needed for the development of software required in the use of our APU product offering. Proof of concept customers for our SAR imagine processing acceleration system are also based in Israel. We are closely monitoring the evolving military conflict in Israel that began on October 7, 2023 including potential impacts to our business, customers, employees and operations in Israel. At this time, the impact on GSI Technology is uncertain and subject to change given the volatile nature of the situation, but adverse changes in the military conditions in Israel could harm our business and our stock price could decline.
The Company believes that during the next 12 months disruptions in the capital markets as a result of high interest rates, worldwide inflationary pressures and the decline in the global economic environment could impact general economic activity and demand in the Company’s end markets.
Accounting pronouncements not yet adopted by the Company
In November 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-07, “Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures,” which will require the Company to disclose segment expenses that are significant and regularly provided to the Company’s chief operating decision maker (“CODM”). In addition, ASU 2023-07 will require the Company to disclose the title and position of its CODM and how the CODM uses segment profit or loss information in assessing segment performance and deciding how to allocate resources. This accounting standard update will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the effect that the updated standard will have on the Company's financial statement disclosures.
NOTE 2—REVENUE RECOGNITION
The Company determines revenue recognition through the following steps: (1) identification of the contract with a customer; (2) identification of the performance obligations in the contract; (3) determination of the transaction price; (4) allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (5) recognition of revenue when, or as, we satisfy a performance obligation.
The Company’s customer contracts, which may be in the form of purchase orders, contracts or purchase agreements, contain performance obligations for delivery of agreed upon products. Delivery of all performance obligations contained within a contract with a customer typically occurs at the same time (or within the same accounting period). Transfer of control occurs at the point at which delivery has occurred, title and the risks and
8
rewards of ownership have passed to the customer, and the Company has a right to payment. The Company recognizes revenue upon shipment of the product.
Because all of the Company’s performance obligations relate to contracts with a duration of less than one year, the Company has elected to apply the optional exemption practical expedient and, therefore, is not required to disclose the aggregate amount of the transaction price allocated to performance obligations that are unsatisfied or partially unsatisfied at the end of the reporting period.
The Company adjusts the transaction price for variable consideration. Variable consideration is not typically significant and primarily results from stock rotation rights and quick pay discounts provided to certain distributors. As a practical expedient, the Company is recognizing the of obtaining a contract, specifically commission expenses that have a period of benefit of less than twelve months, as an expense when incurred. Additionally, the Company has adopted an accounting policy to recognize shipping costs that occur after control transfers to the customer as a fulfillment activity.
The Company’s contracts with customers do not typically include extended payment terms. Payment terms vary by contract type and type of customer and generally range from
The Company records revenue net of sales tax, value added tax, excise tax and other taxes collected concurrent with product sales. The impact of such taxes on product sales is immaterial.
The Company warrants its products to be free of defects generally for a period of
Substantially all of the Company’s revenue is derived from sales of SRAM products, which represent approximately
Nokia, the Company’s largest customer, purchases products directly from the Company and through contract manufacturers and distributors. Based on information provided to the Company by its contract manufacturers and distributors, purchases by Nokia represented approximately
See “Note 12 — Segment and Geographic Information” for revenue by shipment destination.
The following table presents the Company’s revenue disaggregated by customer type.
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| |||||||||
(In thousands) | (In thousands) | ||||||||||||
Contract manufacturers |
| $ | |
| $ | |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Distribution | | | | | |||||||||
OEMs | | | | | |||||||||
$ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | ||||||
9
NOTE 3—NET INCOME (LOSS) PER COMMON SHARE
The Company uses the treasury stock method to calculate the weighted average shares used in computing diluted net loss per share. The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted net loss per share:
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
(In thousands, except per share amounts) | (In thousands, except per share amounts) | ||||||||||||
Net loss |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| ( |
| $ | ( | ||
Denominators: | |||||||||||||
Weighted average shares—Basic |
| | | | | ||||||||
Dilutive effect of employee stock options | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
Dilutive effect of employee stock purchase plan options |
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||
Weighted average shares—Dilutive |
| |
| |
| |
| | |||||
Net loss per common share—Basic |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | $ | ( | ||
Net loss per common share—Diluted |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( |
| $ | ( | $ | ( |
The following shares of common stock underlying outstanding stock options and unissued ESPP shares, determined on a weighted average basis, were excluded from the computation of diluted net loss per share as they had an anti-dilutive effect:
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | (In thousands) | ||||||||
Shares underlying options and ESPP shares |
| | | | |
NOTE 4—BALANCE SHEET DETAIL
September 30, 2024 | March 31, 2024 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Inventories: | |||||||
Work-in-progress |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Finished goods |
| |
| | |||
| $ | |
| $ | |
September 30, 2024 | March 31, 2024 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Accounts receivable, net: | |||||||
Accounts receivable |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
Less: Allowances for credit losses |
| ( |
| ( | |||
| $ | |
| $ | |
September 30, 2024 | March 31, 2024 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets: | |||||||
Prepaid tooling and masks | $ | | $ | | |||
Other receivables | | | |||||
Other prepaid expenses and other current assets | | | |||||
$ | | $ | |
10
September 30, 2024 | March 31, 2024 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Property and equipment, net: | |||||||
Computer and other equipment | $ | | $ | | |||
Software | | | |||||
Furniture and fixtures | | | |||||
Leasehold improvements | | | |||||
| | ||||||
Less: Accumulated depreciation | ( | ( | |||||
$ | | $ | |
Depreciation expense was $
The following tables summarize the components of intangible assets and related accumulated amortization balances at September 30, 2024 and March 31, 2024 (in thousands):
As of September 30, 2024 | ||||||||||
| Gross |
| Accumulated |
| Net Carrying |
| ||||
Intangible assets: |
|
|
| |||||||
Product designs | $ | | $ | ( | $ | — | ||||
Patents | | ( | | |||||||
Software | | ( | — | |||||||
Total | $ | | $ | ( | $ | |
As of March 31, 2024 | ||||||||||
| Gross |
| Accumulated |
| Net Carrying |
| ||||
Intangible assets: | ||||||||||
Product designs | $ | | $ | ( | $ | — | ||||
Patents | | ( | | |||||||
Software | | ( | — | |||||||
Total | $ | | $ | ( | $ | |
Amortization of intangible assets included in cost of revenues was $
The Company reviews identifiable amortizable intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of the assets may not be recoverable. Determination of recoverability is based on the lowest level of identifiable estimated undiscounted cash flows resulting from use of the asset and its eventual disposition. Measurement of any impairment loss is based on the excess of the carrying value of the asset over its fair value. There were no impairment indicators noted as of September 30, 2024.
11
As of September 30, 2024, the estimated future amortization expense of intangible assets in the table above is as follows (in thousands):
Fiscal year ending March 31, | ||||
2025 (remaining six months) | $ | | ||
2026 | | |||
2027 | | |||
2028 | | |||
2029 | | |||
Thereafter | | |||
Total | $ | |
September 30, 2024 | March 31, 2024 |
| |||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Accrued expenses and other liabilities: | |||||||
Accrued compensation | $ | | $ | | |||
Accrued commissions | | | |||||
Miscellaneous accrued expenses | | | |||||
$ | | $ | |
In August 2024, the Company implemented strategic cost-cutting measures expected to yield annual savings of approximately $
NOTE 5—GOODWILL
Goodwill represents the difference between the purchase price and the estimated fair value of the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination. The Company tests for goodwill impairment on an annual basis, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the asset is more likely than not impaired. The Company assesses goodwill for impairment on an annual basis on the last day of February in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year. The Company has
The Company had a goodwill balance of $
The Company completed its annual impairment test during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and concluded that there was no impairment, as it was more likely than not that the fair value of its sole reporting unit exceeded its carrying value and the performance of a quantitative impairment test was not required.
NOTE 6—INCOME TAXES
Due to historical losses in the United States, the Company has a full valuation allowance on its United States federal and state deferred tax assets. Management continues to evaluate the realizability of deferred tax assets and the related valuation allowance.
12
Management believes that within the next twelve months the Company could have a reduction in uncertain tax benefits of up to $
The Company’s policy is to include interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits within the provision for income taxes in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.
The Company is subject to taxation in the United States and various state and foreign jurisdictions. Fiscal years 2013 through 2023 remain open to examination by federal tax authorities, and fiscal years 2012 through 2023 remain open to examination by California tax authorities. Fiscal years 2020 through 2023 are subject to audit by the Israeli tax authorities.
For the six months ended September 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023, the Company incurred income tax expense of $
NOTE 7—FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS
Fair value measurements
Authoritative accounting guidance for fair value measurements provides a framework for measuring fair value and related disclosures. The guidance applies to all financial assets and financial liabilities that are measured on a recurring basis. The guidance requires fair value measurement to be classified and disclosed in one of the following three categories:
Level 1: Valuations based on quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities. The fair value of available-for-sale securities included in the Level 1 category is based on quoted prices that are readily and regularly available in an active market. As of September 30, 2024, the Level 1 category included money market funds of $
Level 2: Valuations based on observable inputs (other than Level 1 prices), such as quoted prices for similar assets at the measurement date; quoted prices in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable, either directly or indirectly. The fair value of available-for-sale securities included in the Level 2 category is based on the market values obtained from an independent pricing service that were evaluated using pricing models that vary by asset class and may incorporate available trade, bid and other market information and price quotes from well-established independent pricing vendors and broker-dealers. As of September 30, 2024 and March 31, 2024, there were
Level 3: Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and involve management judgment and the reporting entity’s own assumptions about market participants and pricing. As of September 30, 2024, the Company’s Level 3 financial instruments measured at fair value on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets consisted of the contingent consideration liability related to the acquisition of MikaMonu. The fair value of the contingent consideration liability was initially determined as of the acquisition date using unobservable inputs. These inputs included the estimated amount and timing of future cash flows, the probability achievement of the forecast and a risk-adjusted discount rate of approximately
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accompanied by a directionally opposite change in the related fair value measurement and expense. The continued appropriateness of the Monte Carlo valuation model selected or any decision to change the valuation model may also lead to changes in fair value measurement. Subsequent to the acquisition date, at each reporting period, the contingent consideration liability is re-measured to fair value with changes recorded in selling, general and administrative expenses in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. During the most recent re-measurement of the contingent consideration liability as of September 30, 2024, the Company used a risk-adjusted discount rate of approximately
The fair value of financial assets and liabilities measured on a recurring basis is as follows (in thousands):
Fair Value Measurements at Reporting Date Using | |||||||||||||
Quoted Prices | |||||||||||||
in Active | Significant | ||||||||||||
Markets for | Other | Significant | |||||||||||
Identical Assets | Observable | Unobservable | |||||||||||
and Liabilities | Inputs | Inputs | |||||||||||
| September 30, 2024 |
| (Level 1) |
| (Level 2) |
| (Level 3) |
| |||||
Assets: | |||||||||||||
Money market funds | $ | | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | |||||
Total | $ | | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | |||||
Liabilities: | |||||||||||||
Contingent consideration | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | $ | |
Fair Value Measurements at Reporting Date Using | |||||||||||||
Quoted Prices | |||||||||||||
in Active | Significant | ||||||||||||
Markets for | Other | Significant | |||||||||||
Identical Assets | Observable | Unobservable | |||||||||||
and Liabilities | Inputs | Inputs | |||||||||||
| March 31, 2024 |
| (Level 1) |
| (Level 2) |
| (Level 3) |
| |||||
Assets: | |||||||||||||
Money market funds | $ | | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | |||||
Total | $ | | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | |||||
Liabilities: | |||||||||||||
Contingent consideration | $ | | $ | — | $ | — | $ | |
The following table sets forth the changes in fair value of contingent consideration for the six months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively:
Six Months Ended September 30, | |||||||
| 2024 |
| 2023 | ||||
(In thousands) | |||||||
Contingent consideration, beginning of period | $ | | $ | | |||
Change due to accretion | | | |||||
Re-measurement of contingent consideration | ( | ( | |||||
Contingent consideration, end of period | $ | | $ | |
Short-term investments
The Company had money market funds of $
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Company monitors its investments for impairment periodically and records appropriate reductions in carrying values when declines are determined to be other-than-temporary.
There were
NOTE 8—LEASES
The Company has operating leases for corporate offices and research and development facilities. The Company’s leases have remaining lease terms of
On June 6, 2024, the Company completed a sale and leaseback transaction pursuant to a previously executed purchase and sale agreement (the “Agreement”) with an unrelated party, as purchaser, for the sale of the Company’s 1213 Elko Drive property in Sunnyvale, California (the “Sunnyvale Property”) for a purchase price, net of closing and other expenses payable by the Company, of $
Supplemental balance sheet information related to leases was as follows:
As of | As of | |||||
September 30, 2024 | March 31, 2024 | |||||
(In thousands) | ||||||
Operating Leases | ||||||
Operating lease right-of-use assets | $ | $ | ||||
Lease liabilities-current | $ | $ | ||||
Lease liabilities-non-current | ||||||
Total operating lease liabilities | $ | $ |
The following table provides the details of lease costs:
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | |||||||||||
2024 |
| 2023 | 2024 |
| 2023 | |||||||
(In thousands) | (In thousands) | |||||||||||
Operating lease cost | $ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||
Short-term lease cost | ||||||||||||
$ | $ | $ | $ |
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The following table provides other information related to leases:
Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||
2024 |
| 2023 | ||||
(In thousands) | ||||||
Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities | ||||||
Operating cash flows from operating leases | $ | $ | ||||
Right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for lease obligations | ||||||
Operating leases | $ | | $ | | ||
Weighted-average remaining lease term (years): | ||||||
Operating leases | ||||||
Weighted-average discount rate: | ||||||
Operating leases |
The following table provides the maturities of the Company’s operating lease liabilities as of September 30, 2024:
Operating Lease | |||
Liabilities | |||
Fiscal Year | (In thousands) | ||
2025 (remaining six months) | $ | ||
2026 | |||
2027 | |||
2028 | |||
2029 | |||
Thereafter | |||
Total undiscounted future cash flows | |||
Less: Imputed interest | ( | ||
Present value of undiscounted future cash flows | $ | ||
Presentation on statement of financial position | |||
Current | $ | ||
Non-current | $ |
NOTE 9—COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Indemnification obligations
The Company is a party to a variety of agreements pursuant to which it may be obligated to indemnify the other party with respect to certain matters. Typically, these obligations arise in the context of contracts entered into by the Company, under which the Company agrees to hold the other party harmless against losses arising from a breach of representations and covenants related to such matters as title to assets sold and certain intellectual property rights. In each of these circumstances, payment by the Company is conditioned on the other party making a claim pursuant to the procedures specified in the particular contract, which procedures typically allow the Company to challenge the other party’s claims. Further, the Company’s obligations under these agreements may be limited in terms of time and/or amount, and in some instances, the Company may have recourse against third parties for certain payments made by it under these agreements.
It is not possible to predict the maximum potential amount of future payments that may be required under these or similar agreements due to the conditional nature of the Company’s obligations and the unique facts and
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circumstances involved in each particular agreement. Historically, payments made by the Company under these agreements have not had a material effect on its business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.
NOTE 10—STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION
As of September 30, 2024,
The following table summarizes the Company’s stock option activities for the six months ended September 30, 2024:
Weighted | |||||||||||||
Number of Shares | Average | Weighted | |||||||||||
Shares | Underlying | Remaining | Average | ||||||||||
Available for | Options | Contractual | Exercise | Intrinsic | |||||||||
| Grant |
| Outstanding |
| Life (Years) |
| Price |
| Value |
| |||
Balance at March 31, 2024 | | | $ | | |||||||||
Granted | ( | | $ | | |||||||||
Exercised | — | ( | $ | | $ | | |||||||
Forfeited | | ( | $ | | |||||||||
Balance at September 30, 2024 | | | $ | | |||||||||
Options vested and exercisable | | $ | | $ | | ||||||||
Options vested and expected to vest | | $ | | $ | |
The following table summarizes stock-based compensation expense by line item in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, all relating to employee stock plans:
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| |||||||||
(In thousands) | (In thousands) | ||||||||||||
Cost of revenues | $ | $ | | $ | $ | | |||||||
Research and development | | | | ||||||||||
Selling, general and administrative | | | |||||||||||
$ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
NOTE 11—RELATED PARTY TRANSACTION
The Company incurred manufacturing services of approximately $
NOTE 12—SEGMENT AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Based on its operating management and financial reporting structure, the Company has determined that it has
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The following is a summary of net revenues by geographic area based on the location to which product is shipped:
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 |
| |||||||||
(In thousands) | (In thousands) | ||||||||||||
United States |
| $ | |
| $ | |
| $ | |
| $ | | |
China | | | | | |||||||||
Singapore | | | | | |||||||||
Netherlands | | | | | |||||||||
Germany | | | | | |||||||||
Rest of the world | | | | | |||||||||
$ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | ||||||
All sales are denominated in United States dollars.
NOTE 13—GOVERNMENT AGREEMENTS
In June 2023, the Company entered into a prototype agreement with the Space Development Agency for the development of a Next-Generation Associative Processing Unit-2 for Enhanced Space-Based Capabilities (“Prototype Agreement”). Under the Prototype Agreement, the Company will receive an award funded by the Small Business Innovation Research program. Pursuant to an agreed-upon schedule, the Company will receive milestone payments which total an estimated $
In November 2023, the Company entered into a second prototype agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (“AFRL”) for the development of specialized algorithms for a Next-Generation Compute-In-Memory Associative Processing Unit (APU2) to Enable High-Performance Computing in Space. Pursuant to an agreed-upon schedule, the Company will receive milestone payments which total an estimated $
The Prototype Agreements are unrelated to the Company’s ordinary business activities. The Company has discretion in managing the activities under the Prototype Agreement and retains all developed intellectual property. The Company applies IAS 20, by analogy, and recognizes the award as a reduction of research and development expenses based on a cost incurred method.
During the three and six months ended September 30, 2024, the Company recognized $
Item 2.Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in particular the following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” and other similar expressions. In addition, any statements which refer to expectations, projections, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those set forth in this report under “Risk Factors,” those described elsewhere in this report, and those described in our other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this report, and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements after the filing of this report. You are urged
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to review carefully and consider our various disclosures in this report and in our other reports publicly disclosed or filed with the SEC that attempt to advise you of the risks and factors that may affect our business.
Overview
We are a provider of high-performance semiconductor memory solutions for in-place associative computing applications in high growth markets such as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, including natural language processing and computer vision. Our initial associative processing unit (“APU”) products are focused on applications using similarity search, but have not resulted in material revenues to date. Similarity search is used in visual search queries for ecommerce, computer vision, drug discovery, cybersecurity and service markets such as NoSQL, Elasticsearch, and OpenSearch. We have solutions to accelerate multimodal vector search as an on-prem solution for OpenSearch and general Fast Vector Search, and for processing large area SAR images in real-time at high resolution. Our revenue is currently generated from the design, development and marketing of static random access memories, or SRAMs, that operate at speeds of less than 10 nanoseconds, which we refer to as Very Fast SRAMs, primarily for the networking and telecommunications and the military/defense and aerospace markets. We are subject to the highly cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, which has experienced significant fluctuations, often in connection with fluctuations in demand for the products in which semiconductor devices are used. Our revenues have been substantially impacted by significant fluctuations in sales to our largest customer, Nokia. We expect that future direct and indirect sales to Nokia will continue to fluctuate significantly on a quarterly basis. The networking and telecommunications market has accounted for a significant portion of our net revenues in the past and has declined during the past several years and is expected to continue to decline. In anticipation of the decline of the networking and telecommunications market, we have been using the revenue generated by the sales of high-speed synchronous SRAM products to finance the development of our new in-place associative computing solutions and the marketing and sale of new types of SRAM products such as radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant SRAMs.
Our revenues in recent years were impacted by changes in customer buying patterns and communication limitations related to COVID-19 restrictions that required a significant number of our customer contacts to work from home. While the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, worldwide inflationary pressures, higher interest rates and decline in the global economic environment have had, and may continue to have, an adverse impact on our business and financial condition. Furthermore, the easing of supply chain shortages and prior buffer stock purchases from significant customers led to a decrease in revenues in the second half of fiscal 2023, during fiscal 2024 and into fiscal 2025.
In June 2023, we announced the receipt of an award of a prototype agreement with the Space Development Agency (“SDA”) for the development of a Next-Generation Associative Processing Unit-2 (“APU2”) for Enhanced Space-Based Capabilities. Our next-generation non-Von-Neumann Associative Processing Unit compute in-memory integrated circuit (“IC”) offers unique capabilities to address the challenges faced by the U.S. Space Force (“USSF”) in processing extensive sets of big data in space. Our overarching objective is to enable and enhance current and future mission capabilities through the deployment of compute in-memory integrated systems that can efficiently handle vast amounts of data in real-time at the edge. The APU, featuring a scalable format, compact footprint, and low power consumption, presents an ideal solution for edge applications where prompt and precise responses are crucial. These capabilities empower the USSF to swiftly detect, warn, analyze, attribute, and forecast potential and actual threats in space, ultimately bolstering the ability of the United States to maintain and leverage space superiority. The U.S. Space Force is actively seeking solutions to address current limitations in processing big data that is needed to execute the mission objectives of the Space Development Agency within the evolving and challenging space environment. This award is being funded by the Small Business Innovation Research program, a competitive program funded by various U.S. government agencies, that encourages small businesses to engage in federal research and development with the potential for commercialization. Under the terms of this Direct to Phase II award, we will develop an advanced non-Von-Neumann Associative Processing Unit-2, compute in-memory IC, and design and fabricate an APU2 Evaluation Board. Pursuant to an agreed-upon schedule, we will receive milestone payments totaling an estimated $1.25 million upon the successful completion of predetermined milestones. During the six months ended September 30, 2024, we received payments in the amount of $124,000 under this agreement.
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In January 2024, we announced that GSI has been selected by AFWERX for an SBIR Direct-to-Phase II contract in the amount of $1.1 million to demonstrate high-data computation use cases leveraging the distinct compute in-memory architecture of our APU-2. We will create specialized algorithms for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (“AFRL”) to leverage the compute-in-memory architecture of the Gemini® APU. This chip is designed for various AI applications to tackle key challenges in the Department of the Air Force, including in-aircraft search and rescue, object detection, moving target indication, change detection, and SSIM in GPS-absent situations. We will also develop algorithms using data from the USSF to showcase the performance benefits of our compute-in-memory APU-2 integrated circuit. During the six months ended September 30, 2024, we received payments in the amount of $157,000 under this agreement.
As of September 30, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents of $18.4 million, with no debt. We have a team in-place with tremendous depth and breadth of experience and knowledge, with a legacy business that is providing an ongoing source of funding for the development of new product lines. Our balance sheet and liquidity position has been strengthened by the recent sale of our Sunnyvale, California property, which we anticipate will provide further financial flexibility and security in the current environment of economic uncertainty. Generally, our primary source of liquidity is cash equivalents. Our level of cash equivalents has historically been sufficient to meet our current and longer term operating and capital needs. We believe that during the next 12 months, continued inflationary pressures and high interest rates will continue to negatively impact general economic activity and demand in our end markets. Although it is difficult to estimate the length or gravity of the continued inflationary pressures and high interest rates, the evolving conflict in the Middle East and the decline in the global economic environment are expected to have an adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, including potential impairments, and liquidity in fiscal 2025.
In August 2024, we initiated measures to reduce our operating expenses by approximately $3.5 million on an annualized basis, primarily from salary reductions related to reduced headcount, as well as targeted reductions in research and development spending. These strategic cost reduction measures are expected to enable us to better focus on our operational resources on advancing our proprietary APU technology. None of the Gemini-II chip development and core APU software development, including the APU compiler, will be affected by the reduction in R&D spending. The APU marketing, sales, and APU engineering efforts will retain priority in the budget. The planned spending reductions will not impact the launch of Gemini-I and Gemini-II in target markets, including SAR and search. The cost reduction initiative was completed in August 2024 and resulted in an approximate 16% decrease in our global workforce. We incurred approximately $668,000 in cash expenditures for termination costs, including the payout of accrued vacation, in the quarter ended September 30, 2024.
Revenues. Substantially all of our revenues are derived primarily from sales of our Very Fast SRAM products. Sales to networking and telecommunications OEMs accounted for 32% to 49% of our net revenues during our last three fiscal years. We also sell our products to OEMs that manufacture products for military and aerospace applications such as radar and guidance systems, missiles and satellites, for test and measurement applications such as high-speed testers, for automotive applications such as smart cruise control, and for medical applications such as ultrasound and CAT scan equipment.
As is typical in the semiconductor industry, the selling prices of our products generally decline over the life of the product. Our ability to increase net revenues, therefore, is dependent upon our ability to increase unit sales volumes of existing products and to introduce and sell new products with higher average selling prices in quantities sufficient to compensate for the anticipated declines in selling prices of our more mature products. Although we expect the average selling prices of individual products to decline over time, we believe that, over the next several quarters, our overall average selling prices will increase due to a continuing shift in product mix to a higher percentage of higher price, higher density products. Our ability to increase unit sales volumes is dependent primarily upon increases in customer demand but, particularly in periods of increasing demand, can also be affected by our ability to increase production through the availability of increased wafer fabrication capacity from TSMC, our wafer supplier, and our ability to increase the number of good integrated circuit die produced from each wafer through die size reductions and yield enhancement activities.
We may experience fluctuations in quarterly net revenues for a number of reasons. Historically, orders on hand at the beginning of each quarter are insufficient to meet our revenue objectives for that quarter and are generally cancelable up to 30 days prior to scheduled delivery. Accordingly, we depend on obtaining and shipping
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orders in the same quarter to achieve our revenue objectives. In addition, the timing of product releases, purchase orders and product availability could result in significant product shipments at the end of a quarter. Failure to ship these products by the end of the quarter may adversely affect our operating results. Furthermore, our customers may delay scheduled delivery dates and/or cancel orders within specified timeframes without significant penalty.
We sell our products through our direct sales force, international and domestic sales representatives and distributors. Our revenues have been and are expected to continue to be impacted by changes in customer buying patterns and communication limitations related to changes in working habits that have resulted in a significant number of our customer contacts working from home. Our customer contracts, which may be in the form of purchase orders, contracts or purchase agreements, contain performance obligations for delivery of agreed upon products. Delivery of all performance obligations contained within a contract with a customer typically occurs at the same time (or within the same accounting period). Transfer of control occurs at the time of shipment, title and the risks and rewards of ownership have passed to the customer, and we have a right to payment. Thus, we will recognize revenue upon shipment of the product for direct sales and sales to our distributors.
Nokia was our largest customer in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022. Nokia purchases products directly from us and through contract manufacturers and distributors. Based on information provided to us by its contract manufacturers and our distributors, purchases by Nokia represented approximately 20%, 21%, 17% and 29% of our net revenues in the six months ended September 30, 2024 and in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Our revenues have been substantially impacted by significant fluctuations in sales to Nokia, and we expect that future direct and indirect sales to Nokia will continue to fluctuate substantially on a quarterly basis and that such fluctuations may significantly affect our operating results in future periods. To our knowledge, none of our other OEM customers accounted for more than 10% of our net revenues in the six months ended September 30, 2024 and in fiscal 2024, 2023 or 2022.
Cost of Revenues. Our cost of revenues consists primarily of wafer fabrication costs, wafer sort, assembly, test and burn-in expenses, the amortized cost of production mask sets, stock-based compensation and the cost of materials and overhead from operations. All of our wafer manufacturing and assembly operations, and a significant portion of our wafer sort testing operations, are outsourced. Accordingly, most of our cost of revenues consists of payments to TSMC and independent assembly and test houses. Because we do not have long-term, fixed-price supply contracts, our wafer fabrication and other outsourced manufacturing costs are subject to the cyclical fluctuations in demand for semiconductors. We have experienced increased costs as a result of inflation, supply chain constraints for wafers and outsourced assembly, burn-in and test operations. We review our manufacturing costs on a regular basis and pass on any cost increases to our customers when it makes sense to do so. Cost of revenues also includes expenses related to supply chain management, quality assurance, and final product testing and documentation control activities conducted at our headquarters in Sunnyvale, California and our branch operations in Taiwan.
Gross Profit. Our gross profit margins vary among our products and are generally greater on our radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant SRAMs, on our higher density products and, within a particular density, greater on our higher speed and industrial temperature products. We expect that our overall gross margins will fluctuate from period to period as a result of shifts in product mix, changes in average selling prices and our ability to control our cost of revenues, including costs associated with outsourced wafer fabrication and product assembly and testing.
Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses consist primarily of salaries and related expenses for design engineers and other technical personnel, the cost of developing prototypes, stock-based compensation and fees paid to consultants. We charge all research and development expenses to operations as incurred. We charge mask costs used in production to cost of revenues over a 12-month period. However, we charge costs related to pre-production mask sets, which are not used in production, to research and development expenses at the time they are incurred. These charges often arise as we transition to new process technologies and, accordingly, can cause research and development expenses to fluctuate on a quarterly basis. We believe that continued investment in research and development is critical to our long-term success, and we expect to continue to devote significant resources to product development activities. In particular, we are devoting substantial resources to the development of a new category of in-place associative computing products. Accordingly, we expect that our
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research and development expenses will continue to be substantial in future periods and may lead to operating losses in some periods. Such expenses as a percentage of net revenues may fluctuate from period to period.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of commissions paid to independent sales representatives, salaries, stock-based compensation and related expenses for personnel engaged in sales, marketing, administrative, finance and human resources activities, professional fees, costs associated with the promotion of our products and other corporate expenses. We expect that our sales and marketing expenses will increase in absolute dollars in future periods if we are able to grow and expand our sales force but that, to the extent our revenues increase in future periods, these expenses will generally decline as a percentage of net revenues. We also expect that, in support of any future growth that we are able to achieve, general and administrative expenses will generally increase in absolute dollars.
Goodwill. We had a goodwill balance of $8.0 million as of both September 30, 2024 and March 31, 2024. The goodwill resulted from the acquisition of MikaMonu Group Ltd. in fiscal 2016. We completed our annual impairment test during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and concluded that there was no impairment, as it was more likely than not that the fair value of our sole reporting unit exceeded its carrying value and the performance of a quantitative impairment test was not required.
Intangible Assets. We review identifiable amortizable intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of the assets may not be recoverable. Determination of recoverability is based on the lowest level of identifiable estimated undiscounted cash flows resulting from use of the asset and its eventual disposition. Measurement of any impairment loss is based on the excess of the carrying value of the asset over its fair value. There were no impairment indicators noted as of September 30, 2024 and March 31, 2024. Based on the uncertainty of forecasts inherent with a new product, events such as the failure to generate forecasted revenue from the APU product could result in a non-cash impairment charge in future periods.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth statement of operations data as a percentage of net revenues for the periods indicated:
Three Months Ended September 30, | Six Months Ended September 30, | |||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||
Net revenues | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | ||||
Cost of revenues | 61.4 | 45.3 | 57.5 | 45.2 | ||||||||
Gross profit | 38.6 | 54.7 | 42.5 | 54.8 | ||||||||
Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||
Research and development | 105.2 | 82.2 | 97.6 | 87.6 | ||||||||
Selling, general and administrative | 56.1 | 44.2 | 55.9 | 48.9 | ||||||||
Gain from sale and leaseback transaction | — | — | (62.2) | — | ||||||||
Total operating expenses | 161.3 | 126.4 | 91.3 | 136.5 | ||||||||
Loss from operations | (122.7) | (71.7) | (48.8) | (81.7) | ||||||||
Interest and other income, net | 3.3 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 1.3 | ||||||||
Loss before income taxes | (119.4) | (70.5) | (46.6) | (80.4) | ||||||||
Provision for income taxes | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.7 | ||||||||
Net loss | (119.9) | (71.1) | (47.5) | (81.1) |
Net Revenues. Net revenues decreased by 20.3% from $5.7 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $4.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and by 18.4% from $11.3 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $9.2 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. The decrease in net revenues in each period is related to the current economic environment that has led to cautionary spending by our customers and purchases made as a result of supply chain constraints in the previous periods. The overall average selling price of all units shipped in the quarter ended September 30, 2024 decreased by 12.0% compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2023 and the number of units shipped decreased 10.5% in the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2023. The overall average selling price of all units shipped in the six months ended September 30, 2024 decreased by 13.7% compared to the six months ended September 30,
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2023 and the number of units shipped decreased 5.9% in the six months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the six months ended September 30, 2023. The change in the average selling price was due to changes in product mix. Direct and indirect sales to Nokia, currently our largest customer, decreased from $1.2 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $812,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and decreased from $3.0 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $1.8 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Shipments to Nokia will continue to fluctuate on a quarterly basis as a result of demand and shipments to its end customers. While recent customer order patterns have been particularly variable, these fluctuations are related to economic and external factors, which include worldwide inflationary pressures, higher interest rates and the decline in the global economic environment. In addition, we are seeing early indications of a turnaround in our SRAM business. Existing customers are depleting their channel inventory, and we anticipate they will resume ordering in the upcoming quarters. Furthermore, we expect a significant increase in orders from an existing customer over the next 12 months. This opportunity for additional orders involves collaborating on a cutting-edge product for a leading AI chip developer, which is expected to drive consistent demand for this customer's equipment and our SRAM chips going forward.
Cost of Revenues. Cost of revenues increased by 8.0% from $2.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $2.8 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and increased by 3.9% from $5.1 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $5.3 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Cost of revenues included a provision for excess and obsolete inventories of $94,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2023 compared to $180,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Cost of revenues includes $203,000 in severance related payments in the three months and six months ended September 30, 2024 related to our August 2024 cost reduction initiative. Cost of revenues included stock-based compensation expense of $57,000 and $51,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2024, respectively, and $124,000 and $107,000 for the six months ended September 30, 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Gross Profit. Gross profit decreased by 43.7% from $3.1 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $1.8 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and by 36.7% from $6.2 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $3.9 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Gross margin decreased from 54.7% in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to 38.6% in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and from 54.8% in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to 42.5% in the six months ended September 30, 2024. The changes in gross profit are primarily related to the decreases in net revenues discussed above. The changes in gross margin are primarily related to changes in the mix of products and customers and the impact of manufacturing overhead on the lower level of net revenues in the three and six months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the comparable periods in fiscal 2023. Gross margin in the three and six months ended September 30, 2024 was also impacted by the severance related payments related to our August 2024 cost reduction initiative discussed above.
Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses increased by 2.1% from $4.7 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $4.8 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024. The increase in research and development spending was primarily related to increases of $221,000 in outside consulting expenses for the development of our next generation APU product and a lesser increase in software maintenance expenses. Research and development expenses in the three months ended September 30, 2023 were also offset by $260,000 of funding received under the Direct to Phase II award for the development of a Next-Generation Associative Processing Unit-2 (“APU2”) for Enhanced Space-Based Capabilities discussed above. Payroll related expenses decreased by $465,000 in the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2023 due to reductions in headcount. Research and development expenses included stock-based compensation expense of $369,000 and $336,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2024, respectively. Research and development expenses decreased by 9.0% from $9.9 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $9.0 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. The decrease in research and development spending was primarily related to decreases of $893,000 in payroll related expenses and lesser decreases in depreciation expense and outside consulting expenses for the development of our next generation APU product. Research and development expenses in the six months ended September 30, 2023 were also offset by $260,000 of funding received under the government contracts discussed above compared to $318,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Research and development expenses included stock-based compensation expense of $755,000 and $626,000 for the six months ended September 30, 2023 and 2024, respectively.
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Selling, General and Administrative Expense. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by 1.2% from $2.5 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $2.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024. Selling, general and administrative expenses included a decrease of $24,000 in the value of contingent consideration in the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to a decrease of $279,000 in the quarter ended September 30, 2023. Decreases of $224,000 in professional fees and $51,000 in outside sales representative commissions were partially offset by increases in payroll related expenses and facility related expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses included stock-based compensation expense of $250,000 and $276,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2024, respectively. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by 6.7% from $5.5 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $5.2 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Selling general and administrative expenses included decreases of $368,000 in professional fees, $129,000 in outside sales representative commissions and a lesser decrease in payroll related expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses included a decrease of $109,000 in the value of contingent consideration in the six months ended September 30, 2024 compared to a decrease of $324,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2023. Selling, general and administrative expenses included stock-based compensation expense of $617,000 and $588,000 for the six months ended September 30, 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Gain from Sale and Leaseback Transaction. Gain from sale and leaseback transaction represents the gain from the sale of our headquarters building located at 1213 Elko Drive in Sunnyvale, California. The sale and leaseback transaction was completed on June 6, 2024. For further discussion of the sale and leaseback transaction, see Note - 8 Leases to the Condensed Consolidated Financial statements contained elsewhere in this report.
Interest Income and Other Expense, Net. Interest and other income, net increased by $78,000 from $71,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $149,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2024. Interest income increased by $31,000 primarily due to higher interest rates received on our cash invested in money market funds. Foreign exchange losses were $60,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2023 compared to $13,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2024. Interest and other income, net increased by $53,000 from $151,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $204,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2024. Interest income decreased by $25,000 primarily due lower cash balances invested in money market funds in the six months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the six months ended September 30, 2023. Foreign exchange losses were $123,000 for the six months ended September 30, 2023 compared to $45,000 for the six months ended September 30, 2024. The exchange losses in each period were related to our Taiwan branch operations and our operations in Israel.
Provision for Income Taxes. The provision for income taxes decreased from $33,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2023 to $23,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and decreased from $84,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2023 to $80,000 in the six months ended September 30, 2024.
Net Loss. Net loss was $4.1 million in the three months ended September 30, 2023 compared to $5.5 million in the three months ended September 30, 2024 and was $9.2 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023 compared to $4.4 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024. These fluctuations were primarily due to the changes in net revenues, gross profit and operating expenses discussed above.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of September 30, 2024, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents of $18.4 million compared to cash and cash equivalents $14.4 million as of March 31, 2024.
Net cash used in operating activities was $7.7 million for the six months ended September 30, 2024 compared to $6.3 million for the six months ended September 30, 2023. The primary uses of cash in the six months ended September 30, 2024 were the net loss of $4.4 million and a decrease of $1.6 million in accrued expenses. The primary sources of cash in the six months ended September 30, 2024 were reductions in accounts receivable, inventories and prepaid expenses and other current assets. Cash from operations in the six months ended September 30, 2024 was adjusted for the non-cash gain on the sale and leaseback transaction in the amount of $5.7 million.
The primary uses of cash in the six months ended September 30, 2023 were the net loss of $9.2 million and a reduction in accrued expenses and other liabilities of $326,000. The reduction in accrued expenses and other
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liabilities was primarily related to the payment of fiscal 2023 year-end accruals for incentive compensation. The uses of cash in the six months ended September 30, 2023 were less than the net loss due to non-cash items including stock-based compensation of $1.5 million and depreciation and amortization expenses of $505,000. The primary sources of cash in the six months ended September 30, 2023 were decreases in inventories of $744,000 and accounts receivable of $399,000.
Net cash provided by investing activities was $11.3 million in the six months ended September 30, 2024 compared to $2.1 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023. Investment activities in the six months ended September 30, 2024 primarily consisted of the net proceeds of $11.3 million from the sale and leaseback transaction discussed above, partially offset by the purchase of property and equipment of $38,000. Investment activities in the six months ended September 30, 2023 primarily consisted of the maturity of certificates of deposit and agency bonds of $2.8 million, partially offset by the purchase property and equipment of $624,000.
Net cash provided by financing activities in the six months ended September 30, 2024 consisted of the proceeds from the sale of common stock pursuant to our employee stock plans of $373,000. Net cash provided by financing activities in the six months ended September 30, 2023 consisted of the proceeds from the sale of common stock pursuant to our employee stock plans of $1.5 million and proceeds from the sale of common stock pursuant to an At-the-Market offering of $153,000.
We believe that our existing balances of cash and cash equivalents, and cash flow expected to be generated from our future operations will be sufficient to meet our cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including revenue growth, if any, that we experience, any additional manufacturing cost increases resulting from supply constraints and the continuation of the impact of higher interest rates and inflation may have on our business, the extent to which we utilize subcontractors, the levels of inventory and accounts receivable that we maintain, the timing and extent of spending to support our product development efforts and the expansion of our sales and marketing team. Additional capital may also be required for the consummation of any acquisition of businesses, products or technologies that we may undertake. On June 28, 2023, we filed a registration statement on Form S-3, which was declared effective by the SEC on July 19, 2023. On August 1, 2023, we commenced a registered securities offering pursuant to a Sales Agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with Needham & Company, LLC (“Needham”). The Sales Agreement provides that we may offer and sell our common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $25.0 million from time to time (the “Offering”) through Needham, acting as our sales agent. We sold 133,000 shares pursuant to the offering at an average price of $4.20 for proceeds of $542,000, less offering costs of $389,000 during the quarter ended September 30, 2023. We did not sell any shares pursuant to the offering in the six months ended September 30, 2024. We cannot assure that additional equity or debt financing, if required, will be available on terms that are acceptable or at all.
As of September 30, 2024, we had $14.9 million in purchase obligations for facility leases, wafer, masks, software and test purchase obligations that are binding commitments of which $1.6 million are payable in the next twelve months and $13.3 million are committed in the long term.
In connection with the acquisition of MikaMonu on November 23, 2015, we are required to make contingent consideration payments to the former MikaMonu shareholders conditioned upon revenue targets for products based on the MikaMonu technology. As of September 30, 2024, the accrual for potential contingent consideration was $51,000 and is payable at various dates through December 31, 2025.
Critical Accounting Estimates
Our critical accounting estimates are disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
At September 30, 2024, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements or relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually
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narrow or limited purposes. Accordingly, we are not exposed to the type of financing, liquidity, market or credit risk that could arise if we had engaged in such relationships.
Recent Accounting Pronouncement
Please refer to Note 1 to our condensed consolidated financial statements appearing under Part I, Item 1 for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements that may impact the Company.
Item 3.Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
Foreign Currency Exchange Risk. Our revenues and expenses, except those expenses related to our operations in Taiwan and in Israel, including subcontractor manufacturing expenses, are denominated in U.S. dollars. As a result, we have relatively little exposure for currency exchange risks, and foreign exchange gains and losses have been minimal to date. We do not currently enter into forward exchange contracts to hedge exposure denominated in foreign currencies or any other derivative financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes. In the future, if we feel our foreign currency exposure has increased, we may consider entering into hedging transactions to help mitigate that risk.
Interest Rate Sensitivity. We had cash and cash equivalents totaling $18.4 million at September 30, 2024. These amounts were invested primarily in money market funds. The cash and cash equivalents are held for working capital purposes. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. Due to the short-term nature of these investments, we believe that we do not have any material exposure to changes in the fair value of our investment portfolio as a result of changes in interest rates. We believe a hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would not materially affect the fair value of our interest-sensitive financial instruments. Declines in interest rates, however, will reduce future investment income.
Item 4.Controls and Procedures
Management’s Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act, are controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Based upon that evaluation, our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of September 30, 2024.
Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, believes that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and are effective at the reasonable assurance level. Further, our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that: (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of our assets; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of our consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with
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authorizations of our management and directors; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our control system will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected. Also, any evaluation of the effectiveness of controls in future periods are subject to the risk that those controls may become inadequate because of changes in business conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended September 30, 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Item 1A. | Risk Factors |
Our future performance is subject to a variety of risks. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer and the trading price of our common stock could decline. Additional risks that we currently do not know about or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also impair our business operations. You should also refer to other information contained in this report, including our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risk factors described below do not contain any material changes from those previously disclosed in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.
Risk Factor Summary
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which are more fully described in the Risk Factors below. These risks include, but are not limited to:
Risks Related to Our Business and Financial Condition
● | Unpredictable fluctuations in our operating results could cause our stock price to decline. |
● | Our largest OEM customer accounts for a significant percentage of our net revenues. If this customer, or any of our other major customers, reduces the amount they purchase, stops purchasing our products or fails to pay us, our financial position and operating results will suffer. |
● | We cannot assure you that our ongoing evaluation of strategic alternatives will result in any particular outcome, and the perceived uncertainties related to the Company could adversely affect our business and our shareholders. |
● | We depend upon the sale of our Very Fast SRAMs for most of our revenues while we transform the focus of our business to the sale of in-place associative computing products and services, and a downturn in demand for Very Fast SRAM products or we are unable to achieve our revenue goals for our new in-place associative computing products and services, may cause us to experience cash shortfalls that would harm our business and our future prospects. |
● | Our future success is substantially dependent on the successful introduction of new in-place associative computing products which entails significant risks. |
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● | Higher interest rates, worldwide inflationary pressures, the evolving conflict in the Middle East, the military conflict in Ukraine, and the decline in the global economic environment may adversely affect our revenues, results of operations and financial condition. |
● | We have incurred significant losses and may incur losses in the future. |
● | If we fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected. |
● | If we determine that our goodwill and intangible assets have become impaired, we may incur impairment charges, which would negatively impact our operating results. |
● | We are dependent on a number of single source suppliers. |
● | If we do not successfully develop new products to respond to rapid market changes due to changing technology and evolving industry standards, particularly in the networking and telecommunications markets, our business will be harmed. |
● | If we are unable to offset increased wafer fabrication and assembly costs, our gross margins will suffer. |
● | We are subject to the highly cyclical nature of the networking and telecommunications markets. |
● | We rely heavily on distributors and our business will be negatively impacted if we are unable to develop and manage distribution channels and accurately forecast future sales through our distributors. |
● | The average selling prices of our products are expected to decline. |
● | We are substantially dependent on the continued services of our senior management and other key personnel. If we are unable to recruit or retain qualified personnel, our business could be harmed. |
● | Cyber-attacks and systems integration issues could disrupt our operations or the operations of our partners and result in reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, reputational harm. |
● | Demand for our products may decrease if our OEM customers experience difficulty manufacturing, marketing or selling their products. |
● | Our products have lengthy sales cycles that make it difficult to plan our expenses and forecast results. |
● | Our business could be negatively affected as a result of actions of activist stockholders or others. |
● | Our acquisition of companies or technologies could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results. |
● | Our business will suffer if we are unable to protect our intellectual property or if there are claims that we infringe third party intellectual property rights. |
● | Any significant order cancellations or order deferrals could adversely affect our operating results. |
● | If our business grows, such growth may place a significant strain on our management and operations. |
Risks Related to Manufacturing and Product Development
● | We may experience difficulties in transitioning our manufacturing process technologies, which may result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses. |
● | Manufacturing process technologies are subject to rapid change and require significant expenditures. |
● | Our products may contain defects, which could reduce revenues or result in claims against us. |
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Risks Related to Our International Business and Operations
● | The international political, social and economic environment, including the risks for escalating military conflicts, particularly relating to Israel and Taiwan, may affect our business performance. |
● | Certain of our independent suppliers and OEM customers have operations in the Pacific Rim, an area subject to significant risk of natural disasters and outbreak of contagious diseases. |
● | The United States could materially modify certain international trade agreements, or change tax provisions related to the global manufacturing and sales of our products. |
● | Some of our products are incorporated into advanced military electronics, and changes in international geopolitical circumstances and domestic budget considerations may hurt our business. |
Risks Relating to Our Common Stock and the Securities Market
● | The trading price of our common stock is subject to fluctuation and is likely to be volatile. |
● | We may need to raise additional capital in the future, which may not be available on favorable terms or at all, and which may cause dilution to existing stockholders. |
● | Our executive officers, directors and their affiliates hold a substantial percentage of our common stock. |
● | The provisions of our charter documents might inhibit potential acquisition bids that a stockholder might believe are desirable, and the market price of our common stock could be lower as a result. |
Risks Related to Our Business and Financial Condition
Unpredictable fluctuations in our operating results could cause our stock price to decline.
Our quarterly and annual revenues, expenses and operating results have varied significantly and are likely to vary in the future. For example, in the ten fiscal quarters ended September 30, 2024, we recorded net revenues of as much as $9.0 million and as little as $4.6 million, and in nine of those quarters, operating losses from $3.2 million to $6.7 million. We therefore believe that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results are not a good indication of our future performance, and you should not rely on them to predict our future performance or the future performance of our stock price. Furthermore, if our operating expenses exceed our expectations, our financial performance could be adversely affected. Factors that may affect periodic operating results in the future include:
● | commercial acceptance of our associative computing products; |
● | commercial acceptance of our RadHard and RadTolerant products; |
● | changes in our customers' inventory management practices; |
● | unpredictability of the timing and size of customer orders, since most of our customers purchase our products on a purchase order basis rather than pursuant to a long-term contract; |
● | changes in our product pricing policies, including those made in response to new product announcements, pricing changes of our competitors and price increases by our foundry and suppliers; |
● | our ability to anticipate and conform to new industry standards; |
● | fluctuations in availability and costs associated with materials and manufacturing services needed to satisfy customer requirements caused by supply constraints; |
● | restructuring, asset and goodwill impairment and related charges, as well as other accounting changes or adjustments; |
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● | manufacturing defects, which could cause us to incur significant warranty, support and repair costs, lose potential sales, harm our relationships with customers and result in write-downs; and |
● | our ability to address technology issues as they arise, improve our products' functionality and expand our product offerings. |
Our expenses are, to a large extent, fixed, and we expect that these expenses will increase in the future. In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, we experienced price increases for raw materials, including a 20% increase in the price of wafers that was implemented in early calendar 2022 and a 6% increase that was implemented in early calendar 2023, as well as varying pricing increases for manufacturing services due to the supply chain constraints in the semiconductor market. We may not be able to adjust our spending quickly if our revenues fall short of our expectations. If this were to occur, our operating results would be harmed. If our operating results in future quarters fall below the expectations of market analysts and investors, the price of our common stock could fall.
Higher interest rates, worldwide inflationary pressures, the evolving conflict in Israel, the military conflict in Ukraine, and the decline in the global economic environment have caused increased stock market volatility and uncertainty in customer demand and the worldwide economy in general, and we may continue to experience decreased sales and revenues in the future. We expect such impact will in particular affect our SRAM sales and has also impacted the launch of our APU product to some degree and the adoption of RadHard and RadTolerant SRAM products by aerospace and military customers. However, the magnitude of such impact on our business and its duration is highly uncertain.
Our largest OEM customer accounts for a significant percentage of our net revenues. If this customer, or any of our other major customers, reduces the amount they purchase or stop purchasing our products, our operating results will suffer.
Nokia, our largest customer, purchases our products directly from us and through contract manufacturers and distributors. Purchases by Nokia represented approximately 20%, 21%, 17% and 29% of our net revenues in the six months ended September 30, 2024 and in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. We expect that our operating results in any given period will continue to depend significantly on orders from our key OEM customers, particularly Nokia, and our future success is dependent to a large degree on the business success of this customer over which we have no control. We do not have long-term contracts with Nokia or any of our other major OEM customers, distributors or contract manufacturers that obligate them to purchase our products. We expect that future direct and indirect sales to Nokia and our other key OEM customers will continue to fluctuate significantly on a quarterly basis and that such fluctuations may substantially affect our operating results in future periods. If we fail to continue to sell to our key OEM customers, distributors or contract manufacturers in sufficient quantities, our business could be harmed.
We cannot assure you that our ongoing evaluation of strategic alternatives will result in any particular outcome, and the perceived uncertainties related to the Company could adversely affect our business and our stockholders.
On May 2, 2024, we announced that we had initiated a broad strategic review to maximize stockholder value, which includes an evaluation of a wide range of options including equity or debt financing, divestiture of assets, technology licensing or other strategic arrangements including a sale of the Company. We have not set a timetable for the completion of the strategic review process, nor have we made any decisions relating to any strategic alternative at this time. No assurance can be given as to the outcome of the process, including whether the process will result in any particular outcome. Any potential transaction may be dependent on a number of factors that may be beyond our control, for example, market conditions, industry trends or acceptable terms. The process of reviewing potential strategic alternatives may be time consuming, distracting and disruptive to our business operations. In addition, given that the exploration of strategic alternatives may eventually result in a potential sale, merger or other strategic transaction, any perceived uncertainty regarding our future operations or employment needs may limit our ability to retain or hire qualified personnel and may contribute to unplanned loss of highly skilled employees through attrition, and result in the loss of customers, suppliers and other key business partners. We may ultimately determine that no transaction is in the best interest of our stockholders. Speculation regarding
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any developments associated with our review of strategic alternatives and any perceived uncertainties related to the Company or its business could cause the price of our shares to fluctuate significantly.
While we currently depend upon the sale of our Very Fast SRAMs for most of our revenues, we are in the process of transforming the focus of our business to the sale of in-place associative computing products and services, and if there is a downturn in demand for Very Fast SRAMs or we are unable to achieve our revenue goals for our new in-place associative computing products and services, we may experience cash shortfalls that would harm our business and our future prospects.
We currently derive most of our revenues from the sale of Very Fast SRAMs, and we expect that sales of these products will represent a significant majority of our revenues for the next several years. We are in the process of transforming the focus of our business to the sale of in-place associative computing products and services instead of Very Fast SRAMs. Our financial results and cash flow depend in large part upon continued demand for our Very Fast SRAM products in the markets we currently serve. Our future financial results and cash flow will increasingly depend upon our ability to generate revenues from the sale of in-place associative computing products and services. Market adoption of our in-place associative computing products and services will be dependent upon our ability to increase customer awareness of the benefits of those products and services. We may not be able to sustain our revenues from sales of our SRAM products or increase our revenues from our in-place associative computing products and services, particularly if the networking and telecommunications markets experience a significant downturn, or we are unable to obtain market traction for our in-place associative computing products and services. Any decrease in revenues from sales of our Very Fast SRAM products or failure to achieve the revenue goals for our in-place associative computing products and services could result in revenue shortfalls that would leave our business with inadequate cash to finance operations.
Our future success is substantially dependent on the successful introduction of new in-place associative computing products which entails significant risks.
Since 2015, our principal strategic objective has been the development of our first in-place associative computing products. We have devoted, and will continue to devote, substantial efforts and resources to the development of our new family of in-place associative computing products. This ongoing project involves the commercialization of new, cutting-edge technology, will require a continuing substantial effort during fiscal 2025 and will be subject to significant risks. In addition to the typical risks associated with the development of technologically advanced products, this project will be subject to enhanced risks of technological problems related to the development of this entirely new category of products, substantial risks of delays or unanticipated costs that may be encountered, and risks associated with the establishment of entirely new markets and customer and partner relationships. The establishment of new customer and partner relationships and selling our in-place associative computing products to such new customers is a significant undertaking that requires us to invest heavily in our sales team, enter into new channel partner relationships, expand our marketing activities and change the focus of our business and operations. Our inability to successfully establish a market for the product that we have developed will have a material adverse effect on our future financial and business success, including our prospects for increased revenues. Additionally, if we are unable to meet the expectations of market analysts and investors with respect to this major product introduction effort, then the price of our common stock could fall.
Higher interest rates, worldwide inflationary pressures, the evolving conflict in the Middle East, the military conflict in Ukraine, and the resulting decline in the global economic environment are expected to adversely affect our revenues, results of operations and financial condition.
Our business is expected to be materially adversely affected by higher interest rates, worldwide inflationary pressures, the evolving conflict in the Middle East and the military conflict in Ukraine, all of which are contributing to a decline in the global economic environment.
Our quarterly revenues have been flat and trended downward in the past year due to the decline in the global economic environment that has resulted in less demand for our products. We expect that a continued rise in interest rates, continued inflationary pressures, the evolving conflict in the Middle East, continued uncertainties in the business climate caused by the military conflict in Ukraine and related fluctuations in energy prices will adversely impact demand for new and existing products, and to impact the mindset of potential commercial partners
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to launch new products using GSI’s technology. The resulting decline in the global economic environment is expected to have an adverse impact on our business and financial condition.
Disruptions in the capital and financial markets as a result of higher interest rates, worldwide inflationary pressures, the evolving conflict in the Middle East, the military conflict in Ukraine, and the decline in the global economic environment may also adversely affect our ability to obtain additional liquidity should the impacts of a decline in the global economic environment continue for a prolonged period.
We have incurred significant losses and may incur losses in the future.
We have incurred significant losses. We incurred net losses of $20.1 million, $16.0 million and $16.4 million during fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022. There can be no assurance that our Very Fast SRAMs will continue to receive broad market acceptance, that our new product development initiatives will be successful or that we will be able to achieve sustained revenue growth or profitability.
We identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting in the past. If we fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected.
Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or any testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. Inferior internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.
In the course of preparing our financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting which remained un-remediated at March 31, 2023. During fiscal 2024, we identified and implemented remedial measures to address the control deficiencies that led to the material weakness and determined that the material weakness was remediated as of March 31, 2024. However, there can be no assurance that remedial measures will continue to operate or that they will prevent other control deficiencies or material weaknesses in our control over financial reporting in the future.
We are a non-accelerated filer. For so long as we remain a non-accelerated filer, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation.
If we determine that our goodwill and intangible assets have become impaired, we may incur impairment charges, which would negatively impact our operating results.
Goodwill represents the difference between the purchase price and the estimated fair value of the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination, such as our acquisition of MikaMonu Group Ltd. in fiscal 2016. We test for goodwill impairment on an annual basis, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the asset is more likely than not impaired. If the carrying value of a material asset is determined to be impaired, it will be written down to fair value by a charge to operating earnings. As of March 31, 2024 and September 30, 2024, we had a goodwill balance of $8.0 million and intangible assets of $1.6 million and $1.4 million at March 31, 2024 and September 30, 2024, respectively, from the MikaMonu acquisition. An adverse change in market conditions, including a sustained decline in our stock price, loss of significant customers, or a weakened demand for our products could be considered to be an impairment triggering event. If
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such change has the effect of changing one of our critical assumptions or estimates, a change to the estimation of fair value could result in an impairment charge to our goodwill or intangible assets, which would negatively impact our operating results and harm our business. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, we identified sustained declines in our stock price that resulted in our market capitalization being below the carrying value of our stockholders’ equity. We concluded the sustained declines in our stock price were triggering events and proceeded with quantitative goodwill impairment assessments. The results of the quantitative goodwill impairment assessments that we performed indicated the fair value of our sole reporting unit exceeded its carrying value as of December 31, 2022, February 28, 2023 and March 31, 2023. There were no impairment indicators at March 31, 2024 or September 30, 2024.
We are dependent on a number of single source suppliers, and if we fail to obtain adequate supplies, our business will be harmed and our prospects for growth will be curtailed.
We currently purchase several key components used in the manufacture of our products from single sources and are dependent upon supply from these sources to meet our needs. If any of these suppliers cannot provide components on a timely basis, at the same price or at all, our ability to manufacture our products will be constrained and our business will suffer. For example, due to worldwide inflationary pressures, the cost of wafers and assembly services have increased by approximately 25% since the beginning of fiscal 2021. Most significantly, we obtain wafers for our Very Fast SRAM and APU products from a single foundry, TSMC, and most of them are packaged at ASE. If we are unable to obtain an adequate supply of wafers from TSMC or find alternative sources in a timely manner, we will be unable to fulfill our customer orders and our operating results will be harmed. We do not have supply agreements with TSMC, ASE or any of our other independent assembly and test suppliers, and instead obtain manufacturing services and products from these suppliers on a purchase-order basis. Our suppliers, including TSMC, have no obligation to supply products or services to us for any specific product, in any specific quantity, at any specific price or for any specific time period. As a result, the loss or failure to perform by any of these suppliers could adversely affect our business and operating results.
Should any of our single source suppliers experience manufacturing failures or yield shortfalls, be disrupted by natural disaster, military action or political instability, choose to prioritize capacity or inventory for other uses or reduce or eliminate deliveries to us for any other reason, we likely will not be able to enforce fulfillment of any delivery commitments and we would have to identify and qualify acceptable replacements from alternative sources of supply. In particular, if TSMC is unable to supply us with sufficient quantities of wafers to meet all of our requirements, we would have to allocate our products among our customers, which would constrain our growth and might cause some of them to seek alternative sources of supply. Since the manufacturing of wafers and other components is extremely complex, the process of qualifying new foundries and suppliers is a lengthy process and there is no assurance that we would be able to find and qualify another supplier without materially adversely affecting our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we do not successfully develop new products to respond to rapid market changes due to changing technology and evolving industry standards, particularly in the networking and telecommunications markets, our business will be harmed.
If we fail to offer technologically advanced products and respond to technological advances and emerging standards, we may not generate sufficient revenues to offset our development costs and other expenses, which will hurt our business. The development of new or enhanced products is a complex and uncertain process that requires the accurate anticipation of technological and market trends. In particular, the networking and telecommunications markets are rapidly evolving, and new standards are emerging. We are vulnerable to advances in technology by competitors, including new SRAM architectures, new forms of DRAM and the emergence of new memory technologies that could enable the development of products that feature higher performance or lower cost. In addition, the trend toward incorporating SRAM into other chips in the networking and telecommunications markets has the potential to reduce future demand for Very Fast SRAM products. We may experience development, marketing and other technological difficulties that may delay or limit our ability to respond to technological changes, evolving industry standards, competitive developments or end-user requirements. For example, because we
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have limited experience developing integrated circuits, or IC, products other than Very Fast SRAMs, our efforts to introduce new products may not be successful and our business may suffer. Other challenges that we face include:
● | our products may become obsolete upon the introduction of alternative technologies; |
● | we may incur substantial costs if we need to modify our products to respond to these alternative technologies; |
● | we may not have sufficient resources to develop or acquire new technologies or to introduce new products capable of competing with future technologies; |
● | new products that we develop may not successfully integrate with our end-users’ products into which they are incorporated; |
● | we may be unable to develop new products that incorporate emerging industry standards; |
● | we may be unable to develop or acquire the rights to use the intellectual property necessary to implement new technologies; and |
● | when introducing new or enhanced products, we may be unable to effectively manage the transition from older products. |
If we are unable to offset increased wafer fabrication and assembly costs by increasing the average selling prices of our products, our gross margins will suffer.
If there is a significant upturn in the demand for the manufacturing and assembly of semiconductor products as occurred in fiscal 2022, the available supply of wafers and packaging services may be limited. As a result, we could be required to obtain additional manufacturing and assembly capacity in order to meet increased demand. Securing additional manufacturing and assembly capacity may cause our wafer fabrication and assembly costs to increase. Inflationary pressures may also cause our wafer fabrication costs to increase. If we are unable to offset these increased costs by increasing the average selling prices of our products, our gross margins will decline.
We are subject to the highly cyclical nature of the networking and telecommunications markets.
Our Very Fast SRAM products are incorporated into routers, switches, wireless local area network infrastructure equipment, wireless base stations and network access equipment used in the highly cyclical networking and telecommunications markets. We expect that the networking and telecommunications markets will continue to be highly cyclical, characterized by periods of rapid growth and contraction. Our business and our operating results are likely to fluctuate, perhaps quite severely, as a result of this cyclicality.
The market for Very Fast SRAMs is highly competitive.
The market for Very Fast SRAMs, which are used primarily in networking and telecommunications equipment, is characterized by price erosion, rapid technological change, cyclical market patterns and intense foreign and domestic competition. Several of our competitors offer a broad array of memory products and have greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution and other resources than we have. Some of our competitors maintain their own semiconductor fabrication facilities, which may provide them with capacity, cost and technical advantages over us. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against any of these competitors. Our ability to compete successfully in this market depends on factors both within and outside of our control, including:
● | real or perceived imbalances in supply and demand of Very Fast SRAMs; |
● | the rate at which OEMs incorporate our products into their systems; |
● | the success of our customers’ products; |
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● | the price of our competitors’ products relative to the price of our products; |
● | our ability to develop and market new products; and |
● | the supply and cost of wafers. |
In fiscal 2022 and 2023 we experienced increases of 20% and 6%, respectively, in wafer fabrication costs due to supply chain constraints, which resulted in us increasing the cost of our products. Inflationary pressures are expected to result in additional increases in our wafer fabrication costs, which may require us to further increase the cost of our products. Our customers may decide to purchase products from our competitors rather than accept these price increases and our business may suffer. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully in the future. Our failure to compete successfully in these or other areas could harm our business.
We rely heavily on distributors and our success depends on our ability to develop and manage our indirect distribution channels.
A significant percentage of our sales are made to distributors and to contract manufacturers who incorporate our products into end products for OEMs. For example, in the six months ended September 30, 2024 and in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, our largest distributor Avnet Logistics accounted for 42.9%, 50.6%, 48.1% and 38.0%, respectively, of our net revenues. Avnet Logistics and our other existing distributors may choose to devote greater resources to marketing and supporting the products of other companies. Since we sell through multiple channels and distribution networks, we may have to resolve potential conflicts between these channels. For example, these conflicts may result from the different discount levels offered by multiple channel distributors to their customers or, potentially, from our direct sales force targeting the same equipment manufacturer accounts as our indirect channel distributors. These conflicts may harm our business or reputation.
The average selling prices of our products are expected to decline, and if we are unable to offset these declines, our operating results will suffer.
Historically, the average unit selling prices of our products have declined substantially over the lives of the products, and we expect this trend to continue. A reduction in overall average selling prices of our products could result in reduced revenues and lower gross margins. Our ability to increase our net revenues and maintain our gross margins despite a decline in the average selling prices of our products will depend on a variety of factors, including our ability to introduce lower cost versions of our existing products, increase unit sales volumes of these products, and introduce new products with higher prices and greater margins. If we fail to accomplish any of these objectives, our business will suffer. To reduce our costs, we may be required to implement design changes that lower our manufacturing costs, negotiate reduced purchase prices from our independent foundries and our independent assembly and test vendors, and successfully manage our manufacturing and subcontractor relationships. Because we do not operate our own wafer foundry or assembly facilities, we may not be able to reduce our costs as rapidly as companies that operate their own foundries or facilities.
We are substantially dependent on the continued services and performance of our senior management and other key personnel.
Our future success is substantially dependent on the continued services and continuing contributions of our senior management who must work together effectively in order to design our products, expand our business, increase our revenues and improve our operating results. Members of our senior management team have long-standing and important relationships with our key customers and suppliers. The loss of services, whether as a result of illness, resignation, retirement or death, of Lee-Lean Shu, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Avidan Akerib, our Vice President of Associative Computing, any other executive officer or other key employee could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our development and strategic objectives. We do not have employment contracts with, nor maintain key person insurance on, any of our executive officers or other key employees.
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System security risks, data protection, cyber-attacks and systems integration issues could disrupt our internal operations or the operations of our business partners, and any such disruption could harm our reputation or cause a reduction in our expected revenue, increase our expenses, negatively impact our results of operation or otherwise adversely affect our stock price.
Security breaches, computer malware and cyber-attacks have become more prevalent and sophisticated and may increase in the future due to a number of our employees working from home and the potential for retaliatory cyber-attacks as a result of the military conflict in Ukraine. Experienced computer programmers and hackers may be able to penetrate our network security or the network security of our business partners, and misappropriate or compromise our confidential and proprietary information, create system disruptions or cause shutdowns. The costs to us to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and our efforts to address these problems may not be successful and could result in interruptions and delays that may impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution or other critical functions.
We manage and store various proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data relating to our business on the cloud. Breaches of our security measures or the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure or unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or confidential data about us, including the potential loss or disclosure of such information or data as a result of fraud, trickery or other forms of deception, could expose us to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, result in litigation and potential liability for us, damage our reputation or otherwise harm our business. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant.
Portions of our IT infrastructure also may experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with systems integration or migration work that takes place from time to time. We may not be successful in implementing new systems and transitioning data, which could cause business disruptions and be more expensive, time consuming, disruptive and resource-intensive than originally anticipated. Such disruptions could adversely impact our ability to attract and retain customers, fulfill orders and interrupt other processes and could adversely affect our business, financial results, stock price and reputation.
We may be unable to accurately forecast future sales through our distributors, which could harm our ability to efficiently manage our resources to match market demand.
Our financial results, quarterly product sales, trends and comparisons are affected by fluctuations in the buying patterns of the OEMs that purchase our products from our distributors. While we attempt to assist our distributors in maintaining targeted stocking levels of our products, we may not consistently be accurate or successful. This process involves the exercise of judgment and use of assumptions as to future uncertainties, including end user demand. Inventory levels of our products held by our distributors may exceed or fall below the levels we consider desirable on a going-forward basis. This could result in distributors returning unsold inventory to us, or in us not having sufficient inventory to meet the demand for our products. If we are not able to accurately forecast sales through our distributors or effectively manage our relationships with our distributors, our business and financial results will suffer.
A small number of customers generally account for a significant portion of our accounts receivable in any period, and if any one of them fails to pay us, our financial position and operating results will suffer.
At September 30, 2024, four customers accounted for 28%, 27%, 17% and 13% of our accounts receivable, respectively. If any of these customers do not pay us, our financial position and operating results will be harmed. Generally, we do not require collateral from our customers.
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Demand for our products may decrease if our OEM customers experience difficulty manufacturing, marketing or selling their products.
Our products are used as components in our OEM customers’ products, including routers, switches and other networking and telecommunications products. Accordingly, demand for our products is subject to factors affecting the ability of our OEM customers to successfully introduce and market their products, including:
● | capital spending by telecommunication and network service providers and other end-users who purchase our OEM customers’ products; |
● | the competition our OEM customers face, particularly in the networking and telecommunications industries; |
● | the technical, manufacturing, sales and marketing and management capabilities of our OEM customers; |
● | the financial and other resources of our OEM customers; and |
● | the inability of our OEM customers to sell their products if they infringe third-party intellectual property rights. |
As a result, if OEM customers reduce their purchases of our products, our business will suffer.
Our products have lengthy sales cycles that make it difficult to plan our expenses and forecast results.
Our products are generally incorporated in our OEM customers’ products at the design stage. However, their decisions to use our products often require significant expenditures by us without any assurance of success, and often precede volume sales, if any, by a year or more. If an OEM customer decides at the design stage not to incorporate our products into their products, we will not have another opportunity for a design win with respect to that customer’s product for many months or years, if at all. Our sales cycle can take up to 24 months to complete, and because of this lengthy sales cycle, we may experience a delay between increasing expenses for research and development and our sales and marketing efforts and the generation of volume production revenues, if any, from these expenditures. Moreover, the value of any design win will largely depend on the commercial success of our OEM customers’ products. There can be no assurance that we will continue to achieve design wins or that any design win will result in future revenues.
We are developing a subscription business model for certain of our new APU products, which will take time to implement and will be subject to execution risks. The sales cycle for subscription products is different from our hardware sales business and we will need to implement strategies to manage customer retention, which may be more volatile than the hardware sales to OEM customers. We anticipate that there will be quarterly fluctuations in the revenue and expenses associated with this new license-based business as we optimize the sales process for our target customers. Furthermore, because of the time it takes to build a meaningful subscription business, we expect to incur significant expenses relating to the subscription business before generating revenue from that new business.
Our business could be negatively affected as a result of actions of activist stockholders or others.
We may be subject to actions or proposals from stockholders or others that may not align with our business strategies or the interests of our other stockholders. Responding to such actions can be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our business and operations, and divert the attention of our board of directors, management, and employees from the pursuit of our business strategies. Such activities could interfere with our ability to execute our strategic plan. Activist stockholders or others may create perceived uncertainties as to the future direction of our business or strategy which may be exploited by our competitors and may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel and potential customers, and may affect our relationships with current customers, vendors, investors, and other third parties. In addition, a proxy contest for the election of directors at our annual meeting would require us to incur significant legal fees and proxy solicitation expenses and require significant time and attention by management
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and our board of directors. The perceived uncertainties as to our future direction also could affect the market price and volatility of our securities.
Our acquisition of companies or technologies could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results.
In November 2015, we acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of privately held MikaMonu Group Ltd., a development-stage, Israel-based company that specializes in in-place associative computing for markets including big data, computer vision and cyber security. We also acquired substantially all of the assets related to the SRAM memory device product line of Sony Corporation in 2009. We intend to supplement our internal development activities by seeking opportunities to make additional acquisitions or investments in companies, assets or technologies that we believe are complementary or strategic. Other than the MikaMonu and Sony acquisitions, we have not made any such acquisitions or investments, and therefore our experience as an organization in making such acquisitions and investments is limited. In connection with the MikaMonu acquisition, we are subject to risks related to potential problems, delays or unanticipated costs that may be encountered in the development of products based on the MikaMonu technology and the establishment of new markets and customer relationships for the potential new products. In addition, in connection with any future acquisitions or investments we may make, we face numerous other risks, including:
● | difficulties in integrating operations, technologies, products and personnel; |
● | diversion of financial and managerial resources from existing operations; |
● | risk of overpaying for or misjudging the strategic fit of an acquired company, asset or technology; |
● | problems or liabilities stemming from defects of an acquired product or intellectual property litigation that may result from offering the acquired product in our markets; |
● | challenges in retaining key employees to maximize the value of the acquisition or investment; |
● | inability to generate sufficient return on investment; |
● | incurrence of significant one-time write-offs; and |
● | delays in customer purchases due to uncertainty. |
If we proceed with additional acquisitions or investments, we may be required to use a considerable amount of our cash, or to finance the transaction through debt or equity securities offerings, which may decrease our financial liquidity or dilute our stockholders and affect the market price of our stock. As a result, if we fail to properly evaluate and execute acquisitions or investments, our business and prospects may be harmed.
If we are unable to recruit or retain qualified personnel, our business and product development efforts could be harmed.
We must continue to identify, recruit, hire, train, retain and motivate highly skilled technical, managerial, sales and marketing and administrative personnel. Competition for these individuals is intense, and we may not be able to successfully recruit, assimilate or retain sufficiently qualified personnel. We may encounter difficulties in recruiting and retaining a sufficient number of qualified engineers, which could harm our ability to develop new products and adversely impact our relationships with existing and future end-users at a critical stage of development. The failure to recruit and retain necessary technical, managerial, sales, marketing and administrative personnel could harm our business and our ability to obtain new customers and develop new products.
Claims that we infringe third party intellectual property rights could seriously harm our business and require us to incur significant costs.
There has been significant litigation in the semiconductor industry involving patents and other intellectual property rights. We were previously involved in protracted patent infringement litigation, and we could become subject to additional claims or litigation in the future as a result of allegations that we infringe others’ intellectual
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property rights or that our use of intellectual property otherwise violates the law. Claims that our products infringe the proprietary rights of others would force us to defend ourselves and possibly our customers, distributors or manufacturers against the alleged infringement. Any such litigation regarding intellectual property could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Similarly, changing our products or processes to avoid infringing the rights of others may be costly or impractical. If any claims received in the future were to be upheld, the consequences to us could require us to:
● | stop selling our products that incorporate the challenged intellectual property; |
● | obtain a license to sell or use the relevant technology, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; |
● | pay damages; or |
● | redesign those products that use the disputed technology. |
Although patent disputes in the semiconductor industry have often been settled through cross-licensing arrangements, we may not be able in any or every instance to settle an alleged patent infringement claim through a cross-licensing arrangement in part because we have a more limited patent portfolio than many of our competitors. If a successful claim is made against us or any of our customers and a license is not made available to us on commercially reasonable terms or we are required to pay substantial damages or awards, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected.
Our business will suffer if we are unable to protect our intellectual property.
Our success and ability to compete depends in large part upon protecting our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark laws and non-disclosure and other contractual agreements to protect our proprietary rights. These agreements and measures may not be sufficient to protect our technology from third-party infringement. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our technology, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States. Our attempts to enforce our intellectual property rights could be time consuming and costly. In the past, we have been involved in litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Additional litigation of this type may be necessary in the future. Any such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources. If competitors are able to use our technology without our approval or compensation, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed.
Any significant order cancellations or order deferrals could adversely affect our operating results.
We typically sell products pursuant to purchase orders that customers can generally cancel or defer on short notice without incurring a significant penalty. Any significant cancellations or deferrals in the future could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Cancellations or deferrals could cause us to hold excess inventory, which could reduce our profit margins, increase product obsolescence and restrict our ability to fund our operations. We generally recognize revenue upon shipment of products to a customer. If a customer refuses to accept shipped products or does not pay for these products, we could miss future revenue projections or incur significant charges against our income, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results.
If our business grows, such growth may place a significant strain on our management and operations and, as a result, our business may suffer.
We are endeavoring to expand our business, and any growth that we are successful in achieving could place a significant strain on our management systems, infrastructure and other resources. To manage the potential growth of our operations and resulting increases in the number of our personnel, we will need to invest the necessary capital to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting systems and
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procedures. Our controls, systems and procedures may prove to be inadequate should we experience significant growth. In addition, we may not have sufficient administrative staff to support our operations. For example, we currently have only four employees in our finance department in the United States, including our Chief Financial Officer. Furthermore, our officers have limited experience in managing large or rapidly growing businesses. If our management fails to respond effectively to changes in our business, our business may suffer.
Risks Related to Manufacturing and Product Development
We may experience difficulties in transitioning to smaller geometry process technologies and other more advanced manufacturing process technologies, which may result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses.
In order to remain competitive, we expect to continue to transition the manufacture of our products to smaller geometry process technologies. This transition will require us to migrate to new manufacturing processes for our products and redesign certain products. The manufacture and design of our products is complex, and we may experience difficulty in transitioning to smaller geometry process technologies or new manufacturing processes. These difficulties could result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses. We are dependent on our relationships with TSMC to transition successfully to smaller geometry process technologies and to more advanced manufacturing processes. If we or TSMC experience significant delays in this transition or fail to implement these transitions, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Manufacturing process technologies are subject to rapid change and require significant expenditures for research and development.
We continuously evaluate the benefits of migrating to smaller geometry process technologies in order to improve performance and reduce costs. Historically, these migrations to new manufacturing processes have resulted in significant initial design and development costs associated with pre-production mask sets for the manufacture of new products with smaller geometry process technologies. For example, in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, we incurred approximately $2.4 million in research and development expense associated with a pre-production mask set that will not be used in production as part of the transition to our new 16 nanometer SRAM process technology for our APU2 product. We will incur similar expenses in the future as we continue to transition our products to smaller geometry processes. The costs inherent in the transition to new manufacturing process technologies will adversely affect our operating results and our gross margin.
Our products are complex to design and manufacture and could contain defects, which could reduce revenues or result in claims against us.
We develop complex products. Despite testing by us and our OEM customers, design or manufacturing errors may be found in existing or new products. These defects could result in a delay in recognition or loss of revenues, loss of market share or failure to achieve market acceptance. These defects may also cause us to incur significant warranty, support and repair costs, divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts, result in a loss of market acceptance of our products and harm our relationships with our OEM customers. Our OEM customers could also seek and obtain damages from us for their losses. A product liability claim brought against us, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time consuming and costly to defend. Defects in wafers and other components used in our products and arising from the manufacturing of these products may not be fully recoverable from TSMC or our other suppliers.
Risks Related to Our International Business and Operations
The software development for our associative computing products occurs in Israel, and therefore our business performance and operations may be adversely affected by military conflict in Israel.
Our software development and certain regional sales activities for our APU product offerings occur in Israel. Our Vice President, Associative Computing, along with a team of software development experts are based in our Israel facility. This team is needed for the development of software required in the use of our APU product
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offering. Proof of concept customers for our SAR imagine processing acceleration system are also based in Israel. We are closely monitoring the evolving military conflict in Israel that began on October 7, 2023, including potential impacts to our business, customers, employees and operations in Israel. At this time, the impact on GSI Technology is uncertain and subject to change given the volatile nature of the situation, but adverse changes in the military conditions in Israel could harm our business and our stock price could decline.
Changes in Taiwan’s political, social and economic environment may affect our business performance.
Because much of the manufacturing and testing of our products is conducted in Taiwan, our business performance may be affected by changes in Taiwan’s political, social and economic environment. For example, political instability or restrictions on transportation logistics for our products resulting from changes in the relationship among the United States, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China could negatively impact our business. Any significant armed conflict related to this matter would be expected to materially and adversely damage our business. Moreover, the role of the Taiwanese government in the Taiwanese economy is significant. Taiwanese policies toward economic liberalization, and laws and policies affecting technology companies, foreign investment, currency exchange rates, taxes and other matters could change, resulting in greater restrictions on our ability and our suppliers’ ability to do business and operate facilities in Taiwan. If any of these changes were to occur, our business could be harmed, and our stock price could decline.
Our international business exposes us to additional risks.
Products shipped to destinations outside of the United States accounted for 62.6%, 47.3%, 51.4% and 53.5% of our net revenues in the six months ended September 30, 2024 and in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Moreover, a substantial portion of our products is manufactured and tested in Taiwan, and the software development for our associative computing products occurs in Israel where there is an growing military conflict. We intend to continue expanding our international business in the future. Conducting business outside of the United States subjects us to additional risks and challenges, including:
● | potential political and economic instability in, or armed conflicts that involve or affect, the countries in which we, our customers and our suppliers are located; |
● | uncertainties regarding taxes, tariffs, quotas, export controls and license requirements, trade wars, policies that favor domestic companies over nondomestic companies, including government efforts to provide for the development and growth of local competitors, and other trade barriers; |
● | heightened price sensitivity from customers in emerging markets; |
● | compliance with a wide variety of foreign laws and regulations and unexpected changes in these laws and regulations; |
● | fluctuations in freight rates and transportation disruptions; |
● | difficulties and costs of staffing and managing personnel, distributors and representatives across different geographic areas and cultures, including assuring compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other U.S. and foreign anti-corruption laws; |
● | difficulties in collecting accounts receivable and longer accounts receivable payment cycles; and |
● | limited protection for intellectual property rights in some countries. |
Moreover, our reporting currency is the U.S. dollar. However, a portion of our cost of revenues and our operating expenses is denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, primarily the New Taiwanese dollar and Israeli Shekel. As a result, appreciation or depreciation of other currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar could result in transaction gains or losses that could impact our operating results. We do not currently engage in currency hedging activities to reduce the risk of financial exposure from fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
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TSMC, as well as our other independent suppliers and many of our OEM customers, have operations in the Pacific Rim, an area subject to significant risk of earthquakes, typhoons and other natural disasters and adverse consequences related to the outbreak of contagious diseases.
The foundry that manufactures our Fast SRAM and APU products, TSMC, and all of the principal independent suppliers that assemble and test our products are located in Taiwan. Many of our customers are also located in the Pacific Rim. The risk of an earthquake in these Pacific Rim locations is significant. The occurrence of an earthquake, typhoon or other natural disaster near the fabrication facilities of TSMC or our other independent suppliers could result in damage, power outages and other disruptions that impair their production and assembly capacity. Any disruption resulting from such events could cause significant delays in the production or shipment of our products until we are able to shift our manufacturing, assembling, packaging or production testing from the affected contractor to another third-party vendor. In such an event, we may not be able to obtain alternate foundry capacity on favorable terms, or at all.
The recent COVID-19 global pandemic, along with the previous outbreaks of SARS, H1N1 and the Avian Flu, curtailed travel between and within countries, including in the Asia-Pacific region. Outbreaks of new contagious diseases or the resurgence of existing diseases that significantly affect the Asia-Pacific region could disrupt the operations of our key suppliers and manufacturing partners. In addition, our business could be harmed if such an outbreak resulted in travel being restricted, the implementation of stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders or if it adversely affected the operations of our OEM customers or the demand for our products or our OEM customers’ products.
We do not maintain sufficient business interruption and other insurance policies to compensate us for all losses that may occur. Any losses or damages incurred by us as a result of a catastrophic event or any other significant uninsured loss in excess of our insurance policy limits could have a material adverse effect on our business.
The United States could materially modify certain international trade agreements, or change tax provisions related to the global manufacturing and sales of our products.
A portion of our business activities are conducted in foreign countries, including Taiwan and Israel. Our business benefits from free trade agreements, and we also rely on various U.S. corporate tax provisions related to international commerce as we develop, manufacture, market and sell our products globally. Any action to materially modify international trade agreements, change corporate tax policy related to international commerce or mandate domestic production of goods, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Some of our products are incorporated into advanced military electronics, and changes in international geopolitical circumstances and domestic budget considerations may hurt our business.
Some of our products are incorporated into advanced military electronics such as radar and guidance systems. Military expenditures and appropriations for such purchases rose significantly in recent years. However, if current U.S. military operations around the world are scaled back, demand for our products for use in military applications may decrease, and our operating results could suffer. Domestic budget considerations may also adversely affect our operating results. For example, if governmental appropriations for military purchases of electronic devices that include our products are reduced, our revenues will likely decline.
Risks Relating to Our Common Stock and the Securities Market
The trading price of our common stock is subject to fluctuation and is likely to be volatile.
The trading price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:
● | the establishment of a market for our new associative computing products; |
● | actual or anticipated declines in operating results; |
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● | changes in financial estimates or recommendations by securities analysts; |
● | the institution of legal proceedings against us or significant developments in such proceedings; |
● | announcements by us or our competitors of financial results, new products, significant technological innovations, contracts, acquisitions, strategic relationships, joint ventures, capital commitments or other events; |
● | changes in industry estimates of demand for Very Fast SRAM, RadHard and RadTolerant products; |
● | the gain or loss of significant orders or customers; |
● | recruitment or departure of key personnel; and |
● | market conditions in our industry, the industries of our customers and the economy as a whole. |
In recent years, the stock market in general, and the market for technology stocks in particular, have experienced extreme price fluctuations, which have often been unrelated to the operating performance of affected companies. The market price of our common stock might experience significant fluctuations in the future, including fluctuations unrelated to our performance. These fluctuations could materially adversely affect our business relationships, our ability to obtain future financing on favorable terms or otherwise harm our business. In addition, in the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially acute for us because the extreme volatility of market prices of technology companies has resulted in a larger number of securities class action claims against them. Due to the potential volatility of our stock price, we may in the future be the target of similar litigation. Securities litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources. This could harm our business and cause the value of our stock to decline.
We may need to raise additional capital in the future, which may not be available on favorable terms or at all, and which may cause dilution to existing stockholders.
We may need to seek additional funding in the future. We do not know if we will be able to obtain additional financing on favorable terms, if at all. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, if and when needed, we may not be able to develop or enhance our products, take advantage of future opportunities or respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated requirements, and we may be required to reduce operating costs, which could seriously harm our business. In addition, if we issue equity securities, our stockholders may experience dilution or the new equity securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our common stock.
Our executive officers, directors and entities affiliated with them hold a substantial percentage of our common stock.
As of October 28, 2024, our executive officers, directors and entities affiliated with them beneficially owned approximately 27% of our outstanding common stock. As a result, these stockholders will be able to exercise substantial influence over, and may be able to effectively control, matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, which could have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring control over or merging with us.
The provisions of our charter documents might inhibit potential acquisition bids that a stockholder might believe are desirable, and the market price of our common stock could be lower as a result.
Our Board of Directors has the authority to issue up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock. Our Board of Directors can fix the price, rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the preferred stock without any further vote or action by our stockholders. The issuance of shares of preferred stock might delay or prevent a change in control transaction. As a result, the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of our stockholders might be adversely affected. The issuance of preferred stock might result in the loss of voting control to
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other stockholders. We have no current plans to issue any shares of preferred stock. Our charter documents also contain other provisions, which might discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition, including:
● | our stockholders have no right to act by written consent; |
● | our stockholders have no right to call a special meeting of stockholders; and |
● | our stockholders must comply with advance notice requirements to nominate directors or submit proposals for consideration at stockholder meetings. |
These provisions could also have the effect of discouraging others from making tender offers for our common stock. As a result, these provisions might prevent the market price of our common stock from increasing substantially in response to actual or rumored takeover attempts. These provisions might also prevent changes in our management.
Use of a portion of our cash reserves to repurchase shares of our common stock presents potential risks and disadvantages to us and our continuing stockholders.
Since November 2008, we have repurchased and retired an aggregate of 12,004,779 shares of our common stock at a total cost of $60.7 million, including 3,846,153 shares repurchased at a total cost of $25.0 million pursuant to a modified “Dutch auction” self-tender offer that we completed in August 2014 and additional shares repurchased in the open market pursuant to our stock repurchase program. At September 30, 2024, we had outstanding authorization from our Board of Directors to purchase up to an additional $4.3 million of our common stock from time to time under our repurchase program. Although our Board has determined that these repurchases are in the best interests of our stockholders, they expose us to certain risks including:
● | the risks resulting from a reduction in the size of our “public float,” which is the number of shares of our common stock that are owned by non-affiliated stockholders and available for trading in the securities markets, which may reduce the volume of trading in our shares and result in reduced liquidity and, potentially, lower trading prices; |
● | the risk that our stock price could decline and that we would be able to repurchase shares of our common stock in the future at a lower price per share than the prices we have paid in our tender offer and repurchase program; and |
● | the risk that the use of a portion of our cash reserves for this purpose has reduced, or may reduce, the amount of cash that would otherwise be available to pursue potential cash acquisitions or other strategic business opportunities. |
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Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
Stock Repurchase Program
Our Board of Directors has authorized us to repurchase, at management’s discretion, shares of our common stock. Under the repurchase program, we may repurchase shares from time to time on the open market or in private transactions. The specific timing and amount of the repurchases will be dependent on market conditions, securities law limitations and other factors. The repurchase program may be suspended or terminated at any time without prior notice. During the quarter ended September 30, 2024, we did not repurchase any of our shares under the repurchase program.
Item 5. Other information
Insider Trading Arrangements and Policies
During the quarter ended September 30, 2024, no
Item 6.Exhibits
Exhibit | Name of | |
31.1 | ||
31.2 | ||
32.1 | ||
101.INS | Inline XBRL Instance Document | |
101.SCH | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document | |
101.CAL | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document | |
101.DEF | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document | |
101.LAB | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document | |
101.PRE | Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document | |
104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted in Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101) |
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
Date: November 1, 2024 | ||
GSI Technology, Inc. | ||
By: | /s/ LEE-LEAN SHU | |
Lee-Lean Shu | ||
President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman | ||
By: | /s/ DOUGLAS M. SCHIRLE | |
Douglas M. Schirle | ||
Chief Financial Officer |
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