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

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.              No  ☒

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).              No  

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with or any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.    

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule of the Exchange Act).    Yes          No  

Aggregate market value of the voting and common equity held by nonaffiliates of the registrant as of June 28, 2019 based on the closing price of the registrant’s common stock on such date as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market: $.

 

 

 

 

 

10-K

10-K.

MKS Instruments, Inc. (“MKS” or the “Company”) was founded in 1961 as a Massachusetts corporation. We are a global provider of instruments, systems, subsystems and process control solutions that measure, monitor, deliver, analyze, power and control critical parameters of advanced manufacturing processes to improve process performance and productivity for our customers. Our products are derived from our core competencies in pressure measurement and control, flow measurement and control, gas and vapor delivery, gas composition analysis, electronic control technology, reactive gas generation and delivery, power generation and delivery, vacuum technology, lasers, photonics, optics, precision motion control, vibration control and laser-based manufacturing systems solutions. We also provide services relating to the maintenance and repair of our products, installation services and training. Our primary served markets include semiconductor, industrial technologies, life and health sciences, research and defense.

We file reports, proxy statements and other documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our SEC filings are available to you on the SEC’s internet site at http://www.sec.gov.

10-K.

10-K,

10-Q,

8-K

 non-cash

10-K.

pre-tax

The Vacuum & Analysis segment provides a broad range of instruments, components and subsystems which are derived from our core competencies in pressure measurement and control, flow measurement and control, gas and vapor delivery, gas composition analysis, electronic control technology, reactive gas generation and delivery, power generation and delivery and vacuum technology.

The Light & Motion segment provides a broad range of instruments, components and subsystems which are derived from our core competencies in lasers, photonics, optics, precision motion control and vibration control.

The Equipment & Solutions segment was created in conjunction with our acquisition of ESI in February 2019. The Equipment & Solutions segment provides laser-based manufacturing systems solutions for the micro-machining industry that enable customers to optimize production. The Equipment & Solutions segment’s primary served markets include flexible and rigid printed circuit board (“PCB”) processing/fabrication, semiconductor wafer processing, and passive component manufacturing and testing. The Equipment & Solutions segment’s systems incorporate specialized laser technology and proprietary control software to efficiently process the materials and components that are an integral part of electronic devices and systems.

10-K.

Since our inception, we have focused on satisfying the needs of our customers by establishing long-term collaborative relationships. We have a diverse base of customers and our primary served markets are manufacturers of capital equipment for semiconductor manufacturing, industrial technologies, life and health sciences, as well as research and defense.

We believe there are three secular trends benefitting MKS. First is the impact of a world that continues to be increasingly interconnected, resulting in an explosion of data transmission, data storage, and data analytics requirements, which drives continued growth for advanced memory and logic chip demand. Second is the increasing complexity of technology transitions in semiconductor manufacturing, which leads to inflections, such as extreme vertical structures and process engineering at the atomic level. These inflections provide additional growth opportunities for MKS as we believe we are uniquely positioned to deliver the broadest and deepest portfolio of solutions. Third is the accelerating need for laser-based precision manufacturing techniques, which are enabled by lasers, photonics, optics, motion, and systems solutions. We believe our long history and deep expertise in solving critical problems positions us well to address these challenges for our customers.

A significant portion of our sales are derived from products sold to semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers and semiconductor device manufacturers. Our products are used in the major semiconductor processing steps, such as depositing thin films of material onto silicon wafer substrates, etching, cleaning, lithography, metrology and inspection.

We anticipate that the semiconductor market will continue to account for a substantial portion of our sales. While the semiconductor device manufacturing market is global, major semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers are concentrated in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

Approximately 49%, 55% and 57% of our net revenues for the years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, were from sales to semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers and semiconductor device manufacturers.

In addition to semiconductor, our products are used in the industrial technologies, life and health sciences, as well as research and defense markets.

Industrial technologies encompasses a wide range of diverse applications such as flexible and rigid PCB processing/fabrication, glass coating, laser marking, measurement and scribing, natural gas and oil production, environmental monitoring and electronic thin films. Electronic thin films are a primary component of numerous electronic products including flat panel displays, light emitting diodes, solar cells and data storage media. Industrial technologies manufacturers are located in developed and developing countries across the globe.

Our products for life and health sciences are used in a diverse array of applications, including bioimaging, medical instrument sterilization, medical device manufacturing, analytical, diagnostic and surgical instrumentation, consumable medical supply manufacturing and pharmaceutical production. Our life and health sciences customers are located globally.

Our products for research and defense are sold to government, university and industrial laboratories for applications involving research and development in materials science, physical chemistry, photonics, optics and electronics materials. Our products are also sold for monitoring and defense applications including surveillance, imaging and infrastructure protection. Major equipment providers and research laboratories are concentrated in China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

Approximately 51%, 45% and 43% of our net revenues in the years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, were from advanced markets.

tax-related

tax-related

We group our product/service offerings into three groups. These three groups are: Advanced Manufacturing Components, Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Global Service. The Advanced Manufacturing Components is comprised of product revenues from the Company’s Vacuum & Analysis and Light & Motion segments. The Advanced Manufacturing Systems is comprised of product revenues from the Company’s Equipment & Solutions segment. Global Service is comprised of total service revenues from all three of the Company’s reportable segments.

:

Our Equipment and Solutions products consist of laser-based systems for PCB manufacturing, including flexible interconnect PCB processing systems and HDI solutions for rigid PCB manufacturing and substrate processing, as well as passive component MLCC testing.

We sell our products to thousands of customers worldwide, in a wide range of end markets. Revenues from our top ten customers accounted for approximately 33%, 41% and 43% of net revenues for the years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. There were no individual customers that accounted for greater than 10% of our revenues for 2019. Applied Materials, Inc. accounted for 12% and 13% and Lam Research Corporation accounted for 11% and 12% of our net revenues for the years ended 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Our worldwide sales, marketing, service and support organizations are critical to our strategy of maintaining close relationships with semiconductor capital equipment, device manufacturers and manufacturers of advanced applications. We market and sell our products and services through our global direct sales organization, an international network of independent distributors and sales representatives, our websites and product catalogs. As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately 560 sales employees worldwide. We maintain a marketing staff that identifies customer requirements, assists in product planning and specifications, and focuses on future trends in the markets we serve.

As semiconductor device manufacturers have become increasingly sensitive to the significant costs of system downtime, they have required that suppliers offer comprehensive local repair, field service and customer support. Manufacturers require close support to enable them to repair, modify, upgrade and retrofit their equipment to improve yields and adapt new materials or processes. To meet these market requirements, we provide technical support offices located near our customers’ facilities. We provide repair and calibration services at internal service depots and authorized service providers located worldwide. We typically provide warranties for periods ranging from one to three years, depending upon the type of product, with the majority of our products ranging from one to two years. We typically provide warranty on our repair services for periods ranging from 90 days to up to one year, depending upon the type of repair.

Our products incorporate sophisticated technologies to measure, monitor, deliver, analyze, power and control complex semiconductor and advanced manufacturing processes, thereby enhancing uptime, yield and throughput for our customers. Our products have continuously advanced as we strive to meet our customers’ evolving needs. We have developed, and continue to develop, new products to address industry trends, such as the shrinking of integrated circuit critical dimensions and technology inflections, and, in the flat panel display and solar markets, the transition to larger substrate sizes, which require more advanced process control technology. In addition, we have developed, and continue to develop, products that support the migration to new classes of materials, ultra-thin layers, and 3D structures that are used in small geometry manufacturing. We involve our marketing, engineering, manufacturing and sales personnel in the development of new products in order to reduce the time to market for new products. Our employees also work closely with our customers’ development personnel, helping us to identify and define future technical needs on which to focus research and development efforts. We support research at academic institutions targeted at advances in materials science and semiconductor process development.

As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately 760 research and development employees located in facilities around the world. Our research and development expenses were $164.1 million, $135.7 million and $132.6 million for the years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Our research and development efforts include numerous projects, none of which are individually material, and generally have a duration of 3 to 30 months, depending upon whether the product is an enhancement of existing technology or a new product. Our current initiatives include projects to enhance the performance characteristics of older products, to develop new products and to integrate various technologies into subsystems.

Our manufacturing facilities are located in Austria, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. Manufacturing activities include the assembly and testing of components and subassemblies, which are integrated into our products. We outsource some of our assembly work. We purchase a wide range of electronic, optical, mechanical and electrical components, some of which are designed to our specifications. We consider our lean manufacturing techniques and responsiveness to customers’ significantly fluctuating product demands to be a competitive advantage. As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately 3,400 manufacturing-related employees.

At December 31, 2019, our backlog of unfilled orders for all products and services was $500 million, compared to $400 million at December 31, 2018. The increase in backlog of $100 million in 2019 compared to 2018 is attributed to our growth in the semiconductor market during the second half of 2019 and from our Equipment & Solutions segment. As of December 31, 2019, approximately $480 million of our consolidated backlog was scheduled to be shipped on or before December 31, 2020. In general, we schedule production of our products based upon our customers’ delivery requirements. Our lead times are very short, as a large portion of our orders are received and shipped within 90 days. While backlog is calculated on the basis of firm orders, orders may be subject to cancellation or delay, in many cases, by the customer with limited or no penalty. Our backlog at any particular date, therefore, is not necessarily indicative of actual sales which may be generated for any succeeding period. Historically, our backlog levels have fluctuated based upon the ordering patterns of our customers and changes in our manufacturing capacity.

The market for our products is cyclical and highly competitive. Principal competitive factors include:

Although we believe that we compete favorably with respect to these factors, we can make no assurances that we will continue to do so.

We encounter substantial competition in most of our product lines, although no single competitor competes with us across all product lines. Certain of our competitors may have greater financial and other resources than we do. In some cases, competitors are smaller than we are, but are well established in specific product niches.

this market is not as significant to us as the semiconductor market, the cyclicality of this market can also have a significant impact on our business, financial condition and operating results, and we experience similar risks associated with rapid changes in demand from this market.

The semiconductor and consumer electronics industries are characterized by rapid technological change, frequent product introductions, changing customer requirements and evolving industry standards. Because our customers face uncertainties regarding the growth and requirements of these industries, their products and components may not achieve, or continue to achieve, anticipated levels of market acceptance or demand. If our semiconductor market customers or the consumer electronics manufacturers that purchase from our industrial technologies market customers are unable to deliver products that gain market acceptance, it is likely that these customers will not purchase our products or will purchase smaller quantities of our products. We often invest substantial resources in developing our products in advance of significant sales of these products to such customers. Any failure of our customers’ products to gain market acceptance, or a failure of these markets to sustain current sales levels or to grow would have a significant negative effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

The semiconductor and consumer electronics industries have also historically experienced cyclical variations in product supply and demand. These sometimes sudden and severe cycles can result from many factors, including overall consumer and industrial spending and demand for electronic products that drive manufacturer production, as well as the manufacturer’s capacity utilization, timing of new product introductions and demand for customers’ products, inventory levels relative to demand and access to affordable capital. The timing, severity and duration of these market cycles are difficult to predict, and we may not be able to respond effectively to these cycles. For example, our sales to semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers and semiconductor device manufacturers sequentially increased by 4% in 2018 and 52% in 2017, but sequentially decreased 19% in 2019 after a moderation in capital spending in the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019. However, capital spending increased in the second half of 2019. While the timing of a full market recovery remains uncertain, we are seeing improvement in market conditions.

During downturns in the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries, periods of overcapacity have resulted in rapid and significantly reduced demand for our products, which may result in lower gross margins due to reduced absorption of manufacturing overhead, as our ability to rapidly and effectively reduce our cost structure in response to such downturns is limited by the fixed nature of many of our expenses in the near term. Further, our ability to reduce our long-term expenses is constrained by our need to continue investment in next-generation product technology and to support and service our products. In addition, due to the relatively long manufacturing lead times for some of the products we sell to these industries, we may incur expenditures or purchase raw materials or components for products we are unable to sell. As a result, downturns in these industries may materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results. Conversely, when upturns in these industries occur, we may have difficulty rapidly and effectively increasing our manufacturing capacity to meet sudden increases in customer demand. If we fail to do so, we may lose business to our competitors and our relationships with our customers may be harmed. In addition, many semiconductor and consumer electronics manufacturers have operations and customers in Asia, a region that in past years has experienced serious economic problems including currency devaluations, debt defaults, lack of liquidity and recessions.

10-K,

10-K,

A significant portion of amounts outstanding under the credit facilities bear interest at variable interest rates. Although we hedge some exposure, if interest rates increase, variable rate debt will create higher debt service requirements, which would adversely affect our cash flows. In addition, our credit ratings could affect the cost and availability of future borrowings and, accordingly, our cost of capital. Our ratings of our indebtedness reflect each nationally recognized statistical rating organization’s opinion of our financial strength, operating performance and ability to meet our debt obligations. We cannot make any assurances that we will achieve a particular rating or maintain a particular rating in the future. Moreover, we may be required to raise substantial additional financing to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general corporate requirements. Our ability to obtain additional financing or refinancing will depend on, among other factors, our financial position and performance, as well as prevailing market conditions and other factors beyond our control. We cannot make any assurances that we will be able to obtain additional financing or refinancing on terms acceptable to us or at all.

phase-out

Our Term Loan Facility and ABL Facility contain several negative covenants that, among other things and subject to certain exceptions, restrict our ability and/or our subsidiaries’ ability to:

These restrictions on our ability to engage in or benefit from these actions limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in and opportunities for our business, such as limiting our ability to engage in mergers and acquisitions. This could place us at a competitive disadvantage. If the matters described in our other risk factors result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results, we may be unable to comply with the terms of our credit facilities or experience an event of default.

Our Term Loan Facility and ABL Facility contain customary events of default, including:

The amount of cash available to us for repayment of amounts owed under these credit facilities will depend on our usage of our existing cash balances and our operating performance and ability to generate cash flow from operations in future periods, which will be subject to financial, business and other factors affecting our operations, many of which are beyond our control. We cannot provide any assurances that we will generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt obligations. Any failure to repay these obligations as they become due would result in an event of default under the credit facilities.

If an event of default occurs, the lenders may end their obligation to make loans to us under the credit facilities and may declare any outstanding indebtedness under these credit facilities immediately due and payable. In such case, we would need to obtain additional financing or significantly deplete our available cash, or both, to repay this indebtedness. Any additional financing may not be available on reasonable terms or at all, and significant depletion of our available cash would harm our ability to fund our operations or execute our broader corporate objectives. If we were unable to repay outstanding indebtedness following an event of default, then in addition to other available rights and remedies, the lenders could initiate foreclosure proceedings on substantially all of our assets. Any such foreclosure proceedings or other rights and remedies successfully implemented by the lenders in an event of default would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Further, because a change in control of us constitutes an event of default under these credit facilities, this would likely be a deterrent to a potential acquirer, as any potential acquisition would trigger an event of default, unless the lenders agreed to waive such event of default. We cannot guarantee that any such waiver would be obtained.

COVID-19,

re-opened.

results is uncertain, and depends on the length and severity of this viral outbreak and the responsive governmental actions. However, if the outbreak continues to spread and lasts for an extended period of time, it would likely have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

A substantial portion of our shipments occurs shortly after an order is received, and therefore we generally operate with a relatively low level of backlog. As a result, a decrease in demand for our products from one or more customers could occur with limited advance notice and could have a significant adverse effect on our operating results in any particular period. Further, we often recognize a significant portion of the revenue of certain of our business lines in the last month of each fiscal quarter, due in part to the tendency of some customers to wait until late in a quarter to commit to purchase these products as a result of capital expenditure approvals and budgeting constraints occurring at the end of a quarter, or the hope of obtaining more favorable pricing from a competitor seeking the business. Thus, variations in timing of sales can cause significant fluctuations in our quarterly sales, gross margin and profitability. Orders expected to ship in one period could shift to another period due to changes in the timing of our customers’ purchase decisions, rescheduled delivery dates requested by our customers, manufacturing capacity constraints or logistics delays. Our orders are generally subject to rescheduling without penalty or cancellation without penalty other than reimbursement for certain labor and material costs. Our operating results for a particular quarter or year may be adversely affected if our customers, particularly our largest customers, cancel or reschedule orders, or if we cannot fill orders in time due to capacity constraints or unexpected delays in manufacturing, testing, shipping, delivery or product acceptance. Also, we base our manufacturing plans on our forecasted product mix. If the actual product mix varies significantly from our forecast, we may not be able to fill some orders, which would result in delays in the shipment of our products and could shift sales to a subsequent period. All of these risks have a particularly high impact on our Equipment & Solutions Division, which derives substantial revenue from a few significant customers and the sale of a relatively small quantity of products. A significant percentage of our expenses are fixed and based in part on expectations of future net revenues. Our inability to adjust spending quickly enough to compensate for any shortfall would magnify the adverse impact of a shortfall in net revenues on our operating results.

Customers of our high-value, more complex products often require substantial time to qualify our products and make purchase decisions. In addition, some of our sales to defense and security customers are under major defense programs that involve lengthy competitive bidding and qualification processes. These customers often perform, or require us to perform, extensive configuration, testing and evaluation of our products before committing to purchasing them, which can require a significant upfront investment in time and resources. The sales cycle for these products from initial contact through shipment varies significantly, is difficult to predict and can last more than a year. If we fail to anticipate the likelihood, costs, or timing associated with sales of these products, or the cancellation or rescheduling of orders for these products, our business and operating results would be harmed.

Our worldwide sales to customers in the research and defense markets rely to a large extent on government funding for research and defense-related programs. Any decline in government funding as a result of reduced budgets in connection with fiscal austerity measures, revised budget priorities or other causes would likely result in reduced sales of our products that are purchased either directly or indirectly with government funding, which would have an adverse impact on our operating results. Concerns regarding the global availability of credit may also make it more difficult for our customers to raise capital, whether debt or equity, to finance their projects and purchases of capital equipment, which would adversely affect sales of our products and therefore harm our business and operating results.

Factors that could cause fluctuations in our financial results include:

quarter-to-quarter

year-to-year

period-to-period

Our top ten customers accounted for approximately 33%, 41% and 43% of our net revenues for the years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. No single customer accounted for more than 10% of our net revenues in 2019. One customer, Applied Materials, Inc., accounted for approximately 12% and 13% of our net revenues for the years 2018 and 2017, respectively, and another customer, Lam Research Corporation, accounted for 11% and 12% of our net revenues for the years 2018 and 2017, respectively. In any one reporting period, a single customer or several customers may contribute even a larger percentage of our consolidated net revenues. Further, our recently-acquired Equipment & Solutions Division also depends on a few significant customers for a large portion of its revenue in any given quarter. The loss of a major customer or any reduction in orders by these customers, including reductions due to market or competitive conditions, would likely have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. None of our significant customers has entered into an agreement with us requiring it to purchase any minimum quantity of our products.

Attempts to lessen the adverse effect of any loss or reduction of net revenues through the rapid addition of new customers would be difficult because a relatively small number of companies dominate the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries. Further, prospective customers typically require lengthy qualification periods prior to placing volume orders with a new supplier. Our future success will continue to depend upon:

Our business is subject to risks inherent in conducting business globally. International revenues account for a significant portion of total net revenues, with a substantial portion of such sales to customers in Asia (especially China, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and Taiwan) and Europe (especially Germany). We expect that international revenues will continue to account for a significant percentage of total net revenues for the foreseeable future, and that in particular, the proportion of our sales to Asian customers will continue to increase. Additionally, we have substantial international manufacturing, sales and administrative operations, with significant facilities and employee populations in Europe and Asia, and a substantial portion of our manufacturing in China, Israel, Mexico and Singapore. Our international operations expose us to various risks, which include:

If we experience any of the risks associated with international business, our business, financial condition and operating results could be significantly harmed.

We have significant facilities and operations and a considerable number of employees in Israel. A number of our products are manufactured in facilities located in Israel. The Middle East remains a volatile region, and the future of peace efforts between Israel and neighboring countries remains extremely uncertain. Any armed conflicts or significant political instability in the region is likely to negatively affect business conditions and could significantly disrupt our operations in Israel, which would negatively impact our business. Further, many of our employees in Israel are subject to being called for active military duty under emergency circumstances. If a military conflict or war arises, these individuals could be required to serve in the military for extended periods of time, and our operations in Israel could be disrupted by the absence of one or more key employees or a significant number of other employees for a significant period of time. Any such disruption could adversely affect our business.

non-U.S.

Additionally, potential customers in certain countries, particularly in Asia, have a strong preference for technology and products developed by suppliers based in their home countries. The recent trade disputes between the United States government and other governments in Asia and elsewhere have further reinforced and broadened this preference, as these customers and some of our existing customers seek to avoid the uncertainty related to these trade disputes. While we have attempted to mitigate this issue by establishing a significant local presence in many of these countries, companies like us that are based outside of these countries remain at a disadvantage.

Trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalated throughout 2018 and 2019, with successive rounds of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods followed by retaliatory tariffs imposed by the Chinese government on certain products made in the U.S. and shipped to China. These tariffs currently affect some of our products made in China and some of the components that we or our suppliers source from China, and some of our products and components we export to China. The U.S. and China tariffs have negatively impacted our business, financial condition and operating results. We continue to explore our options to reduce the impact of these tariffs on our business, including but not limited to, seeking alternative sources of supply, modifying other business practices, raising our prices, and shifting production outside of China.

non-U.S.

non-Chinese

cut-off

The geopolitical and economic uncertainty between the U.S. and China caused by the tariffs and trade bans have caused, and may continue to cause, decreased demand for our products, directly and indirectly, which could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results. This trade uncertainty has caused, and may continue to cause, customers to delay or cancel orders as they limit expenditures that could be affected by future actions and evaluate ways to mitigate their own tariff and cost exposure by sourcing from locally-based suppliers or suppliers based in other countries. Such delays and cancellations could have a material impact on our business, financial condition and operating results.

It is possible that additional restrictions on trade will be imposed, and that existing tariffs will be increased on imports of our products or the components used in our products, or that our business will be impacted by additional retaliatory tariffs or restrictions imposed and/or increased by China or other countries in response to existing or future tariffs, causing us to potentially lose additional sales and customers, incur increased costs and lower margins, seek alternative suppliers, raise prices or make changes to our operations, any of which could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

Since our inception, we have acquired other companies and businesses, and as a part of our business strategy, we may enter into additional business combinations and acquisitions. The acquisitions of Newport in April 2016 and ESI in February 2019 significantly increased our size, including with respect to net revenues, product offerings, number of employees and facilities. Our ability to successfully identify suitable acquisition targets, complete acquisitions on acceptable terms, and efficiently and effectively integrate our acquired businesses into our organization is critical to our growth. We may not be able to identify target companies that meet our strategic objectives or successfully negotiate and complete acquisitions with companies we have identified on acceptable terms. Further, we may incur significant expense in pursuing acquisitions that cannot be completed, or are significantly delayed, due to regulatory or other restrictions. Additionally, our credit facilities only permit us to make acquisitions under certain circumstances, and also restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness in certain circumstances. Further, the process of integrating acquired companies into our operations requires significant resources and is time consuming, expensive and disruptive to our business. We may not realize the benefits we anticipate from these acquisitions because of the following significant challenges:

re-evaluate

non-cash

Further, some very significant customers of our laser and motion products compete with our Equipment & Solutions Division. While our Equipment & Solutions Division is separate from our Light & Motion Division that supplies these laser and motion products, and we have implemented internal measures intended to segregate competitively sensitive information that we receive from these customers from our Equipment & Solutions Division, these customers may nonetheless choose to source their laser and motion products from alternate suppliers, which would result in a potentially significant loss of revenue for our laser and motion business.

In addition, with future acquisitions, we could use substantial portions of our available cash as all or a portion of the purchase price. We could also issue additional securities as consideration for these acquisitions, which could cause significant stockholder dilution, or obtain additional debt financing, which would increase our costs and reduce our future cash flow, without achieving the desired accretion to our business. For example, in 2019, we used approximately $400 million of our available cash and obtained approximately $650 million of additional debt financing in order to acquire ESI. Further, our prior acquisitions and any future acquisitions may not ultimately help us achieve our strategic goals and may pose other risks to us.

As a result of our previous acquisitions, we have several different decentralized operating and accounting systems. We will need to continue to modify our accounting policies, internal controls, procedures and compliance programs to provide consistency across all of our operations. In order to increase efficiency and operating effectiveness and improve corporate visibility into our decentralized operations, we continue to review opportunities to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) systems where practical. Any future implementations may risk potential disruption of our operations during the conversion periods and the implementations could require significantly more management time and higher implementation costs than currently estimated.

Many of our markets are characterized by rapid technological advances, evolving industry standards, shifting customer needs, new product introductions and enhancements, and the periodic introduction of disruptive technology that displaces current technology due to a combination of price, performance and reliability. For example, our Equipment & Solutions Division is largely dependent upon the mobile phone market (which we include within our industrial technologies market), which is subject to rapid technological changes. As a result, many of the products in our markets can become outdated quickly and without warning. We depend, to a significant extent, upon our ability to enhance our existing products, to anticipate and address the demands of the marketplace for new and improved and disruptive technologies, either through internal development or by acquisitions, and to be price competitive. If we or our competitors introduce new or enhanced products, it may cause our customers to defer or cancel orders for our existing products. If we or our competitors introduce disruptive technology that displaces current technology, existing product platforms or lines of business from which we generate significant net revenues may be rendered obsolete. Further, if our customers or the industries we serve shift to technologies that do not utilize our platform of products, our business, financial condition and operating results would be harmed.

Many of our sophisticated and complex products are difficult to design and manufacture, and we may experience delays in introducing new products or enhancements to our existing products. If we do not introduce our new products or enhancements into the marketplace in a timely fashion, our customers may choose to purchase our competitors’ products. Our success depends on our products being designed into new generations of equipment. Certain of our markets, such as the semiconductor capital equipment market and the mobile phone market, experience cyclicality and unevenness in capital spending, so if we fail to introduce new products in a timely manner we may miss market upturns, or may fail to have our products or subsystems designed into our customers’ products. New products designed by capital equipment manufacturers typically have a lifespan of five to fifteen years. We must develop products that are technologically advanced in a timely manner so that they are

positioned to be chosen for use in each successive generation of capital equipment. We may not be successful in acquiring, developing, manufacturing or marketing new products and technologies on a timely or cost-effective basis. If we fail to adequately introduce new, competitive products and technologies on a timely basis, our business, financial condition and operating results will be harmed.

In addition, we must make a significant capital investment to develop products for our customers well before our products are introduced and before we can be sure that we will recover our capital investment through sales to the customers in significant volume. If our products fail to meet our customers’ technical or cost requirements, they may be replaced by a competitive product or alternative technology solution, and we may be unable to recover our development costs.

Further, our competitive success in our markets often depends upon factors outside of our control. For example, in some cases, semiconductor device manufacturers may direct semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers to use a specified supplier’s product in their equipment. Accordingly, for such products, our success will depend in part on our ability to have semiconductor device manufacturers specify that our products be used at their semiconductor fabrication facilities. In addition, we may encounter difficulties in changing established relationships of competitors that already have a large installed base of products within such semiconductor fabrication facilities.

We are constantly investing in products for emerging applications, and we expect to generate increasingly significant net revenue levels from sales of products for these applications. These applications are evolving, and the extent to which they achieve widespread adoption or significant growth is uncertain. Many factors may affect the viability of widespread adoption or growth of these applications, including their cost-effectiveness, performance and reliability compared to alternatives. If these applications or our products for these applications are not widely adopted or fail to grow as we project, we will not generate the growth in net revenues that we anticipate from sales of our products for these emerging applications, and our operating results could be harmed.

Our business depends on the timely supply of products and services that meet the rapidly changing technical and volume requirements of our customers, which depends in part on the timely delivery of parts, components and subassemblies from suppliers, including contract manufacturers. Cyclical industry conditions and the volatility of demand for manufacturing equipment increase capital, technical, operational and other risks for us and for companies throughout our supply chain. We may also experience significant interruptions of our manufacturing operations, delays in our ability to deliver products or services, increased costs or customer order cancellations as a result of:

In addition, if we need to rapidly increase our business and manufacturing capacity to meet increases in demand or expedited shipment schedules, this may exacerbate any interruptions in our manufacturing operations and supply chain and the associated effect on our working capital. Moreover, if actual demand for our products is different than expected, we may purchase more/fewer parts than necessary or incur costs for canceling, postponing or expediting delivery of parts. If we purchase inventory in anticipation of customer demand that does not materialize, or if our customers reduce or delay orders, we may incur excess inventory charges. Any or all of these factors could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

We rely on sole and limited source suppliers and international suppliers for some of our components and subassemblies that are critical to the manufacturing of our products due to unique component designs as well as specialized quality and performance requirements needed to manufacture our products. This reliance involves several risks, including the following:

We believe we could obtain and qualify alternative sources for most sole and limited source and international supplier parts; however, the transition time to alternative sources may be long. Seeking alternative sources for these parts could also require us to redesign our products, resulting in increased costs and likely shipping delays and the potential need to requalify products with our customers, particularly those who have “copy exact” requirements . In such an event, any inability to redesign our products could result in further costs and shipping delays. These increased costs would decrease our profit margins if we could not pass the costs to our customers. Further, shipping delays could damage our relationships with current and potential customers and have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.

In addition, we obtain some of the critical capital equipment we use to manufacture certain of our products from sole or limited sources due to the unique nature of the equipment. In some cases, this equipment can only be serviced by the manufacturer or a very limited number of service providers due to the complex and specialized nature of the equipment. If service and/or spare parts for this equipment become unavailable, this equipment could be rendered inoperable, which could cause delays in the production of our products, and could require us to procure alternate equipment, if available, which would likely involve long lead times and significant additional cost, and could harm our operating results.

We offer products for a number of very diverse markets. Because we operate in multiple markets, we must work constantly to understand the needs, standards and technical requirements of many different applications within these markets, and must devote significant resources to developing different products for these markets. Product development is costly and time consuming. We must anticipate trends in our customers’ industries and develop products before our customers’ products are commercialized. If we do not anticipate our customers’ needs and future activities, we may invest substantial resources in developing products that do not achieve broad market acceptance. Our growth prospects rely in part on successful entry into new segments, which depends on our displacing competitors who are more familiar with these markets and better known to customers. In many cases, we are attempting to enter or expand our presence in these new segments with newly-introduced products that are not yet proven in the industry. Our decision to continue to offer products to a given market or to penetrate new markets is based in part on our judgment of the size, growth rate, profitability and other factors

that contribute to the attractiveness of a particular market. If our product offerings in any particular market are not competitive, our analyses of a market are incorrect or our sales and marketing approach for a market is ineffective, we may not achieve anticipated growth rates in this market, and our business, financial condition and operating results would be harmed.

off-the-shelf

As of December 31, 2019, our goodwill and intangible assets, net, represented approximately $1,058.5 million, or 31% of our total assets. Goodwill is generated in our acquisitions when the cost of an acquisition exceeds the fair value of the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets we acquire. As a result of the ESI acquisition, we added approximately $474 million of additional goodwill and intangible assets. Goodwill is subject to an impairment analysis at least annually based on the fair value of the reporting unit. Intangible assets relate primarily to the developed technologies, customer relationships and patents and trademarks acquired by us as part of our acquisitions of other companies and are subject to an impairment analysis whenever events or changes in circumstances exist that indicate that the carrying value of the intangible asset might not be recoverable. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the carrying value of goodwill and intangible assets. If market and economic conditions or business performance deteriorate, the likelihood that we would record an impairment charge would increase, which impairment charge could materially and adversely affect our operating results.

The markets for our products are intensely competitive, and we believe that competition from both new and existing competitors will increase in the future. Principal competitive factors include:

Although we believe that we compete favorably with respect to these factors, we may not be able to continue to do so. We encounter substantial competition in most of our product lines. Certain of our competitors may enjoy greater name recognition and have greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we have, and some may have lower material costs than ours due to their control over sources of components and raw materials. In some cases, competitors are smaller than we are, but well established in specific product niches. We may encounter difficulties in changing established relationships of competitors with a large installed base of products. In addition, our competitors can be expected to continue to improve the design and performance of their products. Competitors may develop products that offer performance or technological features superior to those of our products. If our competitors develop superior products, we may lose existing customers and market share. Further, technological advances in our served markets may cause one or more of our portfolio of products to be displaced over time. We also face competition in some of our markets from our existing and potential customers who have developed or may develop products that are competitive to ours, or who engage subcontract manufacturers or system integrators to manufacture competitive products on their behalf. Some of our largest customers have recently increased their internal development efforts of sophisticated high-value products that compete with our products. If we are unable to develop products that are significantly superior to these internally-developed products in performance, price or both, our products would likely be replaced by these internally-developed products.

low-cost

As part of our continuous cost-reduction efforts, we continue to relocate the manufacture of certain of our existing product lines and subassemblies to, and initiate the manufacture of certain new products in, our facilities in China, Israel, Singapore and Romania, as well as to our significant subcontracted operations in Mexico and selected contract manufacturers in Asia. In the future, we may expand the level of manufacturing, administrative and certain other operations that we perform offshore to take advantage of cost efficiencies available to us in those countries. However, we may not achieve the significant cost savings or other benefits that we would anticipate from moving manufacturing and other operations to these countries, and costs may increase in these countries as development and manufacturing expertise increase and labor, material, shipping and facility-related costs rise, as we have seen in our manufacturing locations in China. If these costs increase to the extent that we no longer realize suitable gross margins from our products manufactured in these countries, we may need to relocate the manufacture of these products to other lower-cost regions. Additionally, if we are unable to successfully manage the relocation, initiation or oversight of the manufacture of these products, our business, financial condition and operating results would be harmed.

In particular, transferring product lines to other manufacturing locations and/or to our contract manufacturers’ facilities often requires us to transplant complex manufacturing equipment and processes across a large geographical distance and to train a completely new workforce concerning the use of this equipment and

these processes. In addition, certain of our customers may require the requalification of products supplied to them in connection with the relocation of manufacturing operations. If we are unable to manage this transfer and training smoothly and comprehensively, or if we are unable to complete the requalification of products in a timely manner, we could suffer manufacturing and supply chain delays, excessive product defects, harm to our operating results and our reputation with our customers, and loss of customers. Further, the utilization of overseas manufacturing locations and contract manufacturers may require additional customs tariffs or may require export licenses, which may be difficult or costly to obtain. We also may not realize the cost savings that we currently anticipate from locating operations in Mexico, China, Israel, Romania and Singapore. For example, we are experiencing rising material, labor, shipping and facility-related costs in China and new or increased tariffs on our products manufactured in China.

Additionally, qualifying contract manufacturers and commencing volume production are expensive and time-consuming activities, and there is no guarantee we will continue to do so successfully. Further, our reliance on contract manufacturers reduces our control over the assembly process, quality assurance, production costs and material and component supply for our products. If we fail to manage our relationship with our contract manufacturers, or if any of the contract manufacturers experience financial difficulty, or delays, disruptions, capacity constraints or quality control problems in their operations, our ability to ship products to our customers could be impaired and our competitive position and reputation could be harmed. Further, if we or our contract manufacturers are unable to negotiate with suppliers for reduced component costs, our operating results could be harmed.

In addition, our contract manufacturers may terminate our agreements with them upon prior notice to us or immediately for reasons such as if we become insolvent, or if we fail to perform a material obligation under the agreements. If we are required to change contract manufacturers or assume internal manufacturing operations for any reason, including the termination of one of our contract manufacturing contracts, we will likely suffer manufacturing and shipping delays, lost sales, increased costs and damage to our customer relationships, any of which would harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

Many of our products are inherently complex in design and, in some cases, require extensive customization and/or ongoing regular maintenance. Further, the manufacture of these products often involves a highly complex and precise process and the utilization of specially qualified components that conform to stringent specifications. Several of our products require highly skilled labor. As a result of the technical complexity of these products, design defects, skilled labor turnover, changes in our or our suppliers’ manufacturing processes or the inadvertent use of defective or nonconforming materials by us or our suppliers could adversely affect our manufacturing yields and product reliability. This could in turn harm our business, operating results, financial condition and customer relationships.

We provide warranties for our products, and we accrue allowances for estimated warranty costs at the time we recognize revenue for the sale of the products. The determination of such allowances requires us to make estimates of product return rates and expected costs to repair or replace the products under warranty. We establish warranty reserves based on historical warranty costs for our products. If actual return rates or repair and replacement costs differ significantly from our estimates, our operating results would be negatively impacted. In particular, our Equipment & Solutions Division’s products are extremely complex, and have historically had much higher warranty costs as a percentage of net revenues than our other products.

Our customers may discover defects in our products after the products have been fully deployed and operated under peak stress conditions. In addition, some of our products are combined with products from other suppliers, which may contain defects. Furthermore, some of our customers use our products in ways other than their intended purpose. As a result, should problems occur, it may be difficult to identify the source of the problem. If we are unable to identify and fix defects or other problems, we could experience, among other things:

The occurrence of any one or more of the foregoing factors could seriously harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

From time to time, we may be involved in legal proceedings or claims regarding product performance, product liability, patent infringement, intellectual property rights, antitrust, environmental regulations, securities, contracts, unfair competition, misappropriation of trade secrets, employment, workplace safety, and other matters.

For example, some of our products, such as certain ultrafast lasers, are used in medical and scientific research applications where malfunctions could result in serious injury. In addition, certain of our products may be hazardous if not operated properly or if defective. We are exposed to significant risks for product liability claims if death, personal injury or property damage results from the use of our products. We may experience material product liability losses in the future. We currently maintain insurance for certain product liability claims. However, our insurance coverage may not continue to be available on terms that we accept, if at all. This insurance coverage also may not adequately cover liabilities that we incur. Further, if our products are defective, we may be required to recall or redesign these products. A successful claim against us that exceeds our insurance coverage level or that is not covered by insurance, or any product recall, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

In addition, we are currently involved in securities class action litigation in connection with the acquisitions of Newport and previously were involved in a securities class action litigation in connection with the acquisition of ESI. In each case, the plaintiffs have alleged, among other things, that the then-current directors of each such acquired company breached their fiduciary duties to their respective shareholders by agreeing to sell such company through an inadequate and unfair process, leading to inadequate and unfair consideration, by agreeing to unfair deal protection devices, and by omitting material information from the proxy statement.

Regardless of the outcome, securities class action litigation such as this can be time-consuming, result in significant expense to the Company and divert attention and resources of our management and other key employees. Costs and expenses, or an unfavorable outcome in such cases, could exceed applicable insurance coverage, if any. Any such unfavorable outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

With respect to our intellectual property, we have from time to time received claims from third parties alleging that we are infringing certain trademarks, patents or other intellectual property rights held by them. Such infringement claims have in the past and may in the future result in litigation. Any such litigation could be protracted and costly, and we could become subject to damages for infringement, or to an injunction preventing us from selling one or more of our products or using one or more of our trademarks. Such claims could also result in the necessity of obtaining a license relating to one or more of our products or current or future

technologies, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any intellectual property litigation and the failure to obtain necessary licenses or other rights or develop substitute technology may divert management’s attention from other matters and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, the terms of some of our customer contracts typically require us to indemnify the customer in the event of any claim of infringement brought by a third party based on our products. Any claims of this kind may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results.

Although our standard commercial documentation sets forth the terms and conditions that we intend to apply to commercial transactions with our business partners, counterparties to such transactions may not explicitly agree to our terms and conditions. In situations where we engage in business with a third party without an explicit written agreement regarding the applicable terms and conditions, or where the commercial documentation applicable to the transaction is subject to varying interpretations, we may have disputes with those third parties regarding the applicable terms and conditions of our transaction with them. These disputes could result in deterioration of our commercial relationship with those parties, costly and time-consuming litigation, or additional concessions or obligations being offered by us to resolve these disputes, or could impact our net revenue or cost recognition. Any of these outcomes could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

In addition, from time to time in the normal course of business we indemnify parties with whom we enter into contractual relationships, including customers, suppliers and lessors, with respect to certain matters. We have agreed, under certain conditions, to hold these parties harmless against specified losses, such as those arising from a breach of representations or covenants, negligence or willful misconduct, other third-party claims that our products infringe the intellectual property rights of these other third parties, or other claims made against certain parties. We may be compelled to enter into or accrue for probable settlements of alleged indemnification obligations, or we may be subject to potential liability arising from our customers’ involvements in legal disputes. In addition, notwithstanding the provisions related to limitations on our liability that we seek to include in our business agreements, the counterparties to such agreements may dispute our interpretation or application of such provisions, and a court of law may not interpret or apply such provisions in our favor, any of which could result in an obligation for us to pay significant additional damages and engage in costly legal proceedings. It is difficult to determine the maximum potential amount of liability under any indemnification obligations, whether or not asserted, due to the unique facts and circumstances that are likely to be involved in any particular claim. Our business, financial condition and operating results in a reported fiscal period could be materially and adversely affected if we expend significant amounts in defending or settling any asserted claims, regardless of their merit or outcomes.

Legal proceedings and claims, whether with or without merit, and associated internal investigations, may be time-consuming and expensive to prosecute, defend or conduct; divert management’s attention and other of our resources; inhibit our ability to sell our products; result in adverse judgments for damages, injunctive relief, penalties and fines; and negatively affect our business. We can make no assurances regarding the outcome of current or future legal proceedings, claims or investigations.

We are subject to trade compliance laws in both the United States and other jurisdictions where we operate. For example, exports of our products and technology developed or manufactured in the U.S. are subject to export controls imposed by the U.S. Government and administered by the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State and Treasury. Export regulations govern exports of our products and technology developed or manufactured in other countries, including, for example, Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Romania and Singapore, and China. In certain instances, these regulations may require obtaining licenses from the administering agency prior to exporting products or technology to international locations or foreign nationals, including foreign nationals

non-monetary

non-U.S.

pre-tax

The enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) in December 2017 significantly affected U.S. tax law by changing how the U.S. imposes tax on multinational corporations. The U.S. Department of Treasury has broad authority under the Act to issue regulations and interpretive guidance. No proposed or final regulations have been issued for certain significant provisions of the Act, and other provisions may require corrective action by Congress.

In addition, some of the proposed and final regulations that have been issued have been challenged in court. We have applied available guidance to estimate our tax obligations, but new guidance issued by the U.S. Treasury Department may cause us to adjust our tax estimates in future periods. The ultimate impact of this Act is based upon our understanding and interpretation of the regulatory guidance that has been issued regarding the Act.

In addition, we are subject to regular examination by the United States Internal Revenue Service and state, local and foreign tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of favorable or unfavorable outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, we can make no assurances that any final determination will not be materially different from the treatment reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

In certain foreign jurisdictions, we qualify for tax incentives and tax holidays based on our ability to meet, on a continuing basis, various tests relating to our employment levels, research and development expenditures and other qualification requirements in a particular foreign jurisdiction. While we intend to operate in such a manner to maintain and maximize our tax incentives, we can make no assurances that we have so qualified or that we will so qualify for any particular year or jurisdiction. If we fail to qualify or remain qualified for certain foreign tax incentives and tax holidays, the tax incentives we previously received may be terminated and/or retroactively revoked requiring repayment of past tax benefits, and we would be subject to an increase in our effective tax rate which would adversely impact our financial results.

We rely on various information technology networks and systems, some of which are managed by third parties, to process, transmit and store electronic information and to carry out and support a variety of business activities, including human resources, manufacturing, research and development, supply chain management, sales and accounting. This data includes confidential information, transactional information and intellectual property belonging to us, our customers and our business partners, as well as personally-identifiable information of individuals. We have experienced, and expect to continue to be subject to, cybersecurity threats and incidents ranging from employee error or misuse to individual attempts to gain unauthorized access to information systems to sophisticated and targeted measures known as advanced persistent threats, none of which have materially affected our financial condition or operating results to date. While we devote significant resources to network security, data encryption and other measures to protect our systems and information from unauthorized access or misuse, a failure in or a breach of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, or those of our suppliers and other business partners, including as a result of cyber-attacks, could disrupt our business; result in the disclosure, misuse, corruption or loss of confidential information, including intellectual property and other critical data of ours, our customers and other business partners; damage our reputation; cause data privacy issues; decrease the value of our investment in research, development and engineering; cause losses; result in litigation with third parties; and increase our cybersecurity protection and remediation costs.

We are also subject to numerous data privacy laws and regulations around the world that apply to the processing, collection, transmission, storage and use of personally identifiable information, including the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, which imposes robust EU data protection requirements and provides for significant penalties for noncompliance. The EU regulations also established a prohibition on the transfer of personal information from the EU to other countries whose laws do not protect personal data to an adequate level of privacy or security. While we have utilized certain permitted approaches for transferring personal information from the EU to the United States, these approaches may be reviewed and invalidated by the EU courts or regulatory bodies and we may be required to ascertain an alternative legal basis for such transfers. In addition, certain countries and states have and will continue to modify or adopt more stringent data protection standards.

While we continue to assess and address the implications of existing and new domestic and foreign regulations relating to data privacy, the evolving regulatory landscape presents a number of legal and operational challenges, and our efforts to comply with these regulations may be unsuccessful. We may also face audits or investigations by one or more government agencies relating to our compliance with these regulations that could result in the imposition of penalties or fines, significant expenses in facilitating and responding to the investigations, and overall reputational harm or negative publicity. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, these laws, regulations and policies that are applicable to us including, restrictions on marketing activities, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

We outsource a number of services, including our information technology systems management and certain accounting functions, to domestic and overseas third-party service providers. While outsourcing arrangements may lower our cost of operations, they also reduce our direct control over the services rendered. This diminished control may have an adverse effect on the quality or quantity of products delivered or services rendered, on our ability to quickly respond to changing market conditions, or on our ability to ensure compliance with all applicable domestic and foreign laws and regulations. In addition, many of these outsourced service providers, including certain hosted software applications that we use for confidential data storage, employ cloud computing technology for such storage. These providers’ of cloud computing systems may be susceptible to “cyber incidents,” such as intentional cyber-attacks aimed at theft of sensitive data or inadvertent cyber-security compromises, which are outside of our control. If we do not effectively develop and manage our outsourcing strategies, if required export and other governmental approvals are not timely obtained, if our third-party service providers do not perform as anticipated, or do not adequately protect our data from cyber-related security breaches, or if there are delays or difficulties in enhancing business processes, we may experience operational difficulties (such as limitations on our ability to pay suppliers in a timely manner), increased costs, manufacturing or service interruptions or delays, loss of intellectual property rights or other sensitive data, quality and compliance issues, and challenges in managing our product inventory or recording and reporting financial and management information, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our success and ability to compete depend in large part upon protecting our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark and trade secret protection and other agreements, such as nondisclosure agreements, to protect our proprietary rights. The steps we have taken may not be sufficient to prevent the misappropriation of our intellectual property, particularly in countries outside the United States, where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States. For example, the patent prosecution and enforcement systems within China, where we have a significant customer base and manufacturing presence, and where we have recently transferred several important laser product lines, are less robust than these systems in other international jurisdictions and as a result, we may be limited in our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights there. We would also likely be at a disadvantage in any enforcement proceeding in China as a foreign entity seeking protection against a Chinese company. Patent and trademark laws and trade secret protection may not be adequate to deter third party infringement or misappropriation of our patents, trademarks, trade secrets and similar proprietary rights. In addition, patents issued to us may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. Our rights granted under those patents may not provide competitive advantages to us, and the claims under our patent applications may not be allowed. The loss or expiration of any of our key patents could lead to a significant loss of sales of certain of our products and could materially affect our future operating results. We have in the past and may in the future be subject to or may initiate interference proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or similar international agencies, which can demand significant

financial and management resources. The process of seeking patent protection can be time consuming and expensive and patents may not be issued from currently pending or future applications. Moreover, our existing patents or any new patents that may be issued may not be sufficient in scope or strength to provide meaningful protection or any commercial advantage to us. We may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement of our proprietary rights in order to determine the scope and validity of our proprietary rights or the proprietary rights of our competitors, which claims could result in costly litigation, the diversion of our technical and management personnel and the assertion of counterclaims by the defendants, including counterclaims asserting invalidity of our patents. We will take such actions where we believe that they are of sufficient strategic or economic importance to us to justify the cost.

The stock market has from time to time experienced, and is likely to continue to experience, extreme price and volume fluctuations. Prices of securities of technology companies have been especially volatile and have often fluctuated for reasons that are unrelated to the operating performance of the companies. Historically, the market price of shares of our common stock has fluctuated greatly and could continue to fluctuate due to a variety of factors. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been the objects of securities class action litigation. If we become the subject of such securities class action litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

Holders of our common stock are only entitled to receive dividends when and if they are declared by our Board of Directors. Our credit facilities restrict our ability to pay dividends on our capital stock under certain circumstances. Although we have declared cash dividends on our common stock since 2011, and occasionally increased the dividends from prior quarters, we are not required to do so, and we may reduce or eliminate our cash dividend in the future. This could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Our operations are subject to various federal, state, local and international regulations relating to the protection of the environment, including those governing discharges of pollutants into the air and water, the management and disposal of hazardous substances and waste and the cleanup of contaminated sites. In the United States, we are subject to the federal regulation and control of the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), and we are subject to comparable authorities in other countries. Some of our operations require environmental permits and controls to prevent and reduce air and water pollution, and these permits are subject to modification, renewal and revocation by issuing authorities. Future developments, administrative actions or liabilities relating to environmental matters could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

Although we believe that our safety procedures for using, handling, storing and disposing of such materials comply with the standards required by applicable state, federal and international laws and regulations, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. We have been, and may in the future be, subject to claims by employees or third parties alleging such contamination or injury, and could be liable for damages, which liability could exceed the amount of our liability insurance coverage (if any) and the resources of our business.

EPA-designated

off-site

We have certain ongoing costs related to investigation, monitoring and remediation of the site that have not been material to us as a whole in the recent past. However, while we benefitted from the indemnification of certain costs by a third party in the past, that indemnification is now in a transition period, and we will become subject to a greater portion of future costs of remediation going forward. Our ultimate costs of remediation and other potential liabilities are difficult to predict. In the event that the EPA and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board determine that the site cleanup requires additional measures to ensure that it meets current standards for environmental contamination, or if they enhance any of the applicable required standards, we will likely become subject to additional remediation obligations in the future. In addition to our investigation, monitoring and remediation obligations, we may be liable for property damage or personal injury claims relating to this site. While we are not aware of any material claims at this time, such claims could be made against us in the future. If significant costs or other liability relating to this site arise in the future, our business, financial condition and operating results would be adversely affected.

non-compliant

For example, the EU has enacted the Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which regulates the use of certain hazardous substances in certain products, and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which requires the collection, reuse and recycling of waste from certain products. Compliance with such laws requires significant resources. These regulations may require us to redesign our products or source alternative components to ensure compliance with applicable requirements, for example by mandating the use of different types of materials in certain components. Any such redesign or alternative sourcing may increase the cost of our products, adversely impact the performance of our products, add greater testing lead-times for product introductions, or in some cases limit the markets for certain products. Further, such environmental laws are frequently amended, which increases the cost and complexity of compliance. For example, such amendments have in the past, and may in the future, result in certain of our products falling in the scope of the directive, even if they were initially exempt. In addition, certain of our customers, particularly original equipment manufacturer customers whose end products may be subject to these directives, may require that the products we supply to them comply with these directives, even if not mandated by law. Because certain directives, for example, those issued from the EU are implemented in individual member states, compliance is particularly challenging. Our failure to comply with any of such regulatory requirements or contractual obligations could result in our being directly or indirectly liable for costs, fines or penalties and third-party claims, and could jeopardize our ability to conduct business in certain countries.

Anti-takeover provisions could diminish the opportunities for stockholders to participate in tender offers, including tender offers at a price above the then current market price of our common stock. Such provisions may also inhibit increases in the market price of our common stock that could result from takeover attempts. For

by-laws

Item 1B.

None.

The following table provides information concerning MKS’ principal and certain other owned and leased facilities as of December 31, 2019:

In addition to the significant facilities listed above, MKS also provides manufacturing, worldwide sales, customer support and services from various other leased and owned facilities throughout the world not listed in the table above. See “Business—Sales, Marketing, Service and Support.” We believe that our current facilities are suitable and adequate to meet our needs.

A-16-733154-C,

A-16-734039-B,

A-16-733154-B,

pre-

 pre-

The Company is subject to various legal proceedings and claims, which have arisen in the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of management, the ultimate disposition of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

Not applicable.

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol MKSI.

On February 19, 2020, we had 83 stockholders of record.

Holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends when and if they are declared by our Board of Directors. During 2019, our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per share during each quarter of 2019, which totaled $43.5 million or $0.80 per share. During 2018, our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.18 per share during the first quarter of 2018 and $0.20 per share for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2018, which totaled $42.4 million or $0.78 per share.

On February 10, 2020, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share to be paid on March 6, 2020 to shareholders of record as of February 24, 2020.

Future dividend declarations, if any, as well as the record and payment dates for such dividends, are subject to the final determination of our Board of Directors. The Board of Directors intends to declare and pay cash dividends on our common stock based on our financial conditions and results of operations of the Company, although it has no obligation to do so. Our credit facilities contain covenants that restrict our ability to grant cash dividends in certain circumstances.

On July 25, 2011, our Board of Directors approved, and on July 27, 2011, we publicly announced, a share repurchase program for the repurchase of up to an aggregate of $200 million of our outstanding common stock from time to time in open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions or through other appropriate means. The timing and quantity of any shares repurchased depends upon a variety of factors, including business conditions, stock market conditions and business development activities, including, but not limited to, merger and acquisition opportunities. These repurchases may be commenced, suspended or discontinued at any time without prior notice.

During 2019, the Company did not repurchase any shares of common stock. During 2018, the Company repurchased approximately 818,000 shares of its common stock for $75.0 million, or an average price of $91.67 per share. We have repurchased approximately 2,588,000 shares of common stock for approximately $127.0 million pursuant to the program since its adoption.

The following graph compares the cumulative total shareholder return (assuming reinvestment of dividends) from investing $100 on December 31, 2014, and plotted at the last trading day of each of the fiscal years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 in each of MKS’ common stock; a peer group index which represents a combination of all companies comprising the Morningstar Semiconductor Equipment & Materials Industry Group Index and Morningstar Scientific & Technical Instruments Industry Group Index, published by Zacks Investment Research, Inc., with these indices weighted equally; and the Nasdaq Market Index. The stock price performance on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future price performance. Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol MKSI.