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Zoran 10-K 2006 Documents found in this filing:
UNITED
STATES WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
Commission File Number: 0-27246
ZORAN CORPORATION (Exact Name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes o No ý
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o No ý
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 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. Yes ý No o
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ý
Indicate by check mark whether registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer or a non-accelerated filer (as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Act).
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act) Yes o No ý
The aggregate market value of registrants voting stock held by non-affiliates of registrant based upon the closing sale price of the Common Stock on June 30, 2005, as reported on the Nasdaq National Market, was approximately $593,000,000. Shares of Common Stock held by each officer, director and holder of 10% or more of the outstanding Common Stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
Outstanding shares of registrants Common Stock, $0.001 par value, as of March 10, 2006: 46,601,981
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Parts of the definitive proxy statement for registrants 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Report are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Report.
ZORAN CORPORATION INDEX TO ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K FOR YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2005
This report includes a number of forward-looking statements which reflect the Companys current views with respect to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those discussed in Item 7Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of OperationsFuture Performance and Risk Factors and elsewhere in this report, that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those currently anticipated. In this report, the words anticipates, believes, expects, intends, future and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
Company Overview
We develop and market integrated circuits, or ICs, and related products used in digital versatile disc players, or DVDs, movie and home theater systems, digital cameras and video editing systems. We also provide integrated circuits, software and platforms for digital television applications that enable the delivery and display of digital video content through a set-top box or television as well as digital imaging products consisting of semiconductor hardware and software that enable users to print, scan, process and transmit documents to computer peripherals that perform printing functions. Subsequent to our acquisition of Emblaze Semiconductor Ltd. on July 8, 2004, we also provide high performance, low-power application processors, technology and products for the multimedia mobile telephone market. Through our acquisition of Oren Semiconductor, Inc. on June 10, 2005, we obtained Orens demodulator IC technology for the global high definition television market. We sell our products to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, who incorporate them in digital video and audio products for consumer and commercial applications.
We were incorporated in California in December 1981 and reincorporated in Delaware in November 1986. Our corporate headquarters are located at 1390 Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, California 94086, and our telephone number is (408) 523-6500. Our website can be found at www.zoran.com. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports, are available free of charge on our website under Investors / SEC Filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors can also obtain copies of our SEC filings from the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov.
Industry Background
Until the mid-1990s, video images and audio soundtracks were transmitted, edited and stored almost exclusively using analog formats. Since then, advances in technology have allowed audio and video to be processed and stored in digital form. Unlike analog formats, which are inherently unstable and difficult to edit and enhance, digital formats permit the manipulation of audio and video signals through digital signal processing and offer a number of fundamental advantages over analog technologies. Through complex digital signal processing operations, digital audio and video signals may be compressed, providing significant storage and transmission efficiencies. They also may be filtered, allowing for noise reduction, and they may be transmitted and reproduced without perceptible image or sound degradation. Digital formats provide users with additional benefits, including random access to data, superior editing capabilities and enhanced security features such as protection against unauthorized copying and controlled and secure access.
One of the most significant barriers to the widespread adoption of digital technology had been the huge amount of data required to represent images and sounds in a digital format, making cost-effective storage or transmission impractical. Through digital compression techniques, a substantial number of the redundancies inherent in audio and video data can be identified and eliminated, significantly reducing the overall amount of data which needs to be retained. Compression techniques introduced in the early 1990s allowed a two-hour movie to be compressed and stored on only two video CDs with video resolution comparable to that of a standard VHS tape. More recent techniques allow the storage of a full-length movie of more than three hours on a single DVD, with substantially improved audio and video quality and the incorporation of additional data, such as additional languages, scenes and director and actor commentary. Additionally, digital compression of video data allows previously unmanageable amounts of data to be stored in the memory of a disk drive, thereby permitting the data to be accessed and edited easily. It also allows for easier transmission of sharper resolution pictures through a standard definition or high definition television or set-top box. Digital audio compression allows efficient storage and delivery of multi-channel audio, making possible high-quality special effects such as multi-channel surround sound, virtual surround sound and wireless audio delivery via two speakers or headphones. In the field of still photography, digital compression allows dozens or hundreds of digital pictures to be stored on a single memory card, depending on the resolution desired.
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To drive the implementation and speed the adoption of products based on digital formats, industry participants organized committees to define international compression standards. The principal standards in use today include the following:
The Joint Photographic Experts Group, or JPEG, standard for the high quality compression of still images and the real-time, low-cost compression and decompression of moving images;
The MPEG 1 standard, adopted by the Moving Pictures Experts Group, or MPEG, for the compression of both audio and video data at the high compression ratios necessary for the limited storage capacity of the CD-ROM format;
The MPEG 2 standard, subsequently adopted by the Motion Pictures Experts Group, for the compression of both audio and video data, designed to provide improved quality in broadcast and video playback applications;
The MPEG 4 standard, which is an extension of MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 that provides the ability to view, access and manipulate objects rather than pixels, which is especially significant in video streaming, digital television, mobile multimedia and video game applications. MPEG 4 part 10 standard, also known as Advanced Video Codec (AVC) or H.264, is a recent addition to the MPEG 4 standard, offering significantly improved compression efficiencies;
DivX standard, which is a proprietary codec similar to MPEG-4 used for encoding high quality digital video at low bit rates. DivX encoded content can be viewed on the PC with a software player, on select DVD Players, portable media players and is used by some internet-based video on demand services;
Windows Media, Microsofts standard digital media software platform for developing digital media products and services; and
Dolby Digital, developed by Dolby Laboratories, an industry standard for the compression of audio for use in multi-channel digital surround sound systems.
These industry standard techniques have enabled the dramatic growth in digital multimedia markets, including the following:
DVD Players and Recorders. DVD players and recorders primarily use MPEG 2 video compression and Dolby Digital audio technology to provide significantly higher quality playback or recording than is possible with VCR or video CD technology. According to International Data Corporation, or IDC, sales of DVD players totaled approximately 124 million units in 2005 and shipments of DVD recorders increased to over 17.7 million units, from a base of 4.2 million units in 2003. DVD recorders are expected to gradually overtake the DVD player in combination products, such as DVD+VCR, DVD+HtiB and TV+DVD.
Standard Definition and High Definition Televisions and Set Top Boxes. Digital televisions receive digital content and process that content to display a picture which has far greater resolution and sharper, more clearly defined images than televisions based on the older analog technology. Standard definition televisions generally contain 480 lines with 720 pixels per line. High definition television, or HDTV, television sets contain 1280 to 1920 pixels per line and up to 1080 lines. The aspect ratio of standard definition sets is 4:3, compared to 16:9 for HDTV. The lines may be displayed using different techniques, often referred to as interlacing or alternatively progressive scan. The functionality to receive and process digital television signals can be contained in a set-top box which then drives a television display that is capable of displaying digital content. Alternatively, this functionality can be integrated into a digital television that does not require a set-top box. Digital content is broadcast via satellite, cable networks or over the air (terrestrial broadcast) in various markets throughout the world. Intex Management Services, LTD., or IMS, estimates that over 77 million digital televisions and set-top boxes were shipped worldwide in 2005 and that over 94 million units will be shipped in 2006.
Mobile Products. Digital cameras use JPEG compression technology to capture high resolution still images that can be viewed, edited and stored on a computer system on a recordable DVD and transmitted over telephone lines and computer networks. Recently, digital cameras have been introduced that are capable of capturing and playing back quality video, using the MPEG 4 algorithm. According to IDC, sales of mega pixel digital cameras exceeded 80 million units in 2005 and are expected to exceed 96 million units during 2006. The multimedia mobile phone market segment is expected to increase from 88 million units in 2005 to about 269 million units in 2008, according to IDC.
Additional products and markets are developing based on these established compression standards and additional compression technologies such as Meridian Lossless PCM, or MLP, a new standard for DVD audio, Super Audio, or SACD, Microsoft Windows Media Audio, or WMA, Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) used in conjunction with the MPEG-4 video standard and MP3, a compression standard for the download of audio recordings from the Internet.
These established and emerging compression standards specify data formats in which compressed data must be presented in order to enable products from different vendors to interact and permit the capture, transmission, storage and display of audio and video data in digital
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format. These standards do not specify the compression methodologies to be employed or additional functionality which may be used to enhance or manipulate digital signals. These standards, therefore, do not determine image or sound quality or compression efficiency. For example, data compression may comply with relevant standards despite being poorly processed and containing artifacts which result in image degradation in video applications or poor sound quality in audio applications. As a result, there can be significant differences in overall image or sound quality between two solutions based on the same standard. Therefore, integrated circuit manufacturers can differentiate their products on the basis of the quality of their compression solution.
Historically, as system vendors sought compression solutions, the cost, complexity and time required to compress and decompress data have imposed significant limitations on the use of digital compression. Over the last several years, as cost-effective compression solutions have emerged, product manufacturers have increasingly sought to design and market lower-cost digital audio and video systems and products to address an increasing number of high volume consumer applications. In addition, product manufacturers are facing competitive pressure to introduce their products more rapidly. To address these issues, OEMs continually seek to integrate more and more functions on individual chips in order to reduce their costs, speed time-to-market and produce smaller products with reduced power consumption. They also seek solutions that can be easily integrated into their commercial and consumer products. The current challenge to manufacturers of compression integrated circuits is, therefore, to provide product manufacturers with high-quality, cost-effective, standards-based solutions that deliver flexible control, image enhancement, audio effects and other functions in addition to high quality compression solutions.
Zoran Solutions
We provide feature-rich, cost-effective, standards-based solutions for a broad range of digital video, audio and imaging applications. We were a pioneer in the development of high performance digital signal processor products, and have developed expertise in integrated mixed signal circuit design, mathematical algorithms and software development, as well as proprietary digital signal processing, and video and audio compression technologies. We apply our multi-disciplinary expertise and proprietary technologies to the development of fully-integrated solutions for high-growth multimedia markets. The key elements of our solutions are the following:
Standards-Plus Methodology. We have leveraged our broad multi-disciplinary expertise and proprietary digital signal processing and compression technologies to develop what we refer to as standards-plus solutions. We have enabled OEMs to improve image and sound quality and deliver superior products to end users by adding more features around compression standards, such as more efficient use of memory, processing and communication resources, as well as audio and image enhancement algorithms. We have also provided OEMs the ability to include OEM-programmable effects and features, as well as variable compression ratios for video. These standards-plus features allow our customers to differentiate their products from those of their competitors.
Expandable and Programmable Architectures. We design our integrated circuits to enable easy adaptation for a broad range of specific applications. We can vary the architecture of our chips by adding or deleting modules, and we can also modify the software embedded in the chips themselves to address specific applications. We also license ready-to-manufacture coresbuilding blocks of integrated circuitsthat can be integrated into our customers chips. Combined with the enhanced functionality of our standards-plus technology, our expandable and programmable architecture facilitates product design, upgrades and customization, substantially accelerating our customers time to market with differentiated products.
Integrated System Solutions. We help our customers meet their total system requirements by providing integrated products that combine hardware and software to address required system functions and features on a single integrated circuit or chip set, reducing the number of integrated circuits, and in some cases providing a complete solution on a single chip. As a result, our customers total system cost can be reduced and they can concentrate on differentiating their products from those of their competitors. For example, our COACH chip, includes most of the electronics of a digital camera on a single chip.
Cost-Effective Products. We focus on reducing the feature size, power requirements and number of integrated circuits necessary to perform required system functions, including compression functions. This reduces our customers manufacturing costs for their products which incorporate our integrated circuits, and also reduces the operating costs for these products, enabling the use of our products in a broader range of high volume applications. The modular nature of our architecture reduces our new product development costs, and enables our design engineers to meet our customers new product specifications and cost parameters.
Near Production Ready System Reference Designs. We provide our customers with a broad range of engineering reference boards and products complete with device driver software, embedded software and detailed schematics. These products substantially shorten our customers product design time.
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Strategy
We provide cost-effective, high-performance digital audio, video and imaging solutions addressing selected high-growth applications enabled by compression in evolving multimedia markets. Key elements of our strategy include the following:
Focus on High-Growth and High Volume Applications. Our strategy is to focus on providing digital video, audio and imaging solutions for high-growth consumer electronics and printing applications. Our current focus markets include DVD players and recorders, digital cameras, digital television, multimedia portable devices and multifunction digital print devices.
Leverage Existing Technology and Expertise. We intend to continue to identify those markets that we believe have the highest growth potential for our products and to actively pursue those markets. Our proprietary digital signal processing and compression technologies can be used to serve a number of emerging markets for digital video and audio. Potential markets include home network audio and video appliances, as well as personal digital video, audio and imaging devices.
Further Penetrate Key International Markets. Between 1998 and 2005, we opened offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We now have a total of 416 full-time, part-time and contract employees working in these offices. We believe that by opening and expanding our presence in these offices we are better able to provide marketing and application support for these growing consumer electronics markets.
Extend Technological Leadership. Our years of experience in the fields of digital signal processing, integrated circuit design, algorithms and software development have enabled us to become a leader in the development of digital audio and video solutions enabled by compression. Using our multi-disciplinary expertise, we have developed new technologies for compression of digital audio, video and imaging. In August 2004, we acquired Emblaze Semiconductor which provided us important technologies for extending our capabilities into the growing multimedia mobile telephone market. In June 2005, we acquired Oren Semiconductor, Inc. which provided us demodulator IC technology for the global high definition television market. We intend to continue to invest in our research and development, and to evaluate opportunities to acquire additional technologies in order to maintain and extend our technological leadership.
Expand Strategic Partnerships. We work closely in the product development process with leading manufacturers of products that incorporate our integrated circuits. We also work closely with key customers and provide them early access to our technologies. Potential products are designed to meet customer-driven product requirements defined jointly by us and our partners with the partner providing technological input and, in selected cases, a portion of the development funding. This strategy has enabled us to develop products with substantial financial and other assistance while retaining ownership of the technology and ensuring an established customer for the product once development is completed. In some cases, our strategic partners also provide sales and marketing support. We have also established long-term relationships with strategic partners that provide manufacturing capacity and will seek to develop additional strategic relationships with manufacturers.
Markets and Applications
Our products are currently used in a variety of consumer multimedia applications, including the following:
Consumer Video Playback Systems
DVD players primarily use MPEG 2 video compression and Dolby Digital or similar audio technology to provide significantly higher quality playback than is possible with earlier generation products such as VCRs, Video CD or Super Video CD players. DVD players are sold as stand-alone products and are also bundled with other functions including DVD+VCR combinations, DVD-receivers and DVD+TV combinations. In addition, the DVD player can act as a platform for playback and editing of digital still images from digital cameras through integrated memory card slots or via direct connection to digital cameras.
Digital Video Recording Systems
Digital video recording systems are expected to replace the analog VCR. Digital video recording systems not only store home movies and TV programs but allow them to be easily edited. In addition, digital video recording systems enable high quality time shifting of TV program viewing by recording the program so that it can be watched simultaneously or on a delayed basis. The recording media used in digital video recording systems includes DVD recordable media and hard disks. Digital video recording systems use MPEG 2 as the video compression format and Dolby Digital or MPEG audio as the audio format.
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Digital Television
The digital television market represents the most significant technological shift in the television segment of the consumer electronics market since color televisions were introduced in the late 1950s. In the digital television market, digital content providers broadcast programming via satellite, cable or terrestrial (over-the-air) networks. The mix of broadcast networks varies by geographic region. For example, most digital television content in Japan and Korea is broadcast via terrestrial networks, while cable networks currently predominate in the United States. Satellite networks offer an alternative source of content to consumers and are continuing to grow in each of these markets. Each geographic market is subject to regulation that requires compliance with different governmental standards applicable to broadcast technology and content format. In each market, individual broadcasters also have developed their own proprietary standards for content, security and conditional access. The digital television market requires television products, set-top boxes, personal video recorders and other digital consumer appliances to include sophisticated integrated circuits and embedded software that address the emerging requirements of multiple broadcast networks throughout the world. The requirement by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, that all new televisions contain a built-in digital receiver, has accelerated the growth of the digital television market, which we expect to continue over the next several years.
Digital Imaging Print Products
The market for personal printers is beginning to undergo a shift from traditional PC-centric peripherals toward new PC-independent printing appliances. Fueling this shift is the rapid growth of digital photography, home Internet and wireless connectivity. As these new technologies make their way into the home, they are creating demand for a new class of appliance-type printers that allow image rich content such as web pages, digital photos, and scanned documents to be printed without using a PC. According to IDC, IC controllers for multifunction print devices are addressing a market estimated at 37 million units in 2005 and growing to over 46 million units in 2007.
The market for embedded software for page description languages is somewhat more mature than other areas of the imaging market. It is characterized by a small number of suppliers selling to very large OEM customers designing print devices that need to be connected to a network. The page description language, or PDL, enables the printer to receive a file or job from a PC and translate that file into a set of instructions that the printer can understand and lay down on paper with a great deal of precision. In general, applications are designed to send jobs to printers using one or both of two major protocols or languages. Print Control Language, or PCL, originated as a Hewlett Packard developed protocol for page printers and has become an industry standard in office environments. In addition, the application may also use postscript-based protocols originally developed by Adobe, which tend to be focused more on graphic arts and Apple operating system environments.
Mobile Products
Digital cameras allow the capture of high resolution images, the viewing, editing and storage of such images on a computer system and their transmission over telephone lines and computer networks. High quality copies of these images can be printed using color printers. Recently, digital cameras have added video capture and compression capability enabling them to provide basic camcorder functionality. Digital cameras can be connected directly to a PC for downloading of pictures or movies and to a television for display. The original digital cameras were developed for the professional market, and these cameras currently sell at prices of $1,000 to $3,000. As technology has advanced and manufacturing costs have decreased, digital cameras for the consumer market have been introduced in the $69 to $600 price range.
Many mobile telephones now incorporate digital still camera functionality, including high resolution still pictures and sometimes even video clips. These phones can be connected to a PC for downloading the pictures or video clips or they can be transmitted over the mobile phone network to another mobile phone or sent to an e-mail account. Digital camera functionality was originally included in mobile phones that sold for $500 to $800. With the spread of the technology and decreased manufacturing costs, digital camera enabled mobile phones now are available in every price range.
Image and Video Technology
The JPEG Standard. In 1991, the Joint Photographic Experts Group, or JPEG, Committee of the International Standards Organization completed a technical specification for a standard to compress individual digitized images, which may consist of still images or consecutive frames of video data. JPEG has been widely adopted for video editing applications, since each frame in the video is individually compressed, allowing cutting and pasting of sequences as well as modification of individual frames. Images are compressed through elimination of spatial redundancies within an image and the filtering of high frequency areas to which the eye is less sensitive. Using these techniques, the JPEG compression standard is able to reduce the data necessary to represent an image without significant degradation of image quality. Still images or motion video can be compressed to varying degrees using JPEG, with greater compression resulting in lower quality. Typically, four-to-one or five-to-one compression yields broadcast image quality while 20-to-1 compression is similar to VHS
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quality.
Zoran JPEG Technology. Our JPEG technology incorporates a proprietary bit rate control algorithm that enables our JPEG-based products to compress any image to a predetermined size while optimizing video quality using pre-selected parameters. Without this feature, the JPEG compression process results in compressed data files of various sizes based on the actual content of the original image given a constant degree of compression. An image with large amounts of visual detail will generate a larger data file than that generated from an image with less detail. Performance of many video applications is hampered by variability in the size of the compressed images in a video sequence, which can result in inefficient use of available memory, bus speed or communication channel capacity or even the loss of images. Our bit rate control is a standards-plus solution that uses real-time digital signal processing algorithms to optimize video quality based on pre-selected parameters, which can be programmed by OEMs, without the loss of any image or video frame. Our bit rate control has been incorporated in our JPEG-based devices that are used in digital cameras, video editing systems, color scanners, PC-based security systems, video conferencing and other applications. Other features of our JPEG-based products include their ability to handle a wide range of compression ratios, to perform a lossless compression algorithm in the same JPEG device, to rapidly scan or browse a large number of images and utilize advanced image processing algorithms that enable bit rate control of USB data, vertical blank interval detection, infrared remote control detection and scene analysis for computer control applications. We implement these functions in a single integrated circuit while we believe most other manufacturers either offer fewer functions or require multiple chips, resulting in higher manufacturing costs and greater power consumption.
The MPEG Standards. In 1991, the Moving Pictures Expert Group, or MPEG, Committee of the International Standards Organization completed a technical specification for a standard to compress moving audio and video into a single data stream. Like JPEG, MPEG 1 removes spatial redundancies from single frames of video data. MPEG 1 improves on JPEG by also removing redundancies that occur between consecutive video frames. Because video represents movement, it is possible to detect and estimate the movement of similar picture elements between video frames, a process called motion estimation. MPEG motion estimation uses the content of previous and future frames to predict the content of the current frame without using its full content. MPEG 1 implements audio compression by exploiting psycho-acoustic masking, taking advantage of the fact that the ear is less sensitive to a quiet note at one frequency when a much louder note is present at a nearby frequency. MPEG 1 often achieves audio compression ratios of six-to-one and video compression ratios of over 100-to-1. MPEG 1 is particularly suitable for low-cost CD-ROM applications due to its low-cost implementation.
In 1993, the MPEG 2 video committee completed a technical specification to address the more stringent requirements of the broadcast industry. MPEG 2 provides more sophisticated prediction techniques, enabling a compression solution to comprehend video as interlaced fields of data, rather than individual frames. MPEG 2 also allows for operation at higher resolution and at higher bit rates than MPEG 1, resulting in improved image quality for high motion, high detail video. MPEG 2 typically achieves compression ratios of 50-to-1. Because of its higher bit rate, MPEG 2 technology cannot be used in standard CD-ROM applications, but can be used in DVD players.
MPEG 4 builds on the experience of the MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 standards, which are currently used in digital video applications. MPEG 4 is rich in features, and can be customized to serve the needs of specific industries while preserving a high level of interoperability across a variety of applications. It allows a new level of interaction with visual content, providing the ability to view access and manipulate objects rather than pixels. MPEG 4s impact is especially significant in video streaming, digital television, and game applications.
DivX. DivX is a proprietary codec similar to MPEG-4 used for encoding high quality digital video at low bit rates. DivX encoded content can be viewed on the PC with a software player and on select DVD Players and portable media players and is used by some internet-based video-on-demand services.
Zoran MPEG Technology. Beginning in 1997, we established ourselves as a leading provider of MPEG 2 technology for DVD and Super Video CD applications. Another important technology is MPEG 4 decoding, which is embodied in the DivX and XVID file formats. These files are commonly used for file sharing of video content on the PC. We have added to the MPEG 2 decoders used on the PC the capability to decode MPEG 4 files, allowing consumers to display content stored on their PCs using a television. We have also introduced MPEG 2 encoding ICs. This technology is an important part of the DVD recorder system. With the acquisition of Oak Technologies we obtained the MPEG-2 technologies required for high definition television applications including set-top boxes and televisions. We have also developed MPEG 4 technology - both for compression and decompression - enabling the capture and playback of high quality video clips for portable applications including digital still cameras and digital tape-less camcorders. With the acquisition of Emblaze Semiconductor, we obtained MPEG-4 part 10 compression and decompression technologies, also known as the Advanced Video Codec, or AVC, that are used in mobile telephone applications for video conferencing and video capture.
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Audio Technology
The Dolby Digital Standard. In 1992, Dolby Laboratories launched Dolby Digital, an audio compression technique which has emerged as an industry standard. Dolby Digital was developed as a successor to Dolbys Pro Logic analog technique for use in multi-channel digital surround sound systems. It is currently used in most movie theaters in the developed nations worldwide and is also used in home theater and computer multimedia applications. Digital compression of audio data allows the storage of full quality multi-channel audio playback in the limited space allocated for audio in video-oriented formats. It also facilitates the seamless integration of sound with compressed video. The Dolby Digital audio compression standard is currently the principal audio compression technique used in DVD players. Dolby Digital has also been adopted as a standard for use in high-definition television and digital cable systems.
Other Audio Standards. Other digital audio compression standards currently in use include: DTS, an audio compression standard that competes with Dolby Digital; MLP, a compression standard for DVD audio; Windows Media Audio, or WMA, a standard developed by Microsoft; Advance Audio Codec, or AAC, a compression standard used in HDTV and MP3, used for the download of audio recordings from the Internet.
Zoran Audio Technology. Working closely with Dolby Laboratories, we have developed a programmable audio digital signal processing engine with an architecture optimized for Dolby Digital and other demanding audio applications, and we were the first to develop a single-chip solution for Dolby Digital decoding. Our family of Vaddis® DVD decoders and audio processors incorporate this engine to allow systems manufacturers to replace system components with software modules, differentiate their products from their competition, use Zorans SiliconSoftware® library of advanced audio algorithms, and reduce system costs and time to market. In addition to Dolby Digital, our DVD decoders and audio processors support all principal audio compression standards, including DTS, MLP and MP3. Zorans integrated circuits also include additional functions such as Virtual Multi-Channel Digital, surround sound for headphones, high definition CD, karaoke processing and speaker equalization. Our audio technology is integrated with our video technology in many of our products. Multiple audio algorithms like AAC, Dolby Digital and others are embedded in our DTV ICs, and other algorithms are included in our digital camera ICs.
Printing Technology
Zoran Controller Technology. As a result of our acquisition of Oak in August 2003, we obtained Oaks IC-based controller technology that enables users of our customers computer peripheral products such as printers, copiers and multi-function peripherals, or MFPs, that perform multiple document imaging functions such as print, scan, copy, process and transmit. For hardware-based printing solutions, our Imaging division designs high-performance, full-featured compression application specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, imaging DSP ICs, resolution-enhancement ASICs and system-on-a-chip, or SOC, solutions for digital copiers, printers, scanners, fax machines and MFPs.
Zoran Digital Page Processing Technology. Also as a result of the Oak acquisition, we obtained Oaks digital page processing technology, used to create software for processing page description languages such as Postscript and PCL. For software-based printing solutions, our Imaging Division offers integrated, modular, embedded software products, intended to provide the performance, output, quality, compatibility and network connectivity required for todays printing peripheral market. In addition, we provide complementary personal computer software products, including printer drivers and standards-based technology to enable manufacturers of peripherals to design and develop differentiated products.
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Products
Our product offerings consist of four principal product families:
DVDhigh-performance integrated system-on-a-chip solutions, including video and audio compression and decompression products based on MPEG, Dolby Digital and DTS standards and front-end technology for use in DVD players and DVD recorders.
DTVhigh-performance, highly integrated ASICs and system-on-a-chip, or SOC, solutions for standard and high definition digital television products including televisions, set top boxes, personal video recorders, digital video recorders, and recordable DVDs, as well as platforms, drivers and software stacks for a variety of operating systems required for these digital television applications.
Mobilehighly integrated digital camera processor and multimedia mobile phone processors including image signal processing, image and video compression and decompression products based on JPEG, MPEG 4 and other technologies for the digital camera and multimedia mobile phone markets.
Digital imagingIC-based controller products and digital page processing software for the digital imaging, production and printing market.
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The following table lists our principal multimedia integrated circuits currently in production, including the months in which initial production units were first made available to customers:
(a) - Available as a result of the acquisition of Oren Semiconductor, Inc.
(b) - Available as a result of the acquisition of Emblaze Semiconductor, Ltd.
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DVD. Our Vaddis® processors perform all the audio and video decoding and display requirements of the DVD specification, including MPEG 2 audio and video decoding, Dolby Digital, DTS and MLP audio decoding, on-screen display, decryption required for copyright protection and presentation of graphic information. The Vaddis® processor has additional computational power that can be utilized for customer differentiation features. For example, it can incorporate virtual surround sound algorithms without the addition of hardware. This allows the user to enjoy the theater-like sound obtained from six speakers using a system that includes only two speakers. The Vaddis® 7 processor incorporates all the functions of previous generations with the addition of MPEG 4 decoding and an interface that can support high definition television. The Vaddis® 8 adds Super Audio CD, or SACD, upscaler and HDMI transmitter functionality. In 2004, we introduced HDXtreme® technology that allows DVD play back and the viewing of JPEG pictures on an HDTV with an HDMI interface. The Activa® 200 product, announced in December 2005, delivers the entire DVD recorder capability on a single system-on-a-chip, integrating the front-end and back-end functions to greatly reduce system costs and chip count in DVD recorders. We also provide DVD player and DVD recorder reference designs based on our Vaddis and Activa® product families that help our customers accelerate the time to market for their products.
DTV. Our DTV Division offers integrated circuit products for both high definition and standard definition formats for digital televisions, set top boxes and related applications, including personal video recorders. In 2004, we introduced the Generation 9® Elite system-on-a-chip which utilizes dual CPUs resulting in higher performance with lower power consumption compared to its forerunner, the Generation 9®. During 2005, we began shipping our highly integrated SurpaHD® product line that addresses the mainstream market segment as well as high-end and entry-level segments of the flat panel display and analog-to-digital broadcast transition markets. We also shipped production volumes of our SupraTV® 150 ICs for use in the worldwide standard definition digital terrestrial, satellite and cable broadcast markets. As a result of the Oren acquisition in June 2005, we offer the Cascade 2 TV demodulator with our SupraHD® and Generation 9® back-end decoder and end-to-end solution for the US Advanced Television Systems Committee market. The Cascade 2 product is also sold to TV tuner suppliers as an integrated tuner and demodulator solution.
Mobile. Our COACH processors are integrated system-on-a-chip solutions that include most of the electronics of a digital camera, which can be connected directly to a high-resolution CCD or CMOS sensor. The COACH IC processes the video information in real time, compresses the captured image in real time, while interfacing to an LCD or micro display and to all types of flash memory. Among the unique capabilities of the COACH is the ability to transfer in real time, over a USB bus, high quality video to the PC and function as a PC video camera. The COACH also allows for direct connection to a printer, including color correction and special effects, for the non-PC consumer environment. The COACH is supplemented by digital camera reference designs, CamON and CamMini, products shorten the time to market for Zorans customers. The newest COACH processors utilize MPEG-4 Codecs to incorporate basic digital camcorder capabilities for displaying video clips on a PC or TV. As a result of our acquisition of Emblaze Semiconductor in July 2004, our Mobile Products Division also offers mobile multimedia telephone products.
Digital Imaging. Our Quatro® addresses the consumer market for personal printers and the increasing demand for PC-independent printing appliances. The Quatro® is a programmable SOC solution for consumer oriented imaging and printing appliances, including multifunction color inkjet and laser devices that feature print, copy, scan and fax capabilities and that allow image-rich content such as web pages, digital photos and scanned documents to be printed without the use of a PC. Quatro® ASICs are designed for mid-range and entry level inkjet printers, color photo printers, laser printers and the new generation of dye sublimation printers. The Integrated Print System, or IPS 7.0, is a modular, scalable embedded software product that provides processing and control functions for document imaging peripheral devices. IPS was developed based on a long standing expertise in page description language interpreters such as PCL and Postscript. The IPS product line gives the OEM the ability to build high performance, network enabled devices quickly and cost effectively.
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Customers
The following table lists representative customers, as well as other OEMs who purchase our products through our resellers. Each of these customers and OEMs purchased, directly or indirectly, at least $500,000 of Zoran products during 2005:
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In 2005, no single customer accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues, and sales to our four largest customers accounted for 29% of our total revenues. In 2004, Samsung Electronics accounted for 11% of our total revenues, while sales to our four largest customers accounted for 35% of our total revenues.
Research and Development
We believe that our future success depends on our ability to continue to enhance our existing products and to develop new products that maintain technological competitiveness and compliance with new standards in rapidly evolving consumer-oriented digital audio and video markets. We attempt to leverage our expertise in the fields of digital signal processing, integrated circuit design, algorithms and software development to maintain our position as a leader in the development of digital audio, video and imaging solutions. Accordingly, we devote a significant portion of our resources to maintaining and upgrading our products to reduce integrated circuit cost, feature size, power consumption and the number of integrated circuits required to perform compression and other functions necessary for the evolving digital audio, video and imaging application markets. In addition, we seek to design integrated circuits and cores, as well as near production ready reference designs which can reduce the time needed by manufacturers to integrate our ICs into their own products.
We have historically generated a portion of our revenues from development contracts with our strategic partners. These development contracts provide that we will receive payments upon reaching certain development milestones and that we will retain ownership of the intellectual property developed. Development contracts have enabled us to fund portions of our product development efforts, to respond to the feature requirements of our customers, to accelerate the incorporation of our products into our customers products and to accelerate the time-to-market of our customers products. We anticipate, however, that in the future development contracts with strategic partners will fund a smaller portion of our development efforts than in the past.
We are a party to research and development agreements with the Chief Scientist in Israels Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Israel-United States Bi-national Industrial Research and Development Foundation. These organizations fund up to 50% of incurred project costs for approved projects up to contract maximums. The agreements require us to use our best efforts to achieve specified results and to pay royalties at rates of 3% to 5% of resulting product sales and up to 30% of resulting license revenues, up to a maximum of 100% to 150% of the total funding received. Reported research and development expenses are net of these grants, which fluctuate from period to period. In 2004, we earned grants totaling $1.5 million. There were no grant receipts in 2005. The terms of Israeli Government participation include restrictions on the location of research and development activities, and the terms of the grants from the Chief Scientist prohibit the transfer of technology developed pursuant to these grants to any person without the prior written consent of the Chief Scientist.
As of December 31, 2005, we had a staff of 511 full-time, 121 part-time and contract research and development personnel for a total of 632 research and development personnel.
Sales and Marketing
Our sales and marketing strategy is to focus on providing solutions to manufacturers seeking to design audio, video and imaging products for existing and emerging high volume consumer applications. In cooperation with leading manufacturers of audio, video and imaging equipment in the commercial and consumer markets, we attempt to identify market segments which have the potential for substantial growth. To implement our strategy, we have established a worldwide direct sales force in several sales and marketing offices located near our key customers and strategic partners, and a worldwide network of independent sales representatives and resellers. In some cases, our strategic partners also provide sales and marketing support.
We work closely in the product development process with strategic partners to incorporate our integrated circuits and software into their products. Potential products are designed to meet customer-specific product requirements defined jointly by us and our strategic partners with our partners providing technological input, and in some cases, a portion of the development funding. This strategy has permitted us to develop products with substantial financial and other assistance, while retaining ownership of the technology and ensuring an established customer for the product once development is completed. In addition, our application engineers assist customers in designing their products to incorporate our integrated circuits.
Our sales are generally made pursuant to purchase orders received between one and six months prior to the scheduled delivery date. We sell our products primarily through our 113-person direct sales staff, of whom 11 are located in the United States and 102 are located internationally. Our United States sales staff is primarily responsible for sales in North America, Europe and South America. Sales management and sales operations staff also reside in the United States. Our marketing staffs in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan are responsible for marketing in their respective regions. In addition, we sell our products indirectly through five commissioned sales representatives as well as selected resellers. We typically warrant our products for a 12-month period. To date, we have not experienced material product returns or warranty expense.
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We have opened offices in other parts of the world in order to better address specific markets. During 1998, we opened an office in Shenzhen, China as part of our effort to capture a leadership position in the Chinese digital audio and video markets. During 2000, we opened an office in Taipei, Taiwan in an effort to better address the digital camera market. As of December 31, 2005, we had a staff of 275 employees and 16 contractors in our China office and 49 employees in our Taiwan office, including sales, applications and customer support employees. In addition, in 2001 we opened offices in Hong Kong and Korea, which had staffs of 3 employees and 20 employees, respectively, as of December 31, 2005. These offices also provide sales, applications and customer support.
We distribute our products in Japan primarily through resellers. We also operate an office in Tokyo to help promote our products in Japan, assist with the marketing of products not sold through resellers, such as integrated circuit cores and certain digital camera, digital video, digital television, imaging and JPEG products, and provide applications support for some of our customers. At December 31, 2005, we had 32 employees and 21 contractors in our Tokyo office.
We sell our Dolby technology enabled products under a perpetual, non-exclusive license from Dolby to sell products that incorporate the Dolby Digital algorithm. We are not required to pay license fees or royalties to Dolby under this agreement. Our customers enter into license agreements directly with Dolby, pursuant to which they pay royalties to Dolby. Under our agreement with Dolby, we may sell our Dolby Digital-based products only to customers who are licensees of Dolby. To date, most potential customers for our Dolby Digital-based products are licensees of Dolby. However, the failure or refusal of potential customers to enter into license agreements with Dolby in the future could harm our sales.
We sell our DTS Technology-based products under a non-exclusive license from DTS Technology LLC to sell products that incorporate the DTS algorithm. We are not required to pay royalties to DTS Technology under this agreement. Our customers enter into license agreements directly with DTS, pursuant to which they pay royalties to DTS. Under our agreement with DTS, we may sell our DTS-based products only to customers who are licensees of DTS. The failure or refusal of potential customers to enter into license agreements with DTS in the future could harm our sales.
Backlog
Sales of our products are made pursuant to firm purchase orders. However, sometimes we allow customers to cancel or reschedule deliveries. In addition, purchase orders are subject to price renegotiations and to changes in quantities of products ordered as a result of changes in customers requirements and manufacturing availability. Our ability to order products can carry lead times of between four and 16 weeks; however, most of our business is characterized by short lead times and quick delivery schedules. As a result of these factors, we do not believe that backlog at any given time is a meaningful indicator of future sales.
Manufacturing
We contract our wafer fabrication, assembly and testing to independent foundries and contractors, which enables us to focus on our design strengths, minimize fixed costs and capital expenditures and gain access to advanced manufacturing facilities. Our engineers work closely with our foundry partners and subcontractors to increase yields, lower manufacturing costs and assure quality.
Our primary foundry is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, which has manufactured integrated circuits for us since 1987. TSMC, Philips and Samsung are currently manufacturing our DVD, JPEG, DTV, imaging and some of our mobile products. Fujitsu manufactures our USB multimedia controller chips. Our independent foundries fabricate products for other companies and may also produce products of their own design.
All of our devices are currently fabricated using standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor process technology with 0.13 micron to 0.18 micron feature sizes. Most of our semiconductor products are currently being assembled by one of five independent contractors and tested by those contractors or other independent contractors.
We currently purchase products from all of our foundries under individually negotiated purchase orders. We do not currently have a long-term supply contract with TSMC, and therefore TSMC is not obligated to manufacture products for us for any specific period, in any specific quantity or at any specified price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order.
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Competition
Our existing and potential competitors include many large domestic and international companies that have substantially greater resources in the following areas:
finance;
manufacturing;
technology;
marketing; and
distribution.
Some of these competitors also have broader product lines and longer standing relationships with customers than we do. Some of our principal competitors maintain their own semiconductor foundries and may therefore benefit from capacity, cost and technical advantages. ALi Corporation, Broadcom, Cheertek, Cirrus Logic, ESS, LSI Logic, Matsushita, MediaTek, NEC, SigmaDesigns, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Sunplus and Texas Instruments have introduced integrated audio and video devices for DVD applications. In the markets for JPEG-based products for use in digital cameras, our principal competitors are in-house solutions developed and used by major Japanese OEMs, as well as products sold by Sunplus and Texas Instruments. In the market for JPEG-based products for desktop video editing applications, our principal competitor is Sunplus. Cirrus Logic (Crystal Semiconductor), Fujitsu, Motorola, STMicroelectronics and Yamaha are currently shipping Dolby Digital-based audio compression products. Our principal competitors for digital semiconductor devices in the digital television market include ATI Technologies, Broadcom, Conexant and ST Microelectronics. Others who also participate in this market are Ali Corporation, Fujitsu, Genesis Microchip, Haier, IBM, LSI, NEC, Philips, Sigmatel, Inc., Peerless Systems, TAK Imaging and in-house captive suppliers.
We believe that our ability to compete successfully in the rapidly evolving markets for high performance audio, video and imaging technology depends on a number of factors, including the following:
price, quality, performance and features of our products;
the timing and success of new product introductions by itself, our customers and our competitors;
the emergence of new industry standards;
its ability to obtain adequate foundry capacity;
the number and nature of our competitors in a given market; and
general market and economic conditions.
The markets in which we compete are intensely competitive and are characterized by rapid technological change, declining average unit selling prices and rapid product obsolescence. We expect competition to increase in the future from existing competitors and from other companies that may enter our existing or future markets with solutions which may be less costly or provide higher performance or more desirable features than our products.
We believe that growth of the DVD player market will be modest in the forseeable future, and that continued strong competition in that market will lead to further price reductions, and reduced profit margins. We believe that the DVD recorder market will continue to grow and that as technology barriers become higher, fewer competitors will enter this market.
Historically, average unit selling prices in the semiconductor industry in general, and for our products in particular, have decreased over the life of a particular product. We expect that the average unit selling prices of our products will continue to be subject to significant pricing pressures. In order to offset expected declines in the average unit selling prices of our products, we will need to continually reduce the cost of our products and continue to integrate additional functions into our ICs. We intend to accomplish this by implementing design changes that integrate additional functionality, lower the cost of manufacturing, assembly and testing, by negotiating reduced charges by our foundries as and if volumes increase, and by successfully managing our manufacturing and subcontracting relationships. Since we do not operate our own manufacturing, assembly or testing facilities, we may not be able to reduce our costs as rapidly as companies that operate their own facilities. If we fail to introduce lower cost versions of our products in a timely manner or to successfully manage our
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manufacturing, assembly and testing relationships, our business would be harmed.
Proprietary Rights and Licenses
Our ability to compete successfully is dependent in part upon our ability to protect our proprietary technology and information. Although we rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secret laws and licensing arrangements to protect some of our intellectual property, we believe that factors such as the technological and creative skills of our personnel and the success of our ongoing product development efforts are more important in maintaining our competitive position. We generally enter into confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, resellers, customers and potential customers and limit access to our proprietary information. We currently hold approximately 265 patents worldwide, and have additional patent applications pending. Our intellectual property rights, if challenged, may not be upheld as valid, may not be adequate to prevent misappropriation of our technology or may not prevent the development of competitive products. Additionally, we may not be able to obtain patents or other intellectual property protection in the future. In particular, the existence of several consortiums that license patents relating to the MPEG standard has created uncertainty with respect to the use and enforceability of patents implementing that standard. Furthermore, the laws of certain foreign countries in which our products are or may be developed, manufactured or sold, including various countries in Asia, may not protect our products or intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States and thus make the possibility of piracy of our technology and products more likely in these countries.
We sell our Dolby Digital-based products under a perpetual non-exclusive license from Dolby which permits us to incorporate the Dolby Digital algorithm into our products. Our customers enter into license agreements with Dolby pursuant to which they pay royalties directly to Dolby. Under our agreement with Dolby, we may sell our Dolby Digital-based products only to customers who are licensees of Dolby. To date, most potential customers for our Dolby Digital- based products are licensees of Dolby. However, the failure or refusal of potential customers to enter into license agreements with Dolby in the future could harm our business. We sell our DTS Technology-based products under a non-exclusive license from DTS Technology LLC to sell products that incorporate the DTS algorithm. We are not required to pay royalties to DTS under this agreement. Our customers enter into license agreements directly with DTS, pursuant to which they pay royalties to DTS. Under our agreement with DTS, we may sell our DTS-based products only to customers who are licensees of DTS. The failure or refusal of potential customers to enter into license agreements with Dolby in the future could harm our sales.
The semiconductor industry is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights, which have resulted in significant and often protracted and expensive litigation. We or our foundries from time to time are notified of claims that we may be infringing patents or other intellectual property rights owned by third parties. We have been subject to intellectual property claims and litigation in the past, and we and our Oak subsidiary were recently engaged in such litigation. See Item 3Legal Proceedings. We may be subject to additional claims and litigation in the future. In particular, given the uncertainty discussed above regarding patents relating to the MPEG standard, it is difficult for us to assess the possibility that our activities in the MPEG field may give rise to future patent infringement claims. Litigation by or against us relating to patent infringement or other intellectual property matters could result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, whether or not such litigation results in a determination favorable to us. In the event of an adverse result in any such litigation, we could be required to pay substantial damages, cease the manufacture, use and sale of infringing products, expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology, discontinue the use of certain processes or obtain licenses to the infringing technology. Licenses may not be offered or the terms of any offered licenses may not be acceptable to us. If we fail to obtain a license from a third party for technology that it uses, we could incur substantial liabilities and be forced to suspend the manufacture of products, or the use by our foundries of certain processes.
Employees
As of December 31, 2005, we had 1,094 full-time and 152 part-time and contract employees, including 632 full-time, part-time and contract employees primarily involved in research and development activities, 464 in marketing and sales, 100 in finance, human resources, information systems, legal and administration, and 50 in manufacturing control and quality assurance. We have 343 full-time employees and 70 part-time and contract employees based in Israel, of which 352 employees, including both full time and contract employees, are involved in engineering and research and development. We have 188 full-time employees and 36 part-time and contract employees at our facilities in Sunnyvale, California, 148 full-time employees and 7 part-time and contract employees at our facility in Woburn Massachusetts, and 275 full-time employees and 16 part-time contract employees at our facilities in Shenzhen and Shanghai, China. The remaining employees are located in our international offices in Canada, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. We believe that our future success will depend in large part on our ability to attract and retain highly-skilled, engineering, managerial, sales and marketing personnel. Competition for such personnel is intense. Our employees are not represented by any collective bargaining unit, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. We believe that our employee relations are good.
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Item 1A Risk Factors
Our future business, operating results and financial condition are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below.
Our annual revenues and operating results fluctuate due to a variety of factors, which may result in volatility or a decline in the prices of our stock.
Our historical operating results have varied significantly from year over year due to a number of factors, including:
fluctuation in demand for our products;
the timing of new product introductions or enhancements by us and our competitors;
the level of market acceptance of new and enhanced versions of our products and our customers products;
the timing or cancellation of large customer orders;
the length and variability of the sales cycle for our products;
pricing policy changes by us and by our competitors and suppliers;
the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry;
the availability of development funding and the timing of development revenue;
changes in the mix of products sold;
seasonality in demand for our products;
increased competition in product lines, and competitive pricing pressures; and
the evolving and unpredictable nature of the markets for products incorporating our integrated circuits and embedded software.
We expect that our operating results will continue to fluctuate in the future as a result of these factors and a variety of other factors, including:
the cost and availability of adequate foundry capacity;
fluctuations in manufacturing yields;
changes in or the emergence of new industry standards;
failure to anticipate changing customer product requirements;
the loss or gain of important customers;
product obsolescence; and
the amount of research and development expenses associated with new product introductions.
Our operating results could also be harmed by:
economic conditions generally or in various geographic areas where we or our customers do business;
terrorism and international conflicts or other crises;
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other conditions affecting the timing of customer orders;
changes in governmental regulations that could affect our products; or
a downturn in the markets for our customers products, particularly the consumer electronics market.
These factors are difficult or impossible to forecast. We place orders with independent foundries several months in advance of the scheduled delivery date, often in advance of receiving non-cancelable orders from our customers. This limits our ability to react to fluctuations in demand for their products. If anticipated shipments in any quarter are canceled or do not occur as quickly as expected, or if we fail to foresee a technology change that could render a product obsolete, expense and inventory levels could be disproportionately high. If anticipated license revenues in any quarter are canceled or do not occur, gross margins may be reduced. A significant portion of our expenses are relatively fixed, and the timing of increases in expenses is based in large part on our forecast of future revenues. As a result, if revenues do not meet our expectations, we may be unable to quickly adjust expenses to levels appropriate to actual revenues, which could harm our operating results.
Product supply and demand fluctuations common to the semiconductor industry are historically characterized by periods of manufacturing capacity shortages immediately followed by periods of overcapacity, which are caused by the addition of manufacturing capacity in large increments. We cannot predict whether we will achieve timely, cost-effective access to that capacity when needed, or when there will be a capacity shortage again in the future.
As a result of these factors, our operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter. Any shortfall in revenues or net income from levels expected by the investment community could cause a decline in the trading price of our stock.
Our customers experience fluctuating product cycles and seasonality, which causes their sales to fluctuate.
Because the markets that our customers serve are characterized by numerous new product introductions and rapid product enhancements, our operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter. During the final production of a mature product, our customers typically exhaust their existing inventory of our products. Consequently, orders for our products may decline in those circumstances, even if the products are incorporated into both mature products and replacement products. A delay in a customers transition to commercial production of a replacement product would delay our ability to recover the lost sales from the discontinuation of the related mature product. Our customers also experience significant seasonality in the sales of their consumer products, which affects their orders of our products. Typically, the second half of the calendar year represents a disproportionate percentage of sales for our customers due to the holiday shopping period for consumer electronics products, and therefore, a disproportionate percentage of our sales. We expect these seasonal sales fluctuations to continue for the foreseeable future.
Product supply and demand in the semiconductor industry is subject to cyclical variations.
The semiconductor industry is subject to cyclical variations in product supply and demand. Downturns in the industry often occur in connection with, or anticipation of, maturing product cycles for both semiconductor companies and their customers and declines in general economic conditions. These downturns have been characterized by abrupt fluctuations in product demand, production over-capacity and accelerated decline of average selling prices. In some cases, these downturns have lasted more than one year. A downturn in the semiconductor industry could harm our sales and revenues if demand drops, or our gross margins if average selling prices decline.
Our success for the foreseeable future will be dependent on growth in demand for integrated circuits for a limited number of applications.
In recent years, we have derived a substantial majority of our product revenues from the sale of integrated circuits for DVD and digital camera applications. We expect that sales of our products for these applications will continue to account for a significant portion of our revenues for the foreseeable future. Our future financial performance will also depend on our ability to successfully develop and market new products in the digital television, HDTV and digital imaging markets. If the markets for these products and applications decline or fail to develop as expected, or we are not successful in our efforts to market and sell our products to manufacturers who incorporate integrated circuits into these products, our financial results will be harmed.
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Our financial performance is highly dependent on the timely and successful introduction of new and enhanced products.
Our financial performance depends in large part on our ability to successfully develop and market next-generation and new products in a rapidly changing technological environment. If we fail to successfully identify new product opportunities and timely develop and introduce new products that achieve market acceptance, we may lose our market share and our future revenues and earnings may suffer.
In the consumer electronic market, our performance has been dependent on our successful development and timely introduction of integrated circuits for DVD players, DVD recorders, digital cameras, broadband digital television and HDTV. These markets are characterized by the incorporation of a steadily increasing level of integration and numbers of features on a chip at the same or lower system cost, enabling original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, to continually improve the features or reduce the prices of the systems they sell. If we are unable to continually develop and introduce integrated circuits with increasing levels of integration and new features at competitive prices, our operating results will suffer.
In the digital office market, our performance has been dependant on our ability to successfully develop embedded image processing system on a chip, or SOC, solutions for the digital office market, in particular, embedded digital color copier technology and image processing chips for a variety of imaging peripherals, including printers and multi-function peripherals, or MFPs. Among other technological changes, embedded PDF and color capability are rapidly emerging as market requirements for printers and other imaging devices. Some of our competitors have the capacity to supply these solutions, and some of their solutions have been well received in the marketplace. We face the challenge of developing new imaging products with the capability to handle greater color and image complexity, including web-based documents, and work with higher-performing devices in networked environments. If we are unable to meet these challenges with the development of products that can effectively compete in the OEM software and solutions market, our future operating results could suffer.
We must keep pace with rapid technological changes and evolving industry standards to remain competitive.
Our future success will depend on our ability to anticipate and adapt to changes in technology and industry standards and our customers changing demands. The consumer electronics market, in particular, is characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions, short product life cycles and increasing demand for higher levels of integration. Our ability to adapt to these changes and to anticipate future standards, and the rate of adoption and acceptance of those standards, will be a significant factor in maintaining or improving our competitive position and prospects for growth. If new industry standards emerge, our products or the products of our customers could become unmarketable or obsolete, and we could lose market share or be required to incur substantial unanticipated costs to comply with these new standards.
Our success will also depend on the successful development of new markets and the application and acceptance of new technologies and products in those new markets. For example, our success will depend on the ability of our customers to develop new products and enhance existing products in the recordable DVD player market and products for the broadband digital television and HDTV markets and to introduce and promote those products successfully. These markets may not continue to develop to the extent or in the time periods that we currently anticipate due to factors outside our control, such as delays in implementation of FCC 02-320 requiring all new televisions to include a digital receiver. If new markets do not develop as we anticipate, or if our products do not gain widespread acceptance in these markets, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. The emergence of new markets for our products is also dependent in part upon third parties developing and marketing content in a format compatible with commercial and consumer products that incorporate our products. If this content is not available, manufacturers may not be able to sell products incorporating our products, and our sales would suffer.
We rely on independent foundries and contractors for the manufacture, assembly and testing of our integrated circuits and other hardware products, and the failure of any of these third parties to deliver products or otherwise perform as requested could damage our relationships with our customers and harm our sales and financial results.
We do not operate any manufacturing facilities, and we rely on independent foundries to manufacture substantially all of our products. These independent foundries fabricate products for other companies and may also produce products of their own design. From time to time, there are manufacturing capacity shortages in the semiconductor industry. We do not have long-term supply contracts with any of our suppliers, including our principal supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC. Therefore, TSMC and our other suppliers are not obligated to manufacture products for us for any specific period, in any specific quantity or at any specified price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order.
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Our reliance on independent foundries involves a number of risks, including:
the inability to obtain adequate manufacturing capacity;
the unavailability of or interruption in access to certain process technologies necessary for manufacture of our products;
lack of control over delivery schedules;
lack of control over quality assurance;
lack of control over manufacturing yields and cost; and
potential misappropriation of our intellectual property.
In addition, TSMC and some of our other foundries are located in areas of the world that are subject to natural disasters such as earthquakes. While the 1999 earthquake in Taiwan did not have a material impact on our independent foundries, a similar event centered near TSMCs facility could severely reduce TSMCs ability to manufacture our integrated circuits. The loss of any of our manufacturers as a supplier, our inability to expand the supply of their products in response to increased demand, or our inability to obtain timely and adequate deliveries from our current or future suppliers due to a natural disaster or any other reason could delay or reduce shipments of our products. Any of these circumstances could damage our relationships with current and prospective customers and harm our sales and financial results.
We also rely on a limited number of independent contractors for the assembly and testing of our products. Our reliance on independent assembly and testing houses limits our control over delivery schedules, quality assurance and product cost. Disruptions in the services provided by our assembly or testing houses or other circumstances that would require them to seek alternative sources of assembly or testing could lead to supply constraints or delays in the delivery of our products. These constraints or delays could damage our relationships with current and prospective customers and harm our financial results.
Because foundry capacity is limited from time to time, we may be required to enter into costly long-term supply arrangements to secure foundry capacity.
If we are not able to obtain additional foundry capacity as required, our relationships with our customers would be harmed and our sales would likely be reduced. In order to secure additional foundry capacity, we have considered, and may in the future need to consider, various arrangements with suppliers, which could include, among others:
option payments or other prepayments to a foundry;
nonrefundable deposits with or loans to foundries in exchange for capacity commitments;
contracts that commit us to purchase specified quantities of silicon wafers over extended periods;
issuance of our equity securities to a foundry;
investment in a foundry;
joint ventures; or
other partnership relationships with foundries.
We may not be able to make any such arrangement in a timely fashion or at all, and such arrangements, if any, may not be on terms favorable to us. Moreover, if we are able to secure foundry capacity, we may be obligated to utilize all of that capacity or incur penalties. Such penalties may be expensive and could harm our financial results.
If our independent foundries do not achieve satisfactory yields, our relationships with our customers may be harmed.
The fabrication of silicon wafers is a complex process. Minute levels of contaminants in the manufacturing environment, defects in photo masks used to print circuits on a wafer, difficulties in the fabrication process or other factors can cause a substantial portion of the integrated circuits on a wafer to be non-functional. Many of these problems are difficult to detect at an early stage of the
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manufacturing process and may be time consuming and expensive to correct. As a result, foundries often experience problems achieving acceptable yields, which are represented by the number of good integrated circuits as a proportion of the number of total integrated circuits on any particular wafer. Poor yields from our independent foundries would reduce our ability to deliver our products to customers, harm our relationships with our customers and harm our business.
We face competition or potential competition from companies with greater resources than ours, and if we are unable to compete effectively with these companies, our market share may decline and our business could be harmed.
We face intense competition in the markets in which we compete. We expect that the level of competition will increase in the future from existing competitors and from other companies that may enter our existing or future markets with solutions that may be less costly or provide higher performance or additional features.
Competition in Zorans core compression technology market has historically been dominated by large companies, such as ST Microelectronics, and companies that develop and use their own integrated circuits, such as Sony and Matsushita. As this market continues to develop, we face competition from other large semiconductor vendors.
The DVD market continues to expand, and additional competitors are expected to enter the market for DVD players and software. Some of these potential competitors may develop captive implementations for use only with their own PC and consumer electronics products. It is also possible that application software vendors, such as Microsoft, may attempt to enter the DVD application market in the future. This increased competition may result in price reductions, reduced profit margins and loss of market share.
We face competition from several large semiconductor companies in the broadband digital television and set-top box markets. We expect competition to continue to increase in these markets as industry standards become well known and as other competitors enter these markets.
We also face significant competition in the digital office market. The future growth of the digital office market is highly dependent on OEMs continuing to outsource an increasing portion of their product development work. While the trend toward outsourcing on the part of our OEM customers in this market has accelerated in recent years, any reversal of this trend, or a change in the way they outsource, could seriously harm our business.
Many of our existing competitors, as well as OEM customers that are expected to compete with us in the future, have substantially greater financial, manufacturing, technical, marketing, distribution and other resources, broader product lines and longer standing relationships with customers than we have. In addition, much of our future success is dependent on the success of our OEM customers. If we or our OEM customers are unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors, we could experience price reductions, order cancellations and reduced gross margins, any one of which could harm our business.
Our products are characterized by average selling prices that decline over relatively short time periods; if we are unable to reduce our costs or introduce new products with higher average selling prices, our financial results will suffer.
Average selling prices for our products decline over relatively short time periods, while many of our manufacturing costs are fixed. When our average selling prices decline, our revenues decline unless we are able to sell more units and our gross margins decline unless we are able to reduce our manufacturing costs by a commensurate amount. Our operating results suffer when gross margins decline. We have experienced these problems, and we expect to continue to experience them in the future, although we cannot predict when they may occur or how severe they will be.
We derive most of our revenue from sales to a small number of large customers, and if we are not able to retain these customers, or they reschedule, reduce or cancel orders, our revenues would be reduced and our financial results would suffer.
Our largest customers have accounted for a substantial percentage of our revenues. In 2005, no single customer accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues, and sales to our four largest customers accounted for 29% of our total revenues. In 2004, one customer accounted for 11% of our total revenues while sales to our four largest customers accounted for 35% of our total revenues. Sales to these large customers have varied significantly from year to year and will continue to fluctuate in the future. These sales also may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter. We may not be able to retain our key customers, or these customers may cancel purchase orders or reschedule or decrease their level of purchases from us. Any substantial decrease or delay in sales to one or more of our key customers could harm our sales and financial results. In addition, any difficulty in collecting amounts due from one or more key customers could harm our financial results.
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Our products generally have long sales cycles and implementation periods, which increases our costs in obtaining orders and reduces the predictability of our operating results.
Our products are technologically complex. Prospective customers generally must make a significant commitment of resources to test and evaluate our products and to integrate them into larger systems. As a result, our sales processes are often subject to delays associated with lengthy approval processes that typically accompany the design and testing of new products. The sales cycles of our products often last for many months or even years. Longer sales cycles require us to invest significant resources in attempting to make sales and delay the generation of revenue.
Long sales cycles also subject us to other risks, including customers budgetary constraints, internal acceptance reviews and cancellations. In addition, orders expected in one quarter could shift to another because of the timing of customers purchase decisions. The time required for our customers to incorporate our products into their own can vary significantly with the needs of our customers and generally exceeds several months, which further complicates our planning processes and reduces the predictability of our operating results.
We are not protected by long-term contracts with our customers.
We generally do not enter into long-term purchase contracts with our customers, and we cannot be certain as to future order levels from our customers. Customers generally purchase our products subject to cancelable short-term purchase orders. We cannot predict whether our current customers will continue to place orders, whether existing orders will be canceled, or whether customers who have ordered products will pay invoices for delivered products. When we do enter into a long-term contract, the contract is generally terminable at the convenience of the customer. In the event of an early termination by one of our major customers, it is unlikely that we will be able to rapidly replace that revenue source, which would harm our financial results.
Regulation of our customers products may slow the process of introducing new products and could impair our ability to compete.
The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has broad jurisdiction over our target markets in the digital television business. Various international entities or organizations may also regulate aspects of our business or the business of our customers. Although our products are not directly subject to regulation by any agency, the transmission pipes, as well as much of the equipment into which our products are incorporated, are subject to direct government regulation. For example, before they can be sold in the United States, advanced televisions and emerging interactive displays must be tested and certified by Underwriters Laboratories and meet FCC regulations. Accordingly, the effects of regulation on our customers or the industries in which our customers operate may in turn harm our business. FCC regulatory policies affecting the ability of cable operators or telephone companies to offer certain services and other terms on which these companies conduct their business may impede sales of our products. In addition, our digital television business may also be adversely affected by the imposition of tariffs, duties and other import restrictions on our suppliers or by the imposition of export restrictions on products that we sell internationally. Changes in current laws or regulations or the imposition of new laws or regulations in the United States or elsewhere could harm our business. For example, any delays by the FCC in imposing its pending requirement that all new televisions have a digital receiver could have an adverse effect on our HDTV business.
We are dependent upon our international sales and operations; economic, political or military events in a country where we make significant sales or have significant operations could interfere with our success or operations there and harm our business.
During 2005, only 6% of our total revenues were derived from North America sales. We anticipate that international sales will continue to account for a substantial majority of our total revenues for the foreseeable future. In addition, substantially all of our semiconductor products are manufactured, assembled and tested outside of the United States by independent foundries and subcontractors.
We are subject to a variety of risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:
unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
fluctuations in exchange rates;
political and economic instability;
imposition of tariffs and other barriers and restrictions;
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the burdens of complying with a variety of foreign laws; and
health risks in a particular region.
A material amount of our research and development personnel and facilities and a portion of our sales and marketing personnel are located in Israel. Political, economic and military conditions in Israel directly affect our operations. Some of our employees in Israel are obligated to perform up to 39 days of military reserve duty annually. The absence of these employees for significant periods during the work week may cause us to operate inefficiently during these periods.
Our operations in China are subject to the economic and political uncertainties affecting that country. For example, the Chinese economy has experienced significant growth in the past decade, but such growth has been uneven across geographic and economic sectors. This growth may decrease and any slowdown may have a negative effect on our business. We also maintain offices in Taipei, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Seoul, Korea, and our operations are subject to the economic and political uncertainties affecting these countries as well.
The significant concentration of our manufacturing activities with third party foundries in Taiwan exposes us to the risk of political instability in Taiwan, including the potential for conflict between Taiwan and China. We have several significant OEM customers in Japan, Korea and other parts of Asia. Adverse economic circumstances in Japan and elsewhere in Asia could affect these customers willingness or ability to do business with us in the future or their success in developing and launching devices containing our products.
Our business and future operating results could be harmed by terrorist activity or armed conflict.
Our business and operating results are subject to uncertainties arising out of possible terrorist attacks on the United States and other regions of the world including locations where we maintain operations and by armed conflict in the Middle East and related economic instability. Our operations could be harmed due to:
disruption in commercial activities associated with heightened security concerns affecting international travel and commerce;
reduced demand for consumer electronic products due to a potential economic slowdown;
tightened immigration controls that may adversely affect the residence status of key non-U.S. managers and technical employees in our U.S. facilities or our ability to hire new non-U.S. employees in such facilities; or
potential expansion of armed conflict in the Middle East which could adversely affect our operations in Israel.
The prices of our products may become less competitive due to foreign exchange fluctuations.
Foreign currency fluctuations may affect the prices of our products. Prices for our products are currently denominated in U.S. dollars for sales to our customers throughout the world. If there is a significant devaluation of the currency in a specific country, the prices of our products will increase relative to that countrys currency, our products may be less competitive in that country and our revenues may be adversely affected. Also, we cannot be sure that our international customers will continue to be willing to place orders denominated in U.S. dollars. If they do not, our revenue and operating results will be subject to foreign exchange fluctuations.
Our ability to compete could be jeopardized if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights.
Our success and ability to compete depend in large part upon protection of our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark laws, non-disclosure and other contractual agreements and technical measures to protect our proprietary rights. These agreements and measures may not be sufficient to protect our technology from third-party infringement, or to protect us from the claims of others. Monitoring unauthorized use of our products 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. The laws of certain foreign countries in which our products are or may be developed, manufactured or sold, including various countries in Asia, may not protect our products or intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States and thus make the possibility of piracy of our technology and products more likely in these countries. If competitors are able to use our technology, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed.
The protection offered by patents is subject to numerous uncertainties. For example, our competitors may be able to effectively design around our patents, or the patents may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. Those competitors may also independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technology. Moreover, while we hold, or have applied for, patents relating to the design of our products, some of our products are based in part on standards, for which we do not hold patents or other
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intellectual property rights.
We have generally limited access to and distribution of the source and object code of our software and other proprietary information. With respect to its page description language software and drivers for the digital office market and in limited circumstances with respect to firmware and platforms for its HDTV products, Oak has granted licenses that give its customers access to and restricted use of the source code of Oaks software. This access increases the likelihood of misappropriation or misuse of our technology.
Claims and litigation regarding intellectual property rights could seriously harm our business and require us to incur significant costs.
In recent years, there has been significant litigation in the United States involving patents and other intellectual property rights. In the past, Zoran and Oak have been subject to claims and litigation regarding alleged infringement of other parties intellectual property rights, and both Oak and Zoran have been parties to a number of patent-related lawsuits, both as plaintiff and defendant. We could become subject to additional litigation in the future, either to protect our intellectual property or as a result of allegations that we infringe others intellectual property rights. Claims that our products infringe proprietary rights would force us to defend ourselves and possibly our customers or manufacturers against the alleged infringement. Future litigation against us, if successful, could subject us to significant liability for damages or invalidation of our proprietary rights. These lawsuits, regardless of their success, are time-consuming and expensive to resolve and require significant management time and attention. Future intellectual property litigation could force us to do one or more of the following:
stop selling products that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;
obtain from the owner of the infringed intellectual property right 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 such 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. 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.
If necessary licenses of third-party technology are not available to us or are very expensive, our products could become obsolete.
From time to time, we may be required to license technology from third parties to develop new products or product enhancements. Third party licenses may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. If we are unable to obtain any third-party license required to develop new products and product enhancements, we may have to obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at greater cost, either of which could seriously harm the competitiveness of our products.
Certain technology used in our products is licensed from third parties, and in connection with these licenses, we are required to fulfill confidentiality obligations and, in some cases, pay royalties. Some of our products require various types of copy protection software that we must license from third parties. If we are unable to obtain or maintain our right to use the necessary copy protection software, we would be unable to sell and market these products.
If we are not able to apply our net operating losses against taxable income in future periods, our financial results will be harmed.
Our future net income and cash flow will be affected by our ability to apply our net operating losses, or NOLs, against taxable income in future periods. Our NOLs totaled approximately $268 million for federal and $85 million for state tax reporting purposes as of December 31, 2005. As a result of the change of control resulting from our initial public offering in 1995, the amount of NOLs that we can use to reduce future taxable income for federal tax purposes is limited to approximately $3.0 million per year for NOLs incurred prior to the initial public offering. The Internal Revenue Code contains a number of provisions that could limit the use of NOLs against income of the combined company as a result of the merger or as a result of the combination of these transactions. Our utilization of Oaks NOLs may be further limited due to prior Oak transactions. No opinion or IRS ruling has been sought regarding the potential application of any of these provisions. Changes in tax laws in the United States may further limit our ability to utilize
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these NOLs. Any further limitation on our ability to utilize these respective NOLs could harm our financial condition.
Any additional acquisitions we make could disrupt our business and severely harm our financial condition.
We have made investments in, and acquisitions of other complementary companies, products and technologies, and we may acquire additional businesses, products or technologies in the future. In the event of any future acquisitions, we could:
issue stock that would dilute its current stockholders percentage ownership;
incur debt;
assume liabilities;
incur expenses related to the future impairment of goodwill and the amortization of other intangible assets; or
incur other large write-offs immediately or in the future.
Our operation of any other acquired business will also involve numerous risks, including:
problems combining the purchased operations, technologies or products;
unanticipated costs;
diversion of managements attention from our core business;
adverse effects on existing business relationships with customers;
risks associated with entering markets in which we have no or limited prior experience; and
potential loss of key employees, particularly those of the purchased organizations.
We may not be able to successfully complete the integration of the business, products or technologies or personnel that we might acquire in the future, and any failure to do so could disrupt our business and seriously harm our financial condition.
In addition, we have made minority equity investments in early-stage companies, and we expect to continue to review opportunities to make additional investments in such companies where we believe such investments will provide us with opportunities to gain access to important technologies or otherwise enhance important commercial relationships. We have little or no influence over the early-stage companies in which we have made or may make strategic, minority equity investments. Each of these investments involves a high degree of risk. We may not be successful in achieving the technological or commercial advantage upon which any given investment is premised, and failure by the early-stage company to achieve its own business objectives could result in a loss of all or part of our invested capital and require us to write off all or a portion of such investment.
Our products could contain defects, which could reduce sales of those products or result in claims against us.
We develop complex and evolving products. Despite testing by us and our customers, errors may be found in existing or new products. This could result in, among other things, a delay in recognition or loss of revenues, loss of market share or failure to achieve market acceptance. These defects may cause us to incur significant warranty, support and repair costs, divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts and harm our relationships with customers. The occurrence of these problems could result in the delay or loss of market acceptance of our products and would likely harm our business. Defects, integration issues or other performance problems in our products could result in financial or other damages to customers or could damage market acceptance of such products. Our customers could also seek 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.
If we do not maintain current development contracts or are unable to enter into new development contracts, our business could be harmed.
We historically have generated a portion of our total revenues from development contracts, primarily with key customers. These development contracts have provided us with partial funding for the development of some of our products. Under these contracts, we receive payments upon reaching certain development milestones. If we fail to achieve the milestones specified in our existing
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development contracts, if our existing contracts are terminated or if we are unable to secure future development contracts, our ability to cost-effectively develop new products would be reduced and our business would be harmed.
We may need additional funds to execute our business plan, and if we are unable to obtain such funds, we will not be able to expand our business as planned.
We may require substantial additional capital to finance our future growth, secure additional foundry capacity and fund our ongoing research and development activities beyond 2006. Our capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
acceptance of and demand for our products;
the types of arrangements that we may enter into with our independent foundries;
the extent to which we invest in new technology and research and development projects; and
any additional acquisitions that we may make.
To the extent that our existing sources of liquidity and cash flow from operations are insufficient to fund our activities, we may need to raise additional funds. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity securities, the percentage ownership of our existing stockholders would be reduced. Further, such equity securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our common stock. Additional financing may not be available to us when needed or, if available, it may not be available on terms favorable to us.
If we fail to manage our future growth, if any, our business would be harmed.
We anticipate that our future growth, if any, will require us to recruit and hire a substantial number of new engineering, managerial, sales and marketing personnel. Our ability to manage growth successfully will also require us to expand and improve administrative, operational, management and financial systems and controls. Many of our key operations, including a material portion of our research and development operations and a significant portion of our sales and administrative operations are located in Israel. A majority of our sales and marketing and certain of our research and development and administrative personnel, including our President and Chief Executive Officer and other officers, are based in the United States. The geographic separation of these operations places additional strain on our resources and our ability to manage growth effectively. If we are unable to manage growth effectively, our business will be harmed.
We rely on the services of our executive officers and other key personnel, whose knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace.
Our success depends to a significant degree upon the continuing contributions of our senior management. Management and other employees may voluntarily terminate their employment with us at any time upon short notice. The loss of key personnel could delay product development cycles or otherwise harm our business. We believe that our future success will also depend in large part on our ability to attract, integrate and retain highly-skilled engineering, managerial, sales and marketing personnel, located in the United States, Israel and China. Competition for such personnel is intense, and we may not be successful in attracting, integrating and retaining such personnel. Failure to attract, integrate and retain key personnel could harm our ability to carry out our business strategy and compete with other companies.
The Israeli rate of inflation may negatively impact our costs if it exceeds the rate of devaluation of the new Israeli shekel against the United States dollar.
A portion of the cost of our operations, relating mainly to our personnel and facilities in Israel, is incurred in new Israeli shekels. As a result, we bear the risk that the rate of inflation in Israel or the decline in the value of United States dollar compared to the Israeli shekel will increase our costs as expressed in United States dollars. To date, we have not engaged in hedging transactions. In the future, we may enter into currency hedging transactions to decrease the risk of financial exposure from fluctuations in the exchange rate of the United States dollar against the new Israeli shekel. These measures may not adequately protect us from the impact of inflation in Israel.
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The government programs in which we participate and tax benefits we receive require us to meet several conditions and may be terminated or reduced in the future, which would increase our costs.
Historically, we have financed a portion of our research and development activities with grants for research and development from the Chief Scientist in Israels Ministry of Industry and Trade. We earned proceeds from such grants in 2004. Although we did not earn proceeds from such grants in 2005, we plan to seek additional grants from the Chief Scientist in the future. To be eligible for these grants, our development projects must be approved by the Chief Scientist on a case-by-case basis. If our development projects are not approved by the Chief Scientist, we will not receive grants to fund these projects, which would increase our research and development costs. We also receive tax benefits, in particular exemptions and reductions as a result of the Approved Enterprise status of our existing operations in Israel. To be eligible for these tax benefits, we must maintain our Approved Enterprise status by meeting conditions, including making specified investments in fixed assets located in Israel and investing additional equity in our Israeli subsidiary. These tax benefits may not be continued in the future at their current levels or at any level. Israeli governmental authorities have indicated that the government may reduce or eliminate these benefits in the future, which would harm our business.
Provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law could prevent or delay a change in control of Zoran.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would be beneficial to our stockholders. These include provisions:
prohibiting a merger with a party that has acquired control of 15% or more of our outstanding common stock, such as a party that has completed a successful tender offer, until three years after that party acquired control of 15% of our outstanding common stock;
authorizing the issuance of up to 3,000,000 shares of blank check preferred stock;
eliminating stockholders rights to call a special meeting of stockholders; and
requiring advance notice of any stockholder nominations of candidates for election to our board of directors.
Our stock price has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate widely.
The market price of our common stock has fluctuated significantly since our initial public offering in 1995. Between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005, the closing sale price of our common stock, as reported on The Nasdaq National Market, ranged from a low of $8.97 to a high of $17.38. The market price of our common stock is subject to significant fluctuations in the future in response to a variety of factors, including:
announcements concerning our business or that of our competitors or customers;
annual and quarterly variations in our operating results;
changes in analysts earnings estimates;
announcements of technological innovations;
the introduction of new products or changes in product pricing policies by Zoran or its competitors;
loss of key personnel;
proprietary rights or other litigation;
general conditions in the semiconductor industry; and
developments in the financial markets.
In addition, the stock market has, from time to time, experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have particularly affected the market prices for semiconductor companies or technology companies generally and which have been unrelated to the operating
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performance of the affected companies. Broad market fluctuations of this type may reduce the future market price of our common stock.
Item 1BUnresolved Staff Comments
We have not received any written comments from the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding any of our periodic or current reports under the Securities Exchange Act which remain unresolved.
Our executive offices and principal marketing, sales and product development operations are located in approximately 89,000 square feet of leased space in Sunnyvale, California, under a lease that expires in November 2006. We are currently in the process of identifying and negotiating a lease on a new space as well as considering options to negotiate an extension for our current space. A significant portion of our research and development and engineering facilities and our administration, marketing and sales operations are currently located in approximately 61,350 square feet of leased space in an industrial park in Haifa, Israel under a lease expiring in August 2006. We have entered into an agreement for the lease of a new facility in Haifa, with a 10-year term and expect to move into the new facility during 2006. We also lease facilities, primarily for sales, product development, and technical support, in Woburn, Massachusetts; Manchester, England; Dortmund, Germany; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, Korea; Taipei, Taiwan and Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong, China. Except as noted above, we believe that our current facilities are adequate for our needs for the foreseeable future and that, should it be needed, suitable additional space in each of the locations in which we operate will be available to accommodate expansion of our operations on commercially reasonable terms.
Zoran and its subsidiary, Oak Technology, Inc., have been involved in five separate legal actions against MediaTek, Inc. and customers of MediaTek based on claims of patent infringement.
On March 11, 2004, Zoran and Oak filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that certain MediaTek DVD player and optical disk controller chips and chipsets, and products in which they are used, infringe Zorans and Oaks patents. In addition to MediaTek, the complaint named a number of other proposed respondents that sell products, including DVD players and PC optical storage devices that use MediaTeks chips and chipsets. On September 28, 2005, the ITC issued its final ruling finding one of Zorans patents to be valid and infringed by optical disk controller chips and chipsets sold by MediaTek and by products using the infringing chips and chipsets sold by a number of MediaTek customers. The ITC also issued an exclusion order prohibiting MediaTek and specified MediaTek customers from importing into the United States any optical disk controller chip or chipset that infringes the Zoran patent, or any optical disk storage product containing such a chip or chipset and cease and desist orders to the affected companies located in the United States prohibiting them from importing or selling infringing products in the United States. In November 2005, both parties filed notices of appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On January 19, 2006, the court issued an order temporarily staying enforcement of the ITCs orders.
On March 15, 2004, Zoran and Oak filed a complaint against MediaTek and one of its customers in the United States District Court, Central District of California alleging similar facts regarding infringement by MediaTeks chips and chipsets and products in which they are used. The lawsuit sought both monetary damages and an injunction to stop the importation and sale of infringing products. The complaint was subsequently amended to name additional MediaTek customers as defendants. Trial of this case was set to begin May 15, 2006.
On July 23, 2004, MediaTek filed a complaint with the ITC alleging that certain Zoran and Oak DVD player and optical disk controller chips and chipsets infringe two MediaTek patents. The complaint requested that the ITC institute an investigation into the accused products and issue exclusion and cease and desist orders prohibiting importation into the United States of allegedly infringing chips and products that contain them. On September 30, 2005, the ITC Administrative Law Judge issued his initial determination finding that none of Zorans optical disk controller chips infringe any claim of the two patents asserted against Zoran; that one of the two patents is invalid; that Oaks devices do not infringe one of the two patents asserted against Oak and that the other patent is invalid; and that MediaTek has failed to establish that it has a domestic industry in the United States related to the patents at issue a basic requirement for obtaining relief from the ITC. The initial determination was subject to review by the full ITC. The target date for completion of the investigation was March 1, 2006.
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On July 23, 2004, MediaTek filed a complaint against Zoran and Oak in the United States District Court, District of Delaware alleging infringement of the same two patents asserted in MediaTeks ITC complaint and seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief. This action was stayed by order of the court on October 4, 2004.
On February 2, 2005, MediaTek filed a complaint against Zoran and Zoran Digital Technologies (Shenzhen) Ltd. (Zorans local Chinese operations) in the Shenzhen Peoples Republic of China court alleging infringement of the Chinese counterpart patent of one of the two patents asserted in MediaTeks ITC complaint and seeking monetary damages. Because Zoran had not been served with the complaint, the initiation of the proceeding has been stayed.
On January 25, 2006, Zoran and Oak entered into an agreement with MediaTek to settle the litigation. Under the agreement, each party agreed to dismiss its respective claims and counterclaims under all of the pending lawsuits. The parties also agreed to dismiss all proceedings pending against each other before the ITC, including all appeals and enforcement proceedings pending before the ITC, United States Customs and Border Protection and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit related to the ITCs September 28, 2005 order excluding the importation into the United States of certain MediaTek chips and products incorporating those chips.
In connection with the settlement, Zoran, Oak and MediaTek entered into agreements granting each other non-exclusive licenses under the patents that were the subject of the litigation, and additional patents used in the design and manufacture of optical storage devices for personal computer products. In consideration for licenses granted by Zoran, MediaTek agreed to make a cash payment of $55 million to Zoran, $44 million of which was paid in February 2006 and $11 million of which is payable in April 2006. In addition, MediaTek will be required to make royalty payments of up to $30 million over the 30-month period commencing on the date of the agreement based on future sales of covered MediaTek products. Net of amounts payable by Zoran to a holder of rights under the Oak patents involved in the litigation, and amounts payable as legal fees, Zoran will realize approximately $27.5 million of the cash payment and up to approximately $15 million of the future royalty payments.
Item 4Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
We did not submit any matters to a vote of our security holders during the fourth quarter of the year ended December 31, 2005.
Executive Officers
The names of our executive officers and their ages as of December 31, 2005 are as follows:
Levy Gerzberg was a co-founder of Zoran in 1981 and has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since December 1988 and as a director since 1981. Dr. Gerzberg also served as our President from 1981 to 1984 and as our Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer from 1985 to 1988. Prior to co-founding Zoran, Dr. Gerzberg was Associate Director of Stanford Universitys Electronics Laboratory. Dr. Gerzberg holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.S. in Medical Electronics and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.
Karl Schneider joined Zoran as Corporate Controller in January 1998 and was elected Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer in July 1998 and Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer in July 2003. From September 1996 through 1997, Mr. Schneider served as Controller for the Film Measurement and Robotics and Integrated Technologies divisions of KLA-Tencor, a semiconductor equipment company. Mr. Schneider served as the Corporate Controller for SCM Microsystems, Inc. from October 1995 to September 1996, Controller for Reply Corporation from January 1994 to September 1995, Director of Finance for Digital F/X from October 1992 to January 1994 and Controller for Flextronics from September 1987 through June 1991. Mr. Schneider holds a B.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University.
Isaac Shenberg has served as Senior Vice President, Business and Strategic Development since October 1998 and previously as Vice President, Sales and Marketing from January 1995 through October 1998. From August 1990 to January 1995, Dr. Shenberg served as our Product Line Business Manager. Prior to joining Zoran, Dr. Shenberg was Images Processing Group manager and Electro Optics Department manager at Rafael, a leading Aerospace provider in Israel. Dr. Shenberg holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion.
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Item 5Market for Registrants Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
We effected our initial public offering of our common stock on December 15, 1995. Since that date, our common stock has been quoted on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ZRAN. The following table sets forth the high and low closing sales price of our common stock as reported on The Nasdaq National Market for the periods indicated:
As of December 31, 2005, there were 314 holders of record of our common stock.
We have never paid cash dividends on our capital stock. It is our present policy to retain earnings to finance the growth and development of our business and, therefore, we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
Item 6Selected Financial Data
The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere herein.
(1) See Note 2 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a description of the computation of the number of shares and net income (loss) per share.
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Item 7Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Overview
Our products consist of integrated circuits and related products used in digital versatile disc players, or DVDs, movie and home theater systems, digital cameras and video editing systems. We also provide integrated circuits, software and platforms for digital television applications that enable the delivery and display of digital video content through a set-top box or television as well as digital imaging products consisting of semiconductor hardware and software that enable users to print, scan, process and transmit documents to computer peripherals that perform printing functions. Subsequent to our acquisition of Emblaze Semiconductor Ltd. on July 8, 2004, we also provide high performance, low-power application processors, technology and products for the multimedia mobile telephone market. Through the acquisition of Oren Semiconductor, Inc. on June 10, 2005, Zoran obtained Orens demodulator IC technology for the global high definition television market.
We derive most of our revenues from the sale of our integrated circuit products. Historically, average selling prices in the semiconductor industry in general, and for our products in particular, have decreased over the life of a particular product. Average selling prices for our hardware products have fluctuated substantially from period to period, primarily as a result of changes in our customer mix of original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, sales versus sales to resellers and the transition from low-volume to high-volume production. In the past, we have periodically reduced the prices of some of our products in order to better penetrate the consumer market. We believe that, as our product lines continue to mature and competitive markets evolve, we are likely to experience further declines in the average selling prices of our products, although we cannot predict the timing and amount of such future changes with any certainty.
Our cost of hardware product revenues consists primarily of fabrication costs, assembly and test costs, and the cost of materials and overhead from operations. If we are unable to reduce our cost of hardware product revenues to offset anticipated decreases in average selling prices, our product gross margins will decrease. Our hardware product gross margin is also dependent on product mix and on the proportion of products sold directly to our OEM customers versus indirectly through our marketing partners. These marketing partners purchase our products at lower prices but absorb most of the associated marketing and sales support expenses, maintain inventories and provide customer support and training. As a result, lower gross margins on sales to these resellers are partially offset by reduced selling and marketing expenses related to such sales. We expect both product and customer mix to continue to fluctuate in future periods, causing further fluctuations in margins.
We also derive revenue from licensing our software and other intellectual property. Licensing revenue includes one-time license fees and royalties based on the number of units distributed by the licensee. Annual licensing revenue can be significantly affected by the timing of a small number of licensing transactions, each accounting for substantial revenues. Accordingly, licensing revenues have fluctuated, and will continue to fluctuate, on an annual basis. In addition, we have historically generated a portion of our total revenues from development contracts, primarily with key customers, although development revenue has declined substantially as a percentage of total revenues over the past several years. These development contracts have provided us with partial funding for the development of some of our products. These development contracts provide for license and milestone payments which are recorded as development revenue. We classify all development costs, including costs related to these development contracts, as research and development expenses. We retain ownership of the intellectual property developed by us under these development contracts. While we intend to continue to enter into development contracts with certain strategic partners, we expect development revenue to continue to decline as a percentage of total revenues.
We recognize software license revenues in accordance with the provisions of Statement of Position (SOP) 97-2, Software Revenue Recognition, as amended by SOP 98-9, Modification of SOP 97-2, Software Revenue Recognition, With Respect to Certain Transactions. Our software license agreements typically include obligations to provide maintenance and other support over a fixed term and allow for renewal of maintenance services on an annual basis. We determine the fair value of our maintenance obligations with reference to substantive renewal rates within the agreement or objective evidence of fair value as required under SOP 97-2. Maintenance and support revenue is recognized ratably over the term of the arrangement. We also receive royalty revenues based on per unit shipments of products embedding our software which we recognize upon receipt of a royalty report from the customer, typically one quarter in arrears.
Our research and development expenses consist of salaries and related costs of employees engaged in ongoing research, design and development activities and costs of engineering materials and supplies. We are a party to research and development agreements with the Chief Scientist in Israels Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, which fund up to 50% of incurred project costs for approved products up to specified contract maximums. These agreements require us to use our best efforts to achieve specified results and require us to pay royalties at rates of 3% to 5% of resulting product sales, and up to 30% of resulting license revenues, up to a maximum of 100% to 150% of total funding received.
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Reported research and development expenses are net of these grants, which fluctuate from period to period. From time to time, we enter into non-refundable joint development projects in which our customers reimburse us for a portion of our development costs. We classify such reimbursement of development costs as an offset to research and development expenses as we retain ownership of the intellectual property developed by us under these development arrangements. During 2005, we received approximately $1.2 million in such reimbursements. We did not receive any reimbursements in 2004 or 2003. We believe that significant investments in research and development are required for us to remain competitive, and we expect to continue to devote significant resources to product development, although such expenses as a percentage of total revenues may fluctuate.
Our selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of employee-related expenses, sales commissions, product promotion and other professional services. We expect that selling, general and administrative expenses will continue to increase to support our anticipated growth.
We conduct a material amount of our research and development and certain sales and marketing and administrative operations in our foreign subsidiary offices. As a result, some of our expenses are incurred in foreign currency. To date, substantially all of our hardware product revenues and our software and other revenues have been denominated in U.S. dollars and most costs of hardware product revenues have been incurred in U.S. dollars. We expect that most of our revenues and costs of revenue will continue to be denominated and incurred in U.S. dollars for the foreseeable future. We have not experienced material losses or gains as a result of currency exchange rate fluctuations and have not engaged in hedging transactions to reduce our exposure to such fluctuations. We may in the future elect to take action to reduce our foreign exchange risk.
Our effective income tax rate has benefited from the availability of net operating losses which we have utilized to reduce taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes and by our Israel based subsidiarys status as an Approved Enterprise under Israeli law, which provides a ten-year tax holiday for income attributable to a portion of our operations in Israel. Our U.S. federal net operating losses expire at various times between 2006 and 2025, and the benefits from our subsidiarys Approved Enterprise status expire at various times beginning in 2006.
Acquisitions
Oren Semiconductor, Inc.
On June 10, 2005, we completed our acquisition of Oren Semiconductor, Inc. (Oren), a privately-held provider of demodulator ICs for the global high definition television market. Prior to this acquisition, we had made investments in Oren that represented a 17% ownership interest. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, we acquired the remaining 83% of Orens outstanding stock by means of a merger of Oren with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zoran, in consideration for which we paid an aggregate of $28.4 million in cash and issued 1,188,061 shares of Zoran common stock valued at $12.9 million, for total consideration of $41.3 million, to the other stockholders of Oren and to employees holding Oren options. The acquisition was accounted for under the purchase method of accounting.
Following the completion of the acquisition, the results of operations of Oren have been included in our consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2005 include Orens operations between June 10, 2005 and December 31, 2005, and such operations are not reflected in our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2003.
Emblaze Semiconductor Ltd.
On July 8, 2004, we completed our acquisition of Emblaze Semiconductor Ltd. (Emblaze), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emblaze Ltd. for $54.2 million in cash. The acquisition was accounted for under the purchase method of accounting.
Following the completion of the acquisition, the results of operations of Emblaze have been included in our consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2005 include Emblazes operations for the full year while the results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2004 only reflect Emblazes operations between July 8, 2004 and December 31, 2004, and such operations are not reflected in our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2003.
Oak Technology, Inc.
On August 11, 2003, we completed our acquisition of Oak through the merger of Oak with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zoran. The acquisition was accounted for under the purchase method of accounting.
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Following the completion of the acquisition, the results of operations of Oak have been included in our consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004 includes Oaks operations for the full period, while our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2003 only reflect Oaks results of operations between August 12, 2003 and December 31, 2003.
Segments
Prior to July 2004, we had four reportable segments: Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Imaging, Digital Camera (DC) and Digital Television (DTV). Subsequent to the Emblaze acquisition in July 2004, the operations of Emblaze were combined with the Digital Camera group and the group was renamed the Mobile segment. Each segments primary products are based on highly integrated application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, and system-on-a-chip, or SOC, solutions. The DVD, Imaging and DTV segments also license certain software and other intellectual property. The DVD group provides products for use in DVD players and recordable DVD players. The Imaging group provides products used in digital copiers, laser and inkjet printers as well as multifunction peripherals. The Mobile group focuses on solutions for multimedia mobile phone products and digital camera products. The DTV group provides products for standard and high definition digital television products including televisions, set top boxes and personal video recorders.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
This discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates, including bad debt, inventories, investments, intangible assets and income taxes. We base these estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
We believe the following critical accounting policies affect our more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements:
We generally recognize product sales to distributors at the time of delivery. However, in some cases we grant rights of return or provide price protection arrangements. When we are able to estimate the effect of such an arrangement, we establish a reserve for the estimated adjustment and recognize the balance of the product revenue associated with that arrangement upon shipment. When we cannot reasonably estimate the effect of such an arrangement, we defer all revenue subject to the arrangement until the return right has lapsed or the price has become fixed.
Revenue from development contracts is generally recognized as the services are performed based on the specific deliverables outlined in each contract. Amounts received in advance of performance under contracts are recorded as deferred revenue and are generally recognized within one year from receipt. Costs associated with development revenues are included primarily in research and development expenses.
Inventories are recorded at the lower of standard cost, which approximates actual cost on a first-in-first-out basis, or market value. We write down inventories to net realizable value based on forecasted demand and market conditions. Actual demand and market conditions may be different from those projected by our management. This could have a material effect on our operating results and financial position. Inventory write-downs are not reversed and permanently reduce the cost basis of the affected inventory until such inventory is sold or scrapped.
We maintain allowances for doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the delays or inability of certain customers to make required payments. These allowances are estimated based on both specific identification of facts and circumstances with respect to each doubtful account. If the financial condition of our customers were to deteriorate, resulting in an impairment of their ability to make payments, additional allowances may be required.
We hold minority interests in private companies having operations or technology in areas within our strategic focus. At December 31, 2005, these investments totaled $5.2 million. The investments are in start up companies engaged in development and are expected to incur losses. We record an investment impairment charge when we believe an investment has experienced a decline in value. We assess the value of this investment principally by using information acquired from the investee, including historical and projected financial performance and recent funding events. Future adverse changes in market conditions or
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unexpected operating losses of underlying investments could result in losses or an inability to recover the carrying value of the investments that may not be reflected in an investments current carrying value thereby possibly requiring an impairment charge in the future.
We assess the impairment of goodwill annually, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of such assets exceeds their fair value. We assess the carrying value of our long lived assets if events or circumstances indicate the carrying value of the assets exceeds the future undiscounted cash flows attributable to such assets. With respect to both goodwill and long lived assets, factors which could trigger an impairment review include significant negative industry or economic trends, exiting an activity in conjunction with a restructuring of operations, current, historical or projected losses that demonstrate continuing losses associated with an asset or a significant decline in our market capitalization for an extended period of time, relative to net book value. Impairment evaluations involve management estimates of asset useful lives and future cash flows. These estimates include assumptions about future conditions such as future revenues, gross margins, operating expenses, the fair values of certain assets based on appraisals, and industry trends. Actual useful lives and cash flows could be different from those estimated by our management. This could have a material effect on our operating results and financial position.
We follow the liability method of accounting for income taxes which requires recognition of deferred tax liabilities and assets for the expected future tax consequence of temporary differences between the financial statement carrying amounts and the tax bases of assets and liabilities. In the event actual results differ from these expectations, then the resulting impact to income would be assessed in the period such determination was made. If it becomes likely that some portion or all of a deferred tax asset will not be realized, a valuation allowance is established. This determination includes a process for providing estimates for future taxable income, and requires the use of significant judgment. Any future release or adjustment to the valuation allowance is only made based upon a change in circumstances that triggers a change in judgment, about the realizability, with reasonable assurance, of the related deferred tax asset in future years.
With respect to mergers and acquisitions, we assess the technological feasibility of in process research and development projects and determine the number of alternative future uses for the technology being developed. To the extent there are no alternative future uses we allocate a portion of the purchase price to in-process research and development expense. This expense is generally estimated based upon the projected fair value of the technology, as determined by a discounted future cash flow reduced by the cost to complete. This analysis includes certain estimates and assumptions made by management. For larger acquisitions, we have historically engaged an external appraiser to assist with the assumptions and models used in this analysis.
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Results of Operations
The following table sets forth certain consolidated statement of operations data as a percentage of total revenues for the periods indicated and percentage changes from period to period:
(*) not meaningful
Year Ended December 31, 2005 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2004
Revenues. Total revenues increased by $16.9 million, or 4.5%, to $395.8 million in 2005 from $378.9 million in 2004. The increase in total revenues resulted primarily from increases in Mobile segment revenues of $73.5 million, or 203.5% and DTV segment revenues of $21.8 million, or 74.6%, due to increased unit sales. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $79.0 million, or 34.5%, in DVD segment revenues resulting from decreases in DVD product sales and by decreases in software and other revenues.
Hardware product revenues increased by $23.8 million, or 7.6%, to $339.5 million in 2005 from $315.7 million in 2004. The increase in hardware product revenues was due to revenue increases of $75.8 million in the Mobile segment, $17.5 million in the DTV segment and $3.3 million in the Imaging segment resulting from increases in unit shipments in each of these segments. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $72.8 million in the DVD segment hardware product revenues due to reduced unit shipments.
Software and other revenues decreased by $6.9 million, or 11.0%, to $56.2 million in 2005 from $63.2 million in 2004. The decrease in software and other revenues primarily resulted from decreases of $6.3 million in the DVD segment, $2.6 million in the Imaging segment and $2.3 million in the Mobile segment, partially offset by an increase of $4.3 million in the DTV segment. The decreases in revenues from the DVD, Imaging and Mobile segments were primarily due to reductions in IP licensing revenue. The increase in DTV segment revenues resulted from an increase in IP licensing agreements.
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Cost of hardware product revenues. Cost of hardware product revenues was $185.5 million in 2005 compared to $226.2 million in 2004. This decrease in the cost of hardware product revenues was mainly due to lower unit costs primarily due to changes in product mix. In addition, part of the unit cost reduction was due to charges recorded in 2004 for inventory write-downs of $14.7 million coupled with the reduction in our inventory allowances of $9.4 million in 2005 as a result of the sale or disposal of inventory that had been fully written down in 2004. Most of the inventory write-downs in 2004, as well as the sale of previously written down inventory in 2005, primarily related to our DVD Vaddis 6 product and a companion chip. The revenue recorded in 2005 associated with the sale of these previously written down products was approximately $18.5 million. Partially offsetting these reductions in unit costs was an increase associated with increased unit shipments, primarily in the Mobile segment. As a percentage of product revenues, hardware product costs were 54.6% in 2005 compared to 71.7% in 2004. The decrease in hardware product costs as a percentage of hardware product revenues was primarily due to a change in product mix to a lower percentage of DVD segment products which generally have higher product costs as a percentage of hardware product revenues than products in the other segments. The inventory write down charges in 2004 coupled with the reduction in inventory allowances also contributed to the reduction in hardware product costs as a percentage of hardware product revenues.
Research and Development. Research and development (R&D) expenses increased to $89.0 million in 2005 from $82.2 million in 2004, an increase of 8.2%. This increase was driven primarily by the acquisition of Oren Semiconductor, Inc. in June 2005 and inclusion of Emblaze operations acquired in July 2004 for the full year in 2005. Actual R&D expenses in 2004 were offset in part by $1.5 million of research grants received from the Chief Scientist in Israel. We did not receive any such grants in 2005. These grants are provided by the Israeli government to fund specific R&D projects. We are not obligated to repay the grants; however, future royalties may be owed to the government if the R&D activities result in commercial product sales. We remain committed to investing in research and development to enhance our technology and development capabilities.
Selling, General and Administrative. Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses increased to $93.8 million in 2005 from $67.1 million in 2004, representing a 39.9% increase. This increase was primarily due to increase in legal fees by $8.4 million related to our patent litigation with Mediatek, Inc., continued increases in marketing and field application support expenses to support revenue growth in our Asia Pacific markets, an increase in the allowance for doubtful accounts receivable by $4.8 million to cover slow paying accounts and potential risk with increasing business in certain regions of the world and the inclusion of the Oren and Emblaze operations in 2005.
Amortization of Intangible Assets. Amortization of intangible assets increased to $50.3 million in 2005 from $45.4 million in 2004, an increase of 10.8%. This increase was the result of amortization of approximately $24.2 million of intangible assets acquired in the Emblaze acquisition in July 2004 for the full year in 2005 and amortization of $9.1 million of intangible assets acquired in the Oren acquisition in June 2005. At December 31, 2005, we had approximately $119.2 million in net intangible assets acquired through the Oak, Emblaze and Oren acquisitions which we will continue to amortize on a straight line basis for various periods extending through 2010.
Deferred Stock Compensation. Deferred stock compensation was recorded primarily as a result of stock options granted in connection with the Oak acquisition. For the year ended December 31, 2005, these charges were $1.5 million compared to $4.1 million during the prior year. The 61.8 % decrease for fiscal 2005 was due to the cancellation of options held by employees who terminated their employment during the year and the lower amortization associated with the graded vesting under the FIN 28 model.
Restructuring Expense. There were no charges recorded for restructuring expenses during 2005. During the year ended December 31, 2004, we recorded restructuring charges of $746,000 due to the discontinuation of the Sensor product line of the Mobile group. This charge included $523,000 related to the reduction in force of 15 employees for severance and other termination expenses, $173,000 for lease losses on abandoned office space and other miscellaneous legal and consulting fees of approximately $50,000. The remaining accrual balance at December 31, 2005 of $73,000 relating to facilities will be paid over the lease term through June 2007.
In-Process Research and Development. In 2005, approximately $2.7 million of the purchase price of Oren Semiconductor, Inc. was allocated to in-process research and development for projects which had not reached technical feasibility and had no alternative future use. Accordingly, this amount was immediately expensed upon the acquisition date. This amount was determined using managements estimates including consultation with an independent appraiser. The value of in-process research and development was determined using the multi-period excess earnings method by estimating the expected net cash flows from the projects once commercially viable and discounting the net cash flows back to their present value using a discount rate of 21%. This rate was based on the industry segment for the technology, nature of the products to be developed, length of time to complete the project and overall maturity and history of the development team. The net cash flows from the identified projects were based on estimates of revenue, cost of revenue, research and development expenses, selling general and administrative expenses, and applicable income taxes. These estimates did not take into account any potential synergies that could be realized as a result of the acquisition. At December 31, 2005, there have been no material variations from the underlying assumptions that were used in the original computation of the value of the acquired in-process research and
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development. There were no charges recorded for in-process research and development during 2004.
Operating Loss. The operating loss of $27.1 million in 2005 was primarily driven by the amortization of intangible assets of $50.3 million, in-process research and development expense of $2.7 million and deferred stock compensation expense of $1.5 million. Excluding these charges, the Company would have recorded operating income of $27.4 million for fiscal 2005. For fiscal 2004, the operating loss of $46.9 million was primarily driven by the amortization of intangible assets of $45.4 million and deferred stock compensation expense of $4.1 million. Excluding these charges, the Company would have recorded operating income of $2.6 million for fiscal 2004.
Interest Income. Interest income increased by $1.4 million to $2.7 million in 2005 compared to $1.3 million in 2004. The increase was a result of the higher interest rates during 2005.
Provision for Income Taxes. Excluding charges related to the amortization of intangible assets and write-off of acquired in-process research and development our estimated effective tax rate was approximately 8% for fiscal 2005 compared to the 9% recorded in 2004 based on net income excluding the amortization of intangible assets and the one time write down of inventory of $14.5 million.
Year Ended December 31, 2004 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2003
Revenues. Total revenues increased by $162.4 million, or 75%, to $378.9 million in 2004 from $216.5 million in 2003. The increase in total revenues resulted primarily from an increase in DVD segment revenues of $70.5 million, or 44%, and Imaging segment revenues of $69.7 million, or 473.5%. DTV and Mobile segment revenues also grew in 2004 by $15.3 million, or 109.8%, and $6.9 million, or 23.8%, respectively. The increase in DVD segment revenues was due to an increase in hardware product revenues of $72.0 million due to increased unit sales of DVD products, partially offset by a decrease in software and other revenues of $1.4 million. The increase in revenues for both the Imaging and DTV segments were primarily due to the inclusion of revenues from the former Oak operations for the entire year in 2004, compared to approximately four and one half months for 2003, subsequent to the Oak acquisition in August 2003. The increase in Mobile segment revenues was due to an increase in software and other revenues of $4.4 million and increases in hardware product revenues of $2.5 million. The increase in Mobile segment software and other revenues was primarily due to the Emblaze Semiconductor acquisition in July 2004. The increase in Mobile segment hardware product revenues was due to increased sales of Mobile products.
Hardware product revenues increased by $115.4 million, or 57.7%, to $315.7 million in 2004 from $200.3 million in 2003. The increase in hardware product revenues resulted from increases in the DVD segment of $72.0 million, Imaging segment of $25.3 million, DTV segment of $15.7 million and the Mobile segment of $2.5 million. Both the DVD and Mobile segments hardware product revenue increases were due to increased unit shipments. The increase in hardware product revenues for both Imaging and DTV segments were primarily due to the inclusion of revenues from the former Oak operations for the entire year, compared to approximately four and a half months for 2003.
Software and other revenues increased by $46.9 million, or 287.8%, to $63.2 million in 2004 from $16.3 million in 2003. The increase in software and other revenues resulted from an increase in the Imaging segment of $44.3 million, and the Mobile segment of $4.4 million, partially offset by decreases in the DVD segment of $1.4 million and the DTV segment of $400,000. The increase in Imaging segment software and other revenues was primarily due to the inclusion of Imaging revenues for the entire fiscal 2004 period as compared to approximately four and one half months for 2003 subsequent to the Oak acquisition in August of 2003. The increase in Mobile segment revenues resulted from IP licensing agreements due to the Emblaze Semiconductor acquisition in July 2004. The decrease for the DVD segment was due to a reduction in IP licensing revenue.
Cost of Hardware Product Revenues. Cost of hardware product revenues was $226.2 million in 2004 compared to $131.1 million in 2003. The increased costs were primarily due to increased unit shipments. As a percent of hardware product revenues, hardware product costs were 71.7% in 2004 compared with 65.4% for 2003. The increase was primarily due to charges of $14.7 million for inventory write-downs of which $14.0 million was attributable to excess inventory of DVD products, $508,000 was attributable to products from our discontinued CMOS image sensor product line and $200,000 related to other products.
Research and Development. R&D expenses increased to $82.2 million in 2004 from $40.4 million in 2003, an increase of 103.6%. This increase was driven primarily by the merger with Oak as well as the acquisition of Emblaze during July 2004. Actual R&D expenses were offset in part by $1.5 million of research grants received from the Chief Scientist in Israel.
Selling, General and Administrative. SG&A expenses increased to $67.1 million in 2004 from $41.8 million in 2003 representing a 60.7% increase. This increase was primarily a result of the inclusion of the Oak and Emblaze operations, increased legal fees related to our pending patent litigation with Mediatek, Inc., costs of compliance with provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and continued
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increases in marketing and field application support expenses to support revenue growth in our Asia Pacific markets.
Amortization of Intangible Assets. Amortization of intangible assets increased to $45.4 million in 2004 from $19.0 million in 2003, an increase of 139.4%. This increase was due to the addition of approximately $198 million of amortizable intangible assets acquired in the Oak acquisition in August 2003, and $24.2 million of amortizable intangible assets acquired in the Emblaze acquisition in July 2004.
Deferred Stock Compensation. Deferred stock compensation was recorded primarily as a result of stock options granted in connection with the Oak acquisition. For the year ended December 31, 2004, these charges were $4.1 million compared to $6.3 million during the prior year. The 35.5% decrease for 2004 was due to the cancellation of options held by employees who terminated their employment during the year and the lower amortization associated with the graded vesting under the FIN 28 model.
Restructuring Expense. During the year ended December 31, 2004, we recorded restructuring charges of $746,000 due to the discontinuation of the Sensor product line of the Mobile group. These charges included $523,000 related to the reduction in force of 15 employees for severance and other termination expenses, $173,000 for lease losses on abandoned office space and other miscellaneous legal and consulting fees of approximately $50,000. There were no payments made prior to December 31, 2004 related to these charges.
In-Process Research and Development. There were no charges recorded for in-process research and development during 2004. In 2003, approximately $50.1 million of the purchase price of Oak was allocated to in-process research and development for five R&D projects in various product divisions which had not yet reached technological feasibility and had no alternative future use. Accordingly, this amount was immediately expensed upon the acquisition date. This amount was determined using managements estimates including consultation with an independent appraiser. The value of in-process research and development was determined using the multi-period excess earnings method by estimating the expected net cash flows from the projects once commercially viable and discounting the net cash flows back to their present value using a discount rate of 22%. This rate was based on the industry segment for the technology, nature of the products to be developed, length of time to complete the project and overall maturity and history of the development team. The net cash flows from the identified projects were based on estimates of revenue, cost of revenue, research and development expenses, selling general and administrative expenses, and applicable income taxes. These estimates did not take into account any potential synergies that could be realized as a result of the acquisition. Revenues for the incremental core technologies developed commenced, and are expected to extend through 2011. Revenue projections were based on estimates of market size and growth, expected trends in technology and the expected timing of new product introductions. At December 31, 2005, there have been no material variations from the underlying assumptions that were used in the original computation of the value of the acquired in-process research and development.
Operating Loss. The significant operating loss of $46.9 million in 2004 was primarily driven by the amortization of intangible assets of $45.4 million, deferred stock compensation expense of $4.1 million, and the $14.7 million charge taken in the fourth quarter for inventory write downs of which $508,000 was attributable to products from the discontinued CMOS image sensor product line and $14.2 million attributable to excess inventory primarily related to DVD products. Absent these charges, the Company would have recorded operating income of $17.3 million for fiscal 2004. For fiscal 2003, the operating loss of $72.0 million was primarily the result of a $50.1 million charge for in-process research and development expense, amortization of intangible assets of $19.0 million, deferred stock compensation of $6.3 million and other non recurring acquisition related expenses of $1.3 million (see SG&A discussion). Excluding these items, our operating income would have been $4.7 million for fiscal 2003.
Interest Income. Interest income decreased by $4.1 million to $1.3 million in 2004 compared to $5.4 million in 2003. The reduction was a result of the lower average cash balances during 2004 due to the use of cash in the Oak acquisition in August 2003 and in the Emblaze acquisition in July 2004.
Provision for Income Taxes. Excluding charges related to the amortization of intangible assets and the one time write down of inventory of $14.5 million, our estimated effective tax rate was approximately 9% for fiscal 2004 compared to the 10% recorded in 2003 based on net income excluding the amortization of intangible assets and write-off of acquired in-process research and development.
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
At December 31, 2005, we had $78.9 million of cash and cash equivalents and $70.5 million of short-term investments. At December 31, 2005, we had $170.9 million of working capital.
Our operating activities generated cash of $53.4 million during 2005, primarily due to non-cash items such as amortization of intangibles assets of $50.3 million, depreciation, amortization and other of $13.2 million, in process research and development expense of $2.7 million, and stock based compensation of $1.8 million which offset our net loss of $27.0 million. Cash provided by operations also increased due to decreases of $17.6 million in net inventory primarily associated with our DVD segment due to reduction in supply chain inventory, $1.1 million in prepaid expenses and other assets and increases in accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities, goodwill and other long term liabilities totaling $3.6 million which were partially offset by a $9.9 million increase in net accounts receivable due to higher revenues recorded in the fourth quarter of 2005 compared to the same period of 2004.
Cash used in investing activities was $21.5 million during 2005, principally reflecting the use of $27.6 million in the acquisition of Oren Semiconductor, Inc, partially offset by $16.8 million of net proceeds from sales and maturities of investments. In addition we spent $10.7 million for property and equipment.
Cash provided by financing activities was $9.5 million during 2005 and consisted of proceeds received from issuances of common stock through exercises of employee stock options and employee stock purchase programs.
Our operating activities used cash of $15.0 million during 2004, primarily due to an increase in net inventory of $32.3 million which was partially offset by $11.8 million of net income before non-cash related expenses including amortization of intangibles, deferred stock compensation and depreciation. The cash used in operations was also impacted by the increase in prepaid expenses and other assets of $6.6 million which was offset by increases in accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities totaling $6.7 million as well as the reduction of net accounts receivable by $5.4 million.
Cash used in investing activities was $3.5 million during 2004, principally reflecting the net proceeds from sales and maturities of investments totaling $58.0 million offset by the use of $54.2 million in the Emblaze acquisition. In addition we spent $8.4 million for property and equipment which was offset by proceeds of approximately $978,000 from the sale of a building in Taiwan.
Cash provided by financing activities was $8.0 million during 2004 and consisted of proceeds received from issuances of common stock through exercises of employee stock options and employee stock purchase programs.
At December 31, 2005 and 2004, we did not have any 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 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.
The following is a summary of fixed payments related to certain contractual obligations (in thousands):
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We believe that our current balances of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and anticipated cash flow from operations, will satisfy our anticipated working capital and capital expenditure requirements at least through the next 12 months. Nonetheless, our future capital requirements may vary materially from those now planned and will depend on many factors including, but not limited to:
the levels at which we maintain inventory and accounts receivable;
the market acceptance of our products;
the levels of promotion and advertising required to launch our new products or to enter markets and attain a competitive position in the marketplace;
our business, product, capital expenditure and research and development plans and technology roadmap;
volume pricing concessions;
capital improvements to new and existing facilities;
technological advances;
the response of competitors to our products; and
our relationships with our suppliers and customers.
In addition, we may require an increase in the level of working capital to accommodate planned growth, hiring and infrastructure needs. Additional capital may also be required for additional acquisitions of businesses, products or technologies.
To the extent that our existing resources and cash generated from operations are insufficient to fund our future activities, we may need to raise additional funds through public or private financings or borrowings. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights, preferences and privileges senior to holders of common stock, and the terms of this debt could impose restrictions on our operations. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities could result in additional dilution to our stockholders. We cannot be certain that additional financing will be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain this additional financing, we may be required to reduce the scope of our planned product development and sales and marketing efforts, which could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
Item 7AQuantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risks
We are exposed to financial market risks including changes in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates.
The fair value of our investment portfolio or related income would not be significantly impacted by either a 10% increase or decrease in interest rates due mainly to the short-term nature of the major portion of our investment portfolio.
A majority of our revenue and capital spending is transacted in U.S. dollars, although a portion of the cost of our operations, relating mainly to our personnel and facilities in Israel, is incurred in New Israeli Shekels. As a result, we bear the risk that the rate of inflation in Israel or the decline in the value of United States dollar compared to the Israeli shekel will increase our costs as expressed in United States dollars. We have not engaged in hedging transactions to reduce our exposure to fluctuations that may arise from changes in foreign exchange rates. Based on our overall currency rate exposure at December 31, 2005, a near-term 10% appreciation or depreciation of the New Israeli Shekel would have an immaterial affect on our financial condition.
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Item 8Financial Statements and Supplemental Data
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Zoran Corporation:
We have completed integrated audits of Zoran Corporations 2005 and 2004 consolidated financial statements and of its internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005, and an audit of its 2003 consolidated financial statements in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Our opinions, based on our audits, are presented below.
Consolidated financial statements In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements listed in the accompanying index present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Zoran Corporation and its subsidiaries at December 31, 2005 and December 31, 2004, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2005 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Companys management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits of these statements in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit of financial statements includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Internal control over financial reporting Also, in our opinion, managements assessment, included in Managements Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A, that the Company maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005 based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), is fairly stated, in all material respects, based on those criteria. Furthermore, in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the COSO. The Companys management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Our responsibility is to express opinions on managements assessment and on the effectiveness of the Companys internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We conducted our audit of internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. An audit of internal control over financial reporting includes obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, evaluating managements assessment, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control, and performing such other procedures as we consider necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A companys internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A companys 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 the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the companys assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP San Jose, California March 14, 2006
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ZORAN CORPORATION (in thousands, except share data)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
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ZORAN CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (in thousands, except per share data)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
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ZORAN CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY (in thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
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ZORAN CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands)
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