Table of Contents
Item 1A. Risk Factors
A description of the risk factors associated with our business is set forth below. The risks and uncertainties described below could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements contained in this report. Investors should carefully consider these risks and uncertainties before investing in our common stock.
COVID-19 Pandemic Risks
The COVID-19 pandemic could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial condition.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused minor disruptions to our business operations to date and could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial condition in the future. For example, we have experienced limited hardware supply chain and logistical challenges as well as a slowdown in customer commitments in our Software Integrity segment. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and businesses have taken unprecedented actions to contain the virus, including requiring social distancing, implementing travel restrictions, instituting shelter-in-place orders and various other restrictions on non-essential businesses. These restrictions have significantly curtailed global economic activity and have caused substantial volatility and disruption in global financial markets. We transitioned most of our employees in affected regions to work remotely in order to comply with applicable restrictions and government requirements, and implemented travel restrictions and other changes to our business operations. We are continuing to transition employees back into offices in select jurisdictions in conformity with local guidelines and regulations. Each office must follow physical distancing guidelines and affirmative health measures in compliance with applicable local, state and national requirements. For instance, on November 5, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an interim final rule that requires employers with 100 or more employees to develop, to implement and to enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless unvaccinated employees comply with masking and testing requirements. Such requirements are currently scheduled to be effective on January 4, 2022. Although we have been able to navigate workplace restrictions and limitations with minimal disruptions to our business operations to date, we may further modify our business practices and real estate needs in response to the risks and negative impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we cannot be certain that these measures will continue to be successful.
The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business operations in future periods will depend on multiple uncertain factors, including the duration and scope of the pandemic, its overall negative impact on the global economy and, in some cases, the regional and national economies of areas experiencing a localized surge in COVID-19 cases, continued responses by governments and businesses to COVID-19 and its variants, the ability to secure timely payment from customers, the ability to accurately estimate customer demand, reduced willingness of current and potential customers to purchase our products and services due to their own business and market uncertainties, the ability of our business partners and third-party providers to fulfill their responsibilities and commitments, the ability to secure adequate and timely supply of equipment and materials from suppliers for our hardware products, and the ability to develop and deliver our products. While our operations have experienced minor disruptions to date in connection with localized surges in cases, a continued and sustained increase in the amount of COVID-19 cases, or the emergence of additional variants, in countries or regions where we have operations could have a material adverse effect on our or our customers' businesses, operations and financial conditions. In addition, continued weak economic conditions may result in impairment in value of our tangible and intangible assets. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks and uncertainties described in this "Risk Factors" section.
Industry Risks
Uncertainty in the global economy, and its potential impact on the semiconductor and electronics industries in particular, may negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Uncertainty caused by the recent challenging global economic conditions, including due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, could lead some of our customers to postpone their decision-making, decrease their spending and/or delay their payments to us. Such caution by customers could, among other things, limit our ability to maintain or increase our sales or recognize revenue from committed contracts. Outside of a slowdown in customer commitments in our Software Integrity segment, we have not seen evidence of impacts on customer orders from the COVID-19 pandemic to date.
We cannot predict the stability of the economy as a whole or the industries in which we operate. Economic conditions could deteriorate in the future, and, in particular, the semiconductor and electronics industries could fail to grow, including as the result of the effects of, among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic, a sustained global semiconductor shortage, supply chain disruptions or delays, and any disruption of international trade relationships such as tariffs, export licenses or other government trade restrictions. Furthermore, China's stated policy of becoming a global leader in the semiconductor industry may lead to increased competition and further disruption of international trade relationships, including, but not limited to, additional government trade restrictions. For more on risks related to government trade restrictions such as the United States government's "Entity List," see "Business Operations Risks-The global nature of our operations exposes us to increased risks and compliance obligations that may adversely affect our business."
Adverse economic conditions affect demand for devices that our products help create, such as the ICs incorporated in personal computers, smartphones and automobiles, and servers. Longer-term reduced demand for these or other products could result in reduced demand for design solutions and significant decreases in our average selling prices and product sales over time. Future downturns could also adversely affect our business. In addition, if our customers or distributors build elevated inventory levels, we could experience a decrease in short-term and/or long-term demand for our products. If any of these events or disruptions were to occur, the bookings for our products and services could be adversely affected along with our business, operating results and financial condition. Further, the negative impact of these events or disruptions may be deferred due to our business model. Similarly, in the event of future improvements in economic conditions for our customers, the positive impact on our revenues and financial results may be deferred due to our business model.
Further economic instability could also adversely affect the banking and financial services industry and result in credit downgrades of the banks we rely on for foreign currency forward contracts, credit and banking transactions, and deposit services, or cause them to default on their obligations. Additionally, the banking and financial services industries are subject to complex laws and heavily regulated. There is uncertainty regarding how proposed, contemplated or future changes to the laws and regulations governing our industry, the banking and financial services industry and the economy could affect our business. A deterioration of conditions in worldwide credit markets could limit our ability to obtain external financing to fund our operations and capital expenditures. In addition, difficult economic conditions may also result in a higher rate of losses on our accounts receivable due to credit defaults. Any of the foregoing could cause adverse effects on our business, operating results and financial condition, and could cause our stock price to decline.
The growth of our business depends primarily on the semiconductor and electronics industries.
The growth of the EDA industry as a whole, our Semiconductor & System Design segment product sales, and to some extent our Software Integrity segment product sales, are dependent on the semiconductor and electronics industries. A substantial portion of our business and revenue depends upon the commencement of new design projects by semiconductor manufacturers, systems companies and their customers. The increasing complexity of designs of systems-on-chips, ICs, electronic systems and customers' concerns about managing costs have previously led to, and in the future could lead to, a decrease in design starts and design activity in general. For example, in response to this increasing complexity, some customers may choose to focus on one discrete phase of the design process or opt for less advanced, but less risky, manufacturing processes that may not require the most advanced EDA products. Demand for our products and services could decrease and our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected if growth in the semiconductor and electronics industries slows or stalls, including due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a sustained global supply chain disruption. Additionally, as the EDA industry has matured, consolidation has resulted in stronger competition from companies better able to compete as sole source vendors. This increased competition may cause our revenue growth rate to decline and exert downward pressure on our operating margins, which may have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
Furthermore, the semiconductor and electronics industries have become increasingly complex ecosystems. Many of our customers outsource the manufacture of their semiconductor designs to foundries. Our customers also frequently incorporate third-party IP, whether provided by us or other vendors, into their designs to improve the efficiency of their design process. We work closely with major foundries to ensure that our EDA, IP and manufacturing solutions are compatible with their manufacturing processes. Similarly, we work closely with other major providers of semiconductor IP, particularly microprocessor IP, to optimize our EDA tools for use with their IP designs and to assure that their IP and our own IP products work effectively together, as we may each provide for the design of separate components on the same chip. If we fail to optimize our EDA and IP solutions for use with major foundries' manufacturing processes or major IP providers' products, or if our access to such foundry
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processes or third-party IP products is hampered, then our solutions may become less desirable to our customers, resulting in an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We operate in highly competitive industries, and if we do not continue to meet our customers' demand for innovative technology at lower costs, our products may not be competitive or may become obsolete, and our business and financial condition may be harmed.
In our Semiconductor & System Design segment, we compete against EDA vendors that offer a variety of products and services, such as Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and Siemens EDA (formerly Mentor Graphics Corporation). We also compete with other EDA vendors, including new entrants to the marketplace, that offer products focused on one or more discrete phases of the IC design process. Moreover, our customers internally develop design tools and capabilities that compete with our products, including internal designs that compete with our IP products. In the area of IP products, we compete against a growing number of IP providers as well as our customers' internally developed IP.
In our Software Integrity segment, we compete with numerous other solution providers, many of which focus on specific aspects of software security or quality analysis. We also compete with frequent new entrants, which include start-up companies and more established software companies.
The industries in which we operate are highly competitive, with new competitors entering these markets both domestically and internationally. The demand for our products and services is dynamic and depends on a number of factors, including demand for our customers' products, design starts and our customers' budgetary constraints. Technology in these industries evolves rapidly and is characterized by frequent product introductions and improvements as well as changes in industry standards and customer requirements. For example, the adoption of cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies can bring new demands and also challenges in terms of disruption to both business models and our existing technology offerings. Semiconductor device functionality requirements continually increase while feature widths decrease, substantially increasing the complexity, cost and risk of chip design and manufacturing. At the same time, our customers and potential customers continue to demand an overall lower total cost of design, which can lead to the consolidation of their purchases with one vendor. In order to succeed in this environment, we must successfully meet our customers' technology requirements and increase the value of our products, while also striving to reduce their overall costs and our own operating costs.
We compete principally on the basis of technology, product quality and features (including ease-of-use), license or usage terms, post-contract customer support, interoperability among products and price and payment terms. Specifically, we believe the following competitive factors affect our success:
•Our ability to anticipate and lead critical development cycles and technological shifts, innovate rapidly and efficiently, improve our existing software and hardware products and successfully develop or acquire such new products;
•Our ability to offer products that provide both a high level of integration into a comprehensive platform and a high level of individual product performance;
•Our ability to enhance the value of our offerings through more favorable terms such as expanded license usage, future purchase rights, price discounts and other differentiating rights, such as multiple tool copies, post-contract customer support, "re-mix" rights that allow customers to exchange the software they initially licensed for other Synopsys products and the ability to purchase pools of technology;
•Our ability to manage an efficient supply chain to ensure availability of hardware products;
•Our ability to compete on the basis of payment terms; and
•Our ability to provide engineering and design consulting for our products.
If we fail to successfully manage these competitive factors, fail to successfully balance the conflicting demands for innovative technology and lower overall costs, or fail to address new competitive forces, our business and financial condition will be adversely affected.
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Consolidation among our customers and within the industries in which we operate, as well as our dependence on a relatively small number of large customers, may negatively impact our operating results.
A number of business combinations, including mergers, asset acquisitions and strategic partnerships, among our customers in the semiconductor and electronics industries have occurred over the last several years, and more could occur in the future. Consolidation among our customers could lead to fewer customers or the loss of customers, increased customer bargaining power or reduced customer spending on software and services. Furthermore, we depend on a relatively small number of large customers, and on such customers continuing to renew licenses and purchase additional products from us, for a large portion of our revenues. Consolidation among our customers could also reduce the demand for our products and services if customers streamline research and development or operations, reduce purchases or delay purchasing decisions.
Reduced customer spending or the loss of a small number of customers, particularly our large customers, could adversely affect our business and financial condition. In addition, we and our competitors from time to time acquire businesses and technologies to complement and expand our respective product offerings. Consolidated competitors could have considerable financial resources, channel influence, and broad geographic reach; thus, they can engage in competition on the basis of product differentiation, pricing, marketing, services, support and more. If any of our competitors consolidate or acquire businesses and technologies that we do not offer, they may be able to offer a larger technology portfolio, additional support and service capability or lower prices, which could negatively impact our business and operating results.
Business Operations Risks
The global nature of our operations exposes us to increased risks and compliance obligations that may adversely affect our business.
We derive roughly half of our revenue from sales outside the United States, and we expect our orders and revenue to continue to depend on sales to customers outside the U.S. We have also continually expanded our non-U.S. operations. This strategy requires us to recruit and retain qualified technical and managerial employees, manage multiple remote locations performing complex software development projects and ensure intellectual property protection outside of the U.S. Our international operations and sales subject us to a number of increased risks, including:
•Ineffective or weaker legal protection of intellectual property rights;
•Uncertain economic and political conditions in regions where we do business such as China or Europe;
•Government trade restrictions, including tariffs, export controls, or other trade barriers, and changes to existing trade arrangements between various countries such as China;
•Difficulties in adapting to cultural differences in the conduct of business, which may include business practices in which we are prohibited from engaging by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or other anti-corruption laws;
•Financial risks such as longer payment cycles and difficulty in collecting accounts receivable;
•Inadequate local infrastructure that could result in business disruptions;
•Additional taxes, interest and potential penalties and uncertainty around changes in tax laws of various countries; and
•Other factors beyond our control such as natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest, war and infectious diseases and pandemics, including COVID-19.
Furthermore, if any of the foreign economies in which we do business deteriorate or if we fail to effectively manage our global operations, our business and results of operations will be harmed.
There is inherent risk, based on the complex relationships between certain Asian countries such as China, where we derive a growing percentage of our revenue, and the United States, that political, diplomatic or military events could result in trade disruptions, including tariffs, trade embargoes, export restrictions and other trade barriers. A significant trade disruption, export restriction, or the establishment or increase of any trade barrier in any area where
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we do business could reduce customer demand and cause customers to search for substitute products and services, make our products and services more expensive or unavailable for customers, increase the cost of our products and services, have a negative impact on customer confidence and spending, make our products less competitive, or otherwise have a materially adverse impact on our future revenue and profits, our customers' and suppliers' businesses, and our results of operations.
For example, the United States government has placed certain entities on the Entity List, restricting the sale of U.S. technologies to the named entities. As a result of this government action, unless and until the restriction is lifted, we are not able to ship technologies subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations or provide support to these entities. Furthermore, any company with knowledge that a customer will use certain U.S. technologies to design or produce any item for a Huawei-affiliated company on the Entity List must obtain a license prior to any export of such technologies. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) also added a military end user list, where they identified more than one hundred Chinese and Russian companies that are considered to be military end users. We believe that the restrictions imposed by the U.S. government thus far will not materially impact our business at this time, but cannot predict the impact that additional regulatory changes may have on our business in the future. Due to the nature of our business and technology, governmental authorities may inquire into transactions between us and certain foreign entities. For example, we recently received an administrative subpoena from BIS requesting production of information relating to transactions with certain Chinese entities. We believe we are in full compliance with all applicable regulations and are currently working with BIS to respond to its subpoena. However, inquiries, such as this one, are subject to a number of uncertainties, and we cannot predict the outcome of this inquiry or its potential effect on our operations or financial condition.
In response to actions taken by the United States, other countries may adopt tariffs and trade barriers that could limit our ability to offer our products and services. Current and potential customers who are concerned or affected by such tariffs or restrictions may respond by developing their own products or replacing our solutions, which would have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, government or customer efforts, attitudes, laws, or policies regarding technology independence may lead to non-U.S. customers favoring their domestic technology solutions that could compete with or replace our products, which would also have an adverse effect on our business.
In addition to tariffs and other trade barriers, our global operations are subject to numerous U.S. and foreign laws and regulations such as those related to anti-corruption, tax, corporate governance, imports and exports, financial and other disclosures, privacy and labor relations. These laws and regulations are complex and may have differing or conflicting legal standards, making compliance difficult and costly. In addition, there is uncertainty regarding how proposed, contemplated or future changes to these complex laws and regulations could affect our business. We may incur substantial expense in complying with the new obligations to be imposed by these laws and regulations, and we may be required to make significant changes in our business operations, all of which may adversely affect our revenues and our business overall. If we violate these laws and regulations, we could be subject to fines, penalties or criminal sanctions, and may be prohibited from conducting business in one or more countries. Although we have implemented policies and procedures to help ensure compliance with these laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, agents or partners will not violate such laws and regulations. Any violation individually or in the aggregate could have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition.
Our financial results are also affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. A weakening U.S. dollar relative to other currencies increases expenses of our foreign subsidiaries when they are translated into U.S. dollars in our consolidated statements of income. Likewise, a strengthening U.S. dollar relative to other currencies, including the renminbi or Yen, reduces revenue of our foreign subsidiaries upon translation and consolidation. Exchange rates are subject to significant and rapid fluctuations, and therefore we cannot predict the prospective impact of exchange rate fluctuations. Although we engage in foreign currency hedging activity, we may be unable to hedge all of our foreign currency risk, which could have a negative impact on our results of operations.
Our operating results may fluctuate in the future, which may adversely affect our stock price.
Our operating results are subject to quarterly and annual fluctuations, which may adversely affect our stock price. Our historical results should not be viewed as indicative of our future performance due to these periodic fluctuations.
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Many factors may cause our revenue or earnings to fluctuate, including:
•Changes in demand for our products-especially products, such as hardware, generating upfront revenue-due to fluctuations in demand for our customers' products and due to constraints in our customers' budgets for research and development and EDA products and services;
•Changes in demand for our products due to customers reducing their expenditures, whether as a cost-cutting measure or a result of their insolvency or bankruptcy, and whether due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a sustained global semiconductor shortage or other reasons;
•Product competition in the EDA industry, which can change rapidly due to industry or customer consolidation and technological innovation;
•Our ability to innovate and introduce new products and services or effectively integrate products and technologies that we acquire;
•Failures or delays in completing sales due to our lengthy sales cycle, which often includes a substantial customer evaluation and approval process because of the complexity of our products and services;
•Our ability to implement effective cost control measures;
•Our dependence on a relatively small number of large customers, and on such customers continuing to renew licenses and purchase additional products from us, for a large portion of our revenue;
•Changes to the amount, composition and valuation of, and any impairments to or write-offs of, our inventory;
•Changes in the mix of our products sold, as increased sales of our products with lower gross margins, such as our hardware products, may reduce our overall margins;
•Expenses related to our acquisition and integration of businesses and technologies;
•Changes in tax rules, as well as changes to our effective tax rate, including the tax effects of infrequent or unusual transactions and tax audit settlements;
•Delays, increased costs or quality issues resulting from our reliance on third parties to manufacture our hardware products, which includes a sole supplier for certain hardware components;
•Natural variability in the timing of IP drawdowns, which can be difficult to predict;
•General economic and political conditions that affect the semiconductor and electronics industries, such as disruptions to international trade relationships, including tariffs, export licenses, or other trade barriers affecting our or our suppliers' products, as well as impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and
•Changes in accounting standards, which may impact the way we recognize our revenue and costs and impact our earnings.
The timing of revenue recognition may also cause our revenue and earnings to fluctuate. The timing of revenue recognition is affected by factors that include:
•Cancellations or changes in levels of orders or the mix between upfront products revenue and time-based products revenue;
•Delay of one or more orders for a particular period, particularly orders generating upfront products revenue, such as hardware;
•Delay in the completion of professional services projects that require significant modification or customization and are accounted for using the percentage of completion method;
•Delay in the completion and delivery of IP products in development as to which customers have paid for early access;
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•Customer contract amendments or renewals that provide discounts or defer revenue to later periods; and
•The levels of our hardware and IP revenues, which are recognized upfront and are primarily dependent upon our ability to provide the latest technology and meet customer requirements.
These factors, or any other factors or risks discussed herein, could negatively impact our revenue or earnings and cause our stock price to decline. Additionally, our results may fail to meet or exceed the expectations of securities analysts and investors, or such analysts may change their recommendation regarding our stock, which could cause our stock price to decline. Our stock price has been, and may continue to be, volatile, which may make it more difficult for our stockholders to sell their shares at a time or a price that is favorable to them.
Cybersecurity threats or other security breaches could compromise sensitive information belonging to us or our customers and could harm our business and our reputation, particularly that of our security testing solutions.
We store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our customers, and confidential employee information, in our data centers, on our networks or on the cloud. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions that could result in unauthorized disclosure or loss of sensitive information. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders, most of our employees in affected areas are working remotely, which magnifies the importance of the integrity of our remote access security measures.
For example, we discovered unauthorized third-party access to our products and product license files hosted on our SolvNet Plus customer license and product delivery system in 2015. While we identified and remediated the incident, it is possible that our security measures may be circumvented again in the future, and any such breach could harm our business and reputation. The techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to networks, or to sabotage systems, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target. We may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Furthermore, in the operation of our business we also use third-party vendors that store certain sensitive data, including confidential information about our employees, and these third parties are subject to their own cybersecurity threats. While our standard vendor terms and conditions include provisions requiring the use of appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our data, as well as other safeguards, a breach may still occur. In addition, if we select a vendor that uses cloud storage of information as part of their service or product offerings, or if we are selected as a vendor for our cloud-based solutions, our proprietary information could be misappropriated by third parties despite our attempts to validate the security of such services. Any security breach of our own or a third-party vendor's systems could cause us to be non-compliant with applicable laws or regulations, subject us to legal claims or proceedings, disrupt our operations, damage our reputation, and cause a loss of confidence in our products and services, any of which could adversely affect our business.
Our software products, our hosted solutions as well as our software security and quality testing solutions, may also be vulnerable to attacks, including traditional computer hackers, malicious code (such as viruses and worms), distributed denial-of-service attacks, sophisticated attacks conducted or sponsored by nation-states, advanced persistent threat intrusions, ransomware and other malware. An attack could disrupt the proper functioning of our software, cause errors in the output of our customers' work, allow unauthorized access to our or our customers' proprietary information or cause other destructive outcomes.
We also offer software security and quality testing solutions. If we fail to identify new and increasingly sophisticated methods of cyber attacks, or fail to invest sufficient resources in research and development regarding new threat vectors, our security testing products and services may fail to detect vulnerabilities in our customers' software code. An actual or perceived failure to identify security flaws may harm the perceived reliability of our security testing products and services, and could result in a loss of customers or sales, or an increased cost to remedy a problem. Furthermore, our growth and recent acquisitions in the software security and quality testing space may increase our visibility as a security-focused company and may make us a more attractive target for attacks on our own information technology infrastructure. As a result, if any of the foregoing were to occur, we could experience negative publicity and our reputation could suffer, customers could stop buying our products, we could face lawsuits and potential liability, and our financial performance could be negatively impacted.
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If we fail to protect our proprietary technology, our business will be harmed.
Our success depends in part upon protecting our proprietary technology. Our efforts to protect our technology may be costly and unsuccessful. We rely on agreements with customers, employees and other third-parties as well as intellectual property laws worldwide to protect our proprietary technology. These agreements may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. Additionally, despite our measures to prevent piracy, other parties may attempt to illegally copy or use our products, which could result in lost revenue if their efforts are successful. Some foreign countries do not currently provide effective legal protection for intellectual property and our ability to prevent the unauthorized use of our products in those countries is therefore limited. Our trade secrets may also be stolen, otherwise become known, or be independently developed by competitors.
From time to time, we may need to commence litigation or other legal proceedings in order to:
•Assert claims of infringement of our intellectual property;
•Defend our products from piracy;
•Protect our trade secrets or know-how; or
•Determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the propriety rights of others.
If we do not obtain or maintain appropriate patent, copyright or trade secret protection, for any reason, or cannot fully defend our intellectual property rights in certain jurisdictions, our business and operating results would be harmed. In addition, intellectual property litigation is lengthy, expensive and uncertain. Legal fees related to such litigation will increase our operating expenses and may reduce our net income.
We may not be able to realize the potential financial or strategic benefits of the acquisitions we complete, or find suitable target businesses and technology to acquire, which could hurt our ability to grow our business, develop new products or sell our products.
Acquisitions and strategic investments are an important part of our growth strategy. We have completed a significant number of acquisitions in recent years. We expect to make additional acquisitions and strategic investments in the future, but we may not find suitable acquisition or investment targets or we may not be able to consummate desired acquisitions or investments due to unfavorable credit markets, commercially unacceptable terms or other risks, which could harm our operating results. Acquisitions and strategic investments are difficult, time-consuming, and pose a number of risks, including:
•Potential negative impact on our earnings per share;
•Failure of acquired products to achieve projected sales;
•Problems in integrating the acquired products with our products;
•Difficulties entering into new markets in which we are not experienced or where competitors may have stronger positions;
•Potential downward pressure on operating margins due to lower operating margins of acquired businesses, increased headcount costs and other expenses associated with adding and supporting new products;
•Difficulties in retaining and integrating key employees;
•Substantial reductions of our cash resources and/or the incurrence of debt;
•Failure to realize expected synergies or cost savings;
•Difficulties in integrating or expanding sales, marketing and distribution functions and administrative systems, including information technology and human resources systems;
•Dilution of our current stockholders through the issuance of common stock as part of the merger consideration;
•Difficulties in negotiating, governing and realizing value from strategic investments;
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•Assumption of unknown liabilities, including tax, litigation, cybersecurity and commercial-related risks, and the related expenses and diversion of resources;
•Incurrence of costs and use of additional resources to remedy issues identified prior to or after an acquisition;
•Disruption of ongoing business operations, including diversion of management's attention and uncertainty for employees and customers, particularly during the post-acquisition integration process;
•Potential negative impacts on our relationships with customers, distributors and business partners;
•Exposure to new operational risks, regulations, and business customs to the extent acquired businesses are located in regions where we are not currently conducting business;
•The need to implement controls, processes and policies appropriate for a public company at acquired companies that may have previously lacked such controls, processes and policies in areas such as cybersecurity, information technology, privacy and more;
•Negative impact on our net income resulting from acquisition or investment-related costs; and
•Requirements imposed by government regulators in connection with their review of an acquisition, including required divestitures or restrictions on the conduct of our business or the acquired business.
If we do not manage the foregoing risks, the acquisitions or strategic investments that we complete may have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We pursue new product and technology initiatives from time to time, and if we fail to successfully carry out these initiatives, our business, financial condition, or results of operations could be adversely impacted.
As part of the evolution of our business, we have made substantial investments to develop new products and enhancements to existing products through our acquisitions and research and development efforts. If we are unable to anticipate technological changes in our industry by introducing new or enhanced products in a timely and cost-effective manner, or if we fail to introduce products that meet market demand, we may lose our competitive position, our products may become obsolete, and our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected.
Additionally, from time to time, we may invest in efforts to expand into adjacent markets, including, for example, software security and quality testing solutions. Although we believe these solutions are complementary to our EDA tools, we have less experience and a more limited operating history in offering software quality testing and security products and services, and our efforts in this area may not be successful. Our success in these and other new markets depends on a variety of factors, including the following:
•Our ability to attract a new customer base, including in industries in which we have less experience;
•Our successful development of new sales and marketing strategies to meet customer requirements;
•Our ability to accurately predict, prepare for and promptly respond to technological developments in new fields, including, in the case of our software quality testing and security tools and services, identifying new security vulnerabilities in software code and ensuring support for a growing number of programming languages;
•Our ability to compete with new and existing competitors in these new industries, many of which may have more financial resources, industry experience, brand recognition, relevant intellectual property rights or established customer relationships than we currently do, and could include free and open source solutions that provide similar software quality testing and security tools without fees;
•Our ability to skillfully balance our investment in adjacent markets with investment in our existing products and services;
•Our ability to attract and retain employees with expertise in new fields;
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•Our ability to sell and support consulting services at profitable margins; and
•Our ability to manage our revenue model in connection with hybrid sales of licensed products and consulting services.
Difficulties in any of our new product development efforts or our efforts to enter adjacent markets, including delays or disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
We may have to invest more resources in research and development than anticipated, which could increase our operating expenses and negatively affect our operating results.
We devote substantial resources to research and development. New competitors, technological advances in the semiconductor industry or by competitors, our acquisitions, our entry into new markets or other competitive factors may require us to invest significantly greater resources than we anticipate. If we are required to invest significantly greater resources than anticipated without a corresponding increase in revenue, our operating results could decline. If customers reduce or slow the need to upgrade or enhance their product offerings, our revenue and operating results may be adversely affected. Additionally, our periodic research and development expenses may be independent of our level of revenue, which could negatively impact our financial results. New products may not adequately address the changing needs of the marketplace. New software products may contain undetected errors, defects, or vulnerabilities. The occurrence of any defects or errors in our products could result in lost or delayed market acceptance and sales of our products, delays in payment by customers, loss of customers or market share, product returns, damage to our reputation, diversion of our resources, increased service and warranty expenses or financial concessions, increased insurance costs and potential liability for damages. Finally, there can be no guarantee that our research and development investments will result in products that create additional revenue.
Product errors or defects could expose us to liability and harm our reputation and we could lose market share.
Software products frequently contain errors or defects, especially when first introduced, when new versions are released, or when integrated with technologies developed by acquired companies. Product errors, including those resulting from third-party suppliers, could affect the performance or interoperability of our products, could delay the development or release of new products or new versions of products and could adversely affect market acceptance or perception of our products. In addition, any allegations of manufacturability issues resulting from use of our IP products could, even if untrue, adversely affect our reputation and our customers' willingness to license IP products from us. Any such errors or delays in releasing new products or new versions of products or allegations of unsatisfactory performance could cause us to lose customers, increase our service costs, subject us to liability for damages and divert our resources from other tasks, any one of which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
Our hardware products, which primarily consist of prototyping and emulation systems, subject us to distinct risks.
The growth in sales of our hardware products subjects us to several risks, including:
•Increased dependence on a sole supplier for certain hardware components, which may reduce our control over product quality and pricing and may lead to delays in production and delivery of our hardware products, should our supplier fail to deliver sufficient quantities of acceptable components in a timely fashion;
•Increasingly variable revenue and less predictable revenue forecasts, due to fluctuations in hardware revenue, which is recognized upfront upon shipment, as opposed to most sales of software products for which revenue is recognized over time;
•Potential reductions in overall margins, as the gross margin for our hardware products is typically lower than those of our software products;
•Longer sales cycles, which create risks of insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory and variations in inventory valuation, which can adversely affect our operating results;
•Decreases or delays in customer purchases in favor of next-generation releases, which may lead to excess or obsolete inventory or require us to discount our older hardware products;
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•Longer warranty periods than those of our software products, which may require us to replace hardware components under warranty, thus increasing our costs; and
•Potential impacts on our supply chain, including due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a sustained global semiconductor shortage.
If we fail to timely recruit and retain senior management and key employees globally, our business may be harmed.
We depend in large part upon the services of key members of our senior management team to drive our future success. If we were to lose the services of any member of our senior management team, our business could be adversely affected.
To be successful, we must also attract and retain key employees who join us organically and through acquisitions. There are a limited number of qualified engineers, and competition for these individuals and other qualified employees is intense and has increased globally, including in major markets such as Asia. Our employees are often recruited aggressively by our competitors and our customers worldwide. Any failure to recruit and retain key employees could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition, and our recruiting and retention efforts may be negatively impacted by restrictions on travel and business activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, efforts to recruit and retain qualified employees could be costly and negatively impact our operating expenses.
We issue equity awards from employee equity plans as a key component of our overall compensation. We face pressure to limit the use of such equity-based compensation due to its dilutive effect on stockholders. If we are unable to grant attractive equity-based packages in the future, it could limit our ability to attract and retain key employees.
From time to time we are subject to claims that our products infringe on third-party intellectual property rights.
We are from time to time subject to claims alleging our infringement of third-party intellectual property rights, including patent rights. Under our customer agreements and other license agreements, we agree in many cases to indemnify our customers if our products infringe a third party's intellectual property rights. Infringement claims can result in costly and time-consuming litigation, require us to enter into royalty arrangements, subject us to damages or injunctions restricting our sale of products, invalidate a patent or family of patents, require us to refund license fees to our customers or to forgo future payments or require us to redesign certain of our products, any one of which could harm our business and operating results.
We may not be able to continue to obtain licenses to third-party software and intellectual property on reasonable terms or at all, which may disrupt our business and harm our financial results.
We license third-party software and other intellectual property for use in product research and development and, in several instances, for inclusion in our products. We also license third-party software, including the software of our competitors, to test the interoperability of our products with other industry products and in connection with our professional services. These licenses may need to be renegotiated or renewed from time to time, or we may need to obtain new licenses in the future. Third parties may stop adequately supporting or maintaining their technology, or they or their technology may be acquired by our competitors. If we are unable to obtain licenses to these third-party software and intellectual property on reasonable terms or at all, we may not be able to sell the affected products, our customers' use of the products may be interrupted, or our product development processes and professional services offerings may be disrupted, which could in turn harm our financial results, our customers, and our reputation.
The inclusion of third-party intellectual property in our products can also subject us and our customers to infringement claims. Although we seek to mitigate this risk contractually, we may not be able to sufficiently limit our potential liability. Regardless of outcome, infringement claims may require us to use significant resources and may divert management's attention.
Some of our products and technology, including those we acquire, may include software licensed under open source licenses. Some open source licenses could require us, under certain circumstances, to make available or grant licenses to any modifications or derivative works we create based on the open source software. Although we have tools and processes to monitor and restrict our use of open source software, the risks associated with open
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source usage may not be eliminated and may, if not properly addressed, result in unanticipated obligations that harm our business.
In preparing our financial statements we make certain assumptions, judgments and estimates that affect amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements, which, if not accurate, may significantly impact our financial results.
We make assumptions, judgments and estimates for a number of items, including the fair value of financial instruments, goodwill, long-lived assets and other intangible assets, the realizability of deferred tax assets, the recognition of revenue and the fair value of stock awards. We also make assumptions, judgments and estimates in determining the accruals for employee-related liabilities, including commissions and variable compensation, and in determining the accruals for uncertain tax positions, valuation allowances on deferred tax assets, allowances for doubtful accounts, and legal contingencies. These assumptions, judgments and estimates are drawn from historical experience and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances as of the date of the consolidated financial statements. Actual results could differ materially from our estimates, and such differences could significantly impact our financial results. In addition, we cannot predict the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business operations. The uncertainty affects management's estimates and assumptions, which could result in greater variability in a variety of areas that depend on these estimates and assumptions.
Liquidity requirements in our U.S. operations may require us to raise cash in uncertain capital markets, which could negatively affect our financial condition.
As of October 31, 2021, approximately 51% of our worldwide cash and cash equivalents balance is held by our international subsidiaries. We intend to meet our U.S. cash spending needs primarily through our existing U.S. cash balances, ongoing U.S. cash flows, and available credit under our term loan and revolving credit facilities. Should our cash spending needs in the U.S. rise and exceed these liquidity sources, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, we may be required to incur additional debt at higher than anticipated interest rates or access other funding sources, which could negatively affect our results of operations, capital structure or the market price of our common stock.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
Our results could be adversely affected by a change in our effective tax rate as a result of tax law changes and related new or revised guidance and regulations, changes in our geographical earnings mix, unfavorable government reviews of our tax returns, material differences between our forecasted and actual annual effective tax rates, future changes to our tax structure, or by evolving enforcement practices.
Our operations are subject to income and transaction taxes in the United States and in multiple foreign jurisdictions. Because we have a wide range of statutory tax rates in the multiple jurisdictions in which we operate, any changes in our geographical earnings mix, including those resulting from our intercompany transfer pricing or from changes in the rules governing transfer pricing, could materially impact our effective tax rate. Furthermore, a change in the tax law of the jurisdictions where we do business, including an increase in tax rates, an adverse change in the treatment of an item of income or expense or limitations on our ability to utilize tax credits, could result in a material increase in our tax expense and impact our financial position and cash flows. For example, in response to the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of California enacted legislation on June 29, 2020 that would suspend the use of certain corporate research and development tax credits for a three-year period beginning in our fiscal 2021, which resulted in an impact in our tax expense.
On December 22, 2017, the President of the United States signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Tax Act), which significantly changed prior U.S. tax law and includes numerous provisions that affect our business. The Tax Act includes certain new provisions that began to affect our income from foreign operations in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Further, President Biden has proposed The American Jobs Act and various bills have been introduced by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate proposing changes to the corporate tax rate as well as other provisions. On August 9, 2021 the Senate released the fiscal 2022 budget resolution with reconciliation instructions for a potential $3.5 trillion spending bill. The House Ways and Means Committee introduced a $3.5 trillion spending bill on September 12, 2021 which proposes to raise the corporate rate to 26.5% and amend certain provisions of the Tax Act and on October 28, 2021, the House Rules Committee introduced a revised bill which maintains the current corporate tax rate at 21%, while introducing a new corporate minimum tax of 15% of adjusted financial statement income as well as other modifications to the Tax Act, which if enacted may materially affect our financial position. Accounting for certain of these provisions requires the exercise of significant judgment.
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Further changes in the tax laws of foreign jurisdictions could arise as a result of the Programme of Work to Develop a Concensus Solution to the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalization of the Economy (Programme of Work) agreement by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which represents a coalition of member countries, including the United States. The Programme of Work is evaluating potential changes to numerous long-standing tax principles. On October 8, 2021 the OECD announced the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (Framework) which agreed to a two-pillar solution to address tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. Pillar one provides a framework for the reallocation of certain residual profits of multinational enterprises to market jurisdictions using a revenue-based allocation key to source to the end market jurisdictions where goods or services are used or consumed. Pillar two consists of two interrelated rules referred to as Global Anti-Base Erosion Rules, which operate to impose a minimum tax rate of 15% calculated on a jurisdictional basis. The Framework calls for law enactment by OECD and G20 members in 2022 to take effect in 2023 and 2024. These changes, when enacted, by various countries in which we do business may increase our taxes in these countries. Changes to these and other areas in relation to international tax reform, including future actions taken by foreign governments in response to the Tax Act, could increase uncertainty and may adversely affect our tax rate and cash flow in future years.
Our income and non-income tax filings are subject to review or audit by the Internal Revenue Service and state, local and foreign taxing authorities. We exercise significant judgment in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and, in the ordinary course of our business, there may be transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We may also be liable for potential tax liabilities of businesses we acquire, including future taxes payable related to the transition tax on earnings from their foreign operations, if any, under the Tax Act. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination in an audit may be materially different than the treatment reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals. An assessment of additional taxes because of an audit could adversely affect our income tax provision and net income in the periods for which that determination is made.
In July 2017, the Hungarian Tax Authority (HTA) issued a final assessment against our Hungarian subsidiary (Synopsys Hungary) for fiscal years 2011 through 2013. The HTA has applied withholding taxes on certain payments made to affiliates, resulting in an aggregate tax assessment of approximately $25.0 million and interest and penalties of $11.0 million. We paid the tax assessments, penalties and interest in the first quarter of fiscal 2018 as required by law and recorded these amounts as prepaid taxes on our balance sheet. On April 30, 2019, the Hungarian Administrative Court (the Administrative Court) ruled against Synopsys Hungary. We filed an appeal with the Hungarian Supreme Court on July 5, 2019. The Hungarian Supreme Court heard our appeal on November 12, 2020 and remanded the case to the Administrative Court for further proceedings. We received the Hungarian Supreme Court's written decision in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. On April 27, 2021, the Administrative Court reheard the case and again ruled against Synopsys Hungary. We received the written opinion from the Administrative Court on May 19, 2021 and filed an appeal with the Hungarian Supreme Court on July 19, 2021. The hearing for the appeal is scheduled for January 27, 2022. For further discussion of the Hungary audit, see Note 13 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements under the heading "Non-U.S. Examinations."
We maintain significant deferred tax assets related to certain tax credits. Our ability to use these credits is dependent upon having sufficient future taxable income in the relevant jurisdiction and in the case of foreign tax credits, how such credits are treated under current and potential future tax law. Changes to the Tax Act and changes in our forecasts of future income could result in an adjustment to the deferred tax asset and a related charge to earnings that could materially affect our financial results.
Changes in United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP) could adversely affect our financial results and may require significant changes to our internal accounting systems and processes.
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP. These principles are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles and guidance.
The FASB periodically issues new accounting standards on a variety of topics, including, for example, revenue recognition and accounting for leases. These and other such standards generally result in different accounting principles, which may significantly impact our reported results or could result in variability of our financial results. For example, the new revenue recognition standard became applicable to us at the beginning of fiscal 2019 and there is an increased volatility in our total revenue with less predictability than under the prior accounting standard.
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We may be subject to litigation proceedings that could harm our business.
We may be subject to legal claims or regulatory matters involving stockholder, consumer, employment, customer, supplier, competition and other issues on a global basis. Litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties, and unfavorable rulings could occur. An unfavorable ruling could include monetary damages or, in cases for which injunctive relief is sought, an injunction prohibiting us from manufacturing or selling one or more products. If we were to receive an unfavorable ruling on a matter, our business and results of operations could be materially harmed. Further information regarding certain of these matters is contained in Part I, Item 3, Legal Proceedings.
Our business is subject to evolving corporate governance and public disclosure regulations that have increased both our compliance costs and the risk of noncompliance, which could have an adverse effect on our stock price.
We are subject to changing rules and regulations promulgated by a number of governmental and self-regulatory organizations, including the SEC, the Nasdaq Stock Market and the FASB. These rules and regulations continue to evolve in scope and complexity and many new requirements have been created in response to laws enacted by Congress, making compliance more difficult and uncertain. For example, our efforts to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and other regulations, including "conflict minerals" regulations affecting our hardware products, have resulted in, and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.
There are inherent limitations on the effectiveness of our controls and compliance programs.
Regardless of how well designed and operated it is, a control system can provide only reasonable assurance that its objectives will be met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. Moreover, although we have implemented compliance programs and compliance training for employees, such measures may not prevent our employees, contractors or agents from breaching or circumventing our policies or violating applicable laws and regulations. Failure of our control systems and compliance programs to prevent error, fraud or violations of law could have a material adverse impact on our business.
Our investment portfolio may be impaired by any deterioration of capital markets.
From time to time, our cash equivalent and short-term investment portfolio consists of investment-grade U.S. government agency securities, asset-backed securities, corporate debt securities, commercial paper, certificates of deposit, money market funds, municipal securities and other securities and bank deposits. Our investment portfolio carries both interest rate risk and credit risk and may be negatively impacted by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fixed rate debt securities may have their market value adversely impacted due to a credit downgrade or a rise in interest rates, while floating rate securities may produce less income than expected if interest rates fall or a credit downgrade occurs. As a result of capital pressures on certain banks, especially in Europe, and the continuing low interest rate environment, some of our financial instruments may become impaired.
Our future investment income may fall short of expectations due to changes in interest rates or if the decline in fair value of investments held by us is judged to be other-than-temporary. In addition, we may suffer losses in principal if we are forced to sell securities that decline in market value due to changes in the issuer's credit quality or changes in interest rates.
General Risks
Catastrophic events may disrupt our business and harm our operating results.
Due to the global nature of our business, our operating results may be negatively impacted by catastrophic events throughout the world. We rely on a global network of infrastructure applications, enterprise applications and technology systems for our development, marketing, operational, support and sales activities. A disruption or failure of these systems in the event of a major earthquake, fire, extreme temperatures, drought, flood, telecommunications failure, cybersecurity attack, terrorist attack, epidemic or pandemic (including the COVID-19 pandemic), or other catastrophic event or climate change-related risk could cause system interruptions, delays in our product development and loss of critical data and could prevent us from fulfilling our customers' orders. In particular, our
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sales and infrastructure are vulnerable to regional or worldwide health conditions, including the effects of the outbreak of contagious diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, our corporate headquarters, a significant portion of our research and development activities, our data centers, and certain other critical business operations are located in California, near major earthquake faults and sites of recent historic wildfires. A catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of our data centers or our critical business or information technology systems would severely affect our ability to conduct normal business operations and, as a result, our operating results would be adversely affected.