Item 1A.
Risk Factors
Our business faces significant risks, some of which are set forth below to enable readers to assess, and be appropriately apprised of,
many of the risks and uncertainties applicable to the forward-looking statements made in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. You should carefully consider these risk factors as each of these risks could adversely affect our business, operating
results and financial condition. If any of the events or circumstances described in the following risks actually occurs, our business may suffer, the trading price of our common stock could decline and our financial condition or results of
operations could be harmed. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These risks should be read in conjunction with the other information set forth in this Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently believe to be immaterial, may also adversely affect our business.
We have marked with an asterisk (*) those risks described below that reflect substantive changes from the risks
described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed with the SEC on April 16, 2012.
We have received a letter regarding an informal inquiry by the SEC, and cooperation with such governmental inquiry may cost significant amounts of money and require a substantial amount of
management resources.
On March 28, 2011, we received a letter from the SEC informing us that the SEC was
conducting an informal inquiry, or the SEC Informal Inquiry, and requesting that we preserve certain categories of records in connection with the SEC Informal Inquiry. In a follow up discussion with the SEC on March 30, 2011, the SEC informed
us that the inquiry related to allegations of improper revenue recognition and potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, by the former Veraz Networks Inc. business during periods prior to completion of our
business combination with Dialogic Corporation. Our Board of Directors, or the Board, appointed a committee to review these issues, with the aid of counsel, and to make recommendations to the Board as to what, if any, remedial actions would be
appropriate. The committee engaged Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, or Sheppard Mullin, as outside counsel to the committee, The Board has taken the remedial actions recommended by Sheppard Mullin and the committee and we have
updated and improved our compliance procedures. In addition, we produced documents to the Department of Justice, or DOJ, relating to the SEC Informal Inquiry. With our counsel, we continue to fully cooperate with the SEC and DOJ, in connection with
the SEC Informal Inquiry. We have incurred and may continue to incur significant costs related to the SEC Informal Inquiry, which will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Further, the SEC Informal
Inquiry has caused and may continue to cause a diversion of managements time and attention which could also have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
The SEC Informal Inquiry may turn into a formal investigation and result in charges filed against us and in fines or penalties.
The SEC and/or DOJ may decide to turn the SEC Informal Inquiry into a formal investigation. Should they do so,
criminal or civil charges could be filed against us and we could be required to pay significant fines or penalties in connection with such investigation or other governmental investigations. Any criminal or civil charges by the SEC or other
governmental agency or any fines or penalties imposed by the SEC could materially harm our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows.
We have not sustained profits and our losses could continue. Without sufficient additional capital to apply to repay our indebtedness, we may be required to significantly scale back our operations,
significantly reduce our headcount, seek protection under the provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and/or discontinue many of our activities which could negatively affect our business and prospects. Our current capital raising efforts may not be
successful in raising additional capital on favorable terms, or at all.
We have experienced significant losses in the
past and never sustained profits. For the nine months ended September 30, 2012 and for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, we recorded net losses of $33.1 million, $54.8 million, $46.7 million and $37.6 million, respectively.
As of September 30, 2012, we had $10.7 million in current bank indebtedness and $64.2 million in debt with related parties, net of discount. If we fail to comply with the covenants under the Term Loan Agreement and the Revolving Credit
Agreement, the maturity date of our outstanding indebtedness may be accelerated.
While we believe that our current cash
resources, together with anticipated product and services revenues, will be sufficient to fund our operations, including interest payments, in 2012, they will not be sufficient to fund both our operations and repayment of principal on our
outstanding indebtedness in 2013 or beyond. Further, we do not anticipate having sufficient cash and cash equivalents
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to repay the debt should the Revolving Credit Lender or the Term Lenders accelerate the maturity date of outstanding debt, and we would be forced to seek alternative sources of financing. In
light of these circumstances, we will need to seek additional capital through public or private debt or equity financings or development financings.
However, there are no assurances that those efforts will be successful or that additional capital will be available on terms that do not adversely affect our existing stockholders or restrict our
operations, if it is available at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights that are senior to holders of our common stock and could include different financial covenants,
restrictions and financial ratios other than what we currently operate under. The conversion of the Notes resulted in substantial dilution to our stockholders and any additional equity financing would also likely be substantially dilutive to our
stockholders, particularly in light of the prices at which our common stock has been recently trading. In addition, if we raise additional funds through the sale of equity securities, new investors could have rights senior to our existing
stockholders. The terms of any future financings may restrict our ability to raise additional capital, which could delay or prevent the further development or marketing of our products and services. Our need to raise capital before the repayment of
our debt becomes due may require us to accept terms that may harm our business or be disadvantageous to our current stockholders, particularly in light of the current illiquidity and instability in the global financial markets.
In the event of an acceleration of our obligations under the Term Loan Agreement or Revolving Credit Agreement and our failure to pay the
amounts that would then become due, the Revolving Credit Lender or Term Lenders could seek to foreclose on our assets. As a result of this, we would likely need to seek protection under the provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and/or our
affiliates might be required to seek protection under the provisions of applicable bankruptcy codes. In that event, we could seek to reorganize our business, or we or a trustee appointed by the court could be required to liquidate our assets. In
either of these events, whether the stockholders receive any value for their shares is highly uncertain. If we needed to liquidate our assets, we might realize significantly less from them than the value that could be obtained in a transaction
outside of a bankruptcy proceeding. The funds resulting from the liquidation of our assets would be used first to pay off the debt owed to secured creditors, including the Term Lenders, Revolving Credit Lender, followed by any unsecured creditors,
before any funds would be available to pay our stockholders. If we are required to liquidate under the federal bankruptcy laws, it is unlikely that stockholders would receive any value for their shares.
Our substantial level of indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to react to changes in our business, and the terms of our
debt facilities limit our ability to take a number of actions that our management might otherwise believe to be in our best interests. In addition, if we fail to comply with our covenants, the maturity date of our outstanding indebtedness could be
accelerated.
Our level of indebtedness could have significant consequences to us and our investors, such as:
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requiring substantial amounts of cash to be used for debt service, rather than other purposes, including operations;
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limiting our ability to plan for, or react to, changes in our business and industry;
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limiting our ability to obtain additional financing we may need to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, product development, acquisitions
or other corporate requirements;
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requiring the dedication of a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to the payment of principal and interest on our debt, which would
reduce the availability of cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, product development, acquisitions and other corporate requirements;
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increasing the risk of our failing to satisfy our obligations with respect to our debt instruments and/or to comply with the financial and operating
covenants;
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influencing investor, vendor, and customer perceptions about our financial stability and limiting our ability to obtain financing, obtain optimal
payment terms and discounts with vendors or maintain and acquire customers;
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limiting our ability to meet payment obligations as set out in our agreements; and
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increasing our vulnerability to adverse economic conditions in our industry or the economy in general.
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In addition, the instruments governing our debt contain financial and other restrictive covenants, which limit our operating flexibility
and could prevent us from taking advantage of business opportunities. If we fail to comply with these covenants it could result in events of default under our debt instruments that, if not cured or waived, could result in an acceleration of our
debt. In the event of an acceleration of our obligations under our debt instruments, we do not anticipate having sufficient cash and cash equivalents to repay such debt and we would be forced to seek alternative sources of financing. If we fail to
pay amounts that become due under our debt instruments, our lenders could seek to foreclose on our assets, as a result of which we would likely need to seek protection under the provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code as described above.
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We are dependent on revenue from mature products, including TDM products. Our success
depends in large part on continued migration to IP network architecture for sales of our newer IP and IP enabled products portfolio. If the migration to IP networks does not occur or if it occurs more slowly than we expect or if sales of our newer
products do not develop as expected our operating results would be harmed.
Currently, we derive a significant portion
of our product revenue from TDM media processing boards. These products connect to and interact with an enterprise or service provider-based circuit switched network and support some or all of a suite of media processing features, including echo
cancellation, DTMF detection, voice play and record, conferencing, fax, modem, speech integration, and monitoring. This business has been declining as networks increasingly deploy IP-based technology. This technology migration resulted in a decrease
in sales of our TDM products over the last several years. If we are unable to develop substantial revenue from our newer IP-based product lines, our business and results of operations will suffer. Although we have developed a migration path to IP
-based products, the TDM products remain a sizable portion of our revenue. If our migration path to IP products is unsuccessful, we may not be able to mitigate the revenue loss due to the decrease in sales of our TDM products. Moreover, decisions
made with regard to product maintenance and discontinuations may result in less revenue from our TDM products.
Our IP and
IP-enabled products are used by service providers and enterprises to deliver telecommunications over IP networks. Our success depends on the continued migration of customers to a single IP network architecture, which depends on a number of factors
outside of our control. For example, service providers may not see the value in our new mobile backhaul bandwidth optimization products or session bandwidth controller and may decide to delay or forgo making purchases altogether. Further, existing
networks include switches and other equipment that may have remaining useful lives of 20 or more years, and therefore may continue to operate reliably for a lengthy period of time. Other factors that may delay or speed the migration to IP networks
include service providers concerns regarding initial capital outlay requirements, available capacity on legacy networks, competitive and regulatory issues, and the implementation of an enhanced services business and video model. As a result,
customers may defer investing in products, such as ours, that are designed to migrate telecommunications systems to IP networks. If the migration to IP networks does not occur for these or other reasons, or if it occurs more slowly than we expect,
our operating results will be harmed.
*If we fail to maintain compliance with the continued listing requirements of The
NASDAQ Global Market, our common stock may be delisted and the price of our common stock and our ability to access the capital markets could be negatively impacted.
Our common stock is currently listed on The NASDAQ Global Market. To maintain the listing of our common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market we are required to meet the continued listing requirements of The
NASDAQ Global Market, or the NASDAQ Listing Standards, including, but not limited to, a minimum closing bid price of $1.00 per share, or the Bid Price Rule, and a market value of publicly held shares of at least $15.0 million, or the Market
Value Rule.
On March 5, 2012, we announced that we had received a letter, dated February 28, 2012, from the NASDAQ
Listing Qualifications Staff, or the Staff, notifying us that, for the last 30 consecutive business days, the bid price for our common stock had closed below the minimum $1.00 per share requirement for continued listing on The NASDAQ Global Market
pursuant to the Bid Price Rule. On October 2, 2012, the Staff notified the Company that it had determined that for the last 10 consecutive business days, from September 17, 2012 to September 28, 2012, the closing bid of the Companys common
stock had been above the minimum $1.00 per share price. Accordingly, the Company has regained compliance with the Bid Price Rule and this matter is now closed.
On March 5, 2012, we also announced that we had received a letter, dated February 28, 2012, from the Staff notifying us that, for the last 30 consecutive business days, the market value of our
publicly held shares had been below the minimum $15.0 million requirement for continued listing on The NASDAQ Global Market pursuant to the Market Value Rule. In accordance with the NASDAQ Listing Standards, we were given 180 calendar days, or until
August 27, 2012, to regain compliance with the Market Value Rule. We regained compliance and on May 7, 2012, we received a letter from the Staff indicating that the Staff had determined that, for a minimum of the last 10 consecutive
business days, from April 20, 2012 to May 4, 2012, the market value of our publicly held shares has been $15.0 million or greater and that this matter is now closed.
On July 2, 2012, we announced that we had received a letter, dated June 27, 2012, from the Staff notifying us that, for the last 30 consecutive business days, the market value of the
Companys publicly held shares has been below the minimum $15.0 million requirement for continued listing on The NASDAQ Global Market pursuant to the Market Value Rule. In accordance with the NASDAQ Listing Standards, we were given 180 calendar
days, or until December 24, 2012, to regain compliance with the Market Value Rule. To regain compliance, the market value of our public held shares must close at $15.0 million or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days.
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If we do not regain compliance with the Market Value Rule by December 24, 2012, and are
not eligible for an additional compliance period at that time, the Staff will provide us a written notification that our common stock is subject to delisting. At that time, we may either apply for listing on The NASDAQ Capital Market, provided we
meet the initial inclusion and continued listing requirements of that market, or appeal the Staffs delisting determination to a Hearings Panel, or the Panel. We would remain listed pending the Panels decision. There can be no assurance
that, if we do appeal the delisting determination by the Staff to the Panel, that such appeal would be successful.
If we
continue to fail to comply with the NASDAQ Listing Standards, we may consider transferring to The NASDAQ Capital Market, provided we meet the initial inclusion and continued listing requirements of that market, which is a lower tier market, or our
common stock may be delisted and traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board network. Moving our listing to The NASDAQ Capital Market could adversely affect the liquidity of our common stock. If our common stock were to be delisted by NASDAQ,
we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
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a limited availability of market quotations for our common stock;
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a reduced amount of news and analyst coverage for us;
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a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future;
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reduced liquidity for our stockholders;
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potential loss of confidence by partners and employees; and
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loss of institutional investor interest and fewer business development opportunities.
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We cannot take certain fundamental actions without the consent of the Holder of the Series D-1 Preferred Share.
For as long as the Series D-1 Preferred Share is outstanding, the Holder will be have a number of rights, including the right to approve
certain changes to the size and composition of the Board and its committees. It is possible that the interests of the Holder and the holders of our common stock may be inconsistent, resulting in the inability to obtain the consent of the Holder
to matters that may be in the best interests of the common stockholders.
*The price of our common stock has been highly
volatile due to factors that will continue to affect the price of our stock.
As adjusted for the stock split
mentioned above, our common stock traded as high as $6.80 and as low as $2.25 per share during the twelve months ended September 30, 2012. Some of the factors leading to this volatility include:
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fluctuations in our quarterly revenue and operating results;
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announcements of product releases by us or our competitors;
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announcements of acquisitions and/or partnerships by us or our competitors;
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increases in outstanding shares of our common stock upon exercise or conversion of derivative securities such as stock options and restricted stock
units and the subsequent sale of such stock relating to the payment of taxes;
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delays in producing finished goods inventory for shipment;
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market conditions in the telecommunications industry;
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issuance of new or changed securities analysts reports or recommendations;
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deviations in our operating results from the estimates of analysts;
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additions or departures of key personnel;
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the small public float of our outstanding common stock in the marketplace; and
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concerns about our degree of leverage, our liquidity and our ability to comply with the covenants under our Term Loan Agreement and Revolving Credit
Agreement and to pay debt service when due.
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The price of our common stock may continue to be volatile in
the future.
The demand for our solutions depends in large part on continued capital spending in the telecommunications
equipment industry. A decline in demand, or a decrease or delay in capital spending by service providers, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
We are exposed to the risks associated with the volatility of the U.S. and global economies, including specifically the continued
volatility in certain global markets, such as Portugal, Italy, Greece, Russia and Spain where we have historically successfully sold our products. The difficulty in obtaining credit in these markets and decreased visibility regarding whether or when
there will be sustained growth periods for sales of our products in these and other markets and uncertainty regarding the amount of sales, since our customers may rely on lending arrangements and/or have limited resources to finance capital
technology expenditures, may have an adverse
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effect on our business and operations. In addition, it is expected that this recent economic turmoil and the resulting economic uncertainty will result in decreased consumer spending, which will
likely reduce the need for our products from customers. Slow or negative growth in the global economy may continue to materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations for the foreseeable future. Our
results of operations would be further adversely affected if we were to experience lower-than-anticipated order levels, cancellations of orders in backlog, extended customer delivery requirements, or pricing pressure as a result of the slowdown.
In addition to the potential decline in capital spending resulting from the volatility markets, capital spending in the
telecommunications equipment industry has in the past, and may in the future, fluctuate significantly based on numerous factors, including:
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capital spending levels of service providers;
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competition among service providers;
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pricing pressures in the telecommunications equipment market;
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end user demand for new services;
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service providers emphasis on generating revenues from traditional infrastructure instead of migrating to emerging networks and technologies;
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lack of or evolving industry standards;
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consolidation in the telecommunications industry; and
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changes in the regulation of telecommunications services.
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We cannot make assurances of the rate or extent to which the telecommunications equipment industry will grow, if at all. Demand for our solutions and our IP products in particular will depend on the
magnitude and timing of capital spending by service providers as they extend and migrate their networks. Furthermore, industry growth rates may not be as forecast, resulting in spending on product development well ahead of market requirements. The
telecommunications equipment industry from time to time has experienced, and appears to be currently experiencing, a downturn. In response to the current downturn, service providers have slowed their capital expenditures, and may also cancel or
delay new developments, reduce their workforces and inventories and take a cautious approach to acquiring new equipment and technologies, which could have a negative impact on our business. A continued downturn in the telecommunications industry may
cause our operating results to fluctuate from period to period, which also may increase the volatility of the price of our common stock and harm our business.
*Although we have undertaken a concerted effort to reduce costs, including restructuring efforts, to streamline our operations and to reduce our overall cash burn rate, we have not had sustained
profits and our losses could continue.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2012 and for the year ended
December 31, 2011, we used cash of $7.9 million and $10.5 million, respectively, to fund our operating activities. We have made significant efforts to reduce costs and reduce headcount and streamline operations for the last several years and
continued to focus on reducing costs during 2012. We successfully reduced quarterly operating costs from $38.6 million to $25.9 million (excluding restructuring charges) per quarter between the first quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of 2012.
However, we may not be able to continue to reduce spending as planned and unanticipated costs may occur. Any restructuring efforts to focus on key products may not prove successful due to a variety of factors, including risks that a smaller
workforce may have difficulty successfully completing research and development efforts and adequately monitoring our development and commercialization efforts. In addition, we may, in the future, decide to restructure operations and further reduce
expenses by taking such measures as additional reductions in our workforce and reductions in other spending. Any restructuring places a substantial strain on remaining management and employees and on operational resources, and there is a risk that
our business will be adversely affected by the diversion of management time to the restructuring efforts. There can be no assurance that following any restructuring we will have sufficient cash resources to allow us to fund our operations or repay
our outstanding indebtedness as planned.
We have no internal hardware manufacturing capabilities and depend exclusively
upon contract manufacturers to manufacture our hardware products. Our failure to successfully manage our relationships with our contract manufacturers would impair our ability to deliver our products in a manner consistent with required volumes or
delivery schedules, which would likely cause us to fail to meet the demands of our customers and damage our customer relationships.
We outsource the manufacturing of all of our hardware products to two subcontractors, namely Plexus Corporation and Flextronics (Israel) Limited. These contract manufacturers provide comprehensive
manufacturing services, including the assembly of our products and the procurement of materials and components. Each of our contract manufacturers also builds products for other companies and may not always have sufficient quantities of inventory
available or may not allocate their internal resources to fill our orders on a timely basis. Moreover, although the reduction in number of our contract manufacturers has consolidated product builds and reduced costs, it increases the risk of a
greater number of orders being unfulfilled should problems occur at either subcontractor.
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We have supply contracts in place with each of these subcontractors and have done our best
to negotiate terms which protect our business. However, all of these contracts can be terminated by subcontractors following a reasonable notice period pursuant to the terms of each individual contract. In addition the credit limits provided to us
by our subcontractors are subject to change within contractual limits and should the credit limits be revised downwards this may negatively impact our cash flow and negatively impact our competitive position.
We do not have internal manufacturing capabilities to meet our customers demands and cannot assure you that we will be able to
develop or contract for additional manufacturing capacity on acceptable terms on a timely basis or at all if it is needed. An inability to manufacture our products at a cost comparable to our historical costs could impact our gross margins or force
us to raise prices, affecting customer relationships and our competitive position.
Qualifying a new contract manufacturer and
commencing commercial scale production is expensive and time consuming and could result in a significant interruption in the supply of our products. If our contract manufacturers are not able to maintain our high standards of quality, increase
capacity as needed, or are forced to shut down a factory, our ability to deliver quality products to our customers on a timely basis may decline, which would damage our relationships with customers, decrease our revenues and negatively impact our
growth.
Our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting do not guarantee the absence of error or
fraud.
Disclosure controls are procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in reports
filed under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SECs rules and forms. Disclosure controls are also designed to ensure that the information is accumulated and communicated to
our management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Internal controls over financial reporting, or Internal Controls, are procedures which are 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. GAAP and includes those policies and procedures that: (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and
dispositions of our assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and that receipts and expenditures are being made only in
accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on its
financial statements.
Management, with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer,
has conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework set forth in
Internal Control
Integrated Framework
issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission as of December 31, 2011. Based on this evaluation, management concluded that the material weakness identified in connection with its evaluation of our internal controls as of December 31, 2010 had not yet been
remediated. The material weakness identified as of December 31, 2010 related to a lack of sufficient accounting and finance personnel with technical accounting expertise to apply accounting requirements to non-routine and complex transactions
and to perform in-depth analysis and review of accounting matters within the timeframes set by management for finalizing financial statements. While management did hire several new accounting and finance personnel during 2011 and did establish
certain new processes and controls as more fully described below, as a result of the timing of when these controls were put in place in the fourth quarter of 2011, management determined that these controls were not in place for a sufficient period
of time to conclude that they were operating effectively. Accordingly, management has concluded that we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2011 based on criteria set forth by the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in
Internal Control
Integrated Framework
.
Management
has taken measures to remediate the material weakness previously identified. These measures are broadly grouped into the following categories: (a) improving finance staff, (b) implementing appropriate internal control processes and
procedures, and (c) training.
Further, management has engaged an outside consultant to further review the design
effectiveness of our internal controls and perform sufficient testing to determine the operating effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting for the year ending December 31, 2012.
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, do not expect that our disclosure controls or Internal
Controls will prevent all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control systems objectives will be met. Further, the design of a control
system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute
assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake.
Controls can also be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls is
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based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and we cannot make assurances that any design will succeed in achieving our stated goals under all potential future
conditions. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or deterioration in the degree of compliance with policies or procedures. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements
due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
We face intense competition from the leading telecommunications
networking companies in the world as well as from emerging companies. If we are unable to compete effectively, we might not be able to achieve sufficient market penetration, revenue growth, or profitability.
Competition in the market for our products is intense. This market has historically been dominated by established telephony equipment
providers such as Alcatel-Lucent. We also face competition from other telecommunications and networking companies, including Acme Packet, Inc., Audiocodes Ltd., Cisco Systems, Inc. Genband Inc., Radisys Corporation
,
Metaswitch Networks
and Sonus Networks, Inc., among others. While some of the established competitors are exiting the market, we are seeing increasingly intense competition from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., which leverages its broad product portfolio and significant
financial resources to compete with us for our switching business.
Many of our current and potential competitors have
significantly greater selling and marketing, technical, manufacturing, financial, governmental, and other resources available to them, allowing them to offer a more diversified bundle of products and services. In some cases, our competitors have
undercut the pricing of our products or provided more favorable financing terms, which has made us uncompetitive or forced us to reduce our average selling prices, negatively impacting our margins. Further, some of our competitors sell significant
amounts of other products to our current and prospective customers. In addition, some potential customers when selecting equipment vendors to provide fundamental infrastructure products prefer to purchase from larger, established vendors. Our
competitors broad product portfolios, coupled with already existing relationships, may cause our customers or potential customers to buy our competitors products or harm our ability to attract new customers.
To compete effectively, we must deliver innovative products that:
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offer edge-based connection and security infrastructure products for IP networks;
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enable fixed and mobile value-added services, including video-based services;
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provide extremely high reliability, compression rates, and voice quality;
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scale and deploy easily and efficiently;
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interoperate with existing network designs and other vendors equipment;
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support existing and emerging industry, national, and international standards;
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provide effective network management;
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are accompanied by comprehensive customer support and professional services; and
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provide a cost-effective and space efficient solution for service providers.
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Some of our competitors and potential competitors may have a number of significant advantages over us, including:
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a longer operating history;
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greater name recognition and marketing power;
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preferred vendor status with our existing and potential customers;
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significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources, which allow them to respond more quickly to new or changing opportunities,
technologies and customer requirements; and
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If we are unable to compete successfully against our current and future competitors, we could experience reduced gross profit margins, price reductions, order cancellations, and loss of customers and
revenues, each of which would adversely impact our business. Furthermore, existing or potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships with each other or with third parties or adopt aggressive pricing policies to gain market share.
As a result of increased competition, we could encounter significant pricing pressures and/or suffer losses in market share.
These pricing pressures could result in significantly lower average selling prices for its products. We may not be able to offset the effects of any price reductions with an increase in the number of customers, cost reductions or otherwise.
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Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past and may
continue to fluctuate in the future, which could lead to volatility in the price of our common stock.
Our quarterly
revenues and operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past and they may continue to fluctuate in the future due to a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control and any of which may cause our stock price to fluctuate.
From our experience, customer purchases of telecommunications equipment have been unpredictable and these purchases are made as customers build out their networks, rather than regular, recurring purchases. The primary factors that may affect our
quarterly revenues and results include the following:
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fluctuation in demand for our products and the timing and size of customer orders;
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the length and variability of the sales cycle for our products;
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new product introductions and enhancements by our competitors and us;
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our ability to develop, introduce, and ship new products and product enhancements that meet customer requirements in a timely manner;
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the mix of products sold such as between NGN sales and sales of bandwidth optimization products or between service provider and enterprise markets;
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our ability to obtain sufficient supplies of sole or limited source components;
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our ability to attain and maintain production volumes and quality levels for our products;
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costs related to acquisitions of complementary products, technologies, or businesses;
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changes in our pricing policies, the pricing policies of our competitors, and the prices of the components of our products;
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the timing of revenue recognition, amount of deferred revenues, and receivables collections;
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difficulties or delays in deployment of customer IP networks that would delay anticipated customer purchases of additional products and services;
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general economic conditions, as well as those specific to the telecommunications, networking, and related industries;
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consolidation within the telecommunications industry, including acquisitions of or by our customers; and
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the failure of certain of our customers to successfully and timely reorganize their operations, including emerging from bankruptcy.
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In addition, we may be unable to recognize all of the revenue associated with certain customer contracts in
the same period as the costs associated with those contracts are expensed, which could cause our quarterly gross margins, particularly of IP gross margins, to fluctuate significantly. Further, U.S. GAAP may require that revenue related to certain
customer contracts be delayed for periods of a year or more. This delay may cause spikes in our revenue in quarters when it is recognized and may result in deferred revenue to revenue conversion taking longer than anticipated.
A significant portion of our operating expenses are fixed in the short term. If revenues for a particular quarter are below expectations,
we may not be able to reduce operating expenses proportionally for that quarter. Therefore, any such revenue shortfall would likely have a direct negative effect on our operating results for that quarter. For these and other reasons, we believe that
quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our operating results are not a good indication of our future performance.
We believe it
possible that in some future quarters, our operating results may be below the expectations of public market analysts and investors, which may adversely affect our stock price. A decline in the market price of our common stock could cause our
stockholders to lose some or all of their investment and may adversely impact our ability to attract and retain employees and raise capital. In addition, such a decline in our stock price may cause stockholders to initiate securities class action
lawsuits. Whether or not meritorious, litigation brought against us could result in substantial costs and diversion of time and attention of our management. Our insurance to cover claims of this sort, if brought, may not be adequate.
The ownership of our common stock is highly concentrated, and your interests may conflict with the interests of our existing
stockholders.
Our executive officers, directors (or former directors), and certain of our affiliates beneficially
owned or controlled approximately 63% of our outstanding common stock (assuming exercise of outstanding warrants to purchase our common stock) as of August 8, 2012.
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Accordingly, these stockholders, acting as a group, could have significant influence
over the outcome of corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or any other significant corporate transaction. The significant
concentration of stock ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock due to investors perception that conflicts of interest may exist or arise.
The largest customers in the telecommunications industry have substantial negotiating leverage, which may require that we agree to terms, and conditions that are less advantageous to us than the
terms and conditions of our existing customer relationships, or risk limiting our ability to sell our products to these large service providers, thereby harming our operating results.
Large telecommunications service providers have substantial purchasing power and leverage negotiating contractual terms and conditions
relating to their purchase of our products. As we seek to sell more products to these large telecommunications providers, we may be required to agree to less favorable terms and conditions to complete such sales, which may result in lower margins,
affect the timing of the recognition of the revenue derived from these sales, and the amount of deferred revenues, each of which may have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
In addition, our future success depends in part on our ability to sell our products to large service providers operating complex networks
that serve large numbers of subscribers and transport high volumes of traffic. The telecommunications industry historically has been dominated by a relatively small number of service providers. While deregulation and other market forces have led to
an increasing number of service providers in recent years, large service providers continue to constitute a significant portion of the market for telecommunications equipment. If we fail to sell additional IP products to our large customers or to
expand our customer base to include additional customers that deploy our products in large-scale networks serving significant numbers of subscribers, our revenue growth will be limited.
Consolidation or downturns in the telecommunications industry may affect demand for our products and the pricing of our products,
which could limit our growth and may harm our business.
The telecommunications industry, which includes all of our
customers, has experienced increased consolidation in recent years, and we expect this trend to continue. Consolidation among our customers and prospective customers may cause delays or reductions in capital expenditure plans and/or increased
competitive pricing pressures as the number of available customers declines and their relative purchasing power increases in relation to suppliers. The occurrence of any of these factors, separately or in combination, may lead to decreased
sales or slower than expected growth in revenues and could harm our business and operations.
The telecommunications industry
is cyclical and reactive to general economic conditions. In the recent past, worldwide economic downturns, pricing pressures, and deregulation have led to consolidations and reorganizations. These downturns, pricing pressures and restructurings have
been causing delays and reductions in capital and operating expenditures by many service providers. These delays and reductions, in turn, have been reducing demand for telecommunications products like ours. A continuation or subsequent recurrence of
these industry patterns, as well as general domestic and foreign economic conditions and other factors that reduce spending by companies in the telecommunications industry, could harm our operating results in the future.
If we fail to anticipate and meet specific customer requirements, or if our products fail to interoperate with our customers
existing networks or with existing and emerging industry, national, and international standards, we may not be able to retain our current customers or attract new customers.
We must effectively anticipate and adapt our business, products and services in a timely manner to meet customer requirements. We must
also meet existing and emerging industry, national and international standards to meet changing customer demands. Prospective customers may require product features and capabilities that are not included in our current product offerings. The
introduction of new or enhanced products also requires that we carefully manage the transition from our older products to minimize disruption in customer ordering patterns and ensure that adequate supplies of our new products can be delivered to
meet anticipated customer demand. If we fail to develop products and offer services that satisfy customer requirements, or if we fail to effectively manage the transition from our older products to our new or enhanced products, our ability to create
or increase demand for our products would be seriously harmed and we may lose current and prospective customers, thereby harming our business.
Many of our customers will require that our products be designed to interface with their existing networks or with existing or emerging industry, national, and international standards, each of which may
have different and unique specifications. Issues caused by a failure to achieve homologation to certain standards or an unanticipated lack of interoperability between our products and these existing networks may result in significant warranty,
support, and repair costs, divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our hardware and software development efforts, and cause significant customer relations problems. If our products do not interoperate with our customers
respective networks or applicable standards, installations could be delayed or orders for our products could be cancelled, which would seriously harm our gross margins and result in the loss of revenues and/or customers.
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If we do not respond rapidly to technological changes or to changes in industry
standards, our products could become obsolete.
The market for IP infrastructure products and services is
characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product introductions and evolving standards. We may be unable to respond quickly or effectively to these developments. We may experience difficulties with software development, hardware
design, manufacturing, marketing, or certification that could delay or prevent our development, introduction, or marketing of new products and enhancements. The introduction of new products by our competitors, the market acceptance of products based
on new or alternative technologies or the emergence of new industry standards could render our existing or future products obsolete. If the standards adopted are different from those that we have chosen to support, market acceptance of our products
may be significantly reduced or delayed. If our products become technologically obsolete, we may be unable to sell our products in the marketplace and generate revenues, and our business could be adversely affected. Because our products are
sophisticated and designed to be deployed in complex environments and in multiple locations, they may have errors or defects that we find only after full deployment. If these errors lead to customer dissatisfaction or we are unable to establish and
maintain a support infrastructure and required support levels to service these complex environments, our business may be seriously harmed.
Because of the nature of some of our products, they can only be fully tested when substantially deployed in very large networks with high volumes of traffic. Some of our customers have only recently begun
to commercially deploy our products or deploy our products in larger configurations and they may discover errors or defects in the software or hardware, the products may not operate as expected, or our products may not be able to function in the
larger configurations required by certain customers. If we are unable to correct errors or other performance problems that may be identified after full deployment of our products, we could experience:
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cancellation of orders or other losses of or delays in revenues;
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loss of customers and market share;
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harm to our reputation;
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a failure to attract new customers or achieve market acceptance for our products;
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increased services, support, and warranty costs and a diversion of development resources;
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increased insurance costs and losses to our business and service provider customers; and
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costly and time-consuming legal actions by our customers.
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If we experience warranty failures that indicate either manufacturing or design deficiencies, we may suffer damages.
If we experience warranty failures we may be required to recall units in the field and/or stop producing and shipping such products until the deficiency is identified and corrected. In the event of such
warranty failures, our business could be adversely affected resulting in reduced revenue, increased costs and decreased customer satisfaction. Because customers often delay deployment of a full system until they have tested the products and any
defects have been corrected, we expect these revisions may cause delays in orders by our customers for our systems. Because our strategy is to introduce more complex products in the future, this risk will intensify over time. Service provider
customers have discovered errors in our products. If the costs of remediating problems experienced by our customers exceed our expected expenses, which historically have not been significant, these costs may adversely affect our operating results.
In addition, because our products are deployed in large and complex networks around the world, our customers expect us to
establish a support infrastructure and maintain demanding support standards to ensure that their networks maintain high levels of availability and performance. To support the continued growth of our business, our support organization will need to
provide service and support at a high level throughout the world. This will include hiring and training customer support engineers both at our primary corporate locations as well as our smaller offices in new geographies, such as Central and South
America and Russia. If we are unable to provide the expected level of support and services to our customers, we could experience:
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loss of customers and market share;
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a failure to attract new customers in new geographies;
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increased services, support, and warranty costs and a diversion of development resources; and
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network performance penalties.
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The long and variable sales and deployment cycles for our products may cause our
operating results to vary materially, which could result in a significant unexpected revenue shortfall in any given quarter.
Our products, particularly IP switching products, have lengthy sales cycles, which typically extend from three to twelve months and may take up to two years. A customers decision to purchase our
products often involves a significant commitment of the customers resources and a product evaluation and qualification process that can vary significantly in length. The length of our sales cycles also varies depending on the type of customer
to which we are selling, the product being sold and the type of network in which our product will be utilized. We may incur substantial sales and marketing expenses and expend significant management effort during this time, regardless of whether we
make a sale.
Even after making the decision to purchase our products, our customers may deploy our products slowly. Timing of
deployment can vary widely among customers and among product types. The length of a customers deployment period will impact our ability to recognize revenue related to such customers purchase and may also directly affect the timing of
any subsequent purchase of additional products by that customer. As a result of these lengthy and uncertain sales and deployment cycles for our products, it is difficult for us to predict the quarter in which our customers may purchase additional
products or features from us, and our operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter, which may negatively affect our operating results for any given quarter.
We rely on channel partners for a significant portion of our revenue. Our failure to effectively develop and manage these
third-party distributors, systems integrators, and resellers specifically and our indirect sales channel generally, or disruptions to the processes and procedures that support, our indirect sales channels, could adversely affect our ability to
generate revenues from the sale of our products.
We rely on third-party distributors, systems integrators, and
resellers for a significant portion of our revenue. Our revenues depend in large part on the performance of these indirect channel partners. Although many aspects of our partner relationships are contractual in nature, our arrangements with our
indirect channel partners are not exclusive. Accordingly, important aspects of these relationships depend on the continued cooperation between the parties.
Many factors out of our control could interfere with our ability to market, license, implement or support our products with any of our partners, which in turn could harm our business. These factors
include, but are not limited to, a change in the business strategy of one of our partners, the introduction of competitive product offerings by other companies that are sold through one of our partners, potential contract defaults by one of our
partners, or changes in ownership or management of one of our distribution partners. Some of our competitors may have stronger relationships with our distribution partners than we do, and we have limited control, if any, as to whether those partners
implement our products rather than our competitors products or whether they devote resources to market and support our competitors products rather than our offerings. In addition, we recognize a portion of our revenue based on a
sell-through model using information provided by our partners and recognize a significant portion on a sell-in basis, particularly when selling in to established VARs, independent software vendors, technology equipment manufacturers and other
partners with whom we have a significant history. If those partners provide us with inaccurate or untimely information, the amount or timing of our revenues could be adversely impacted and our operating results may be harmed.
Moreover, if we are unable to leverage our sales and support resources through our distribution partner relationships, we may need to
hire and train additional qualified sales and engineering personnel. We cannot assure you, however, that we will be able to hire additional qualified sales and engineering personnel in these circumstances, and our failure to do so may restrict our
ability to generate revenue or implement our products on a timely basis. Even if we are successful in hiring additional qualified sales and engineering personnel, we will incur additional costs and our operating results, including our gross margin,
may be adversely affected. The loss of or reduction in sales by these resellers could reduce our revenues. If we fail to maintain relationships with these third-party resellers, fail to develop new relationships with third-party resellers in new
markets, fail to manage, train, or provide incentives to existing third-party resellers effectively or if these third party resellers are not successful in their sales efforts, sales of our products may decrease and our operating results would
suffer.
Maintaining and improving our financial controls and the requirements of being a public company may strain our
resources, divert managements attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and NASDAQ Listing
Standards. The requirements of these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and may also place undue strain on our personnel, systems and resources.
The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure
controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. As a public company, our systems of internal controls over financial reporting will be required to be periodically assessed and reported on by management and may be subject to
annual audits by our independent auditors. During the course of our evaluation, we may identify areas requiring improvement, and may be required to design enhanced processes
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and controls to address issues identified through this review. This could result in significant delays and cost to us and require us to divert substantial resources, including management time,
from other activities. As of December 31, 2011, we have identified a material weakness in our Internal Controls. This material weakness has not been cured as of September 30, 2012. Moreover, effective internal controls are necessary for us
to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent fraud. As a result, our failure to satisfy the requirements of Section 404 on a timely basis could result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our
financial statements, which in turn could harm the market value of our common stock. Any failure to maintain effective internal controls also could impair our ability to manage our business and harm our financial results.
Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and NASDAQ Listing Standards, we are required to maintain an independent board. We also expect these rules
and regulations will make it more difficult and more expensive for us to maintain directors and officers liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to maintain coverage. If
we are unable to maintain adequate directors and officers insurance, our ability to recruit and retain qualified directors, especially those directors who may be deemed independent for purposes of NASDAQ Listing Standards, and officers
will be significantly curtailed.
Our international operations expose us to additional political and economic risks not
faced by businesses that operate only in the United States.
We are a multinational company based in the United States
with branch offices and representative offices located in many countries around the world. Our logistics group is located in Israel, the United States and Ireland and we utilize various subcontractors in the United States and Israel. We have
development locations in Canada, the United States, India, the United Kingdom and Israel and we have sales offices in many other countries, including China, India, Brazil, Russia, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, the United
Kingdom, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia. Approximately half of our sales are generated in markets outside of the Americas and we see our largest market growth occurring in foreign countries such as India, Brazil, Russia and China. As a
result of all these international activities we are subject to worldwide economic and market condition risks generally associated with global trade, such as fluctuating exchange rates, tariff and trade policies, domestic and foreign tax policies,
foreign governmental regulations, political unrest, wars and other acts of terrorism and changes in other economic conditions. In addition our insurance on receivables applies to a lesser base of accounts due to the difficulties in obtaining
coverage for accounts in some of these regions.
We may face risks associated with our international sales that could
impair our ability to grow our revenues.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2012 and September 30,
2011, revenue from outside of the Americas was approximately $66.3 million and $81.8 million, respectively, or 54% and 55% of our total revenues, respectively. We intend to continue selling into our existing international markets and expand into
additional international markets where we currently do not do business. If we are unable to continue to sell products effectively in these existing international markets and expand into additional new international markets, our ability to grow our
business will be adversely affected. Some factors that may impact our ability to maintain our international operations and sales and/or cause our results from operations in these international markets to differ from expectations include:
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difficulty enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable in foreign jurisdictions, leading to longer collection periods;
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certification and qualification requirements relating to our products, including, by way of example, export licenses that must be obtained from the
U.S. Department of Commerce;
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the impact of recessions in economies outside the United States;
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unexpected changes in foreign regulatory requirements, including import and export regulations, and currency exchange rates;
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certification and qualification requirements for doing business in foreign jurisdictions including both specific requirements imposed by the foreign
jurisdictions and protectionist trade legislation in either the United States or other countries, such as a change in the current tariff structures, export compliance laws, trade restrictions resulting from war or terrorism, or other trade policies
could adversely affect our ability to sell or to manufacture in international markets as well as U.S. federal and state agency restrictions imposed by the Buy American Act or the Trade Agreement Act that may apply to our products manufactured
outside the United States;
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inadequate protection for intellectual property rights in certain countries;
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less stringent adherence to ethical and legal standards by prospective customers in certain foreign countries, including compliance with the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended;
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potentially adverse tax or duty consequences;
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unfavorable foreign exchange movements, particularly the continued devaluation of the U.S. dollar, which could result in decreased revenues; and
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political and economic instability.
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Additionally, as many of our customers are conducting business in emerging markets that can
be unpredictable at times due to rapidly changing political and economic conditions, the judgment of management is a significant factor in determining whether an increase in the allowance for uncollectible accounts is warranted. Management considers
various factors in making such judgments, including the customer-specific circumstances as well as the general political environment, economic conditions and other relevant matters in determining the collectability of the receivables. We will record
a reversal of the allowance if there is significant improvement in collection rates. Historically, the allowance has been adequate to cover the actual losses from uncollectible accounts. Such reversals may negatively impact our results of
operations.
If we lose the services of one or more members of our current executive management team or other key
employees, or if we are unable to attract additional executives or key employees, we may not be able to execute on our business strategy.
Our future success depends in large part upon the continued service of our executive management team and other key employees. To be successful, we must also hire, retain and motivate key employees,
including those in managerial and technical, finance, marketing, and sales positions. In particular, our product generation efforts depend on hiring and retaining qualified engineers. Experienced management and technical, sales, finance, marketing
and support personnel in the telecommunications and networking industries are in high demand and competition for their talents is intense.
The loss of services of any of our executives, one or more other members of our executive management or sales team or other key employees, could seriously harm our business.
We and our contract manufacturers rely on single or limited sources for the supply of some components of our products and if we
fail to adequately predict our manufacturing requirements or if our supply of any of these components is disrupted, we will be unable to ship our products on a timely basis, which would likely cause us to fail to meet the demands of our customers
and damage our customer relationships.
We and our contract manufacturers currently purchase several key components of
our products, including commercial digital signal processors, from single or limited sources. We purchase these components on a purchase order basis. If we overestimate our component requirements, we could have excess inventory, which would increase
our costs and result in write-downs harming our operating results. If we underestimate our requirements, we may not have an adequate supply, which could interrupt manufacturing of our products and result in delays in shipments and revenues.
We currently do not have long-term supply contracts with all of our component suppliers and many of them are not required to
supply us with products for any specified periods, in any specified quantities, or at any set price, except as may be specified in a particular purchase order. Because the key components and assemblies of our products are complex, difficult to
manufacture and require long lead times, in the event of a disruption or delay in supply, or inability to obtain products, we may not be able to develop an alternate source in a timely manner, at favorable prices, or at all. In addition, during
periods of capacity constraint, we are disadvantaged compared to better capitalized companies, as suppliers may in the future choose not to do business with us or may require higher prices or less advantageous terms. A failure to find acceptable
alternative sources could hurt our ability to deliver high-quality products to our customers and negatively affect our operating margins. In addition, reliance on our suppliers exposes us to potential supplier production difficulties or quality
variations. Our customers rely upon our ability to meet committed delivery dates, and any disruption in the supply of key components would seriously adversely affect our ability to meet these dates and could result in legal action by our customers,
loss of customers, or harm our ability to attract new customers, any of which could decrease our revenues and negatively impact our growth.
Failure to manage expenses and inventory risks associated with meeting the demands of our customers may adversely affect our business or results of operations.
To ensure that we are able to meet customer demand for our products, we place orders with our contract manufacturers and suppliers based
on our estimates of future sales. If actual sales differ materially from these estimates because of inaccurate forecasting or as a result of unforeseen events or otherwise, our inventory levels and expenses may be adversely affected and our business
and results of operations could suffer. In addition, to remain competitive, we must continue to introduce new products and processes into our manufacturing environment. There cannot be any assurance, however, that the introduction of new products
will not create obsolete inventories related to older products.
If we are not able to obtain necessary licenses of
third-party technology at acceptable prices, or at all, our products could become obsolete.
We have incorporated
third-party licensed technology into our current products. From time to time, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop new products or product enhancements. Third party licenses may not be available or
continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The inability to maintain or re-license any third party licenses required in our current products, or to obtain any new third-party licenses to develop new products and
product enhancements, could require us to obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at greater cost, and delay or prevent us from making these products or enhancements, any of which could seriously harm the
competitiveness of our products.
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Failures by our strategic partners or by us in integrating our products with those
provided by our strategic partners could seriously harm our business.
Our solutions include the integration of
products supplied by strategic partners, who offer complementary products and services. We expect to further integrate our IP Products with such partner products and services in the future. We rely on these strategic partners in the timely and
successful deployment of our solutions to our customers. If the products provided by these partners have defects or do not operate as expected, if we do not effectively integrate and support products supplied by these strategic partners, or if these
strategic partners fail to be able to support products, we may have difficulty with the deployment of our solutions, which may result in:
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a loss of or delay in recognizing revenues;
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increased services, support, and warranty costs and a diversion of development resources; and
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network performance penalties.
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In addition to cooperating with our strategic partners on specific customer projects, we also may compete in some areas with these same partners. If these strategic partners fail to perform or choose not
to cooperate with us on certain projects, in addition to the effects described above, we could experience:
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a loss of customers and market share; and
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a failure to attract new customers or achieve market acceptance for our products.
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If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may lose a valuable competitive advantage or be forced to endure costly
litigation.
We are a technology dependent company, and our success depends on developing and protecting our
intellectual property. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. At the same time, our products are complex and are often not
patentable in their entirety. We also license intellectual property from third parties and rely on those parties to maintain and protect their technology. We cannot be certain that our actions will protect our proprietary rights. Due to the nature
of some of our patents and our industry, we may be unable to detect whether our patents or other IP are being infringed by third parties. Any patents owned by us may be invalidated, reexamined, circumvented or challenged. Any of our patent
applications may be challenged and not issued with the scope of the claims we seek, if at all. Our current level of indebtedness and need to raise additional capital could impact our existing and future patent and IP rights in various ways,
including by resulting in some of our existing patents and patent applications being abandoned or sold, causing us to file for fewer future patent applications and/or to delay filing certain future patent applications, or causing us to be unable to
enforce our patent and other IP rights to an extent that would otherwise be desired.
Changes in either patent laws or in
interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may materially diminish the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our patent protection. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith
Act, was signed into law in September 2011 and includes a number of changes to United States patent law, including changes related to how patent applications are prosecuted, and may also affect patent defense, litigation, and enforcement. The U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office is currently developing regulations and procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act will not become effective until up
to 18 months after its enactment. Accordingly, it is not clear what impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business and the protection and enforcement of our intellectual property. However, the Leahy-Smith Act and its
implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial
condition.
If we are unable to adequately protect our technology, or if we are unable to continue to obtain or maintain
licenses for protected technology from third parties, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and significant impairment of intangible assets. In addition, some of our products are now designed, manufactured and sold
outside of the United States and Canada. Despite the precautions we take to protect our intellectual property, this international exposure may reduce or limit protection of our intellectual property, which is more prone to design piracy outside of
the United States and Canada. We also rely on trade secrets to protect our technology, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are difficult to maintain and do not protect technology
against independent developments made by third parties.
Possible third-party claims of infringement of proprietary
rights against us could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation or financial condition.
The telecommunications industry generally and the market for IP telephony products in particular are characterized by a relatively high
level of litigation based on allegations of infringement of proprietary rights. We have received in the past, and may receive in the future, inquiries from other patent holders and may become subject to claims that we infringe their intellectual
property rights. We cannot assure you that we do not or might not infringe third party patents. Any parties claiming that our products infringe
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upon their proprietary rights, regardless of the merits of the claims and/or the underlying rights, could cause us to take action that results in expenditures of time and money to defend or
settle the claims on our behalf and/or that of our customers or contract manufacturers. We may also be required to indemnify our customers and contract manufacturers for damages they suffer as a result of such infringement claims, if proven or
settled. These claims, and any resulting settlement, licensing arrangement or lawsuit, if successful, could subject us to significant royalty payments or liability for damages and invalidation of our proprietary rights. Any potential intellectual
property litigation also could force us to do one or more of the following:
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stop selling, importing, incorporating, or using our products that use the challenged intellectual property in some or all regions where we would
otherwise sell, import, incorporate or use such products;
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obtain from the owner of the infringed intellectual property right a license to sell or use the relevant technology, which license may not be available
on reasonable terms, in certain territories, or at all; or
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redesign those products that use any allegedly infringing technology.
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Any lawsuits regarding intellectual property rights, regardless of their success, would be time consuming, expensive to resolve, and
would divert our managements time and attention.
Regulation of the telecommunications industry could harm our
operating results and future prospects.
The telecommunications industry is highly regulated and our business and
financial condition could be adversely affected by the changes in the regulations relating to the telecommunications industry. Currently, there are few laws or regulations that apply directly to access to, or delivery of, voice services on IP
networks. We could be adversely affected by regulation of IP networks and commerce in any country, including the United States, where we operate. Such regulations could include matters such as VoIP or using IP, encryption technology, and access
charges for service providers. The adoption of such regulations could decrease demand for our products, and at the same time increase the cost of selling our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating result, and
financial condition.
Compliance with regulations and standards applicable to our products may be time consuming,
difficult and costly, and if we fail to comply, our product sales will decrease.
To achieve and maintain market
acceptance, our products must continue to meet a significant number of regulations and standards. In the United States, our products must comply with various regulations defined by the Federal Communications Commission and Underwriters Laboratories.
As these regulations and standards evolve, and if new regulations or standards are implemented, we will be required to modify our products or develop and support new versions of our products, and this will increase our costs. The failure of our
products to comply, or delays in compliance, with the various existing and evolving industry regulations and standards could prevent or delay introduction of our products, which could harm our business. User uncertainty regarding future policies may
also affect demand for telecommunications products, including our products. Moreover, distribution partners or customers may require us, or we may otherwise deem it necessary or advisable, to alter our products to address actual or anticipated
changes in the regulatory environment. Our inability to alter our products to address these requirements and any regulatory changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.
Failure of our hardware products to comply with evolving industry standards and complex government regulations may prevent our
hardware products from gaining wide acceptance, which may prevent us from growing our sales.
The market for network
equipment products is characterized by the need to support industry standards as different standards emerge, evolve, and achieve acceptance. We will not be competitive unless we continually introduce new products and product enhancements that meet
these emerging standards. Our products must comply with various domestic regulations and standards defined by agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, in addition to standards established by governmental authorities in various foreign
countries and the recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union. If we do not comply with existing or evolving industry standards or if we fail to obtain timely domestic or foreign regulatory approvals or certificates, we will not be
able to sell our products where these standards or regulations apply, which may harm our business.
Production and marketing
of products may subject us to environmental and other regulations. Legislation may be passed requiring our products to use environmentally friendly components, with periodic updates and modification to the requirements. For example, the European
Union has adopted the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) Directive (2002/95/EC), the RoHS recast (2011/65/EU, effective 1 Jan 2013) and periodic addition and removal of exemption to
the requirements. Similar legislation has been enacted in China, Korea, and Japan and is being developed in other countries, including the United States (H.R. 2420). Our products currently meet the requirements in countries where this type of
legislation is in place.
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In addition, legislation may be passed that makes us responsible for the safe disposal of
products at their end of life. The regulations may be a take-back system whereby the customer can return the product to us and we must recycle/dispose of it in an environmentally safe manner or a funded system whereby we
contribute to a fund for recycling/disposing of the product by a third party. The European Union has adopted the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, or WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC), which mandates funding, collection, treatment, recycling, and
recovery of WEEE by producers. This legislation applies to Covered Products, which currently include consumer electronics products. As such, our products are not subject to the current legislation. However, the catalogue of Covered
Products may be extended and our products may become subject to such regulations. To the extent that the definition of Covered Products is expanded to include any products we sell, we would have to undertake considerable expense to
comply. Similar legislation has been enacted by several states in the United States, China, Korea, and Japan, and is being developed in other countries.
If we fail to comply with these regulations, we may not be able to sell our products in jurisdictions where these regulations apply, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of
operations.
Future interpretations of existing accounting standards could adversely affect our operating results.
U.S. GAAP is subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC, and various other bodies
formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles; especially for multiple-element arrangements. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect
the reporting of transactions consummated before the announcement of a change. Due to the various risk factors and other specific requirements under U.S. GAAP for multiple-element arrangement revenue recognition, we must have very precise terms in
our arrangements to recognize revenue when we initially deliver products or perform services. Negotiation of mutually acceptable terms and conditions can extend our sales cycle, and we sometimes accept terms and conditions that do not permit revenue
recognition at the time of delivery.
Our ability, as well as our contract manufacturers ability, to meet customer
demand depends largely on our ability to obtain raw materials and a reduction or disruption in the availability of raw materials could negatively impact our business.
The continued global economic contraction has caused many of our component suppliers to reduce their manufacturing capacity. As the global economy improves, our component suppliers are experiencing and
will continue to experience supply constraints until they expand capacity to meet increased levels of demand. These supply constraints may adversely affect the availability and lead times of components for our products. Increased lead times
mean we may have to forsake flexibility in aligning its supply to customer demand changes and increase our exposure to excess inventory since we may have to order material earlier and in larger quantities. Further, supply constraints will likely
result in increased overall procurement costs as we attempt to meet customer demand requirements. In addition, these supply constraints may affect our ability, as well as our contract manufacturers ability, to meet customer demand and
thus result in missed sales opportunities and a loss of market share, negatively impacting revenues and our overall operating results.
Our failure to develop and introduce new products on a timely basis could harm our ability to attract and retain customers.
Our industry is characterized by rapidly changing technology, frequent product introductions and ongoing demands for greater speed and
functionality. Therefore, we must continually design, develop and introduce new products with improved features to be competitive. To introduce these products on a timely basis we must:
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design innovative and performance-improving features that differentiate our products from those of our competitors;
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identify emerging technological trends in our target markets, including new standards for our products;
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accurately define and design new products to meet market needs;
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anticipate changes in end-user preferences with respect to our customers products;
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rapidly develop and produce these products at competitive prices;
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respond effectively to technological changes or product announcements by others; and
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provide effective technical and post-sales support for these new products as they are deployed.
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If we are not able to introduce such products on a timely basis, we may not be able to attract and retain customers, which could decrease
our revenues and negatively impact our growth.
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Not all new product designs ramp into production, and even if ramped into production,
the timing of such production may not occur as we or our customers had estimated, or the volumes derived from such projects may not be as significant as we had estimated, each of which could have a substantial negative impact on our anticipated
revenues and profitability.
Our revenue growth expectations for our next-generation products are highly dependent
upon successful ramping of our design wins. In some cases there is little time between when a design win is achieved and when production level shipments begin. With many new design wins, customers may require us to provide enhanced features not on
its immediate roadmap. In addition, customers may require significant time to port their own applications to our products. Adding features to our products to meet customer requests as well as porting of customer specific applications can take six to
12 months. After that, there is an additional time lag from the start of production ramp to peak revenue. Not all product designs ramp into production and, even if a product ramps into production, the volumes derived from such products and
associated projects may be less than we had originally estimated. Customer projects related to design wins are sometimes canceled or delayed, or can perform below original expectations, which can adversely impact anticipated revenues and
profitability. In particular, the volumes and time to production ramp associated with new design wins depend on the adoption rate of new technologies in its customers end markets, especially in the telecommunications networking sector. Program
delays or cancellations could be more frequent during times of meaningful economic downturn.
Our business depends on
conditions in the telecommunications networks and commercial systems markets. Demand in these markets can be cyclical and volatile, and any inability to sell products to these markets or forecast customer demand due to unfavorable or volatile market
conditions could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and gross margin.
We derive our revenues from a
number of diverse end markets, some of which are subject to significant cyclical changes in demand. In 2011, and up to September 30, 2012, we derived our revenues from both the enterprise and service provider markets, and we believe that our
revenues will continue to be derived primarily from these two markets. In many instances, our products are building blocks for its customers products and as such, our customers are not the end-users of our products. If our customers experience
adverse economic conditions in the end markets into which they sell our products, we would expect a significant reduction in spending by our customers. Some of these end markets are characterized by intense competition, rapid technological change
and economic uncertainty. Our exposure to economic cyclicality and any related fluctuation in customer demand in these end markets could have a material adverse effect on its revenues and financial condition.
Increased political, economic and social instability in the Middle East may adversely affect our business and operating results.
The continued threat of terrorist activity and other acts of war or hostility, including the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq, the current violence and potential war in Syria, the ongoing uncertainty related to Irans nuclear ambitions and threats against Israel and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, create uncertainty throughout the Middle East and
significantly increase the political, economic, and social instability in Israel, where some of our products are manufactured and where some of our key and other employees are located. Acts of terrorism, either domestically or abroad and
particularly in Israel, or a resumption of the confrontation along the northern border of Israel or any open conflict between Israel and Iran, would likely create further uncertainties and instability. To the extent terrorism, or the political,
economic or social instability results in a disruption of our operations or delays in our manufacturing or shipment of our products, then our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our Dialogic
®
I-Gate
®
4000 media gateways
and our DCME products are exclusively manufactured for us by Flextronics, with the DCME products being manufactured by Flextronics through our relationship with ECI. The Flextronics manufacturing facility is located in Migdal-Haemek, Israel, which
is located in northern Israel. While Flextronics has other locations across the world at which our manufacturing requirements may be fulfilled, any disruption to its Israeli manufacturing capabilities in Migdal-Haemek would likely cause a material
delay in our manufacturing process. If we are forced or if we decide to switch the manufacture of our products to a different Flextronics facility, the time and expense of such switch along with the increased costs, if any, of operating in another
location, would adversely affect our operations. In addition, while we expect that Flextronics will have the capacity to manufacture our products at facilities outside of Israel, there can be no assurance that such capacity will be available when we
require it or upon terms favorable or acceptable to us. To the extent terrorism or political, economic or social instability results in a disruption of Flextronics manufacturing facilities in Israel or ECI operations in Israel as they relate
to our business, then our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
In addition, any
hostilities involving Israel or the interruption or curtailment of trade between Israel and its present trading partners, or a significant downturn in the economic or financial condition of Israel, could adversely affect our operations and product
development, cause our revenues to decrease, and adversely affect the price of our shares. Furthermore, several countries, principally in the Middle East, still restrict doing business with Israel, Israeli companies or companies with operations in
Israel. Should additional countries impose restrictions on doing business with Israel, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
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Our operations may be disrupted by the obligations of our personnel to perform
military service.
Many of our employees in Israel, including certain key employees, are obligated to perform up to
one month (in some cases more) of annual military reserve duty until they reach age 45 and, in emergency circumstances, could be called to active duty. Recently, there have been call-ups of military reservists, including several of our employees,
and it is possible that there will be additional call-ups in the future. Our operations could be disrupted by the absence of a significant number of our employees due to military service or the absence for extended periods of one or more of our key
employees for military service. Such disruption could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We have
a material amount of intangible assets and goodwill which, if they become impaired, would result in an impairment loss.
Current accounting standards require that goodwill be evaluated for impairment at least annually and that long-lived assets such as
intangible assets be evaluated periodically if there are any triggering events. We have $26.7 million of intangible assets, net and $31.2 million of goodwill as of September 30, 2012, that have originated from Dialogic Corporations
acquisitions of Intels media and signaling business in 2006, EAS in 2007, and the NMS CP business acquired in 2008 and the transaction between us and Dialogic Corporation in 2010. While we have not had any impairment losses for our intangible
assets and goodwill, any future impairment of our intangible assets or goodwill would have a negative impact on our operating results.
There are a number of trends and factors affecting our markets, including economic conditions in specific countries, regions and globally, which are outside our control. These trends and factors may
result in increasing upward pressure on the costs of products and an overall reduction in demand.
There are trends
and factors affecting our markets and our sources of supply that are beyond our control and may negatively affect our cost of sales. Such trends and factors include: adverse changes in the cost of raw commodities and increasing freight, energy, and
labor costs in developing regions. Our business strategy has been to provide customers with faster time-to-market and greater value solutions to help them compete in an industry that generally faces downward pricing pressure. In addition, our
competitors have in the past lowered, and may again in the future lower, prices to increase their market share, which would ultimately reduce the price we may realize from its customers. If we are unable to realize prices that allow us to continue
to compete on this basis of performance, its profit margin, market share, and overall financial condition and operating results may be materially and adversely affected.
The deployment of advanced wireless networks may not proceed according to analyst projections and even if it does, the adoption of mobile video added services may not occur.
The successful deployment of advanced 3G and 4G wireless networks would significantly impact the deployment of video gateway
infrastructure. Since our ability to increase revenue is partially dependent on video gateways and video media servers that attach to the advanced 3G and 4G wireless networks, delay in the deployment of 3G and 4G wireless networks would impact our
ability to increase revenue. Additionally, even if the advanced wireless networks are deployed successfully, the use of mobile video value added services (including video ring tones, video with interactive voice response, video location based
services and video chat) may not be widely adopted. If the deployment of advanced wireless networks does not proceed according to analyst projections or if mobile video added services are not widely adopted, the growth of our business could be
negatively affected.
The success of our VoIP gateways is dependent upon the successful deployment of technology by
other companies and any delay in the deployment of such technology would negatively impact the growth of our enterprise gateway business.
Our VoIP gateways are used to connect software-based IP private branch exchanges, or PBXs, such as Microsoft Office Communications Server, Microsoft Lync and IBM Sametime, which are currently in the
process of being deployed, to existing legacy systems. Any delay in the deployment of the IP PBX could impact our revenues from products related to our VoIP gateways.
The conversion to certain new technology may result in some customers utilizing other products or developing their own technology.
We are in the process of converting certain of our media enabling components from a board based product to our
Dialogic
®
PowerMedia Host Media Processing, or HMP, software product that can be deployed on the host
central processing unit of the server. The cost of entry for an HMP based software product is significantly lower than that of a board based product. As a result, there is a risk that our board based customers may utilize alternative producers of
media enabling components or develop their own software product. The loss of customers during this conversion would negatively impact our revenue and operating results.
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As our product lines age, we may be required to redesign our products or make
substantial purchases of end of life components.
We sell multiple product lines that have been in production for
several years. In some instances the production of components that are used in the manufacturing of our products have been terminated or will be terminated. Such termination of production requires that we must either incur the additional costs of
purchasing a significant amount of such components prior to their termination or we must invest in significant engineering efforts to redesign the product, either of which would adversely affect our operating results.
We anticipate that average selling prices for many of our products will decline in the future, which could adversely affect our
operating results.
We expect that the price we can charge our customers for many of our products will decline as new
technologies become available, as we transition to software based IP and as low cost regional providers take measures to achieve or maintain market share. If this occurs, our operating results will be adversely affected.
To respond to increasing competition and our anticipation that average-selling prices will decrease, we are attempting to reduce
manufacturing costs of our new and existing products. If we do not reduce manufacturing costs and average selling prices decrease, our operating results will be adversely affected.