NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS CORP - Annual Report: 2015 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES  

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION  

Washington, D.C. 20549  

  

FORM 10-K  

  

☒    ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934  

For the fiscal year ended: December 31, 2015 or  

  

☐    TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934  

For the transition period from ________________ to ________________  

  

Commission file number:  0-25426  

  

  

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION  

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)  

 

  

Registrant's telephone number, including area code:  (512) 338-9119  

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Preferred Stock Purchase Rights

  

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes ☒ No ☐

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 ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).  Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s 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. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐ Non-accelerated filer☐Smaller reporting company ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).  Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant at the close of business on June 30, 2015, was $3,013,343,026 based upon the last sales price reported for such date on the NASDAQ Stock Market. For purposes of this disclosure, shares of Common Stock held by persons who hold more than 5% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock and shares held by officers and directors of the registrant as of June 30, 2015, have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination is not necessarily conclusive.

 

At the close of business on February 12, 2016, registrant had outstanding 127,778,067 shares of Common Stock.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Part III incorporates certain information by reference from the definitive proxy statement to be filed by the registrant for its Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on May 10, 2016 (the “Proxy Statement”).

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Form 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2015

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

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PART I

 

This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Any statements contained herein regarding our future financial performance, operations, or other matters (including, without limitation, statements to the effect that we “believe,” “expect,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “project,” “anticipate”, “continue,” or “estimate” or other variations thereof or comparable terminology or the negative thereof) should be considered forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of important factors including those set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” beginning on page 13, and elsewhere in this Form 10-K. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We disclaim any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement.

 

ITEM 1.BUSINESS

 

National Instruments Corporation (“NI”, “we”, “us” or “our”) designs, manufactures and sells systems to engineers and scientists that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery. Our platform-based approach to engineering provides an integrated software and hardware platform that speeds the development of systems needing measurement and control. We believe our long-term vision and focus on technology supports the success of our customers, employees, suppliers and stockholders.

 

We are based in Austin, Texas, were incorporated under the laws of the State of Texas in May 1976 and were reincorporated in Delaware in June 1994. In March 1995, we completed an initial public offering of our common stock. Our common stock, $0.01 par value, is quoted on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the trading symbol NATI.

 

Our website is http://www.ni.com. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T are available through our Internet website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such materials with, or furnish them to, the SEC, or upon written request without charge. Our website and the information contained therein or connected thereto are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

Industry Background

 

Engineers and scientists use instrumentation to observe, understand, and manage the real-world phenomena, events and processes related to their industries or areas of expertise. Instrumentation systems measure and control electrical signals, such as voltage, current and power, as well as temperature, pressure, speed, flow, volume, torque, and vibration. Common general-purpose instruments include voltmeters, signal generators, oscilloscopes, data loggers, spectrum analyzers, cameras, and temperature and pressure monitors and controllers. Some traditional instruments are also highly application-specific, designed with fixed functionality to measure specific signals for particular vertical industries or applications. Instruments used for industrial automation applications include data loggers, strip chart recorders, programmable logic controllers (“PLCs”), and proprietary turn-key devices or systems designed to automate or control specific vertical applications.

 

Systems that perform measurement and control can be generally categorized as test, measurement, and embedded systems. These systems access real-world phenomena and are used throughout the research, design, manufacture, and service phases of a wide variety of products and applications.

 

Historically, engineers and scientists have used a variety of high-cost systems that operated independently and could be difficult to customize. Due to the limitations of these systems, adapting them to changing needs can be expensive and time-consuming, and users must often purchase multiple single-purpose instruments, controllers, loggers, and other peripherals.

 

Our Approach to Measurement and Automation

 

NI offers a different approach called graphical system design. This approach provides an integrated hardware and software platform for measurement and control systems that can be defined by the customer. This allows systems to more easily adapt to changing requirements and technologies over time. NI hardware and software also leverage commercially available technology whenever possible to deliver performance and cost benefits to our customers. Therefore, these customer-defined systems are more flexible, with higher performance and lower costs, compared to traditional vendor-defined systems.

 

NI equips engineers and scientists with systems that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery. Our customers use our platform to develop test, measurement, control and embedded systems across multiple industries from design to production, for advanced research, and to teach engineering and science.

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Compared with traditional solutions, we believe our products and our platform-based approach provide the following significant benefits to our customers:

 

Simpler, Faster Development

 

Customers face changing requirements and technologies while having to create more intelligent systems with fewer resources than ever. Our software-based approach simplifies the complexity of creating these systems by providing higher level interfaces to access changing technology and a way to easily upgrade through software while other fixed function systems require new hardware. When hardware changes are required, our modular, reconfigurable platforms enable users to easily change only the functions they need while preserving software continuity over time. In this way, the graphical system design platform-based approach can accelerate the development of any system that needs measurement and control.

 

Performance and Efficiency

 

Our software brings the power of commercial computers, handheld devices, networks and the Internet to instrumentation and embedded devices. With features such as graphical programming, automatic code generation, graphical tools libraries, ready-to-use example programs, libraries of specific instrumentation functions, and the ability to deploy applications on a range of platforms, scientists and engineers can quickly build a system that meets individual application needs. Because the continuous performance improvement of personal computers (“PCs”), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (“FPGAs”) and networking technologies are the core platforms for our approach, scientists and engineers can quickly realize direct performance benefits,  faster execution for measurement and automation applications, shorter test times, faster automation, higher performing embedded systems and higher manufacturing throughput.

 

Modularity, Reusability and Reconfigurability

 

Our products include reusable hardware and software modules to provide considerable flexibility in configuring systems. This ability to reconfigure measurement and automation systems allows users to quickly adapt their systems to new and changing needs, eliminate duplicated programming efforts, and ultimately improve their efficiency and productivity. In addition, these features help protect both hardware and software investments against obsolescence.

 

Lower Total Solution Cost

 

NI solutions offer price to performance and energy-efficiency advantages over traditional proprietary systems. Graphical system design allows customers to equip powerful industry-standard computers, with reusable system design software and modular cost-effective hardware. In addition, these systems give engineers and scientists the flexibility and portability to adapt to changing needs, while offering a smaller form factor that occupies less space on the manufacturing floor and consumes less energy than traditional instrumentation equipment.

 

Products, Technology and Services

 

We offer an extensive line of measurement, automation and control products to work either separately, as stand-alone products or as an integrated system; however, customers generally purchase our software and hardware together. We believe that the flexibility, functionality and ease of use of our system design software promotes sales of our other software and hardware products. We offer volume licensing that helps customers maximize their system investment by reducing total cost of ownership and simplifying their software standardization, budgeting, purchasing and upgrading efforts.

 

System Design Software

 

For more than 30 years, NI has invested in its flagship software product, LabVIEW, which the company believes is the ultimate system design software for measurement, automation and control. LabVIEW promotes problem-solving, accelerates productivity, and empowers innovation. With LabVIEW, users program graphically and can design custom virtual instruments by connecting graphical icons with software wires to create “block diagrams” which are natural design notations for scientists and engineers. Users can customize front panels with knobs, buttons, dials and graphs to emulate control panels of instruments or add custom graphics to visually represent the control and operation of processes.

 

LabVIEW is a comprehensive development environment with hardware integration and wide-ranging compatibility that engineers and scientists need to design and deploy measurement, automation and control systems. The LabVIEW programming environment is graphical, with engineering-specific libraries of software engineering functions and hardware interfaces. It also offers data analysis, visualization, and sharing features. Engineers and scientists can bring their vision to life with LabVIEW, and have access to a vast ecosystem of partners and technology alliances, and a global and active user community. When customers use LabVIEW, combined with the modular hardware approach with NI data acquisition, NI CompactRIO and PCI Extensions for Instrumentation (“PXI”) platforms, they are able to quickly integrate system components and do their jobs faster, more efficiently, and at a lower cost.

 

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LabVIEW Real-Time and LabVIEW FPGA are strategic modular software add-ons to LabVIEW. With LabVIEW Real-Time, the user can easily configure their application program to execute using a real-time operating system kernel instead of a general purpose operating system, so users can easily build deterministic solutions. In addition, with LabVIEW Real-Time, users can easily configure their programs to operate remotely on embedded processors in PXI-based systems, on embedded processors inside NI CompactRIO distributed I/O systems, or on processors embedded on plug-in PC data acquisition boards. With LabVIEW FPGA, the user can configure their application to execute directly in silicon via a FPGA residing on one of our reconfigurable I/O hardware products. LabVIEW FPGA allows users to build their own highly specialized, custom hardware devices for ultra high-performance requirements or for unique or proprietary measurement or control protocols.

 

The LabVIEW Communications System Design Suite is a targeted version of LabVIEW that we built specifically for wireless prototyping. This customized version includes new workflows, specialized IP, and offers a design environment closely integrated with NI software defined radio (“SDR”) hardware for rapidly prototyping communications systems including FPGA-based SDR hardware. LabVIEW Communications simplifies the design process that is complicated by today’s disparate hardware and software tools. Users define and manage the entire prototyping process with a single design tool, and rapidly deploy new algorithms to hardware.  LabVIEW Communications also provides a plug-in architecture to offer productive starting points with open application frameworks for LTE, 802.11 and other key standards.

 

Programming Tools

 

In addition to LabVIEW, NI offers LabWindows/CVI and Measurement Studio as alternative programming environments.  LabWindows/CVI users use the conventional, text-based programming language of C for creating test and control applications. LabWindows/CVI also provides a Real-Time module to allow for C-based development of real-time systems in automated test applications. Measurement Studio consists of measurement and automation add-on libraries and additional tools for programmers who prefer Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environments.

 

Application Software

 

NI offers a suite of application software products, including NI TestStand, NI VeriStand, NI DIAdem, NI InsightCM Enterprise and NI Multisim, which are complementary to LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio and 3rd party software. 

 

NI TestStand. NI TestStand is targeted for test and measurement applications in a manufacturing environment. NI TestStand is a test management environment for organizing, controlling, and running automated prototype, validation, and manufacturing test systems. It also generates customized test reports and integrates product and test data across the customers’ enterprise and across the Internet. NI TestStand manages tests that are written in LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio, C and C++, and Microsoft Visual Basic, so test engineers can easily share and re-use test code throughout their organization and from one product to the next. NI TestStand is a key element of our strategy to broaden the reach of our application software products across the corporate enterprise.

 

NI VeriStand. NI VeriStand is a ready-to-use software environment for configuring real-time testing applications, including hardware-in-the-loop (“HIL”) test systems. With NI VeriStand, users configure real-time I/O, stimulus profiles, data logging, alarming, and other tasks; implement control algorithms or system simulations by importing models from a variety of software environments; build test system user interfaces quickly; and add custom functionality using NI LabVIEW, NI TestStand, and other software environments.

 

NI DIAdem. NI DIAdem offers users configuration-based technical data management, analysis, and report generation tools to interactively mine and analyze data. NI DIAdem helps users make informed decisions and meet the demands of today’s testing environments, which require quick access to large volumes of scattered data, consistent reporting, and data visualization.

 

NI InsightCM Enterprise. NI InsightCM Enterprise is a software solution with tightly integrated hardware options for monitoring critical and ancillary rotating equipment. With this solution, a user can acquire, analyze, and visualize data from a wide breadth of sensors to interpret the health of the user’s machines with confidence. Companies can use this cost-effective, open, and flexible solution to monitor a larger percentage of their fleet and meet evolving maintenance requirements.

 

NI Multisim Circuit Design Software. NI Multisim is an industry-standard, Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (“SPICE”) simulation environment. It is the cornerstone of the NI circuits teaching solution to build expertise through practical application in designing, prototyping, and testing electrical circuits.

 

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Modular Hardware Products and Related Driver Software

 

Using cutting-edge commercial technology, such as the latest microprocessors, Analog to Digital Converters (“ADCs”), FPGAs, and PC busses, our hardware delivers modular and easy-to-use solutions for a wide range of applications – from automated test and data logging to industrial control, and embedded design. Our hardware and related driver software products include data acquisition (“DAQ”), PXI chassis and controllers, modular instruments, image acquisition, motion control, distributed I/O, industrial communications interfaces, General Purpose Interface Bus (“GPIB”) interfaces, embedded control hardware/software and VME Extension for Instrumentation (“VXI”) Controllers. The high level of integration among our products provides users with the flexibility to mix and match hardware components when developing custom virtual instrumentation systems.

 

Data Acquisition (DAQ) Hardware/Driver Software.    Our DAQ hardware and driver software products are “instruments on a board” that users can combine with sensors, signal conditioning hardware and software to acquire analog data and convert it into a digital format that can be accepted by a computer. Computer-based DAQ products are typically a lower-cost solution than traditional instrumentation and exploit the processing power, display, and connectivity capabilities of industry-standard computers. Applications suitable for automation with computer-based DAQ products are widespread throughout many industries, and many systems currently using traditional instrumentation (either manual or computer-controlled) could be displaced by computer-based DAQ systems. We offer a range of computer-based DAQ products with a variety of form factors and degrees of performance. In 2006, we introduced NI CompactDAQ, a rugged, portable, USB data acquisition system designed for high-performance mixed-signal measurement systems. Since its introduction, we have expanded the CompactDAQ platform with wireless and Ethernet technologies that have extended the reach of computer-based DAQ from across the lab to around the world. The platform also offers high-performance stand-alone systems for embedded measurement and logging. NI DAQ products also include X Series DAQ which delivers state-of-the-art measurement, generation, timing and triggering on a single device.

 

PXI Modular Instrumentation Platform.  Our PXI modular instrument platform, which was introduced in 1997, is a standard PC packaged in a small, rugged form factor with expansion slots and instrumentation extensions for timing, triggering and signal sharing. It combines mainstream PC software and PCI hardware with advanced instrumentation capabilities. In essence, PXI is an instrumentation PC with several expansion slots supporting complete system-level opportunities and delivering a high percentage of the overall system content using our products. We continue to expand our PXI product offerings with new modules, which address a wide variety of measurement and automation applications. The platform is now a testing standard, with a wide array of companies developing applications on the platform and investing in its future through the PXI System Alliance (“PXISA”). In 2006, we introduced our first PXI Express products which provide backward software compatibility with PXI while providing advanced capabilities for high-performance instrumentation, such as RF instrumentation. Today, we have a rapidly expanding portfolio of PXI Express products that are further expanding the capabilities of this important platform.

 

Modular Instruments.  We offer a variety of modular instrument devices used in general purpose test and communication test applications.  These devices include digitizers, digital multimeters, signal generators, RF analyzers/generators, power supplies, source measurement units and switch modules that users can configure through software to meet their specific measurement requirements. Because these instruments are modular and software-defined, they can be quickly interchanged and easily repurposed to meet evolving test needs. Additionally, our modular instruments provide high-speed test execution by harnessing the power of industry-standard PCs, FPGAs and advanced timing and synchronization technologies. Options are available for a variety of platforms including PXI, PXI Express, PCI, PCI Express, and USB.

 

Machine Vision/Image Acquisition. Our machine vision platform includes a range of hardware platform options, from embedded NI Smart Cameras that integrate the sensor and processor in a single package to plug-in boards for PCI and PXI systems. We offer two scalable software options for use across the entire NI vision hardware portfolio. A user can configure a system with NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection, an easy-to-use, stand-alone package for machine vision, or program it using the NI Vision Development Module, a comprehensive library of imaging functions. With NI Vision hardware, a user can build high-performance, PC based systems using the latest processor techniques with NI Frame Grabbers, save on cost and space by combining an image sensor and real-time embedded processors into one rugged, industrial package with NI Smart Cameras, or harness multicore performance with fanless designs, connectivity to multiple cameras and reconfigurable digital I/O with NI Vision systems.

 

Motion Control. By integrating flexible software with high-performance hardware, our motion control products offer a powerful solution for motion system design. From automating test equipment and research labs to controlling biomedical, packaging, and manufacturing machines, engineers use our motion products to meet a diverse set of application challenges. Our software tools for motion easily integrate with our other product lines, so users can combine motion control with image acquisition, test, measurement, data acquisition, and automation to create robust, flexible solutions. We introduced our first line of motion control hardware, software and peripheral products in 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

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NI LabVIEW Reconfigurable I/O (RIO) Architecture.  NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) hardware combined with NI LabVIEW system design software provides a commercial off-the-shelf solution to simplify development and shorten time to market when designing advanced measurement and control systems. All RIO hardware systems, which include CompactRIO, NI Single-Board RIO, NI System on Module, R Series boards and PXI-based FlexRIO products, feature a standard, high-performance architecture that combines a powerful floating-point processor, reconfigurable FPGA, and modular I/O. Engineers can program all RIO hardware components with LabVIEW, including the LabVIEW FPGA Module, to rapidly create custom timing, signal processing and control for I/O without requiring expertise in low-level hardware description languages or board-level design. NI provides a breadth of RIO hardware targets that provide varying degrees of performance, cost, I/O rates, and ruggedness, to meet a wide variety of application needs. NI first released its LabVIEW RIO architecture in 2003 with its first R Series PXI plug-in board along with its first CompactRIO rugged, high-performance embedded system.

 

Industrial Communications Interfaces.  In 1995, we began shipping interface boards for communicating with serial devices, such as data loggers and PLCs targeted for industrial/embedded applications, and benchtop instruments, such as oscilloscopes, targeted for test and measurement applications. We offer hardware and driver software product lines for communication with industrial devices—Controller Area Network (“CAN”), DeviceNet, Foundation Fieldbus, and RS-485 and RS-232.

 

GPIB Interfaces/Driver Software.  We began selling GPIB products in 1977 and are a leading supplier of GPIB interface boards and driver software to control traditional instruments. These traditional instruments are manufactured by a variety of third-party vendors and are used primarily in test and measurement applications. Our diverse portfolio of hardware and software products for GPIB instrument control is available for a wide range of computers. Our GPIB product line also includes products for controlling GPIB instruments using the computer’s standard parallel, USB, Ethernet, and serial ports.

 

Production Test Systems

 

In addition to modular software and hardware components that engineers combine to create systems, NI also offers complete, enclosed PXI-based systems targeted to specific applications. 

 

NI Semiconductor Test System. The NI Semiconductor Test System (“STS”) series combines modular instrumentation and system design software for RF and mixed-signal production test. These systems feature fully production-ready test systems that use NI technology in a form factor suitable for a semiconductor production test environment. The STS combines the NI PXI platform, TestStand test management software, and LabVIEW graphical programming inside a fully enclosed test head. Its “tester in a head” design houses all the key components of a production tester. Its compact design eliminates the extra floor space, power, and maintenance required by traditional automated test equipment testers. With the open, modular design, engineers can take advantage of the latest industry-standard PXI modules for more instrumentation and computing power.

 

NI Wireless Test System.  Built on PXI, multicore, and FPGA technologies, the NI Wireless Test System (“WTS”) offers industry-leading measurement speed to help our customers improve test throughput and lower the cost of wireless manufacturing test for devices such as mobile phones, tablets, data cards, and modules. With industry-leading measurement speed and the flexibility to engage in multi-standard, multiple device under test (“DUT”), and parallel test, the WTS integrates easily into a manufacturing line using ready-to-run reference test sequences, integrated DUT control, and remote automation control for quicker and more cost-effective system deployment.

 

NI Education Platform

 

The NI education platform combines software, hardware and courseware designed to create engaging, authentic learning experiences that prepare students for the next generation of innovation. We have a continuum of products designed for education that allows students to start learning at the primary and secondary school levels using the programming language and platform they will use in engineering classes at the university level, for post-graduate research, and in the industry once they enter the engineering workforce. Our cost-effective, scalable solutions offer academic institutions flexible integration across multiple science and engineering disciplines.

 

Software Products for Teaching

 

NI Multisim Circuit Design Software. NI Multisim is an industry-standard, SPICE simulation environment. It is the cornerstone of the NI circuits teaching solution to build expertise through practical application in designing, prototyping, and testing electrical circuits. Developed for the educator who needs to teach all aspects of circuits and electronics, Multisim Education Edition provides the ability to seamlessly move students from theory to simulation to the lab. Regardless of the application area, the powerful environment offers students the ability to visualize and interact with circuit theory and equations and focus on course-specific concepts with SPICE simulation.

 

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NI LabVIEW for Education. LabVIEW is a graphical system design environment used on campuses all over the world to deliver hands-on learning to the classroom, enhance research applications, and foster the next generation of innovation. By teaching with LabVIEW, educators help students accomplish hands-on and system-based learning in a single environment with skills and methods they will use in their careers. With built-in I/O integration and instrument control, thousands of functions for math and signal processing, user interfaces to visualize and explore data, and deployment to multiple hardware targets, students access the power of graphical system design and can go from concept to prototype in one semester.

 

LabVIEW for LEGO® MINDSTORMS®.  This version of LabVIEW is specifically designed to extend the LEGO MINDSTORM set’s teaching power, making it easier, and more fun, to manage robotics projects. This easy-to-learn programming environment provides access to tools exclusive to the NI Education Platform. LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS helps prepare students for university courses and engineering careers where LabVIEW is already in use.

 

Hardware Products for Teaching

 

National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (“NI ELVIS”). The NI ELVIS measurement and prototyping platform delivers hands-on lab experience with an integrated suite of the most commonly used instruments in one compact form factor specifically designed for education. Based on industry-standard NI LabVIEW graphical system design software, NI ELVIS, with powerful data acquisition and USB plug-and-play capabilities, offers users the flexibility of virtual instrumentation and allows for quick and easy measurement acquisition and instrumentation across multiple disciplines.

 

NI myDAQ Measurement and Instrumentation Device. This powerful, portable device allows students to measure and analyze the world around them. It is engineered to work with LabVIEW right out of the box. A user can start simply, with built-in virtual instruments, or get creative and connect the user’s own sensors and controls. NI myDAQ combines hardware with eight ready-to-run software-defined instruments, including a function generator, oscilloscope, and digital multimeter (“DMM”); these software instruments are also used on the NI ELVIS hardware platform so the lab experience can be extended to experiments anywhere, anytime. With NI LabVIEW graphical system design software, users can extend the instrument functionality into hundreds of custom applications.

 

NI myRIO. NI myRIO places dual-core real-time processing and FPGA customizable I/O into the hands of students. With its onboard devices, seamless software experience, and library of courseware and tutorials, NI myRIO provides an affordable tool that students can use to do real engineering in one semester. This device gives students the opportunity to learn on the same device that they will later use to build projects. Using industry-standard technology in a portable form factor, students can explore a variety of engineering concepts that scale to real-world projects.

 

NI roboRIO. NI roboRIO is built for advanced robotics and gives users the ability to quickly connect and change the components they need to build and test advanced systems. With the integration of LabVIEW graphical programming capabilities, roboRIO becomes a customizable controller for various applications.

 

NI Universal Software Radio Peripheral (“USRP”). The NI USRP is an affordable, flexible radio that turns a standard PC into a wireless prototyping platform. The NI USRP platform offers a new approach to RF and communications education, which has traditionally been limited to a focus on mathematical theory. With NI USRP and LabVIEW, students gain hands-on experience exploring a working communications system with live signals to gain a better understanding of the link between theory and practical implementation.

 

NI Services

 

NI provides global services and support as part of our commitment to our customers’ success in efficiently building and maintaining high-quality measurement and control systems using graphical system design.

 

Hardware Services and Maintenance

 

System Configuration and Deployment. Our NI System Assurance Program provides a fast, easy way to get our customer’s new NI system up and running. Our trained technicians install software and hardware and configure our customers’ PXI, PXI/SCXI combination, and NI CompactRIO system to their specifications.

 

Calibration. To help our customers’ calibration needs, NI provides calibration solutions, including recalibration services, manual calibration procedures, and automated calibration software. In 2011, the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) accredited NI Calibration Services Austin to one of the highest international calibration standards in the industry, ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (“17025”). National Instruments now offers 17025 calibration services for OEMs and other organizations seeking to maintain compliance with the strictest governmental, medical, transportation and electronics regulations. The 17025 calibration service offering is designed for companies standardizing their automated test and measurement systems on PXI modular instrumentation, which provides some of the most advanced technology for addressing the latest engineering challenges.

 

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Warranty and Repair. We offer standard and extended warranties to help meet project life-cycle requirements and provide repair services for our products, express repair, and advance replacement services.

 

Software Maintenance Services

 

Software Services for End Users: Our Standard Service Program (“SSP”) and Enterprise Agreements (“EAs”) are designed to help ensure that our end users are successful with our products. This software maintenance contract provides the end user with regular product upgrades and service packs, professional technical support from local engineers, 24-hour a day access to self-paced online product training, and access to older versions of their owned software.

 

Volume Licensing for Account-Level Services: The NI Volume License Program (“VLP”) is designed to meet the needs of the business in addition to the success of each end user. On top of access to the SSP program for each end user, businesses that invest in the VLP receive account-level benefits designed to help effectively manage their software assets and lower their total cost of ownership.

 

Training and Certification

 

NI Training Program. NI training helps the customer build the skills to more efficiently develop robust, maintainable applications, and certification confirms the customer’s technical growth and skill using NI software. We offer fee-based training classes and self-paced online training for many of our software and hardware products. On-site courses are quoted per customer requests and we include on-line course offerings with live teachers.

 

NI Certification Program. We offer programs to certify programmers and instructors for our products.

 

Markets and Applications

 

Our products are used across many industries in a variety of applications including research and development, simulation and modeling, product design, prototype and validation, production testing and industrial control and field and factory service and repair. We serve the following industries and applications worldwide: advanced research, automotive, automated test equipment, consumer electronics, commercial aerospace, computers and electronics, continuous process manufacturing, education, government/defense, medical research/pharmaceutical, power/energy, semiconductors, telecommunications and others.

 

Customers

 

We have a broad base of over 35,000 customers worldwide, with no customer accounting for more than 3%, 5%, and 3% of our sales in 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively.

 

Marketing

 

Through our worldwide marketing efforts, we strive to educate engineers and scientists about the benefits of our platform-based approach, products and technology, and to highlight the performance and cost advantages of our products. We also seek to present our position as a technology leader among producers of instrumentation software and hardware and to help promulgate industry standards that can benefit users of computer-based instrumentation.

 

We reach our intended audience through our website at ni.com as well as through the distribution of written and electronic materials including demonstration versions of our software, participation in tradeshows and technical conferences and training and user seminars.

 

We actively market our products in higher education environments, and we identify many colleges, universities and trade and technical schools as key accounts. We offer special academic pricing and products to enable universities to utilize our products in their classes and laboratories. We believe our prominence in the higher education area can contribute to our future success because students gain experience using our products before they enter the work force.

 

Sales and Distribution

 

We distribute and sell our software and hardware products primarily through a direct sales organization. We also use independent distributors, OEMs, VARs, system integrators and consultants to market and sell our products. We have sales offices in the U.S. and sales offices and distributors in key international markets. Sales outside of the U.S. accounted for approximately 62%, 63% and 62%, of our revenues in 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively. The vast majority of our foreign sales are denominated in the customers’ local currency, which exposes us to the effects of changes in foreign currency exchange rates. We expect that a significant portion of our total revenues will continue to be derived from international sales. (See Note 13 – Segment information of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for details concerning the geographic breakdown of our net sales and long-lived assets.)

 

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We believe the ability to provide comprehensive service and support to our customers is an important factor in our business. We permit customers to return products within 30 days from receipt for a refund of the purchase price less a restocking charge. Our hardware products are generally warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for one year from the date we ship the products to our customers. Historically, warranty costs and returns have not been material.

 

The marketplace for our products dictates that many of our products be shipped very quickly after an order is received. As a result, we are required to maintain significant inventories. Therefore, inventory obsolescence is a risk for us due to frequent engineering changes, shifting customer demand, the emergence of new industry standards and rapid technological advances including the introduction by us or our competitors of products embodying new technology. We strive to mitigate this risk by monitoring inventory levels against product demand and technological changes. Additionally, many of our products have interchangeable parts and many have long lives. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in these efforts in the future.

 

Our foreign operations are subject to certain risks set forth under “We are Subject to Various Risks Associated with International Operations and Foreign Economies.”

 

See discussion regarding fluctuations in our quarterly results and seasonality in ITEM 1A, Risk Factors, “Our Revenues are Subject to Seasonal Variations.”

 

We have one operating segment and one reporting unit. For information regarding revenue, results of operations, and total assets for each of our last three fiscal years, please refer to our financial statements included in this Form 10-K and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included in Item 7 of this Form 10-K.

 

Competition

 

The markets in which we operate are characterized by intense competition from numerous competitors, some of which are divisions of large corporations having far greater resources than we have, and we may face further competition from new market entrants in the future. A key competitor is Keysight Technologies Inc. (“Keysight”) which was formerly part of Agilent. Keysight offers hardware and software products that provide solutions that directly compete with our virtual instrumentation products including its own line of PXI based hardware. Keysight is aggressively advertising and marketing products that are competitive with our products. Because of Keysight’s strong position in the instrumentation business, changes in its marketing strategy or product offerings could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. In May 2015, Danaher Corporation announced its intention to separate into two publicly traded companies. The spin off will result in a new public company to be named Fortive and will be comprised of Danaher’s test and measurement businesses and other specialty industrial businesses which can compete directly with us. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.

 

We believe our ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors both within and outside our control, including:

 

 

There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully in the future.

 

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Research and Development

 

We believe that our long-term growth and success depends on delivering high quality hardware and software products on a timely basis. We focus our research and development efforts on enhancing existing products and developing new products that incorporate appropriate features and functionality to be competitive with respect to technology and price/performance characteristics.

 

Our research and development staff strives to build quality into our products at the design stage in an effort to reduce overall development and manufacturing costs. Our research and development staff also designs proprietary application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), many of which are designed for use in several of our different products. The goal of our ASIC design program is to further differentiate our products from competing products, to improve manufacturability and to reduce costs. We seek to reduce our time to market for new and enhanced products by sharing our internally developed hardware and software components across multiple products.

 

As of December 31, 2015, we employed 2,172 people in research and development. Our research and development expenses were $225 million, $227 million and $235 million in 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively.

 

Intellectual Property

 

We rely on a combination of patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark law, contracts and technical measures to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our products. As of December 31, 2015, we held 852 U.S. patents (850 utility patents and 2 design patents) and 32 patents in foreign countries (28 patents registered in Europe, 1 patent in China, 2 patents in Japan, and 1 patent in Mexico), and had 170 patent applications pending in the U.S. and foreign countries. 269 of our issued U.S. patents are software patents related to LabVIEW, and cover fundamental aspects of the graphical programming approach used in LabVIEW. Our patents expire from 2016 to 2035. The expiration of any particular patent in the short term is not expected to have any significant negative impact on our business. No assurance can be given that our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of patents. We also own certain registered trademarks in the United States and abroad. See further discussion regarding risks associated with our patents in ITEM 1A, Risk Factors, “Our Business Depends on Our Proprietary Rights and We are Subject to Intellectual Property Litigation.”

 

Manufacturing and Suppliers

 

We manufacture a substantial majority of our product volume at our facilities in Debrecen, Hungary and Penang, Malaysia. Additional production, primarily of RF products and of low volume, complex or newly introduced products was previously done in Austin, Texas, however, we completed the transition of all of our Austin based manufacturing activities to our manufacturing facilities in Hungary and Malaysia in the third quarter of 2015. In 2016, our site in Malaysia is expected to produce approximately 35% of our global production and our site in Hungary is expected to produce approximately 65% of our global production. Our product manufacturing operations can be divided into four areas: electronic circuit card and module assembly; chassis and cable assembly; technical manuals and product support documentation; and software duplication. Most of our electronic circuit card assemblies, modules and chassis are manufactured in house, although contractors are used from time to time. The majority of our electronic cable assemblies are produced by contractors; however, we do manufacture some on an exception basis. Our software duplication, technical manuals and product support documentation is primarily produced by contractors. 

 

Our manufacturing processes use large volumes of high-quality components and subassemblies supplied by outside sources. Several of these components are only available through limited sources. Limited source components purchased include custom ASICs, chassis and other components. We have in the past experienced delays and quality problems in connection with limited source components, and there can be no assurance that these problems will not recur in the future. Accordingly, our failure to receive components from limited suppliers could result in a material adverse effect on our revenues and operating results. See “Our Business is Dependent on Key Suppliers” at page 19 for additional discussion of the risks associated with limited source suppliers.

 

See “Our Operations are Subject to a Variety of Environmental Regulations and Costs” at page 20 for discussion of environmental matters as they may affect our business.

 

Backlog

 

Backlog is a measure of orders that are received but that are not shipped to customers at the end of a quarter. We typically ship products shortly following the receipt of an order. Accordingly, our backlog typically represents less than 5 days sales. Backlog should not be viewed as an indicator of our future sales.

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Employees

 

As of December 31, 2015, we had 7,441 employees worldwide, including 2,172 in research and development, 3,411 in sales and marketing and customer support, 1,020 in manufacturing and 838 in administration and finance. None of our employees are represented by a labor union and we have never experienced a work stoppage. We consider our employee relations to be good.

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ITEM 1A.    RISK FACTORS  

  

In addition to the other information set forth in this Form 10-K, you should carefully consider the risk factors discussed below. The risks described below are not the only risks that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial also may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.

 

 

Our Financial Performance is Subject to Risks Associated with Changes in the Value of the U.S. Dollar versus Local Currencies. The vast majority of our sales outside of the United States are denominated in local currencies, and accordingly, the U.S. dollar equivalent of these sales is affected by changes in the foreign currency exchange rates. If the local currencies in which we sell our products strengthen against the U.S. dollar, we may need to lower our prices in the local currency to remain competitive in our international markets which could have a material adverse effect on our gross and net profit margins. If the local currencies in which we sell our products weaken against the U.S. dollar and if the local sales price increases cannot be passed through to our customers due to competitive pressures, we will experience a deterioration of our gross and net profit margins. See “Results of Operations” in this Form 10-K for further discussion on the effect that changes in the foreign currency exchange rates have on our operating results. See “Current business outlook” beginning on page 29 of this Form 10-K for information regarding recent business conditions.

   

We cannot predict to what degree or how long the recent volatility in the foreign currency exchange markets will continue. In the past, we have noted that significant volatility in foreign currency exchange rates in the markets in which we do business has had a significant impact on the revaluation of our foreign currency denominated firm commitments, on our ability to forecast our U.S. dollar equivalent net sales and expenses and on the effectiveness of our hedging programs. In the past, these dynamics have also adversely affected our net sales growth in international markets and may pose similar challenges in the future. We recognize the local currency as the functional currency in virtually all of our international subsidiaries. 

 

Uncertain Global Economic Conditions Could Materially Adversely Affect Our Business and Results of Operations.  Our operations and performance are sensitive to fluctuations in general economic conditions, both in the U.S. and globally. The ongoing uncertainty created by volatile currency markets, a weak global Purchasing Managers’ Index (“PMI”), the continued weakness in the PC and energy sectors, alone or in combination, may continue to have a material adverse effect on our net sales and the financial results of our operations. In addition, we remain concerned about the geopolitical and fiscal instability in the Middle East and some Emerging Markets as well as the continued volatility of the equity markets. These factors as well as others we may not contemplate could have a material adverse effect on the spending patterns of businesses including our current and potential customers which could have a material adverse effect on our net sales and our results of operations. Other factors that could adversely influence demand for our products include  unemployment, labor and healthcare costs, access to credit, consumer and business confidence, and other macroeconomic factors that could have a negative impact on capital investment and spending behavior. See “Current business outlook” beginning on page 29 of this Form 10-K for information regarding recent business conditions.

  

Our Current Domestic Cash Position May Not Be Sufficient to Fund our Domestic Cash Needs in the Next Twelve Months and We May Need to Borrow Additional Amounts Under our Credit Agreement, Seek Funding from External Sources or Repatriate Foreign Earnings.    On May 9, 2013, we entered into a Loan Agreement (the “Loan Agreement”) with Wells Fargo Bank.  The Loan Agreement provides for a $50 million unsecured revolving line of credit. Proceeds of loans made under the Loan Agreement may be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes. In October 2015, we entered into a First Amendment to Loan Agreement with Wells Fargo that, among other things, increased the line of credit from $50.0 million to $125.0 million (See Note 14—Debt in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional discussion of the Loan Agreement). At December 31, 2015, we had $37 million in borrowings outstanding under the Loan Agreement. We may choose to borrow additional funds against our line of credit in future periods to have sufficient domestic cash to fund continued dividends to our stockholders, to fund potential acquisitions, to purchase shares under our board authorized share repurchase program or other domestic general corporate purposes without the need to repatriate foreign earnings. Future dividends are subject to declaration by our Board of Directors, and our share repurchase program does not obligate us to acquire any specific number of shares.

 

We may also seek to pursue additional financing or to raise additional funds by selling equity or debt to the public or in private transactions. If we elect to raise additional funds, we may not be able to obtain such funds on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, if at all. If we raise additional funds by issuing additional equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership percentages of our existing stockholders would be reduced. In addition, the equity or debt securities that we issue may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our common stock. We may also choose to repatriate foreign earnings which would be subject to the U.S. federal statutory tax rate of 35% and therefore would likely have a material adverse effect on our effective tax rate and on our net income and earnings per share. We could also choose to reduce certain expenditures or payments of dividends or suspend our program to repurchase shares of our common stock.

 

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Orders With a Value of Greater than One Million Dollars Expose Us to Significant Additional Business and Legal Risks that Could Have a Material Adverse Impact on our Business, Results of Operations and Financial Condition. In recent years, we have made a concentrated effort to increase our net sales through the pursuit of orders with a value greater than $1.0 million. These types of orders expose us to significant additional business and legal risks compared to smaller orders. Our very large customers frequently require contract terms that vary substantially from our standard terms of sale. These orders can be accompanied by critical delivery commitments and severe contractual liabilities can be imposed on us if we fail to provide the required quantity of product at the required delivery times. These customers may also impose product acceptance requirements and product performance evaluations which create uncertainty with respect to the timing of our ability to recognize revenue from such orders. In addition, these larger orders are more volatile, are subject to greater discount variability and may contract at a faster pace during an economic downturn. These contracts may also have supply constraint requirements which mandate that we allocate large product inventories for a specific contract. These inventory requirements expose us to higher risks of inventory obsolescence and can adversely impact our ability to provide adequate product supply to other customers. 

 

Fulfillment of these contracts can challenge our supply chain capabilities at the component acquisition, assembly and delivery stages. Our contracts with such customers may allow the customer to cancel or delay orders without liability which exposes our business and financial results to significant risk. These contracts can require us to develop specific product mitigation plans for product delivery constraints caused by unexpected or catastrophic situations to help assure quick production recovery. We can attempt to manage this risk but there can be no assurance that we will be successful in our efforts. These customers may demand most favored customer pricing, significant discounts, extended payment terms and volume rebates and such terms can adversely impact our net sales, margins and financial results and may also negatively impact our days sales outstanding to the extent these orders become a larger proportion of our overall net sales. These customers may request broad indemnity obligations and large direct and consequential damage provisions in the event their contracts with us are breached, and these provisions may expose us to risk and liabilities in excess of our standard terms and conditions of sale. While we attempt to limit the number of contracts that contain the non-standard terms of sale described above and attempt to contractually limit our potential liability under such contracts, we have been and expect to be required to agree to some or all of such provisions to secure orders from these customers and to continue to grow our business. Such actions expose us to significant additional risks which could result in a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.  

  

Revenue Derived from Large Orders Could Adversely Affect our Gross Margin and Could Lead to Greater Variability in our Quarterly Results.    We define our large order business as orders with a value greater than $100,000. These orders may be more sensitive to changes in the global industrial economy, may be subject to greater discount variability, lower gross margins, and may contract at a faster pace during an economic downturn.  To the extent that the amount of our net sales derived from large orders increases in future periods, either in absolute dollars or as a percentage of our overall business, our gross margins could decline, and we could experience greater volatility and see a greater negative impact from future downturns in the global industrial economy. This dynamic may also have an adverse effect on the historical seasonal pattern of our net sales and our results of operations. These types of orders also make managing inventory levels more difficult as we have in the past and may have to in the future build large quantities of inventory in anticipation of future demand that may not materialize.

 

Our Product Revenues are Dependent on Certain Industries and Contractions in these Industries Could Have a Material Adverse Effect on Our Results of Operations.    Sales of our products are dependent on customers in certain industries, particularly the telecommunications, semiconductor, consumer electronics, automotive, energy, automated test equipment, defense and aerospace industries. As we have experienced in the past, and as we may continue to experience in the future, downturns characterized by diminished product demand in any one or more of these industries may result in decreased sales and a material adverse effect on our operating results. We cannot predict when and to what degree contractions in these industries may occur, however any sharp or prolonged contraction in one or more of these industries could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

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We are Subject to Various Risks Associated with International Operations and Foreign Economies. Our international sales are subject to inherent risks, including:  

  

  

Moreover, there can be no assurance that our international sales will continue at existing levels or grow in accordance with our efforts to increase foreign market penetration. 

 

In many foreign countries, particularly in those with developing economies, it is common to engage in business practices that are prohibited by U.S. regulations applicable to us such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Although we have policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, contractors and agents, including those based in or from countries where practices which violate such U.S. laws may be customary, will not take actions in violation of our policies. Any violation of foreign or U.S. laws by our employees, contractors or agents, even if such violation is prohibited by our policies, could have a material adverse effect on our business. We must also comply with various import and export regulations. The application of these various regulations depends on the classification of our products which can change over time as such regulations are modified or interpreted. As a result, even if we are currently in compliance with applicable regulations, there can be no assurance that we will not have to incur additional costs or take additional compliance actions in the future. Failure to comply with these regulations could result in fines or termination of import and export privileges, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. Additionally, the regulatory environment in some countries is very restrictive as their governments try to protect their local economy and value of their local currency against the U.S. dollar.

   

We Make Significant Investments in New Products that May Not Be Successful or Achieve Expected Returns. We plan to continue to make significant investments in research, development, and marketing for new and existing products and technologies.  These investments involve a number of risks as the commercial success of such efforts depend on many factors, including our ability to anticipate and respond to innovation, achieve the desired technological fit, and be effective with our marketing and distribution efforts.  If our existing or potential customers do not perceive our latest product offerings as providing significant new functionality or value, or if we are late to market with a new product or technology, we may not achieve our expected return on our investments or be able recover the costs expended to develop new product offerings, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.  Even if our new products are profitable, our operating margins for new products may not be as high as the margins we have experienced historically. 

 

Our Success Depends on New Product Introductions and Market Acceptance of Our Products. The market for our products is characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, changes in customer needs and frequent new product introductions, and is therefore highly dependent upon timely product innovation. Our success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop and introduce new and enhanced products on a timely basis to replace declining revenues from older products, and on increasing penetration in domestic and international markets. As has occurred in the past and as may be expected to occur in the future, we have experienced significant delays between the announcement and the commercial availability of new products. Any significant delay in releasing new products could have a material adverse effect on the ultimate success of a product and other related products and could impede continued sales of predecessor products, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. There can be no assurance that we will be able to introduce new products in accordance with announced release dates, that our new products will achieve market acceptance or that any such acceptance will be sustained for any significant period. Failure of our new products to achieve or sustain market acceptance could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

 

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Our Acquisitions are Subject to a Number of Related Costs and Challenges that Could Have a Material Adverse Effect on Our Business and Results of Operations.    In the twelve month period ended December 31, 2015 and in recent years, we have completed several acquisitions. Achieving the anticipated benefits of an acquisition depends upon whether the integration of the acquired business, products or technology is accomplished efficiently and effectively. In addition, successful acquisitions generally require, among other things, integration of product offerings, manufacturing operations and coordination of sales and marketing and R&D efforts. These difficulties can become more challenging due to the need to coordinate geographically separated organizations, the complexities of the technologies being integrated, and the necessities of integrating personnel with disparate business backgrounds and combining different corporate cultures. The integration of operations following an acquisition also requires the dedication of management resources, which may distract attention from our day-to-day business and may disrupt key R&D, marketing or sales efforts. Our inability to successfully integrate any of our acquisitions could harm our business. The existing products previously sold by entities we have acquired may be of a lesser quality than our products and/or could contain errors that produce incorrect results on which users rely or cause failure or interruption of systems or processes that could subject us to liability claims that could have a material adverse effect on our operating results or financial position. Furthermore, products acquired in connection with acquisitions may not gain acceptance in our markets, and we may not achieve the anticipated or desired benefits of such transactions.

 

We Operate in Intensely Competitive Markets.    The markets in which we operate are characterized by intense competition from numerous competitors, some of which are divisions of large corporations having far greater resources than we have, and we may face further competition from new market entrants in the future. A key competitor is Keysight Technologies Inc. (“Keysight”) which was formerly part of Agilent. Agilent completed the spin off of Keysight in November 2014. Keysight offers hardware and software products that provide solutions that directly compete with our virtual instrumentation products including its own line of PXI based hardware. Keysight is aggressively advertising and marketing products that are competitive with our products. Because of Keysight’s strong position in the instrumentation business, changes in its marketing strategy or product offerings could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.  In May 2015, Danaher Corporation announced its intention to separate into two publicly traded companies. The spin-off will result in a new public company to be named Fortive and will be comprised of Danaher’s test and measurement platform and other specialty industrial businesses which can compete directly with us. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.

 

We believe our ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors both within and outside our control, including: 

 

 

There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully in the future.   

 

 We Have Established a Budget and Variations From Our Budget Will Affect Our Financial Results.    We have an operating budget for 2016. Our budget was established based on the estimated revenue from sales of our products which are based on anticipated economic conditions in the markets in which we do business as well as the timing and volume of our new products and the expected penetration of both new and existing products in the marketplace. If demand for our products in 2016 is less than the demand we anticipated in setting our 2016 budget, our operating results could be negatively impacted.

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If we exceed our budgeted level of expenses or if we cannot reduce expenditures in response to a decrease in net sales, our operating results could be adversely affected. Our spending could exceed our budget due to a number of factors, including:   

 

 

Our Quarterly Results are Subject to Fluctuations Due to Various Factors that May Adversely Affect Our Business and Result of Operations.  Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate significantly in the future due to a number of factors, including: 

 

 

Our Revenues are Subject to Seasonal Variations.    In previous years, our revenues have been characterized by seasonality, with revenues typically growing from the first quarter to the second quarter, being relatively constant from the second quarter to the third quarter, growing in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter and declining in the first quarter of the following year from the fourth quarter of the preceding year. This historical trend has been affected and may continue to be affected in the future by broad fluctuations in the global industrial economy as well as the timing of new product introductions or any acquisitions. In addition, revenue derived from very large orders, including those from our largest customer, have had a significant impact on our historical seasonal trends as these orders may be more sensitive to changes in the global industrial economy, may be subject to greater volatility in timing and amount, greater discount variability, lower gross margins, and may contract at a faster pace during economic downturns.

 

Our Reported Financial Results May be Adversely Affected by Changes in Accounting Principles Generally Accepted in the U.S. We prepare our financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. These accounting principles are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission. A change in these policies or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, may retroactively affect previously reported results, could cause unexpected financial reporting fluctuations, and may require us to make costly changes to our operational processes and accounting systems. In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers which supersedes nearly all existing U.S. GAAP revenue recognition guidance. The new standard will be effective for our fiscal year 2018 with early adoption permitted for our fiscal year 2017. Although we are currently in the process of evaluating the impact of ASU 2014-09 on our consolidated financial statements, it could change the way we account for certain of our sales transactions. Thus, adoption of the standard could have a significant impact on our financial statements and may retroactively affect the accounting treatment of transactions completed before adoption.

 

Our Tax Returns and Other Tax Matters are Subject to Examination by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Other Tax Authorities and Governmental Bodies and the Results of These Examinations Could Have a Material Adverse Effect on Our Financial Condition. We account for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in our financial statements using prescribed recognition thresholds and measurement attributes for financial statement disclosure of tax positions taken or expected to be taken on our tax returns. These uncertain tax positions are subject to examination by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. There can be no assurance as to the outcome of any future examinations. If the ultimate determination of our taxes owed is for an amount in excess of amounts previously accrued, our operating results, cash flows, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. The tax years 2008 through 2015 remain open to examination by the major taxing jurisdictions to which we are subject.

 

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Tax Law Changes in Hungary Could Have a Negative Impact on our Effective Tax Rate, Earnings and Results of Operations. The profit from our Hungarian operation benefits from the fact that it is subject to an effective income tax rate that is lower than the U.S. federal statutory tax rate of 35%. Our earnings in Hungary are subject to a statutory tax rate of 19%. In addition, effective January 1, 2010, certain qualified research and development expenses in Hungary became eligible for an enhanced tax deduction. These tax benefits may not be available in future years due to changes in political conditions in Hungary or changes in tax laws in Hungary or in the U.S. The reduction or elimination of these benefits in Hungary or future changes in U.S. law pertaining to the taxation of foreign earnings could result in an increase in our future effective income tax rate which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. (See Note 9 – Income taxes of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional discussion regarding the impact of these matters on our income taxes).

 

 Our Income Tax Rate could be Adversely Affected by the Expiration of a Tax Holiday in Malaysia. Profits from our manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia are free of tax under a 15 year tax holiday effective January 1, 2013. If we fail to satisfy the conditions of the tax holiday, this tax benefit may be terminated early. The expiration of the tax holiday in Malaysia or future changes in U.S. law pertaining to the taxation of foreign earnings could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. (See Note 9 – Income taxes of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional discussion regarding the impact of this tax holiday on our income taxes).

 

Our Manufacturing Capacity, and a Substantial Majority of our Warehousing and Distribution Capacity is Located Outside of the U.S. We manufacture a substantial majority of our product volume at our facilities in Debrecen, Hungary and Penang, Malaysia. Additional production, primarily of RF products and of low volume, complex or newly introduced products was done in Austin, Texas; however, we recently completed the transition of all of our Austin based manufacturing activities to our manufacturing facilities in Hungary and Malaysia.

 

In order to enable timely shipment of products to our customers we also maintain the vast majority of our inventory at our international locations. In addition to being subject to the risks of maintaining such a concentration of manufacturing capacity and global inventory, these facilities and their operations are also subject to risks associated with doing business internationally, including:

 

 

No assurance can be given that our efforts to mitigate these risks will be successful. Any failure to effectively deal with the risks above could result in an interruption in the operations of our facilities in Hungary or Malaysia which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. 

 

Our centralization of inventory and distribution from a limited number of shipping points is subject to inherent risks, including:

 

 

Difficulties arising from the centralization of our distribution or delays in the implementation of the systems or processes to support this centralized distribution could result in an interruption of our normal operations, including our ability to process orders and ship products to our customers. Any failure or delay in distribution from our facilities in Hungary and Malaysia could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

 

Our Manufacturing Facility in Penang, Malaysia Could Adversely Affect our Gross Margin, Results of Operations and Earnings if Anticipated Demand is Not Achieved. Our facility in Malaysia is intended to support our long term manufacturing and warehousing capacity needs. If demand for our products does not grow as expected or if it contracts in future periods, we will have excess warehousing and manufacturing capacity which will cause an increase in overhead that will likely negatively impact our gross margins and results of operations in future periods.

 

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Our Business is Dependent on Key Suppliers and Distributors and Disruptions in these Businesses Could Adversely Affect our Business and Results of Operations. Our manufacturing processes use large volumes of high-quality components and subassemblies supplied by outside sources. Several of these components are only available through limited sources. Limited source components purchased include custom ASICs, chassis and other components. We have in the past experienced delays and quality problems in connection with limited source components, and there can be no assurance that these problems will not recur in the future. Accordingly, our failure to receive components from limited suppliers could result in a material adverse effect on our net sales and operating results. In the event that any of our limited source suppliers experience significant financial or operational difficulties due to adverse global economic conditions or otherwise, our business and operating results would likely be adversely impacted until we are able to secure another source for the required materials.

 

In some countries, we use distributors to support our sales channels. In the event that any of our distributors experience significant financial or operational difficulties due to adverse global economic conditions or if we experience disruptions in the use of these distributors, our business and operating results would likely be adversely impacted until we are able to secure another distributor or establish direct sales capabilities in the affected market.      

 

We May Experience Component Shortages that May Adversely Affect Our Business and Result of Operations.    As has occurred in the past and as may be expected to occur in the future, supply shortages of components used in our products, including limited source components, can result in significant additional costs and inefficiencies in manufacturing. If we are unsuccessful in resolving any such component shortages in a timely manner, we will experience a significant impact on the timing of revenue, a possible loss of revenue, and/or an increase in manufacturing costs, any of which would have a material adverse impact on our operating results. 

 

Concentrations of Credit Risk and Uncertain Conditions in the Global Financial Markets May Adversely Affect Our Business and Result of Operations.    By virtue of our holdings of cash, investment securities and foreign currency derivatives, we have exposure to many different counterparties, and routinely execute transactions with counterparties in the financial services industry, including commercial banks and investment banks. Many of these transactions expose us to credit risk in the event of a default of our counterparties. We continue to monitor the stability of the financial markets, particularly those in the emerging markets. We can give no assurance that we will not be negatively impacted by any adverse outcomes in those markets. There can be no assurance that any losses or impairments to the carrying value of our financial assets as a result of defaults by our counterparties, would not materially and adversely affect our business, financial position and results of operations. 

We Rely on Management Information Systems and Interruptions in our Information Technology Systems or Cyber-Attacks on our Systems Could Adversely Affect our Business.  We rely on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of complex information technology systems and networks to operate our business. We rely on a primary global center for our management information systems and on multiple systems in branches not covered by our global center. As with any information system, unforeseen issues may arise that could affect our ability to receive adequate, accurate and timely financial information, which in turn could inhibit effective and timely decisions. Furthermore, it is possible that our global center for information systems or our branch operations could experience a complete or partial shutdown. A significant system or network disruption could be the result of new system implementations, computer viruses, cyber-attacks, security breaches, facility issues or energy blackouts.  Threats to our information technology security can take a variety of forms and individuals or groups of hackers or sophisticated organizations including state-sponsored organizations, may take steps that pose threats to our customers and our infrastructure. If we were to experience a shutdown, disruption or attack, it would adversely impact our product shipments and net sales, as order processing and product distribution are heavily dependent on our management information systems. Such an interruption could also result in a loss of our intellectual property or the release of sensitive competitive information or partner, customer or employee personal data. Any loss of such information could harm our competitive position, result in a loss of customer confidence, and cause us to incur significant costs to remedy the damages caused by the disruptions or security breaches. In addition, changing laws and regulations governing our responsibility to safeguard private data could result in a significant increase in operating and/or capital expenditures needed to comply with these new laws or regulations. Accordingly, our operating results in such periods would be adversely impacted. From time to time, we have experienced attempts to breach our security and attempts to introduce malicious software into our information technology systems; however, such attacks have not previously resulted in any material damage to us.

We are continually working to maintain reliable systems to control costs and improve our ability to deliver our products in our markets worldwide. Our efforts include, but are not limited to the following: firewalls, antivirus protection, patches, log monitors, routine backups with offsite retention of storage media, system audits, data partitioning and routine password modifications. Our internal information technology systems environment continues to evolve and our business policies and internal security controls may not keep pace as new threats emerge.  No assurance can be given that our efforts to continue to enhance our systems will be successful.

 

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We are Subject to Risks Associated with Our Website.    We devote significant resources to maintain our website, ni.com, as a key marketing, sales and support tool and expect to continue to do so in the future. However, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in our attempt to leverage the Web to increase sales. Failure to properly maintain our Website may interrupt normal operations, including our ability to provide quotes, process orders, ship products, provide services and support to our customers, bill and track our customers, fulfill contractual obligations and otherwise run our business which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We host our Website internally. Any failure to successfully maintain our Website or any significant downtime or outages affecting our Website could have a material adverse impact on our operating results.

 

Adoption of Complex Health Care Legislation and Related Regulations and Financial Reform Have Increased our Operating Costs and Adversely Affected Our Result of Operations. The adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the related reconciliation measure, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, and the regulations resulting from such legislation have increased the costs of providing health care to our employees as well as caused us to incur additional administrative burdens and costs to comply with certain provisions of this legislation. We are unable to predict the ultimate amount or timing of any such increased costs or to what extent we may need to divert other resources to comply with various provisions of this legislation. Additionally, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has resulted in increased costs to us as a result of fees as well as incremental efforts we have had to undertake to comply with provisions of this law which are applicable to our derivative contracts or other financial instruments. In addition to the fees and efforts we have already incurred and undertaken to comply with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, we may incur additional costs in future periods as new rules are published and become effective.

 

Our Products are Complex and May Contain Bugs or Errors.  As has occurred in the past and as may be expected to occur in the future, our new software products or new operating systems of third parties on which our products are based often contain bugs or errors that can result in reduced sales or cause our support costs to increase, either of which could have a material adverse impact on our operating results. 

  

Our Business Depends on Our Proprietary Rights and We Have Been Subject to Intellectual Property Litigation.  Our success depends on our ability to obtain and maintain patents and other proprietary rights relative to the technologies used in our principal products. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may have in the past infringed or violated certain of our intellectual property rights. We from time to time engage in litigation to protect our intellectual property rights. In monitoring and policing our intellectual property rights, we have been and may be required to spend significant resources. We from time to time may be notified that we are infringing certain patent or intellectual property rights of others. There can be no assurance that any future intellectual property dispute or litigation will not result in significant expense, liability, injunction against the sale of some of our products, and a diversion of management’s attention, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

  

Our Business Depends on the Continued Service of Key Management and Technical Personnel.  Our success depends upon the continued contributions of our key management, sales, marketing, research and development and operational personnel, including Dr. Truchard, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and other members of our senior management and key technical personnel. We have no agreements providing for the employment of any of our key employees for any fixed term and our key employees may voluntarily terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of the services of one or more of our key employees in the future could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. We also believe our future success will depend upon our ability to attract and retain additional highly skilled management, technical, marketing, research and development, and operational personnel with experience in managing large and rapidly changing companies, as well as training, motivating and supervising employees. The market for hiring and retaining certain technical personnel, including software engineers, has become more competitive and intense in recent years. Failure to attract a sufficient number of qualified technical personnel, including software engineers or retain our key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.  

 

Our Operations are Subject to a Variety of Environmental Regulations and Costs that May Have a Material Adverse Effect on our Business and Results of our Operations.    We must comply with many different governmental regulations related to the use, storage, discharge and disposal of toxic, volatile or otherwise hazardous chemicals used in our operations in the U.S., Hungary, and Malaysia. Although we believe that our activities conform to presently applicable environmental regulations, our failure to comply with present or future regulations could result in the imposition of fines, suspension of production or a cessation of operations. Any such environmental regulations could require us to acquire costly equipment or to incur other significant expenses to comply with such regulations. Any failure by us to control the use of or adequately restrict the discharge of hazardous substances could subject us to future liabilities.

 

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We Are Subject to the Risk of Product Liability Claims.    Our products are designed to provide information upon which users may rely. Our products are also used in “real time” applications requiring extremely rapid and continuous processing and constant feedback. Such applications give rise to the risk that a failure or interruption of the system or application could result in economic damage, bodily harm or property damage. We attempt to assure the quality and accuracy of the processes contained in our products, and to limit our product liability exposure through contractual limitations on liability, limited warranties, express disclaimers and warnings as well as disclaimers contained in our “shrink wrap” and electronically displayed license agreements with end-users. If our products contain errors that produce incorrect results on which users rely or cause failure or interruption of systems or processes, customer acceptance of our products could be adversely affected. Further, we could be subject to liability claims that could have a material adverse effect on our operating results or financial position. Although we maintain liability insurance for product liability matters, there can be no assurance that such insurance or the contractual limitations used by us to limit our liability will be sufficient to cover or limit any claims which may occur.

 

 Provisions in Our Charter Documents and Delaware Law May Delay or Prevent an Acquisition of Us.  Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us without the consent of our Board of Directors. These provisions include a classified Board of Directors, prohibition of stockholder action by written consent, prohibition of stockholders to call special meetings and the requirement that the holders of at least 80% of our shares approve any business combination not otherwise approved by two-thirds of our Board of Directors. Delaware law also imposes some restrictions on mergers and other business combinations between us and any holder of 15% or more of our outstanding common stock. In addition, our Board of Directors has the right to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval, which could be used to dilute the stock ownership of a potential hostile acquirer.

 

Compliance With Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is Costly and Challenging.  As required by Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, this Form 10-K contains our management’s certification of adequate disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2015. This Form 10-K also contains a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting including an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2015. This Form 10-K also contains an attestation and report by our external auditors with respect to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404. While these assessments and reports did not reveal any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, compliance with Sections 302 and 404 is required for each future fiscal year end. We expect that the ongoing compliance with Sections 302 and 404 will continue to be both very costly and very challenging and there can be no assurance that material weaknesses will not be identified in future periods. Any adverse results from such ongoing compliance efforts could result in a loss of investor confidence in our financial reports and have an adverse effect on our stock price.   

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ITEM 1B.UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

 

None.

 

ITEM 2.PROPERTIES

 

We own approximately 145 acres of land in the Austin, Texas area. Our principal corporate and research and development activities are conducted in three buildings we own in Austin, Texas; 232,000 square foot and 140,000 square foot office facilities, and a 380,000 square foot research and development facility. We also own a 136,000 square foot office building in Austin, Texas which is being leased to third parties.

Our principal manufacturing activities are conducted in Debrecen, Hungary and Penang, Malaysia. We own a 306,000 square foot manufacturing, distribution and general and administrative facility in Debrecen, Hungary and a 314,000 square foot manufacturing, research and development, and general and administrative facility in Penang, Malaysia. In total, we hold a 99 year lease on approximately 23 acres of land comprised of two tracts in an industrial park in Penang, Malaysia.

Our German subsidiary, National Instruments Engineering GmbH & Co. KG, owns a 25,500 square foot office building in Aachen, Germany in which a majority of its activities are conducted. National Instruments Engineering owns another 19,375 square foot office building in Aachen, Germany, which is partially leased to third-parties. National Instruments Corporation (UK) Limited, United Kingdom, owns a 29,270 square foot office building in Newbury, UK.

As of December 31, 2015, we also leased a number of sales and support offices in the U.S. and various countries throughout the world. We believe our existing facilities are adequate to meet our current requirements.

 

ITEM 3.LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

We are not currently a party to any material litigation. However, in the ordinary course of our business, we are involved in a limited number of legal actions, both as plaintiff and defendant, and could incur uninsured liability in any one or more of them. We also periodically receive notifications from various third parties related to alleged infringement of patents or intellectual property rights, commercial disputes or other matters. No assurances can be given with respect to the extent or outcome of any future litigation or dispute. 

 

ITEM 4.MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II

 

 

ITEM 5.MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

 

Our common stock began trading on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol NATI effective March 13, 1995. The high and low closing prices for our common stock, as reported by Nasdaq for the two most recent fiscal years, are as indicated in the following table:

 

 

At the close of business on February 10, 2016, there were approximately 374 holders of record of our common stock and approximately 31,747 beneficial holders of our common stock.

 

We believe factors such as quarterly fluctuations in our results of operations, announcements by us or our competitors, changes in earnings estimates by analysts or changes in our financial guidance, technological innovations, new product introductions, governmental regulations or litigation, may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate, perhaps substantially. In addition, stock prices for many technology companies fluctuate widely for reasons that may be unrelated to their operating results. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

 

Our cash dividend payments for the two most recent fiscal years, on a per share basis, are indicated in the following table. The dividends were paid on the dates set forth below:

 

 

Our policy as to future dividends will be based on, among other considerations, our balance of domestic cash, our ability to obtain external financing through a line of credit, or by selling equity or debt securities to the public or to selected investors, our views on changes in tax rates applied to dividend income, potential future capital requirements related to research and development, expansion into new market areas, strategic investments and business acquisitions, share dilution management, legal risks, and challenges to our business model.

 

On January 27, 2016, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per common share, payable on March 7, 2016, to stockholders of record on February 16, 2016.

 

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See Item 12 for information regarding securities authorized for issuance under our equity compensation plans.

 

Performance Graph

 

The following graph compares the cumulative total return to holders of NI’s common stock from December 31, 2010 to December 31, 2015  to the cumulative return over such period of the (i) Nasdaq Composite Index and (ii) Russell 2000 Index. We use the Russell 2000 Index due to the fact that we have not been able to identify a published industry or line of business index that we believe appropriately reflects our industry or line of business. We considered that some of our primary competitors are or were divisions of large corporations that have other significant business operations such that any index comprised of such competitors would not be reflective of our industry or line of business. We have also considered using a peer group index but do not believe such index is appropriate as we have not been able to identify other public companies that we believe are principally in the same line of business as we are.

 

The graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2010 in NI’s common stock and in each of the other two indices and the reinvestment of all dividends, if any. Stockholders are cautioned against drawing any conclusions from the data contained therein, as past results are not necessarily indicative of future performance.

 

 

 

 

The information contained in the Performance Graph shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC, nor shall such information be incorporated by reference into any future filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or the Exchange Act, except to the extent that NI specifically incorporates it by reference into any such filing. The graph is presented in accordance with SEC requirements.

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  Issuer Purchase of Equity Securities

 

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

 

Pursuant to the Agreement for Sale and Purchase of Shares of M2 dated October 23, 2015, we issued 367,481 shares of our common stock to Blasstech SAS (Blasstech) through one of our wholly owned subsidiaries as consideration for Blasstech’s shares of M2. This issuance of securities was deemed to be exempt from registration under the Securities Act in reliance on Section 4(2) of the Securities Act as a transaction by an issuer not involving a public offering. The recipient of securities in such transaction represented its intention to acquire the securities for investment only and not with a view to or for sale in connection with any distribution thereof and appropriate legends were affixed to the electronic records representing such securities in such transaction.

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ITEM 6.SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

 

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, including the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in this Form 10-K. The information set forth below is not necessarily indicative of the results of our future operations. The information should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

 

 

 

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ITEM 7.MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS  

 

The following “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Any statements contained herein regarding our future financial performance,  operations, or other activities (including, without limitation, statements to the effect that we “believe,” “expect,” “plan,”, ”intend to”,“may,” “will,” “project,” “anticipate”, “continue,” or “estimate” or other variations thereof or comparable terminology or the negative thereof) should be considered forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of important factors including those set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” beginning on page 13, and elsewhere in this Form 10-K. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We disclaim any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement.

 

  Overview  

  

National Instruments Corporation (“we”, “us” or “our”) designs, manufactures and sells tools to engineers and scientists that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery. Our platform-based approach to engineering provides an integrated software and hardware platform that speeds the development of systems needing measurement and control. We believe our long-term vision and focus on technology supports the success of our customers, employees, suppliers and stockholders. We sell to a large number of customers in a wide variety of industries. We have been profitable in every year since 1990. No single customer accounted for more than 3%, 5%, or 3% of our sales in 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively.

 

The key strategies that we focus on in running our business are the following:

  

Expanding our broad customer base  

  

We strive to increase our already broad customer base and to grow our large order business by serving a large market on many computer platforms, through a global marketing and distribution network. We also seek to acquire new technologies and expertise from time to time to open new opportunities for our existing product portfolio.  

    

Maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction  

  

To maintain a high level of customer satisfaction we strive to offer innovative, modular and integrated products through a global sales and support network. We strive to maintain a high degree of backwards compatibility across different platforms to preserve the customer’s investment in our products. In this time of intense global competition, we believe it is crucial that we continue to offer products with high quality and reliability, and that our products provide cost-effective solutions for our customers.  

 

Leveraging external and internal technology  

  

Our product strategy is to provide superior products by leveraging generally available technology, supporting open architectures on multiple platforms and by leveraging our core technologies such as custom ASICs across multiple products.

   

We sell into test and measurement and industrial/embedded applications in a broad range of industries and are subject to the economic and industry forces that drive those markets. It has been our experience that the performance of these industries and our performance are impacted by general trends in industrial production for the global economy and by the specific performance of certain vertical markets that are intensive consumers of measurement technologies. Examples of these markets are semiconductor capital equipment, telecom and mobile devices, consumer electronics, energy, defense, aerospace and automotive.

  

Leveraging a worldwide sales, distribution and manufacturing network  

  

We distribute and sell our software and hardware products primarily through a direct sales organization. We also use independent distributors, OEMs, VARs, system integrators and consultants to market and sell our products. We have sales offices in the U.S. and sales offices and distributors in key international markets. Sales outside of the Americas accounted for approximately 59% of our revenues in 2015, 60% of our revenues in 2014 and 59% of our revenues in 2013. The vast majority of our foreign sales are denominated in the customers’ local currency, which exposes us to the effects of changes in foreign currency exchange rates. We expect that a significant portion of our total revenues will continue to be derived from international sales. (See Note 13 - Segment information of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for details concerning the geographic breakdown of our net sales and long-lived assets).  

  

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We manufacture a substantial majority of our product volume at our facilities in Debrecen, Hungary and Penang, Malaysia. Additional production, primarily of RF products and of low volume, complex or newly introduced products was previously done in Austin, Texas, however, we completed the transition of all of our Austin based manufacturing activities to our manufacturing facilities in Hungary and Malaysia in the third quarter of 2015. In 2016, our site in Malaysia is expected to produce approximately 35% of our global production and our site in Hungary is expected to produce approximately 65% of our global production. Our product manufacturing operations can be divided into four areas: electronic circuit card and module assembly; chassis and cable assembly; technical manuals and product support documentation; and software duplication. Most of our electronic circuit card assemblies, modules and chassis are manufactured in house, although contractors are used from time to time. The majority of our electronic cable assemblies are produced by contractors; however, we do manufacture some on an exception basis. Our software duplication, technical manuals and product support documentation is primarily produced by contractors. 

 

Delivering high quality, reliable products

 

We believe that our long-term growth and success depend on delivering high quality software and hardware products on a timely basis. Accordingly, we focus significant efforts on research and development. We focus our research and development efforts on enhancing existing products and developing new products that incorporate appropriate features and functionality to be competitive with respect to technology, price and performance. Our success also is dependent on our ability to obtain and maintain patents and other proprietary rights related to technologies used in our products. We have engaged in litigation and where necessary, will likely engage in future litigation to protect our intellectual property rights. In monitoring and policing our intellectual property rights, we have been and may be required to spend significant resources.

  

Our operating results fluctuate from period to period due to changes in global economic conditions and a number of other factors. As a result, we believe our historical results of operations should not be relied upon as indications of future performance. There can be no assurance that our net sales will grow or that we will remain profitable in future periods.

  

Current business outlook 

 

Many of the industries we serve have historically been cyclical and have experienced periodic downturns. In assessing our business, we consider the trends in the Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (“PMI”), global industrial production as well as industry reports on the specific vertical industries that we target. In the three month period ended December 31, 2015, the average of the PMI was 51.1 and the average of the new order element of the PMI was 51.4, both indicating modest expansion. For January 2016, the most recent PMI reading was 50.9, slightly below the most recent quarterly average but slightly above the December 2015 reading of 50.7. For January 2016, the new order element of the PMI was 51.4, also slightly below the most recent quarterly average, but above the December 2015 new order element reading of 50.8. During the three month period ended December 31, 2015, the PMI in the U.S. and the Eurozone maintained readings above 50. We are unable to predict whether the industrial economy, as measured by the PMI, will remain above the neutral reading of 50, strengthen or contract during 2016.

 

We remain concerned with the economic trends in early 2016. The ongoing uncertainty created by volatile currency, credit, and equity markets, a weak PMI and continued weakness in the PC and energy sectors are concerning as we look ahead to 2016. During 2015, we saw a sharp and broad appreciation of the U.S. dollar against many of the currencies in which we do business with the U.S. dollar index trading at or near a ten year high. The strength of the U.S. dollar is expected to continue to have a negative impact on the U.S. dollar equivalent of our foreign currency denominated sales. For the first quarter of 2016, we expect the strong U.S. dollar will reduce the U.S. dollar equivalent of our foreign currency denominated sales by as much as 4%. The ongoing uncertainty created by volatile currency, credit, and equity markets, continued weakness in the PMI, a prolonged period of low oil prices, and continued weakness in the PC industry, alone or in combination, may continue to have a material adverse effect on our revenues and the financial results of our operations. In addition, we remain concerned about the geopolitical and fiscal instability in the Middle East and some Emerging Markets where we do business. These factors as well as others we may not contemplate could have a material adverse effect on the spending patterns of businesses including our current and potential customers which could have a material adverse effect our revenues and our results of operations. Other factors that could adversely influence demand for our products include unemployment, labor and healthcare costs, access to credit, consumer and business confidence, and other macroeconomic factors that could have a negative impact on capital investment and spending behavior.

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Results of Operations  

  

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the percentage of net sales represented by certain items reflected in our Consolidated Statements of Income:  

 

  Figures may not sum due to rounding.

 

Results of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013

 

Net Sales.  Our net sales were $1,225 million, $1,244 million, and $1,173 million in the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively, a decrease of 1% in 2015 following an increase of 6% in 2014. Product sales were $1,113 million, $1,143 million and $1,091 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively, a decrease of 3% in 2015 following an increase of 5% in 2014. In 2015, the decrease in product sales was due to a sharp and broad appreciation of the U.S. dollar in many of the markets in which we do business. In 2014, the increase in product sales was due to increased sales volume. Software maintenance sales were $112 million, $101 million and $81 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively, an increase of 11% in 2015 following an increase of 24% in 2014. Software maintenance sales grew at a faster rate than our overall net sales during 2015 and 2014, primarily due to increased growth of our enterprise licensing agreements. 

 

We do not typically maintain a large amount of order backlog as orders typically translate to sales quickly. As such, any weakness in orders typically has a pronounced impact on our net sales in the short term.

 

The factors that most significantly impacted our net sales were the year over year change in orders from our largest customer and the year over year adverse impact of changes in the foreign currency exchange markets, both discussed in more detail below.

 

Large orders, defined as orders with a value greater than $100,000, decreased by 2% year over year during 2015, compared to a year over year increase of 18% in 2014. A significant amount of the decrease in our large orders in 2015 compared to 2014 was the result of lower orders from our largest customer. During 2015, orders from this customer decreased by $31 million compared to 2014. During 2014, orders from this customer increased by $23 million compared to 2013. Excluding the impact of our largest customer, large orders grew by 12%, 9% and 19% during 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively. Orders from our largest customer are discussed in more detail below. Large orders were 23%, 22%, and 21% of our total orders for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively. Larger orders are more volatile, are subject to greater discount variability and may contract at a faster pace during an economic downturn.

 

With respect to our largest customer, we are serving several different applications for this customer, each involving the use of LabVIEW and the NI PXI platform. During 2015, we received $28 million in new orders from our largest customer and recognized net revenue of $29 million related to orders from this customer. During 2014, we received new orders totaling $60 million from this customer, of which $52 million was recognized in revenue.  

 

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We previously disaggregated net sales for four geographic regions which consisted of the Americas, Europe, East Asia, and Emerging Markets. In the third quarter of 2015, we began disaggregating net sales into three geographic regions which consist of the Americas; Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa (“EMEIA”); and Asia-Pacific (“APAC”). This resulted in the revenue previously reported under the Emerging Markets region being allocated to the EMEIA and APAC regions. We have revised information from comparative periods to conform to the December 31, 2015 presentation.

 

For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, net sales in the Americas were $497 million, $496 million, and $484 million, respectively, relatively flat in 2015 following an increase of 3% in 2014. Sales in the Americas, as a percentage of net sales were 41%, 40%, and 41%, respectively over the three year period. In EMEIA, net sales were $409 million, $412 million and $390 million, respectively, a decrease of 1% in 2015 following an increase of 6% in 2014. Sales in EMEIA, as a percentage of net sales were 33%, 33%, and 33%, respectively, over the three year period. In APAC, net sales were $320 million, $336 million, and $299 million, respectively, a decrease of 5% in 2015 following an increase of 12% in 2014. Sales in APAC, as a percentage of net sales were 26%, 27%, and 26%, respectively, over the three year period. 

 

We expect sales outside of the Americas to continue to represent a significant portion of our revenue. We intend to continue to expand our international operations by increasing our presence in existing markets, adding a presence in some new geographical markets and continuing the use of distributors to sell our products in some countries.  

 

Almost all of the sales made by our direct sales offices in the Americas (excluding the U.S.), EMEIA, and APAC are denominated in local currencies, and accordingly, the U.S. dollar equivalent of these sales is affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates. For the year ended December 31, 2015, in local currency terms, our consolidated net sales increased by $50 million, or 4%, Americas sales increased by $13 million, or 3%, EMEIA sales increased by $36 million, or 9%, and sales in APAC increased by $2 million, or 1%, compared to the year ended December 31, 2014. During this same period, the change in exchange rates had the effect of decreasing our consolidated sales by $69 million, or 6%, decreasing Americas sales by $12 million, or 2%, decreasing EMEIA sales by $39 million, or 9%, and decreasing APAC sales by $18 million, or 5%.

 

For 2014, in local currency terms, our consolidated net sales increased by $78 million, or 7%, Americas sales increased by $16 million, or 3%, EMEIA sales increased by $22 million, or 6%, and APAC sales increased by $40 million, or 13%, compared to the year ended December 31, 2013. During this same period, the change in exchange rates had the effect of decreasing our consolidated sales by $12 million, or 1%, decreasing Americas sales by $3.4 million, or 0.7%, decreasing EMEIA sales by $2.6 million, or 0.7%, and decreasing APAC sales by $5.5 million, or 1.9%. 

    

To help protect against changes in the U.S. dollar equivalent value caused by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates of forecasted foreign currency cash flows resulting from international sales, we hedge portions of our forecasted revenue denominated in foreign currencies with average rate forward contracts. During year ended December 31, 2015, these hedges had the effect of increasing our consolidated sales by $24 million. During 2014, these hedges had the effect of increasing our consolidated sales by $4.9 million. (See Note 4 - Derivative instruments and hedging activities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion regarding our cash flow hedging program and its related impacted on our consolidated sales for 2015 and 2014). 

 

Gross Profit. For years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, gross profit was $909 million, $926 million, and $867 million, respectively. As a percentage of sales, gross profit was 74% in each of the years ended 2015, 2014, and 2013. We continue to focus on cost control and cost reduction measures throughout our manufacturing cycle. 

  

During the years ended December 31, 2015, and 2014, the change in exchange rates had the effect of decreasing our cost of sales by $10.5 million and $1.8 million, respectively. To help protect against changes in our cost of sales caused by a fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates of forecasted foreign currency cash flows, we hedge portions of our forecasted costs of sales denominated in foreign currencies with average rate forward contracts. During the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, these hedges had the effect of increasing our cost of sales by $2.3 million and decreasing our cost of sales by $67,000, respectively. (See Note 4 - Derivative instruments and hedging activities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion regarding our cash flow hedging program and its related impacted on our consolidated sales for 2015 and 2014).  

 

Operating Expenses. For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, operating expenses were $771 million, $781 million and $769 million, respectively, a decrease of 1% in 2015, following an increase of 2% in 2014. In 2015, the net impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates decreased our operating expense by $38 million.  This was partially offset by higher personnel related expenses of $18 million, higher expenses for building and equipment of $11 million, and additional travel costs of $4 million. The increase in personnel costs was driven by an increase in headcount as well as raises for eligible employees. In addition, a $6 million decrease in operating expenses related to software development which coincides with the $6 million increase in our capitalized software compared to the year ended December 31, 2014. The increase in our capitalized software is consistent with our focus on new product development to support future growth in our business. We capitalize software development costs when technological feasibility has been established and amortize those costs as a component of cost of sales once the corresponding product is available for general release to customers. (See Note 1 – Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 7 – Intangible Assets of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion related to the capitalization and amortization of software development costs.)

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The increase in our operating expenses in 2014 was due to higher personnel related expenses of $26 million driven by an increase in commissions due to higher sales volume, an increase in variable compensation due to the overall improvement in our operating results compared to 2013 as well as raises for eligible employees. In addition, the overall increase in 2014 is attributed to higher expenses for building and equipment of $4.2 million, offset by an $11 million decrease in software development costs. The decrease in our software development costs coincides with the $11 million increase in our capitalized software compared to the year ended December 31, 2013. The increase in our capitalized software is consistent with our focus on new product development to support future growth in our business. Over the same period, the net impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates decreased our operating expense by $5.2 million. 

 

We believe that our long-term growth and success depends on developing high quality software and hardware products on a timely basis. We are focused on leveraging recent investments in research and development and in our field sales force and taking actions to help ensure that those resources are focused in areas and initiatives that will contribute to future growth in our business. For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, our sales and marketing expenses were $452 million, $462 million and $448 million, respectively, and research and development expenses were $225 million, $227 million and $235 million, respectively. The decrease in sales and marketing expenses in 2015 was driven by a decrease in commissions due to lower sales volume and a decrease in variable compensation compared to 2014. The increase in sales and marketing expenses in 2014 was driven by an increase in commissions due to higher sales volume, an increase in variable compensation due to the overall improvement in our operating results compared to 2013 as well as raises for eligible employees. 

 

Operating Income.    For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, operating income was $137 million, $145 million and $99 million, respectively, a decrease of 6% in 2015, following an increase of 47% in 2014. As a percentage of net sales, operating income was 11%, 12% and 8%, respectively, over the three year period.  The decrease in operating income in absolute dollars and as a percent of sales in 2015 and the increase in operating income in absolute dollars and as a percent of sales in 2014, is attributable to the factors discussed in Net Sales, Gross Profit and Operating Expenses above.

 

Interest Income.    Interest income was $1.4 million, $1.1 million and $679,000 for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively, an increase of 24% in 2015, following an increase of 67% in 2014. We continue to see low yields for high quality investment alternatives that comply with our corporate investment policy. We do not expect yields in these types of investments to increase significantly in 2016.   

 

Net Foreign Exchange Loss.    Net foreign exchange loss was $(7.1) million, $(2.3) million, and $(2.6) million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively. These results are attributable to movements in the foreign currency exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies in subsidiaries for which our functional currency is not the U.S. dollar. During 2015,  there was sharp volatility in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and most of the major currencies in the markets in which we do business and such volatility was characterized by a broad and sharp strengthening of the U.S. dollar against most currencies. In 2015 net foreign exchange loss included a $3.1 million loss on Euro cash holdings that were subsequently used to fund our acquisition of M2 and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Micropross. We cannot predict the direction or degree of future volatility in these exchange rates. In the past, we have noted that significant volatility in foreign currency exchange rates in the markets in which we do business has had a significant impact on the revaluation of our foreign currency denominated firm commitments, on our ability to forecast our U.S. dollar equivalent revenues and expenses and on the effectiveness of our hedging programs. In the past, these dynamics have also adversely affected our revenue growth in international markets and may pose similar challenges in the future. We recognize the local currency as the functional currency in virtually all of our international subsidiaries.  

We utilize foreign currency forward contracts to hedge our foreign denominated net foreign currency balance sheet positions to help protect against the change in value caused by a fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates. We typically hedge up to 90% of our outstanding foreign denominated net receivable or payable positions and typically limit the duration of these foreign currency forward contracts to approximately 90 days. The gain or loss on these derivatives as well as the offsetting gain or loss on the hedged item attributable to the hedged risk is recognized in current earnings under the line item “Net foreign exchange loss”. Our hedging strategy decreased our foreign exchange losses by $4.3 million in 2015 and $2.5 million in 2014, and increased our foreign exchange losses by $267,000 in 2013. 

 

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Provision for Income Taxes.  For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, our provision for income taxes reflected an effective tax rate of 27%, 12% and 17%, respectively. The factors that caused our effective tax rates to change year-over-year are detailed in the table below:

 

 

 

 

 

(See Note 9 – Income taxes of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion regarding changes in our effective tax rate and a reconciliation of income taxes at the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 35% to our effective tax rate).  

 

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Quarterly results of operations

 

The following quarterly results have been derived from unaudited consolidated financial statements that, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) necessary for a fair presentation of such quarterly information. The operating results for any quarter are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any future period. You should read the following tables presenting our quarterly results of operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes contained elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The unaudited quarterly financial data for each of the eight quarters in the two years ended December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014 are as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

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Other operational metrics  

  

We believe that the following additional unaudited operational metrics assist investors in assessing our operational performance relative to our others in our industry and to our historical results.   

 

 Charges related to stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition intangibles, acquisition related transaction costs, restructuring charges, foreign exchange loss on acquisitions and impairment of cost-method investments.  For the three month periods and years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, the gross charges related to stock-based compensation as a component of cost of sales, sales and marketing, research and development, and general and administrative expenses, the provision for income taxes and the total charges were as follows:

 

For the three month periods and years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, the gross charges related to the amortization of acquired intangibles as a component of cost of sales, sales and marketing, research and development, other income (expense), net, the provision for income taxes and the total charges were as follows:

 

For the three month periods and years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, the gross charges related to acquisition related transaction costs, restructuring charges, foreign exchange loss on acquisitions and impairment of cost-method investments as a component of cost of sales, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative expenses, foreign exchange loss and other expenses,  the provision for income taxes and the total charges were as follows:

 

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Liquidity and Capital Resources  

  

Working Capital, Cash and Cash Equivalents and Short-term Investments.  Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments decreased by $138 million to $333 million at December 31, 2015 from $471 million at December 31, 2014. The following table presents our working capital, cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments:    

 

 

 

  

During year ended December 31, 2015, our working capital decreased by $141 million. Overall, current assets decreased by $148 million while current liabilities decreased by $7 million. The decrease in our current assets was primarily driven by a $138 million decrease in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. An additional $31 million decrease in working capital relates to the reclassification of all current deferred income tax accounts to noncurrent as of December 31, 2015 in accordance with our adoption of Accounting Standard Update No. 2015-17, Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes. Prior periods were not retrospectively adjusted.  The decrease in current liabilities was primarily driven by a decrease in accounts payable and accrued compensation of $13 million partially offset by an increase in deferred revenue of $6 million. The overall decreases in working capital can be attributed to the deployment of cash for five acquisitions in 2015 and our stock repurchase efforts.

 

Accounts receivable increased by $14 million to $216 million at December 31, 2015, from $202 million at December 31, 2014. Days sales outstanding (“DSO”) increased to 62 days at December 31, 2015, compared to 56 days at December 31, 2014. The increase in accounts receivable can be attributed to the year over year increase in DSO. Our DSO has been negatively impacted by accounts in Russia and other countries where the currency devaluation against the U.S. dollar has been significant.

 

Inventory increased by $12 million to $185 million at December 31, 2015, from $173 million at December 31, 2014. Inventory turns were 1.8 at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014. The increase in our inventory balance was a result of increased raw materials to support the final transition of our U.S. based manufacturing activities to Debrecen, Hungary and Penang, Malaysia, as well as to support anticipated sales demand in 2016. 

 

Prepaid expenses and other current assets decreased $5 million to $65 million December 31, 2015, from $70 million at December 31, 2014. The decrease in the fair value of our derivatives designated as hedging instruments accounted for $15 million of this decrease which was offset by a $10 million increase related to the timing of payments of U.S. federal taxes as well as value added taxes (“VAT”) in various jurisdictions and insurance and maintenance contracts. (See Note 4 - Derivative instruments and hedging activities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a further description of our derivative instruments and hedging activities)

 

Our cash and cash equivalent balances are held in numerous financial institutions throughout the world, including substantial amounts held outside of the U.S., however, the majority of our short-term investments that are located outside of the U.S. are denominated in the U.S. dollar with the exception of $3.5 million U.S. dollar equivalent of corporate bonds that are denominated in Euro. Our short-term investments do not include any foreign sovereign debt. At December 31, 2015, we had $333 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Approximately $32 million or 10% of these amounts were held in domestic accounts with various financial institutions and $301 million or 90% was held in accounts outside of the U.S. with various financial institutions. At December 31, 2014, we had cash and cash equivalents of $471 million of which $91 million or 19% was held in domestic accounts and $380 million or 81% was held in various accounts of our foreign subsidiaries. At December 31, 2015, we had short-term investments of $82 million which was all held in investment accounts of our foreign subsidiaries. Most of the amounts held outside of the U.S. could be repatriated to the U.S., but under current law, would be subject to U.S. federal income taxes, less applicable foreign tax credits. We have provided for the U.S. federal tax liability on these amounts for financial statement purposes, except for foreign earnings that are considered indefinitely reinvested outside of the U.S. Repatriation could result in substantial additional U.S. federal income tax payments in future years. We utilize a variety of tax planning and financing strategies with the objective of having our worldwide cash available in the locations in which it is needed.  

 

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Cash Provided by and (Used in) in the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014. The following table summarizes the proceeds and (uses) of cash:  

 

 

   

For years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, cash provided by operating activities was $163 million and $195 million, respectively. The year over year decrease was primarily related to a decrease in net income of $31 million.

  

Investing activities used cash of $78 million during the year ended December 31, 2015, as a result of payments related to our acquisitions for aggregate cash consideration of $126 million, capital expenditures of $34 million, and capitalization of internally developed software and other intangibles of $34 million, all of which was partially offset by the net sale or maturity of $115 million of short-term investments. Capital expenditures during the year ended December 31, 2015 included payments for the construction of our new general and administrative building in Debrecen, Hungary, leasehold improvements, computers, equipment and furniture and fixtures to support operations throughout our business. Investing activities used cash of $108 million during the year ended December 31, 2014, as a result of capital expenditures of $45 million and capitalization of internally developed software and other intangibles of $26 million, and the net purchase of $34 million of short-term investments. Capital expenditures during year ended December 31, 2014 included payments for the construction of our new general and administrative building in Debrecen, Hungary, leasehold improvements, computers, equipment and furniture and fixtures.

  

Financing activities used cash of $107 million during the year ended December 31, 2015, which was a result of $98 million used to pay dividends to our stockholders, $75 million used to repurchase 2.6 million shares of our common stock at an average price of $29.04 per share, offset by $37 million in net borrowings under our revolving line of credit and $28 million received from the issuance of our common stock from the exercise of employee stock options and from our employee stock purchase plan. Financing activities used cash of $44 million during the year ended December 31, 2014, which was the result of $76 million used to pay dividends to our stockholders, offset by $31 million received from the issuance of our common stock from the exercise of employee stock options and from our employee stock purchase plan.

  

From time to time, our Board of Directors has authorized various programs to repurchase shares of our common stock depending on market conditions and other factors. (See Note 11 – Authorized shares of common and preferred stock and stock-based compensation plans of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on our repurchase program.)

  

During year ended December 31, 2015, we received less proceeds from the exercise of stock options compared to year ended December 31, 2014. The timing and number of stock option exercises and the amount of cash proceeds we receive through those exercises are not within our control. Since 2005, it has been our practice to issue restricted stock units and not stock options to eligible employees which has reduced the number of stock options available for exercise in the future. Unlike the exercise of stock options, the issuance of shares upon vesting of restricted stock units does not result in any cash proceeds to us. At December 31, 2015, there were no outstanding options. As such, we will not generate any proceeds from stock option exercises in 2016.  

  

Contractual Cash Obligations.    The following summarizes our contractual cash obligations as of December 31, 2015:

 

 

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The following summarizes our other commercial commitments as of December 31, 2015:

 

 

We have commitments under non-cancelable operating leases primarily for office facilities throughout the world. Certain leases require us to pay property taxes, insurance and routine maintenance, and include escalation clauses. As of December 31, 2015, we had non-cancelable operating lease obligations of approximately $56 million compared to $54 million at December 31, 2014. Rent expense under operating leases was $20 million, $20 million and $19 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, respectively.

 

Purchase obligations primarily represent purchase commitments for customized inventory and inventory components. As of December 31, 2015, we had non-cancelable purchase commitments with various suppliers of customized inventory and inventory components totaling approximately $7 million over the next twelve months. At December 31, 2014, we had non-cancelable purchase commitments with various suppliers of customized inventory and inventory components totaling approximately $8 million.

 

At December 31, 2015, we had outstanding guarantees for payment of customs and foreign grants totaling approximately $4 million. At December 31, 2014, we had outstanding guarantees for payment of customs, foreign grants and potential customer disputes totaling approximately $12 million.

 

Loan Agreement.  On May 9, 2013, we entered into a Loan Agreement (the “Loan Agreement”) with Wells Fargo Bank (the “Lender”). On October 29, 2015, we entered into a First Amendment to Loan Agreement (the “Amendment”) with the Lender, which amended our Loan Agreement to among other things, i) increase the unsecured revolving line of credit from $50.0 million to $125.0 million, (ii) extend the maturity date of the line of credit from May 9, 2018 to October 29, 2020, and (iii) provide us with an option to request increases to the line of credit of up to an additional $25.0 million in the aggregate, subject to consent of the Lender and terms and conditions to be mutually agreed between us and the Lender. Proceeds of loans made under the Loan Agreement may be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes. We may prepay the loans under the Loan Agreement in whole or in part at any time without premium or penalty. Certain of our existing and future material domestic subsidiaries are required to guaranty our obligations under the Loan Agreement. We may choose to borrow additional funds against this line of credit in future periods to have sufficient domestic cash to fund continued dividends to our stockholders, to fund potential acquisitions or other domestic general corporate purposes without the need to repatriate foreign earnings. (See Note 14 – Debt of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional details on our revolving line of credit).

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements.    We do not have any debt or off-balance sheet debt. At December 31, 2015, we did not have any relationships with any unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements. As such, we are not exposed to any financing, liquidity, market or credit risk that could arise if we were engaged in such relationships.

 

Prospective Capital Needs.    We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, together with cash generated from operations as well as from the purchase of common stock through our employee stock purchase plan, and available borrowings under our Loan Agreement will be sufficient to cover our working capital needs, capital expenditures, investment requirements, commitments, payment of dividends to our stockholders and repurchases of our common stock for at least the next 12 months, although the use of certain of our funds for domestic purposes may require us to repatriate foreign earnings which would be subject to the U.S. federal statutory tax rate of 35%. We may also seek to pursue additional financing or to raise additional funds by selling equity or debt to the public or in private transactions. If we elect to raise additional funds, we may not be able to obtain such funds on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, if at all. If we raise additional funds by issuing additional equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership percentages of our existing stockholders would be reduced. In addition, the equity or debt securities that we issue may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our common stock. We may also choose to repatriate foreign earnings which would be subject to the U.S. federal statutory tax rate of 35% and therefore, would likely have a material adverse effect on our effective tax rate and on our net income and earnings per share. We could also choose to reduce certain expenditures or payments of dividends or suspend our program to repurchase shares of our common stock. 

 

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Although we believe that we have sufficient capital to fund our operating activities for at least the next 12 months, our future capital requirements may vary materially from those now planned. We anticipate that the amount of capital we will need in the future will depend on many factors, including:

 

  

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements  

  

See Note 1 – Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies for discussion regarding recently issued accounting pronouncements.

 

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Critical Accounting Policies

 

The preparation of our financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and related disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on past experience and other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, and we evaluate these estimates on an ongoing basis. Our critical accounting policies are those that affect our financial statements materially and involve difficult, subjective or complex judgments by management. Although these estimates are based on management's best knowledge of current events and actions that may impact the company in the future, actual results may be materially different from the estimates.

 

Our critical accounting policies are as follows:

 

 

We sell test and measurement solutions that include hardware, software licenses, and related services. Our sales are generally made under standard sales arrangements with payment terms ranging from net 30 days in the U.S. to net 30 days and up to net 180 days in some international markets. We offer rights of return and standard warranties for product defects related to our products. The rights of return are generally for a period of up to 30 days after the delivery date. Our standard warranties cover periods ranging from 90 days to three years. Our standard sales arrangements do not require product acceptance from the customer.

 

In recent years, we have made a concentrated effort to increase our revenue through the pursuit of orders with a value greater than $1.0 million. These orders often include contract terms that vary substantially from our standard terms of sale including product acceptance requirements and product performance evaluations which create uncertainty with respect to the timing of our ability to recognize revenue from such orders. These orders may also include most-favored customer pricing, significant discounts, extended payment terms and volume rebates, all of which also may create uncertainty with respect to the amount and timing of revenue recognized from such orders.

 

Sales of application software licenses include post-contract support services. Other services include customer training, customer support, and extended warranties.

 

We recognize revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the price is fixed or determinable, and collectability is reasonably assured. Delivery is considered to have occurred when title and risk of loss have transferred to the customer. For most of our hardware and software sales, title and risk of loss transfer upon shipment. For services, we recognize revenue when the service is provided, except for extended warranties for which revenue is recognized ratably over the warranty period.

 

We apply the separation guidance under U.S. GAAP for contracts with multiple deliverables. We analyze revenue arrangements with multiple deliverables to determine whether the deliverables should be divided into more than one unit of accounting. For contracts with more than one unit of accounting, we allocate the consideration we receive among the separate units of accounting based on their relative selling prices, which we determine based on prices of the deliverables as sold on a stand-alone basis, or if not sold on a stand-alone basis, the prices we would charge if sold on a stand-alone basis. We recognize revenue for each deliverable based on the revenue recognition policies described below.

 

For software arrangements that include multiple elements, including perpetual software licenses and undelivered items (e.g., software maintenance; subscriptions/term licenses), we allocate and defer revenue for the undelivered items based on vendor specific objective evidence (“VSOE”) of the fair value of the undelivered elements, and recognize revenue on the perpetual license using the residual method. We base VSOE of each element on the price for which the undelivered element is sold separately. We determine fair value of the undelivered elements based on historical evidence of our stand-alone sales of these elements to third parties or from the stated renewal rate for the undelivered elements. When VSOE does not exist for undelivered items, we recognize the entire arrangement fee ratably over the applicable performance period.

 

A portion of our revenues are generated from the sale of systems that contain software components that operate together with our hardware platform to provide the essential functionality of the system. When sold in a multiple element arrangement, these systems are considered non-software deliverables, so we can allocate the arrangement fee based upon relative selling price of each element. When applying the relative selling price method, we determine the selling price of each element using best estimate of selling price (“BESP”), because VSOE and third-party evidence (TPE) are not available.

 

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The revenues allocated to the software-related elements are recognized based on software industry specific revenue recognition guidance, as noted above. The revenues allocated to the non-software related elements are recognized based on the nature of the element provided. We estimate BESP by considering internal factors such as historical pricing practices and gross margin objectives, as well as market conditions such as competitor pricing strategies, customer demands and geography, and regularly review these assumptions.

 

The application of revenue recognition standards requires judgment, including whether a software arrangement includes multiple elements, and if so, whether VSOE of fair value exists for those elements. Changes to the elements in a software arrangement, the ability to identify VSOE for those elements, the fair value of the respective elements, and changes to a product’s estimated life cycle could materially impact the amount of our earned and unearned revenue. Judgment is also required to assess whether future releases of certain software represent new products or upgrades and enhancements to existing products.

 

 

The preparation of financial statements requires that we make estimates and assumptions of potential future product returns related to current period product revenue. We analyze historical returns, current economic trends, and changes in customer demand and acceptance of our products when evaluating the adequacy of our sales returns allowance. Significant judgments and estimates must be made and used in connection with establishing the sales returns allowance in any accounting period. A provision for estimated sales returns is made by reducing recorded revenue by the amount of the allowance. Accounts receivable is reported net of the allowance for sales returns. Our allowance for sales returns was $1.9 million and $1.8 million at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. Material differences may result in the amount and timing of our revenue for any period if we made different judgments or utilized different estimates or if our actual results varied materially from our estimates.

 

 

In addition to estimating an allowance for sales returns, we must also make estimates about the uncollectability of our accounts receivable. We specifically analyze accounts receivable and analyze historical bad debts, customer concentrations, customer credit-worthiness and current economic trends when evaluating the adequacy of our allowance for doubtful accounts. Our allowance for doubtful accounts was $2.5 million and $3.0 million at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. We also write down our inventory for estimated obsolescence or unmarketable inventory equal to the difference between the cost of inventory and estimated net realizable value based on assumptions of future demand and market conditions. Our allowance for excess and obsolete inventories was $10.1 million and $9.6 million at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. Significant judgments and estimates must be made and used in connection with establishing these allowances. Material differences may result in the amount and timing of our bad debt and inventory obsolescence if we made different judgments or utilized different estimates or if actual results varied materially from our estimates.

 

 

We capitalize costs related to the development and acquisition of certain software products. Capitalization of costs begins when technological feasibility has been established and ends when the product is available for general release to customers. Technological feasibility for our products is established when the product is available for beta release. Judgment is required in determining when technological feasibility of a product is established. Amortization is computed on an individual product basis for those products available for market and has been recognized based on the product’s estimated economic life, generally three years. At each balance sheet date, the unamortized costs are reviewed by management and reduced to net realized value when necessary. As of December 31, 2015 and 2014, unamortized capitalized software development costs were $50 million and $35 million, respectively.

 

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We assess the impairment of identifiable intangibles, long-lived assets and related goodwill whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. In accordance with FASB ASC 350, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (FASB ASC 350), goodwill is tested for impairment on an annual basis, and between annual tests if indicators of potential impairment exist, using a fair-value-based approach based on the market capitalization of the reporting unit. Our annual impairment test was performed as of February 28, 2015. No impairment of goodwill and long-lived and intangible assets was identified during 2015 and 2014. Goodwill is deductible for tax purposes in certain jurisdictions. We have one operating segment and one reporting unit. Factors considered important which could trigger an impairment review include the following:

 

 

When it is determined that the carrying value of intangibles, long-lived assets and related goodwill may not be recoverable based upon the existence of one or more of the above indicators of impairment, the measurement of any impairment is determined and the carrying value is reduced as appropriate. As of December 31, 2015 and 2014, we had goodwill of approximately $258 million and $144 million, respectively.

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We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the expected tax consequences of temporary differences between the tax basis of assets and liabilities and their reported amounts. Valuation allowances are established when necessary to reduce deferred tax assets to amounts which are more likely than not to be realized. Judgment is required in assessing the future tax consequences of events that have been recognized in our financial statements or tax returns. Variations in the actual outcome of these future tax consequences could materially impact our financial position or our results of operations. In estimating future tax consequences, all expected future events are considered other than enactments of changes in tax laws or rates. We account for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in our financial statements using prescribed recognition thresholds and measurement attributes for financial statement disclosure of tax positions taken or expected to be taken on our tax returns. In 2014, we recognized a gross decrease in unrecognized tax benefits of $14 million related to a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service of the examination of our U.S. income tax returns for 2010 and 2011. Our continuing policy is to recognize interest and penalties related to income tax matters in income tax expense.

 

The tax position of our Hungarian operations continues to benefit from assets created by the restructuring of our operations in Hungary. In addition, our research and development activities in Hungary continue to benefit from a tax law in Hungary that provides for an enhanced deduction for qualified research and development expenses. Partial release of the valuation allowance on assets from the restructuring and the enhanced tax deduction for research expenses resulted in income tax benefits of $9.7 million and $12 million for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. In addition, our earnings in Hungary are subject to a statutory tax rate of 19%. The difference between this rate and the statutory U.S. rate of 35% resulted in income tax benefits of $5.3 million and $8 million for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

 

Earnings from our operations in Malaysia are free of tax under a tax holiday effective January 1, 2013. This tax holiday expires in 2027. If we fail to satisfy the conditions of the tax holiday, this tax benefit may be terminated early. The tax holiday resulted in income tax benefits of $3.4 million and $1.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

 

No other taxing jurisdictions had a significant impact on our effective tax rate. We have not entered into any advanced pricing or other agreements with the Internal Revenue Service with regard to any foreign jurisdictions

 

For additional discussion about our income taxes including components of income before income taxes, our provision for income taxes charged to operations, components of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, a reconciliation of income taxes at the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% to our effective tax rate and other tax matters, see Note 9 – Income taxes of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

 

 

We accrue for probable losses from contingencies including legal defense costs, on an undiscounted basis, when such costs are considered probable of being incurred and are reasonably estimable. We periodically evaluate available information, both internal and external, relative to such contingencies and adjust this accrual as necessary. Disclosure of a contingency is required if there is at least a reasonable possibility that a loss has been incurred. In determining whether a loss should be accrued we evaluate, among other factors, the degree of probability of an unfavorable outcome and our ability to make a reasonable estimate of the amount of loss. Changes in these factors could materially impact our financial position or our results of operation.

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ITEM 7A.QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

  

Financial Risk Management  

  

Our international sales are subject to inherent risks, including fluctuations in local economies; fluctuations in foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar; difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations; greater difficulty in accounts receivable collection; costs and risks of localizing products for foreign countries; unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, tariffs and other trade barriers; difficulties and costs in the repatriation of earnings and burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws.     

 

The vast majority of our sales outside of the United States are denominated in local currencies, and accordingly, the U.S. dollar equivalent of these sales is affected by changes in the foreign currency exchange rates. The change in exchange rates had the effect of decreasing our consolidated sales by $69 million in the year ended December 31, 2015, and by $12 million in the year ended December 31, 2014. Because most of our international operating expenses are also incurred in local currencies, the change in exchange rates had the effect of decreasing our consolidated operating expenses by $38 million in the year ended December 31, 2015, and by $5.2 million in the year ended December 31, 2014.  

  

During 2015, there was sharp volatility in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and most of the major currencies in the markets in which we do business and such volatility was characterized by a broad and sharp strengthening of the U.S. dollar against most currencies. We cannot predict to what degree or how long this volatility in the foreign currency exchange markets will continue. In the past, we have noted that significant volatility in foreign currency exchange rates in the markets in which we do business has had a significant impact on the revaluation of our foreign currency denominated firm commitments, on our ability to forecast our U.S. dollar equivalent revenues and expenses and on the effectiveness of our hedging programs. In recent periods, these dynamics have also adversely affected our revenue growth in international markets and will likely pose similar challenges in the near future. We recognize the local currency as the functional currency in virtually all of our international subsidiaries.  

 

If the local currencies in which we sell our products strengthen against the U.S. dollar, we may need to lower our prices in the local currency to remain competitive in our international markets which could have a material adverse effect on our gross and net profit margins. If the local currencies in which we sell our products weaken against the U.S. dollar and if the local sales prices cannot be raised due to competitive pressures, we will experience a deterioration of our gross and net profit margins. To help protect against the change in the value caused by a fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates of forecasted foreign currency cash flows resulting from international sales and expenses over the next one to two years, we have a foreign currency cash flow hedging program. We hedge portions of our forecasted revenue, cost of sales and operating expenses denominated in foreign currencies with foreign currency forward contracts. For forward contracts, when the dollar strengthens significantly against the foreign currencies, the change in the present value of future foreign currency cash flows may be offset by the change in the fair value of the forward contracts designated as hedges. For purchased option contracts, when the dollar strengthens significantly against the foreign currencies, the change in the present value of future foreign currency cash flows may be offset by the change in the fair value of the option contracts designated as hedges, net of the premium paid. Our foreign currency purchased option contracts are purchased “at-the-money” or “out-of-the-money.” We purchase foreign currency forward and option contracts for up to 100% of our forecasted exposures in selected currencies (primarily in Euro, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, British pound, Malaysian ringgit and Hungarian forint) and limit the duration of these contracts to 40 months or less. As a result, our hedging activities only partially address our risks from foreign currency transactions, and there can be no assurance that this strategy will be successful. We do not invest in contracts for speculative purposes.      

  

During the year ended December 31, 2015, our hedges had the effect of increasing our consolidated sales by $24 million, increasing our cost of sales by $2.3 million, and increasing our operating expenses by $2.0 million. During December 31, 2014, our hedges had the effect of increasing our consolidated sales by $4.9 million, decreasing our cost of sales by $67,000, and increasing our operating expenses by $16,000. (See Note 4 - Derivative instruments and hedging activities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion regarding our cash flow hedging program and its related impacted on our consolidated sales, cost of sales and operating expenses for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014).  

  

Inventory Management  

  

The markets for our products dictate that many of our products be shipped very quickly after an order is received. As a result, we are required to maintain significant inventories. Therefore, inventory obsolescence is a risk for us due to frequent engineering changes, shifting customer demand, the emergence of new industry standards and rapid technological advances including the introduction by us or our competitors of products embodying new technology. However, our risk of obsolescence may be mitigated as many of our products have interchangeable parts and many have long lives. While we adjust for excess and obsolete inventories and we monitor the valuation of our inventories, there can be no assurance that our valuation adjustments will be sufficient.

   

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In recent years, we have made a concentrated effort to increase our revenue through the pursuit of orders with a value greater than $1.0 million. Fulfillment of these contracts can severely challenge our supply chain capabilities at the component acquisition, assembly and delivery stages. These contracts can also require us to develop specific product mitigation plans for product delivery constraints caused by unexpected or catastrophic situations to help assure timely production recovery and to comply with critical delivery commitments where severe contractual liabilities can be imposed on us if we fail to provide the quantity of products at the required delivery times. In order to help mitigate the risks associated with these contractual requirements, we may choose to build inventory levels for certain parts or systems. Because our contracts with such customers may allow the customer to cancel or delay orders without liability, such actions expose our business to increased risk of inventory obsolescence. 

  

Market Risk  

  

We are exposed to a variety of risks, including foreign currency fluctuations and changes in the market value of our investments. In the normal course of business, we employ established policies and procedures to manage our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency values and changes in the market value of our investments.    

 

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments  

  

At December 31, 2015, we had $333 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. See Liquidity and Capital Resources above for further discussion regarding our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.

 

We report our available-for-sale short-term investments at fair value. (See Note 3 – Fair value measurements of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a further description of the fair value measurement of our short term investments).

 

The goal of our investment policy is to manage our investment portfolio to preserve principal and liquidity while maximizing the return on our investment portfolio through the full investment of available funds. We place our cash investments in instruments that meet credit quality standards, as specified in our corporate investment policy guidelines. These guidelines also limit the amount of credit exposure to any one issue, issuer or type of instrument. Our cash equivalents and short-term investments carried ratings from the major credit rating agencies that were in accordance with our corporate investment policy. Our investment policy allows investments in the following: government and federal agency obligations, repurchase agreements (“Repos”), certificates of deposit and time deposits, corporate obligations, medium term notes and deposit notes, commercial paper including asset-backed commercial paper (“ABCP”), puttable bonds, general obligation and revenue bonds, money market funds, taxable commercial paper, corporate notes/bonds, municipal notes, municipal obligations, variable rate demand notes and tax exempt commercial paper. All such instruments must carry minimum ratings of A1/P1/F1, MIG1/VMIG1/SP1 and A2/A/A, as applicable, all of which are considered “investment grade.” Our investment policy for marketable securities requires that all securities mature in five years or less, with a weighted average maturity of no longer than 24 months with at least 10% maturing in 90 days or less.

   

We account for our investments in debt and equity instruments under FASB ASC 320 Investments – Debt and Equity Securities (FASB ASC 320). Our investments are classified as available-for-sale and accordingly are reported at fair value, with unrealized gains and losses reported as other comprehensive income, a component of stockholders’ equity. Unrealized losses are charged against income when a decline in fair value is determined to be other-than-temporary. Investments with maturities beyond one year are classified as short-term based on their highly liquid nature and because such marketable securities represent the investment of cash that is available for current operations. The fair value of our short-term investments at December 31, 2015 and 2014 was $82 million and $197 million, respectively. This decrease was due to our net sale of $115 million of short-term investments.   

  

We follow the guidance provided by FASB ASC 320 to assess whether our investments with unrealized loss positions are other than temporarily impaired. Realized gains and losses and declines in value judged to be other-than-temporary are determined based on the specific identification method and are reported in other income (expense), net, in our Consolidated Statements of Income. During the fourth quarter of 2015, we recorded a non-cash charge of $1 million (recorded in other, net) for the impairment of a  cost-method investment.

  

Interest Expense Risk

 

We are exposed to interest rate fluctuations in the normal course of our business, including through our Loan Agreement. The interest payments on the Loan Agreement consist of a variable-rate of interest and an applicable margin.

 

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Interest Income Risk

  

Investments in both fixed rate and floating rate instruments carry a degree of interest rate risk. Fixed rate securities may have their market value adversely impacted due to an increase in interest rates, while floating rate securities may produce less income than expected if interest rates fall. Due to these factors, our future investment income may fall short of expectations due to changes in interest rates or if the decline in the fair value of our publicly traded debt investments is judged to be other-than-temporary. We may suffer losses in principal if we are forced to sell securities that have declined in market value due to changes in interest rates. However, because any debt securities we hold are classified as available-for-sale, no gains or losses are realized in our income statement due to changes in interest rates unless such securities are sold prior to maturity or unless declines in value are determined to be other-than-temporary. These securities are reported at fair value with the related unrealized gains and losses included in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), a component of stockholders’ equity, net of tax. 

   

In a declining interest rate environment, as short-term investments mature, reinvestment occurs at less favorable market rates. Given the short-term nature of certain of our investments, the current interest rate environment of low rates has negatively impacted our investment income.

  

In order to assess the interest rate risk associated with our investment portfolio, we performed a sensitivity analysis to determine the impact a change in interest rates would have on the value of our investment portfolio assuming a 100 basis point parallel shift in the yield curve. Based on our investment positions as of December 31, 2015, a 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates across all maturities would result in approximately a $802,000 increase or decrease in the fair market value of our portfolio. As of December 31, 2014, a similar 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates across all maturities would result in approximately a $965,000 increase or decrease in the fair market value of our portfolio. Such losses would only be realized if we sold the investments prior to maturity or if there is an other-than-temporary impairment. Actual future gains and losses associated with our investments may differ from the sensitivity analyses performed as of December 31, 2015, due to the inherent limitations associated with predicting the changes in the timing and level of interest rates and our actual exposures and positions.  

  

We continue to monitor the stability of the financial markets, particularly those in the developing economies and have taken steps to limit our direct and indirect exposure to these markets; however, we can give no assurance that we will not be negatively impacted by any adverse outcomes in those markets. We also continue to weigh the benefit of the higher yields associated with longer maturities against the interest rate risk and credit rating risk, also associated with these longer maturities when making these decisions. We cannot predict when or if interest rates and investment yields will rise. If yields continue to stay at these low levels, our investment income will continue to be negatively impacted.    

 

Exchange Rate Risk  

  

Our objective in managing our exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations is to reduce the impact of adverse fluctuations in such exchange rates on our earnings and cash flow. Accordingly, we utilize purchased foreign currency option and forward contracts to hedge our exposure on anticipated transactions and firm commitments. There can be no assurance that our foreign currency hedging activities will substantially offset the impact of fluctuations in currency exchanges rates on our results of operations and financial position. Based on the foreign exchange instruments outstanding at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, an adverse change (defined as 20% in the Asian currencies and 10% in all other currencies) in exchange rates would result in a decline in the aggregate settlement value of all of our instruments outstanding of approximately $16 million and $13 million, respectively. However, as we utilize foreign currency instruments for hedging anticipated and firmly committed transactions, we believe that a loss in settlement value for those instruments will be substantially offset by increases in the value of the underlying exposure. (See Note 4 - Derivative instruments and hedging activities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a further description of our derivative instruments and hedging activities).  

   

ITEM 8.FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

 

The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements beginning on page F-1 hereof. Also see “Quarterly results of operations” on page 34.

 

ITEM 9.CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

None.

 

 

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ITEM 9A.CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

  

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures  

  

Based on an evaluation under the supervision and with the participation of our management, our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. James Truchard and our Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Alex Davern, have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), were effective as of December 31, 2015, to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is (i) recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms and (ii) accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our disclosure controls and procedures include components of our internal control over financial reporting.

 

Inherent Limitations Over Internal Controls  

 

Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:

 

 

Management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that the our internal controls will prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of internal controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. Also, any evaluation of the effectiveness of controls in future periods are subject to the risk that those internal controls may become inadequate because of changes in business conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

 

Management Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

 

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act). We conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria set forth in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework). Based on our assessment, we have concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2015, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP. Our independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP, has issued an audit report on our internal control over financial reporting, which appears in Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K. 

 

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

 

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the three months ended December 31, 2015, which were identified in connection with our evaluation required by paragraph (d) of rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

ITEM 9B.OTHER INFORMATION

 

From time to time, our directors, executive officers and other insiders may adopt stock trading plans pursuant to Rule 10b5-1(c) promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Exchange Act.  Jeffrey L. Kodosky and James J. Truchard have made periodic sales of our stock pursuant to such plans. The foregoing is provided for informational purposes and not in response to any particular requirement of Form 10-K.

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PART III

 

Certain information required by Part III is omitted from this Report in that we intend to file a definitive proxy statement pursuant to Regulation 14A with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Proxy Statement”) relating to our annual meeting of stockholders not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Report, and such information is incorporated by reference herein as described below.

 

ITEM 10.DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

 

The information concerning our directors required by this Item pursuant to Item 401 of Regulation S-K will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Election of Directors” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information concerning our executive officers required by this Item pursuant to Item 401 of Regulation S-K will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Executive Officers” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K regarding compliance with Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information concerning our code of ethics that applies to our principal executive officer, our principal financial officer, our controller or person performing similar functions required by this Item pursuant to Item 406 of Regulation S-K will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Code of Ethics” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 407(c)(3) of Regulation S-K regarding material changes, if any, to procedures by which security holders may recommend nominees to our board of directors will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Deadline for Receipt of Stockholder Proposals” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 407(d)(4) and Item 407(d)(5) of Regulation S-K regarding our Audit Committee and our audit committee financial expert(s), respectively, will appear in our Proxy Statement under the heading “Corporate Governance” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

ITEM 11.EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 402 of Regulation S-K regarding director compensation will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Board Compensation” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 402 of Regulation S-K regarding executive officer compensation, including our Compensation Discussion & Analysis, will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Executive Compensation” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 407(e)(4) of Regulation S-K will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 407(e)(5) will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Compensation Committee Report” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

ITEM 12.SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 403 of Regulation S-K concerning security ownership of certain beneficial owners and management will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Security Ownership” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 201(d) of Regulation S-K concerning securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Equity Compensation Plans Information” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

ITEM 13.CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information required by this Item pursuant to Item 407(a) of Regulation S-K regarding the independence of our directors will appear in our Proxy Statement under the section “Corporate Governance” and such information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

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ITEM 14.PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES

 

The information concerning principal accountant fees and services required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement under the heading “Ratification of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.”

 

The information concerning pre-approval policies for audit and non-audit services required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement under the heading “Audit Committee Pre-Approval of Audit and Permissible Non-Audit Services of Independent Auditors.”

PART IV

 

ITEM 15.EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES

 

(a)Documents Filed with Report

 

1.Financial Statements.

 

2.Financial Statement Schedules.

 

All schedules are omitted because the required information is already included in our notes to our consolidated financial statements or because they are not applicable.

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3.Exhibits.

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SIGNATURES

 

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

 

POWER OF ATTORNEY

 

KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Dr. James J. Truchard and Alexander M. Davern, jointly and severally, his or her attorneys-in-fact, each with the power of substitution, for him or her in any and all capacities, to sign any amendments to this Report on Form 10‑K, and to file the same, with exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereby ratifying and confirming all that each of said attorneys-in-fact, or his substitute or substitutes, may do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.