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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

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For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

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Commission File Number 001-37900

Everspin Technologies, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

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5670 W. Chandler Boulevard, Suite 100

Chandler, Arizona 85226

(Address of principal executive offices including zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (480) 347-1111

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  YES  ◻    NO  ☒

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

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

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

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated 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 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).   YES  ☐    NO  ☒

As of June 30, 2020, the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the common stock of Registrant held by non-affiliates, based upon the closing sales price for the Registrant’s common stock for such date, as quoted on the Nasdaq Global Market, was approximately $105.3 million. Shares of common stock held by each officer, director and entities affiliated with directors have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be “affiliates” as that term is defined under the rules and regulations of the Exchange Act. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for any other purpose.

The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of February 25, 2021 was 19,077,432.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the Registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement relating to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the Registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Report.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance and condition, as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business operations and financial performance and condition. Any statements contained herein that are statements of events or results that may occur in the future are deemed to be forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “objective,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “positioned,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate, and management’s beliefs and assumptions are not guarantees of future performance or development and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control. As a result, any or all of our forward-looking statements in this report may turn out to be inaccurate. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, these statements should not be regarded as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report. These statements, like all statements in this report, speak only as of their date, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements in light of future developments. Additionally, there may be other risks that are otherwise described from time to time in the reports that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We caution investors that our business and financial performance are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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Risk Factor Summary

We are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including risks related to our financial condition and our indebtedness, risks related to our business and our industry, risks related to our intellectual property and technology, risks related to regulatory matters and compliance, risks related to our common stock and certain general risks, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following principal risks:

For a more complete discussion of the material risk factors applicable to us, see “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this report.

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Licensing and Royalty Overview

We leverage our broad IP portfolio to enable licensing and royalty revenue streams from non-core applications that can derive valuable differentiation through the use of Everspin MRAM and TMR sensor IP.

Foundry Services Overview

In our Chandler facility, we perform magnetic BEOL manufacturing services for customers who want to add MRAM functionality to their memory or application base circuits. These services allow aerospace and satellite electronic system manufacturers to integrate our MRAM technology that is able to withstand exposure to the levels of radiation encountered in avionics and space applications by virtue of being magnetic rather than electrical charge based.

Sales and Marketing

We sell our products through a direct sales channel and a network of representatives and distributors. The majority of our customers, and their associated contract manufacturers, buy our products through our distributors. We maintain sales, support, supply chain and logistics operations and have distributors in Asia to service the production needs of contract manufacturers. We also maintain direct selling relationships with several strategic customers. Our direct sales representatives are located in North America, Germany, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Our typical sales cycle consists of a sales and development process in which our field engineers and sales personnel work closely with our customers’ design engineers. This process can take from three to 18 months to complete, and a successful sales cycle culminates in a design win. Note that some customers of our STT-MRAM products may need to modify their controllers to integrate our technology, adding additional time to the cycle. Once we establish a relationship with a customer, we continue a sales process to maintain our position and to secure subsequent new design wins at the customer. Each customer lead, whether new or existing, is tracked through our CRM tool and followed in stages of prospect, design in, design win and production. This tracking results in a design win pipeline that provides a measure of the future business potential of the opportunities.

We have established relationships with several storage controller and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) companies, including Phison Electronics, Sage Micro, and Xilinx as well as IP core companies, including Cadence and Northwest Logic, to facilitate the integration of our MRAM solutions into our customers’ end products.

Our technical support personnel have expertise in hardware and software, and have access to our development team to ensure proper service and support for our OEM customers. Our field application and engineering team provides technical training and design support to our customers.

We consider our customer to be an end customer purchasing either directly from a distributor, or a contract manufacturer, or a customer purchasing directly from us. An end customer purchasing through a contract manufacturer typically instructs the contract manufacturer to obtain our products and to incorporate our products with other components for sale by the contract manufacturer to the end customer. Although we actually sell the products to, and are paid by, the distributors and contract manufacturers, we refer to the end customer as our customer.

During the year ended December 31, 2020, more than 1,100 end customers purchased our products. One end customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue during 2020 and 2019.

Manufacturing

We rely on third-party suppliers for most phases of the manufacturing process, including initial fabrication, final test and assembly.

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Wafer Manufacturing

We perform BEOL manufacturing for our Toggle MRAM products and provide foundry services for embedded MRAM, licensed MRAM products and Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ)-based sensors in our 200mm manufacturing facility. Our facility is in an ISO-4 clean room and our manufacturing line is ISO 9001:2015 certified. We actively manage inventory, including automated process flows, process controls and recipe management, and we use standard equipment to manufacture our products.

Our STT-MRAM products are produced in 300mm fabrication facilities operated by GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

Assembly and Test

Our product and test engineering teams develop and implement wafer-level and final test programs for the manufacture of our MRAM devices.

We utilize third-party industry-leading assembly and test sub-contractors, including Amkor, OSE, GTC, ChipMos and UTAC. We have successfully qualified our MRAM devices in various packages at temperatures ranging from commercial to automotive grade. As part of our commitment to quality, our quality management system has been certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 standards. Our foundry vendors and sub-contractors are also ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.

Arrangements with GLOBALFOUNDRIES

Joint Development Agreement

Since October 17, 2014, we have participated in a joint development agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc., a semiconductor foundry, for the joint development of STT-MRAM technology to produce a family of discrete and embedded MRAM technologies. The term of the agreement is until the completion, termination, or expiration of the last statement of work entered into pursuant to the joint development agreement. The agreement was extended on December 31, 2019 to include a new phase of support for 12nm MRAM development.

The joint development agreement also states that the specific terms and conditions for the production and supply of the developed MRAM technology would be pursuant to a separate manufacturing agreement entered into between the parties. See “Manufacturing Agreement” below.

Under the joint development agreement, each party granted licenses to its relevant intellectual property to the other party. For certain jointly developed works, the parties have agreed to follow an invention allocation procedure to determine ownership. In addition, GLOBALFOUNDRIES possesses the exclusive right to manufacture our discrete and embedded STT-MRAM devices developed pursuant to the agreement until the earlier of three years after the qualification of the MRAM device for a particular technology node or four years after the completion of the relevant statement of work under which the device was developed. For the same exclusivity period associated with the relevant device, GLOBALFOUNDRIES agreed not to license intellectual property developed in connection with the agreement to named competitors of ours.

If GLOBALFOUNDRIES manufactures, sells or transfers wafers containing production qualified MRAM devices that utilized certain Everspin design information to its customers, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will pay royalties to us for each such wafer transferred or sold to a customer.

Except for breaches of confidentiality provisions and each party’s indemnification obligations to one another under the agreement, liability under the agreement is capped at a range depending on project costs and royalty amounts. Either party may terminate the agreement if the other party materially breaches a term of the agreement, and fails to remedy the breach after receiving notice from the non-breaching party. If a party terminates the manufacturing agreement for material breach in accordance with its terms, that party may also terminate the joint development agreement.

See “Risk Factors” for further discussion of our agreements with GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

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Manufacturing Agreement

On October 23, 2014, we entered into a manufacturing agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Pte. Ltd. that sets forth the specific terms and conditions for the production and supply of wafers manufactured using our STT-MRAM technology developed under the joint development agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Pursuant to that joint development agreement, GLOBALFOUNDRIES possesses certain exclusive rights to manufacture such wafers for our discrete and embedded STT-MRAM devices. Our manufacturing agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES includes a customary forecast and ordering mechanism for the supply of certain of our wafers, and we are obligated to order and pay for, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES is obligated to supply, wafers consistent with the binding portion of our forecast. GLOBALFOUNDRIES also has the ability to discontinue its manufacture of any of our wafers upon due notice and completion of the notice period. The initial term of the manufacturing agreement is for three years, which automatically renews for successive one year periods thereafter unless either party provides sufficient advance notice of non-renewal.

Except for breaches of confidentiality provisions and each party’s indemnification obligations to one another under the agreement, liability under the agreement is capped at the lesser of a set amount or the total purchase price received by GLOBALFOUNDRIES from us in the 12 months immediately preceding the claim for the specific product that caused the damages. Either party may terminate the agreement if the other party materially breaches a term of the agreement, and fails to remedy the breach after receiving notice from the non-breaching party. GLOBALFOUNDRIES may terminate the agreement if we fail to pay any undisputed sum which has been outstanding for sixty or more days from the date of invoice.

Backlog

As of December 31, 2020, our backlog was $17.7 million, compared to $16.2 million as of December 31, 2019, and includes all purchase orders scheduled for delivery within the subsequent 12 months. Our business and, to a large extent, that of the entire semiconductor industry, is characterized by short-term orders and shipment schedules. Orders constituting our current backlog are subject to changes in delivery schedules, or to cancellation at the customer's option without significant penalty. Thus, while backlog is useful for scheduling production, backlog as of any particular date may not be a reliable measure of sales for any future period.

Product Warranty

Because the design and manufacturing process for semiconductor products is highly complex, it is possible that we may produce products that do not comply with applicable specifications, contain defects, or are otherwise incompatible with end uses. In accordance with industry practice, we generally provide a limited warranty that our products are in compliance with applicable specifications existing at the time of delivery and will operate to those specifications during a stated warranty period. Under our standard terms and conditions of sale, liability for certain failures of product during a stated warranty period is usually limited to repair or replacement of defective items or return of, or a credit with respect to, amounts paid for such items. Under certain circumstances, we provide more extensive limited warranty coverage than that provided under our standard terms and conditions.

Competition

As an emerging specialty memory product supplier, we face intense competition from a wide variety of other memory technology manufacturers.

Our principal competitors to our Toggle MRAM products include companies that offer nonvolatile SRAM (NVSRAM), SRAM, and FRAM products, such as Infineon, Fujitsu, Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI), Macronix, Microchip, Micron, Renesas, Samsung and Toshiba. Our STT-MRAM products replace DRAM where persistence is required and thus compete with DRAM suppliers such as Hynix, Micron, Samsung, and several other smaller companies. In the future we may also face competition from companies developing MRAM technologies, such as Avalanche, Spin Memory (formerly Spin Transfer Technologies), Samsung and other larger and smaller semiconductor companies. We may also face indirect competition from RRAM, 3D XPoint, NOR and NAND Flash manufacturers in some market applications.

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Our sensor products compete with giant magnetoresistive (GMR), anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) and Hall effect sensors supplied by Alps, Asahi Kasei Microdevices, Crocus, Fairchild, Invensys (now Schneider), Kionix and Micronix and TMR sensors from TDK.

Our ability to compete successfully in the market for our products is based on a number of factors, including:

Intellectual Property

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our products and technologies from unauthorized third-party copying and use. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks, as well as customary contractual protections. As of December 31, 2020, we held 508 issued patents that expire at various times between January 2021 and December 2038, and had 117 patent applications pending. Included in our issued patents and pending applications are patents/applications in the United States, China, Europe, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

We seek to file for patents that have broad application in the semiconductor industry and that would be helpful in the magnetoresistive memory and sensor markets. However, there can be no assurance that our pending patent applications or any future applications will be approved, that any issued patents will provide us with competitive advantages or will not be challenged by third parties, or that the patents or applications of others will not have an adverse effect on our ability to do business. In addition, there can be no assurance that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent intellectual property or otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or intellectual property, or disclose such intellectual property or trade secrets, or that we can effectively protect our intellectual property.

We seek to enforce our IP and to monetize our patent portfolio through licensing of third parties in return for cash remuneration, patent cross licenses or both.

We generally control access to and use of our confidential information through employing internal and external controls, including contractual protections with employees, contractors and customers. We rely in part on U.S. and international copyright laws to protect our intellectual property. All employees and consultants are required to execute confidentiality agreements in connection with their employment and consulting relationships with us. We also require them to agree to disclose and assign to us all inventions conceived or made in connection with the employment or consulting relationship.

Environmental Regulation

We must comply with many different federal, state, local and foreign governmental regulations related to the use, storage, discharge and disposal of certain chemicals and gases used in our manufacturing processes. Our facilities have been designed to comply with these regulations and we believe that our activities are conducted in material compliance

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with such regulations. Any changes in such regulations or in their enforcement could require us to acquire costly equipment or to incur other significant expenses to comply with environmental regulations. Any failure by us to adequately control the storage, use, discharge and disposal of regulated substances could result in significant future liabilities.

Employees

At December 31, 2020, we had 76 employees in the United States and 13 full-time equivalent contractors and consultants in China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. None of our employees are either represented by a labor union or subject to a collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees and contractors to be good.

Corporate Information

We were incorporated in Delaware in May 2008. In June 2008, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of NXP Semiconductors N.V.), spun-out its MRAM business as Everspin. Our offices are located at 5670 W. Chandler Boulevard, Suite 100, Chandler, Arizona 85226. Our telephone number is (480) 347-1111. Our corporate website is at www.Everspin.com.

Available Information

Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), are available free of charge on our website, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. The information contained on or that can be accessed through our website is not incorporated by reference into this report, and information on our website should not be considered to be part of this report.

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Provisions of our credit facility may restrict our ability to pursue our business strategies.

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Borrowings under our existing credit facility are secured by substantially all of our assets, except for intellectual property. Additionally, the operating restrictions and covenants relating to our existing credit facility restrict, and any future financing agreements that we may enter into may further restrict, our ability to finance our operations, engage in business activities or expand or fully pursue our business strategies. For example, our existing credit facility prohibits our ability to, among other things:

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●    dispose of or sell assets;

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●    consolidate or merge with other entities;

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●    incur additional indebtedness;

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●    create liens on our assets;

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●    pay dividends;

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●    make investments;

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●    enter into transactions with affiliates; and

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●    redeem subordinated indebtedness.

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These restrictions are subject to certain exceptions. In addition, our existing credit facility requires that we meet certain operating covenants, such as maintaining insurance on the collateral and meeting certain financial covenants, such as maintaining a minimum cash balance and availability under our revolving line of credit facility. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and we may not be able to meet those covenants. A breach of any of these covenants could result in an event of default under the credit facility. We are required to make mandatory prepayments of the outstanding loan upon the acceleration by lender following the occurrence of an event of default, along with a payment of the end of term fee, the prepayment fee and any other obligations that are due and payable at the time of prepayment. In the event of default, the interest rate in effect will increase by 5.0% per annum.

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Risk Factors Related to Our Business and Our Industry

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The recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic has adversely affected, and is expected to continue to adversely affect, our business, results of operations and financial condition. The widespread outbreak of any other illnesses or communicable diseases could also adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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We could be negatively impacted by the widespread outbreak of an illness, any other communicable disease or any other public health crisis that results in economic and trade disruptions, including the disruption of global supply chains. In late 2019, there was an outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, which has since spread globally. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Further, the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in government authorities around the world implementing numerous measures to try to reduce the spread of COVID-19, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, “shelter-in-place,” “stay-at-home,” total lock-down orders, business limitations or shutdowns and similar orders. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the global economy, disrupted global supply chains and workforce participation, and initially created significant volatility and disruption of financial markets.

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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related responses from government authorities, our business, results of operations and financial condition have been, and continue to be, adversely impacted. For example, we have experienced electronics supply chain and demand disruptions from extended factory shutdowns, particularly in some Asian countries, which created unusual order patterns, and subsequently slowed Toggle MRAM demand, particularly from our industrial customers. We continue to see an impact as reflected in reduced demand from some customers and distributors. Further, in an effort to protect the health and safety of our employees, we took the following actions:

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transitioned most of our office and support employees and contractors to working from home; suspended all non-essential business travel; and implemented social distancing guidelines for our employees and contractors who must work in our manufacturing and laboratory locations. Consequently, the remote working environment we have implemented for our employees has adversely impacted manufacturing yield improvement projects given delays in data gathering, analysis and inefficiencies of teams solving technical problems via remote-only means, which has impacted, and continues to impact, our cost of sales.

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Additionally, our business, results of operations and financial condition have been and may be further impacted in several ways, including, but not limited to, the following:

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Additionally, COVID-19 could impact our internal controls over financial reporting as a portion of our workforce is required to work from home and therefore new processes, procedures, and controls could be required to respond to changes in our business environment. Further, should any key employees become ill from COVID-19 and unable to work, the attention of the management team could be diverted.

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Although we will continue to monitor the situation and take further actions, which may include further altering our operations, in order to protect the best interests of our employees, customers and suppliers and comply with government requirements, there is no certainty that such measures will be enough to mitigate the risks posed by the virus, and our ability to perform critical functions could be harmed.

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Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The potential effects of COVID-19 may also impact many of our other risk factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section. The ultimate extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results of operations and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain, continuously evolving and cannot be predicted, including, but not limited to, the duration and spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, its severity, the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume.

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The limited history of STT-MRAM adoption makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects.

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We have been in existence as a stand-alone company since 2008, when Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (subsequently acquired by NXP Semiconductor) spun-out its MRAM business as Everspin. We have been shipping magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) products since our incorporation in 2008. However, we only began to manufacture and ship our Spin Transfer Torque MRAM (STT-MRAM) products in the fourth quarter of 2017.

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Our limited experience selling our STT-MRAM products, combined with the rapidly evolving and competitive nature of our market, makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects. In addition, we have

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limited insight into emerging trends that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. We have encountered and will continue to encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including unpredictable and volatile revenue and increased expenses as we continue to grow our business. The viability and demand for our products may be affected by many factors outside of our control, such as the factors affecting the growth of the industrial, automotive, transportation, and data center market segments and changes in macroeconomic conditions. If we do not manage these risks and overcome these difficulties successfully, our business will suffer.

We may be unable to match production with customer demand for a variety of reasons including our inability to accurately forecast customer demand or the capacity constraints of our suppliers, which could adversely affect our operating results.

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We make planning and spending decisions, including determining production levels, production schedules, component procurement commitments, personnel needs and other resource requirements, based on our estimates of product demand and customer requirements. Our products are typically purchased pursuant to individual purchase orders. While our customers may provide us with their demand forecasts, they are not contractually committed to buy any quantity of products beyond purchase orders. Furthermore, many of our customers may increase, decrease, cancel or delay purchase orders already in place without significant penalty. The short-term nature of commitments by our customers and the possibility of unexpected changes in demand for their products reduce our ability to accurately estimate future customer requirements. On occasion, customers may require rapid increases in production, which can strain our resources, necessitate more onerous procurement commitments and reduce our gross margin. If we overestimate customer demand, we may purchase products that we may not be able to sell, which could result in decreases in our prices or write-downs of unsold inventory. Conversely, if we underestimate customer demand or if sufficient manufacturing capacity is unavailable, we could lose sales opportunities and could lose market share or damage our customer relationships. We manufacture MRAM products at our 200mm facility we lease in Chandler, Arizona and use a single foundry, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, for production of higher density products on advanced technology nodes, which may not have sufficient capacity to meet customer demand. The rapid pace of innovation in our industry could also render significant portions of our inventory obsolete. Excess or obsolete inventory levels could result in unexpected expenses or write-downs of inventory values that could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

As we expand into new potential markets, we expect to face intense competition, including from our customers and potential customers, and may not be able to compete effectively, which could harm our business.

We expect that our new and future MRAM products will be applicable to markets in which we are not currently operating. The markets in which we operate and may operate in the future are extremely competitive and are characterized by rapid technological change, continuous evolving customer requirements and declining average selling prices. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or potential competitors, which include our current or potential customers as they seek to internally develop solutions competitive with ours or as we develop products potentially competitive with their existing products. If we do not compete successfully, our market share and revenue may decline. We compete with large semiconductor manufacturers and designers and others, and our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater resources and name recognition and a larger base of customers than we do. This may allow them to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. In addition, these competitors may have greater credibility with our existing and potential customers. Some of our current and potential customers with their own internally developed solutions may choose not to purchase products from third-party suppliers like us.

We rely on third parties to distribute, manufacture, package, assemble and test our products, which exposes us to a number of risks, including reduced control over manufacturing and delivery timing and potential exposure to price fluctuations, which could result in a loss of revenue or reduced profitability.

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Although we operate an integrated magnetic fabrication line located in Chandler, Arizona, we purchase wafers from third parties and outsource the manufacturing, packaging, assembly and testing of our products to third-party foundries and assembly and testing service providers. We use a single foundry, GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Pte. Ltd., for production of higher density products on advanced technology nodes. Our primary product package and test operations are located in China, Taiwan and other Asian countries. We also use standard CMOS wafers from third-party foundries, which we process at our Chandler, Arizona facility.

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The post-COVID-19 upturn in the semiconductor industry has stretched the supply chain, and we are subject to potential supply shortages, as well as higher costs as suppliers opportunistically raise prices.

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Relying on third-party distribution, manufacturing, assembly, packaging and testing presents a number of risks, including but not limited to:

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●    our interests could diverge from those of our foundries, or we may not be able to agree with them on ongoing development, manufacturing and operational activities, or on the amount, timing, or nature of further investments in our joint development;

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●    capacity and materials shortages during periods of high demand;

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●    reduced control over delivery schedules, inventories and quality;

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●    the unavailability of, or potential delays in obtaining access to, key process technologies;

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●    the inability to achieve required production or test capacity and acceptable yields on a timely basis;

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●    misappropriation of our intellectual property;

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●    the third party’s ability to perform its obligations due to bankruptcy or other financial constraints;

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●    exclusive representatives for certain customer engagements;

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●    limited warranties on wafers or products supplied to us; and

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●    potential increases in prices.

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Our manufacturing agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES includes a customary forecast and ordering mechanism for the supply of certain of our wafers, and we are obligated to order and pay for, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES is obligated to supply, wafers consistent with the binding portion of our forecast. However, our manufacturing arrangement is also subject to both a minimum and maximum order quantity that while we believe currently addresses our projected foundry capacity needs, may not address our maximum foundry capacity requirements in the future. We may also be obligated to pay for unused capacity if our demand decreases in the future, or if our estimates prove inaccurate. GLOBALFOUNDRIES also has the ability to discontinue its manufacture of any of our wafers upon due notice and completion of the notice period. This could cause us to have to find another foundry to manufacture those wafers or redesign our core technology and would mean that we may not have products to sell until such time. Any time spent engaging a new manufacturer or redesigning our core technology could be costly and time consuming and may allow potential competitors to take opportunities in the marketplace. Moreover, if we are unable to find another foundry to manufacture our products or if we have to redesign our core technology, this could cause material harm to our business and operating results.

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If we need other foundries or packaging, assembly and testing contractors, or if we are unable to obtain timely and adequate deliveries from our providers, we might not be able to cost-effectively and quickly retain other vendors to satisfy our requirements. Because the lead time needed to establish a relationship with a new third-party supplier could be several quarters, there is no readily available alternative source of supply for any specific component. In addition, the time and expense to qualify a new foundry could result in additional expense, diversion of resources or lost sales, any of which would negatively impact our financial results.

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If any of our current or future foundries or packaging, assembly and testing subcontractors significantly increases the costs of wafers or other materials or services, interrupts or reduces our supply, including for reasons outside of their control, such as due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or if any of our relationships with our suppliers is terminated, our operating results could be adversely affected. Such occurrences could also damage our customer relationships, result in lost revenue, cause a loss in market share or damage our reputation.

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Our joint development agreement and strategic relationships involve numerous risks.

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We have entered into strategic relationships to manufacture products and develop new manufacturing process technologies and products. These relationships include our joint development agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES to develop advanced MTJ technology and STT-MRAM. These relationships are subject to various risks that could adversely affect the value of our investments and our results of operations. These risks include the following:

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●    our interests could diverge from those of our foundries, or we may not be able to agree with them on ongoing development, manufacturing and operational activities, or on the amount, timing, or nature of further investments in our joint development;

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●    we may experience difficulties in transferring technology to a foundry;

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●    we may experience difficulties and delays in getting to and/or ramping production at foundries;

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●    our control over the operations of foundries is limited;

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●    due to financial constraints, our joint development collaborators may be unable to meet their commitments to us and may pose credit risks for our transactions with them;

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●    due to differing business models or long-term business goals, our collaborators may decide not to join us in funding capital investment, which may result in higher levels of cash expenditures by us;

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●    our cash flows may be inadequate to fund increased capital requirements;

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●    we may experience difficulties or delays in collecting amounts due to us from our collaborators;

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●    the terms of our arrangements may turn out to be unfavorable;

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●    we are migrating toward a fabless model as 300mm production becomes required and this increases risks related to less control over our critical production processes; and

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●    changes in tax, legal, or regulatory requirements may necessitate changes in our agreements.

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The term of the agreement, as amended, is the completion, termination, or expiration of the last statement of work

entered into pursuant to the joint development agreement.

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If our strategic relationships are unsuccessful, our business, results of operations, or financial condition may be materially adversely affected.

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The market for semiconductor memory products is characterized by declines in average selling prices, which we expect to continue, and which could negatively affect our revenue and margins.

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Our customers for some of our products may see the average selling price of competitive products decrease year-over-year and we expect this trend to continue. When such pricing declines occur, we may not be able to mitigate the effects by selling more or higher margin units, or by reducing our manufacturing costs. In such circumstances, our operating results could be materially and adversely affected. Our stand-alone and embedded MRAM products have experienced declining average selling prices over their life cycle. The rate of decline may be affected by a number of factors, including relative supply and demand, the level of competition, production costs and technological changes. As a result of the decreasing average selling prices of our products following their launch, our ability to increase or maintain our margins depends on our ability to introduce new or enhanced products with higher average selling prices and to reduce our per-unit cost of sales and our operating costs. We may not be able to reduce our costs as rapidly as companies that operate their own manufacturing, assembly and testing facilities, and our costs may even increase because we rely in part on third parties to manufacture, assemble and test our products, which could also reduce our gross margins. In addition, our new or enhanced products may not be as successful or enjoy as high margins as we expect. If we are unable to offset any reductions in average selling prices by introducing new products with higher average selling prices or reducing our costs, our revenue and margins will be negatively affected and may decrease.

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The semiconductor memory market is highly cyclical and has experienced severe downturns in the past, generally as a result of wide fluctuations in supply and demand, constant and rapid technological change, continuous new product introductions and price erosion. During downturns, periods of intense competition, or the presence of oversupply in the industry, the selling prices for our products may decline at a high rate over relatively short time periods as compared to historical rates of decline. We are unable to predict selling prices for any future periods and may experience unanticipated, sharp declines in selling prices for our products.

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We must continuously develop new and enhanced products, and if we are unable to successfully market our new and enhanced products for which we incur significant expenses to develop, our results of operations and financial condition will be materially adversely affected.

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To compete effectively in our markets, we must continually design, develop and introduce new and improved technology and products with improved features in a cost-effective manner in response to changing technologies and market demand. This requires us to devote substantial financial and other resources to research and development. We are developing new technology and products, which we expect to be one of the drivers of our revenue growth in the future. We also face the risk that customers may not value or be willing to bear the cost of incorporating our new and enhanced products into their products, particularly if they believe their customers are satisfied with current solutions. Regardless of the improved features or superior performance of our new and enhanced products, customers may be unwilling to adopt our solutions due to design or pricing constraints, or because they do not want to rely on a single or limited supply source. Because of the extensive time and resources that we invest in developing new and enhanced products, if we are unable to sell customers our new products, our revenue could decline and our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows would be negatively affected. For example, if we are unable to generate more customer adoption of our 1Gb product and address new growth opportunities with subsequent STT-MRAM products, we may not be able to materially increase our revenue. If we are unable to successfully develop and market our new and enhanced products that we have incurred significant expenses developing, our results of operations and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected.

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Our success and future revenue depend on our ability to secure design wins and on our customers’ ability to successfully sell the products that incorporate our solutions. Securing design wins is a lengthy, expensive and competitive process, and may not result in actual orders and sales, which could cause our revenue to decline.

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We sell to customers, including OEMs and ODMs, that incorporate MRAM into their products. A design win occurs after a customer has tested our product, verified that it meets the customer’s requirements and qualified our solutions for their products. We believe we are dependent, among other things, on the adoption of our 256Mb and 1Gb MRAM products by our customers to secure design wins. Our customers may need several months to years to test, evaluate and adopt our product and additional time to begin volume production of the product that incorporates our solution. Due to this generally lengthy design cycle, we may experience significant delays from the time we increase our operating expenses and make investments in our products to the time that we generate revenue from sales of these products. Moreover, even if a customer selects our solution, we cannot guarantee that this will result in any sales of our products, as the customer may ultimately change or cancel its product plans, or efforts by our customer to market and sell its product may not be successful. We may not generate any revenue from design wins after incurring the associated costs, which would cause our business and operating results to suffer.

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If a current or prospective customer incorporates a competitor’s solution into its product, it becomes significantly more difficult for us to sell our solutions to that customer because changing suppliers involves significant time, cost, effort and risk for the customer even if our solutions are superior to other solutions and remain compatible with their product design. Our ability to compete successfully depends on customers viewing us as a stable and reliable supplier to mission-critical customer applications when we have less production capacity and less financial resources compared to most of our larger competitors. If current or prospective customers do not include our solutions in their products and we fail to achieve a sufficient number of design wins, our results of operations and business may be harmed.

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The loss of one or several of our customers or reduced orders or pricing from existing customers may have a significant adverse effect on our operations and financial results.

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We have derived and expect to continue to derive a significant portion of our revenues from a small group of customers during any particular period due in part to the concentration of market share in the semiconductor industry.

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Our four largest end customers together accounted for 45% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020, and one of these customers accounted for more than 10% of our revenue during that period. Our four largest end customers together accounted for 22% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019, and one of these customers individually accounted for more than 10% of our total revenue during the period. The loss of a significant customer, a business combination among our customers, a reduction in orders or decrease in price from a significant customer or disruption in any of our commercial or distributor arrangements may result in a significant decline in our revenues and could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

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We face competition and expect competition to increase in the future. If we fail to compete effectively, our revenue growth and results of operations will be materially and adversely affected.

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The global semiconductor market in general, and the semiconductor memory market in particular, are highly competitive. We expect competition to increase and intensify as other semiconductor companies enter our markets, many of which have greater financial and other resources with which to pursue technology development, product design, manufacturing, marketing and sales and distribution of their products. Increased competition could result in price pressure, reduced profitability and loss of market share, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, revenue and operating results. Currently, our competitors range from large, international companies offering a wide range of traditional memory technologies to companies specializing in other alternative, specialized emerging memory technologies. Our primary memory competitors include Fujitsu, Infineon, Integrated Silicon Solution, Intel, Macronix, Microchip, Micron, Renesas, Samsung, and Toshiba. In addition, as the MRAM market opportunity grows, we expect new entrants may enter this market and existing competitors, including leading semiconductor companies, may make significant investments to compete more effectively against our products. These competitors could develop technologies or architectures that make our products or technologies obsolete.

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Our ability to compete successfully depends on factors both within and outside of our control, including:

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●    the functionality and performance of our products and those of our competitors;

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●    our relationships with our customers and other industry participants;

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●    prices of our products and prices of our competitors’ products;

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●    our ability to develop innovative products;

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●    our competitors’ greater resources to make acquisitions;

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●    our ability to obtain adequate capital to finance operations;

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●    our ability to retain high-level talent, including our management team and engineers; and

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●    the actions of our competitors, including merger and acquisition activity, launches of new products and other actions that could change the competitive landscape.

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Competition could result in pricing pressure, reduced revenue and loss of market share, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects. In the event of a market downturn, competition in the markets in which we operate may intensify as our customers reduce their purchase orders. Our competitors that are significantly larger and have greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, customer support and other resources or more established market recognition than us may be better positioned to accept lower prices and withstand adverse economic or market conditions.

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Our costs may increase substantially if we or our third-party manufacturing contractors do not achieve satisfactory product yields or quality.

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The fabrication process is extremely complicated and small changes in design, specifications or materials can result in material decreases in product yields or even the suspension of production. From time to time, we and/or the third-party foundries that we contract to manufacture our products may experience manufacturing defects and reduced

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manufacturing yields. In some cases, we and/or our third-party foundries may not be able to detect these defects early in the fabrication process or determine the cause of such defects in a timely manner. There may be a higher risk of product yield issues in newer STT-MRAM products.

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Generally, in pricing our products, we assume that manufacturing yields will continue to improve, even as the complexity of our products increases. Once our products are initially qualified either internally or with our third-party foundries, minimum acceptable yields are established. We are responsible for the costs of the units if the actual yield is above the minimum set with our third-party foundries. If actual yields are below the minimum, we are not required to purchase the units. Typically, minimum acceptable yields for our new products are generally lower at first and gradually improve as we achieve full production, but yield issues can occur even in mature processes due to break downs in mechanical systems, equipment failures or calibration errors. Unacceptably low product yields or other product manufacturing problems could substantially increase overall production time and costs and adversely impact our operating results. Product yield losses may also increase our costs and reduce our gross margin. In addition to significantly harming our results of operations and cash flow, poor yields may delay shipment of our products and harm our relationships with existing and potential customers.

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The complexity of our products may lead to defects, which could negatively impact our reputation with customers and result in liability.

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Products as complex as ours may contain defects when first introduced to customers or as new versions are released. Delivery of products with production defects or reliability, quality or compatibility problems could significantly delay or hinder market acceptance of the products or result in a costly recall and could damage our reputation and adversely affect our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers. Defects could cause problems with the functionality of our products, resulting in interruptions, delays or cessation of sales of these products to our customers. We may also be required to make significant expenditures of capital and resources to resolve such problems. We cannot assure our stockholders that problems will not be found in new products, both before and after commencement of commercial production, despite testing by us, our suppliers or our customers. Any such problems could result in:

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●    delays in development, manufacture and roll-out of new products;

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●    additional development costs;

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●    loss of, or delays in, market acceptance;

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●    diversion of technical and other resources from our other development efforts;

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●    claims for damages by our customers or others against us; and

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●    loss of credibility with our current and prospective customers.

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Any such event could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We may experience difficulties in transitioning to new wafer fabrication process technologies or in achieving higher levels of design integration, which may result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses.

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We aim to use the most advanced manufacturing process technology appropriate for our solutions that is available from our third-party foundries. As a result, we periodically evaluate the benefits of migrating our solutions to other technologies to improve performance and reduce costs. These ongoing efforts require us from time to time to modify the manufacturing processes for our products and to redesign some products, which in turn may result in delays in product deliveries.

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For example, as smaller line width geometry manufacturing processes become more prevalent, we intend to move our future products to increasingly smaller geometries to integrate greater levels of memory capacity and/or functionality into our products. This transition will require us and our third-party foundries to migrate to new designs and manufacturing processes for smaller geometry products.

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We may face difficulties, delays and increased expense as we transition our products to new processes, and potentially to new foundries. We will depend on our third-party foundries as we transition to new processes. We cannot assure our stockholders that our third-party foundries will be able to effectively manage such transitions or that we will be able to maintain our relationship with our third-party foundries or develop relationships with new third-party foundries. If we or any of our third-party foundries experience significant delays in transitioning to new processes or fail to efficiently implement transitions, we could experience reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses, any of which could harm our relationships with our customers and our operating results.

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Changes to industry standards and technical requirements relevant to our products and markets could adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.

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Our products are only a part of larger electronic systems. All products incorporated into these systems must comply with various industry standards and technical requirements created by regulatory bodies or industry participants to operate efficiently together. Industry standards and technical requirements in our markets are evolving and may change significantly over time. For our products, the industry standards are developed by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, an industry trade organization. In addition, large industry-leading semiconductor and electronics companies play a significant role in developing standards and technical requirements for the product ecosystems within which our products can be used. Our customers also may design certain specifications and other technical requirements specific to their products and solutions. These technical requirements may change as the customer introduces new or enhanced products and solutions.

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Our ability to compete in the future will depend on our ability to identify and comply with evolving industry standards and technical requirements. The emergence of new industry standards and technical requirements could render our products incompatible with products developed by other suppliers or make it difficult for our products to meet the requirements of certain of our customers in automotive, transportation, industrial, storage and other markets. As a result, we could be required to invest significant time and effort and to incur significant expense to redesign our products to ensure compliance with relevant standards and requirements. If our products are not in compliance with prevailing industry standards and technical requirements for a significant period of time, we could miss opportunities to achieve crucial design wins, our revenue may decline and we may incur significant expenses to redesign our products to meet the relevant standards, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.

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Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain key employees, and our failure to do so could harm our ability to grow our business and execute our business strategies.

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Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain our key employees, including our management team and experienced engineers. Competition for personnel in the semiconductor memory technology field, and in the MRAM space in particular, is intense, and the availability of suitable and qualified candidates is limited. We compete to attract and retain qualified research and development personnel with other semiconductor companies, universities and research institutions. Given our experience as an early entrant in the MRAM space, our employees are frequently contacted by MRAM startups and MRAM groups within larger companies seeking to employ them. The members of our management and our key employees are at-will. If we lose the services of any key senior management member or employee, we may not be able to locate suitable or qualified replacements and may incur additional expenses to recruit and train new personnel, which could severely impact our business and prospects. The loss of the services of one or more of our key employees, especially our key engineers, or our inability to attract and retain qualified engineers, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We currently maintain and are seeking to expand operations outside of the United States which exposes us to significant risks.

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The success of our business depends, in large part, on our ability to operate successfully from geographically disparate locations and to further expand our international operations and sales. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and subjects us to regulatory, economic and political risks that are different from those we face in the United States. We cannot be sure that further international expansion will be successful. In addition, we face risks in doing business internationally that could expose us to reduced demand for our

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products, lower prices for our products or other adverse effects on our operating results. Among the risks we believe are most likely to affect us are:

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●    public health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which can result in varying impacts to our business, employees, partners, customers, distributors or suppliers internationally as discussed elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section;

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●    difficulties, inefficiencies and costs associated with staffing and managing foreign operations;

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●    longer and more difficult customer qualification and credit checks;

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●    greater difficulty collecting accounts receivable and longer payment cycles;

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●    the need for various local approvals to operate in some countries;

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●    difficulties in entering some foreign markets without larger-scale local operations;

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●    changes in import/export laws, trade restrictions, regulations and customs and duties and tariffs (foreign and domestic);

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●    compliance with local laws and regulations;

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●    unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, including the elimination of tax holidays;

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●    reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;

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●    adverse tax consequences as a result of repatriating cash generated from foreign operations to the United States;

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●    adverse tax consequences, including potential additional tax exposure if we are deemed to have established a permanent establishment outside of the United States;

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●    the effectiveness of our policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and similar regulations;

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●    fluctuations in currency exchange rates, which could increase the prices of our products to customers outside of the United States, increase the expenses of our international operations by reducing the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar and expose us to foreign currency exchange rate risk if, in the future, we denominate our international sales in currencies other than the U.S. dollar;

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●    new and different sources of competition; and

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●    political and economic instability, and terrorism.

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Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our operations and reduce our revenue.

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Risk Factors Related to Our Intellectual Property and Technology

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Failure to protect our intellectual property could substantially harm our business.

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Our success and ability to compete depend in part upon our ability to protect our intellectual property. We rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including patents, mask work protection, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and know-how, in the United States and other jurisdictions. The steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may not be adequate, particularly in foreign jurisdictions such as China. Any patents we hold may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights or our products against competitors, and third parties may challenge the scope, validity or enforceability of our issued patents, which third parties may have significantly more financial resources with which to litigate their claims than we have to defend against them. In addition, other parties may independently develop

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similar or competing technologies designed around any patents or patent applications that we hold. Some of our products and technologies are not covered by any patent or patent application, as we do not believe patent protection of these products and technologies is critical to our business strategy at this time. A failure to timely seek patent protection on products or technologies generally precludes us from seeking future patent protection on these products or technologies.

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In addition to patents, we also rely on contractual protections with our customers, suppliers, distributors, employees and consultants, and we implement security measures designed to protect our trade secrets and know-how. However, we cannot assure our stockholders that these contractual protections and security measures will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any such breach or that our customers, suppliers, distributors, employees or consultants will not assert rights to intellectual property or damages arising out of such contracts.

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We may initiate claims against third parties to protect our intellectual property rights if we are unable to resolve matters satisfactorily through negotiation. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management. It could also result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property, as an adverse decision could limit our ability to assert our intellectual property rights, limit the value of our technology or otherwise negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, any enforcement of our patents or other intellectual property may provoke third parties to assert counterclaims against us. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could materially harm our business.

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We may face claims of intellectual property infringement, which could be time-consuming, costly to defend or settle, result in the loss of significant rights, harm our relationships with our customers and distributors, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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The semiconductor memory industry is characterized by companies that hold patents and other intellectual property rights and that vigorously pursue, protect and enforce intellectual property rights. These companies include patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own patents may provide little or no deterrence. From time to time, third parties may assert against us and our customers’ patent and other intellectual property rights to technologies that are important to our business. We have in the past, and may in the future, face such claims.

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Claims that our products, processes or technology infringe third-party intellectual property rights, regardless of their merit or resolution, could be costly to defend or settle and could divert the efforts and attention of our management and technical personnel. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners in connection with any such litigation, which could result in increased costs. Infringement claims also could harm our relationships with our customers or distributors and might deter future customers from doing business with us. If any such proceedings result in an adverse outcome, we could be required to:

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●    cease the manufacture, use or sale of the infringing products, processes or technology;

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●    pay substantial damages for infringement;

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●    expend significant resources to develop non-infringing products, processes or technology, which may not be successful;

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●    license technology from the third-party claiming infringement, which license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all;

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●    cross-license our technology to a competitor to resolve an infringement claim, which could weaken our ability to compete with that competitor; or

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●    pay substantial damages to our customers to discontinue their use of or to replace infringing technology sold to them with non-infringing technology, if available.

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Any of the foregoing results could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, our exposure to the foregoing risks may also be increased if we acquire other companies or technologies. For example, we may have a lower level of visibility into the development process with respect to

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intellectual property or the care taken to safeguard against infringement risks with respect to the acquired company or technology. In addition, third parties may make infringement and similar or related claims after we have acquired technology that had not been asserted prior to the acquisition.

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We make significant investments in new technologies and products that may not achieve technological feasibility or profitability or that may limit our revenue growth.

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We have made and will continue to make significant investments in research and development of new technologies and products, including new and more technically advanced versions of our MRAM technology.

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Investments in new technologies are speculative and technological feasibility may not be achieved. Commercial success depends on many factors including demand for innovative technology, availability of materials and equipment, selling price the market is willing to bear, competition and effective licensing or product sales. We may not achieve significant revenue from new product investments for a number of years, if at all. Moreover, new technologies and products may not be profitable, and even if they are profitable, operating margins for new products and businesses may not be as high as the margins we have experienced historically or originally anticipated. Our inability to capitalize on or realize substantial revenue from our significant investments in research and development could harm our operating results and distract management, harming our business.

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Interruptions in our information technology systems could adversely affect our business.

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We rely on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of complex information technology systems and networks to operate our business. Any significant disruption to our systems or networks, including, but not limited to, new system implementations, computer viruses, security breaches, facility issues, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication failures or energy blackouts, could have a material adverse impact on our operations, sales and financial results. Such disruption could result in a loss of our intellectual property or the release of sensitive competitive information or supplier, customer or employee personal data. Any loss of such information could harm our competitive position, result in a loss of customer confidence, and cause us to incur significant costs to remedy the damages caused by any such disruptions or security breaches. Additionally, any failure to properly manage the collection, handling, transfer or disposal of personal data of employees and customers may result in regulatory penalties, enforcement actions, remediation obligations, litigation, fines and other sanctions.

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We may experience attacks on our data, attempts to breach our security and attempts to introduce malicious software into our IT systems. If attacks are successful, we may be unaware of the incident, its magnitude, or its effects until significant harm is done. Any such attack or disruption could result in additional costs related to rebuilding of our internal systems, defending litigation, responding to regulatory actions, or paying damages. Such attacks or disruptions could have a material adverse impact on our business, operations and financial results.

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Third-party service providers, such as wafer foundries, assembly and test contractors, distributors and other vendors have access to certain portions of our and our customers’ sensitive data. In the event that these service providers do not properly safeguard the data that they hold, security breaches and loss of data could result. Any such loss of data by our third-party service providers could negatively impact our business, operations and financial results, as well as our relationship with our customers.

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Risk Factors Related to Regulatory Matters and Compliance

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To comply with environmental laws and regulations, we may need to modify our activities or incur substantial costs, and if we fail to comply with environmental regulations, we could be subject to substantial fines or be required to have our suppliers alter their processes.

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The semiconductor memory industry is subject to a variety of international, federal, state and local governmental regulations directed at preventing or mitigating environmental harm, as well as to the storage, discharge, handling, generation, disposal and labeling of toxic or other hazardous substances. Failure to comply with environmental regulations could subject us to civil or criminal sanctions and property damage or personal injury claims. Compliance with current or future environmental laws and regulations could restrict our ability to expand our business or require us to modify processes or incur other substantial expenses which could harm our business. In response to environmental concerns, some customers and government agencies impose requirements for the elimination of hazardous substances,

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such as lead (which is widely used in soldering connections in the process of semiconductor packaging and assembly), from electronic equipment. For example, the European Union adopted its Restriction on Hazardous Substance Directive which prohibits, with specified exceptions, the sale in the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead or other hazardous materials. China has enacted similar regulations. Environmental laws and regulations such as these could become more stringent over time, causing a need to redesign technologies, imposing greater compliance costs and increasing risks and penalties associated with violations, which could seriously harm our business.

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Increasing public attention has been focused on the environmental impact of electronic manufacturing operations. While we have not experienced any materially adverse effects on our operations from recently adopted environmental regulations, our business and results of operations could suffer if for any reason we fail to control the storage or use of, or to adequately restrict the discharge or disposal of, hazardous substances under present or future environmental regulations.

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Regulations related to “conflict minerals” may force us to incur additional expenses, may make our supply chain more complex and may result in damage to our reputation with customers.

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Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC has adopted requirements for companies that use certain minerals and metals, known as conflict minerals, in their products, whether or not these products are manufactured by third parties. These requirements require companies to perform diligence and disclose and report whether or not such minerals originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. These requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of minerals used in the manufacture of our products, and affect our costs and relationships with customers, distributors and suppliers as we must obtain additional information from them to ensure our compliance with the disclosure requirement. In addition, we incur additional costs in complying with the disclosure requirements, including costs related to determining the source of any of the relevant minerals and metals used in our products. Since our supply chain is complex, we have not been able to sufficiently verify the origins for these minerals and metals used in our products through the due diligence procedures that we implement, which may harm our reputation. In such event, we may also face difficulties in satisfying customers who require that all of the components of our products are certified as conflict mineral free and these customers may discontinue, or materially reduce, purchases of our products, which could result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations and our financial condition may be adversely affected.

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Our ability to use net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

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In general, under Section 382 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses, or NOLs, to offset future taxable income and tax credits to offset tax. As of December 31, 2020, we had gross federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $140.5 million, of which $99.7 million will expire in 2028 through 2037 if not utilized, and $40.8 million will carryover indefinitely. As of December 31, 2020, we had state net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $54.1 million, of which $51.5 million will expire in 2023 through 2040 if not utilized, and $2.6 million will carryover indefinitely. The federal NOLs generated prior to 2018 will continue to be governed by the NOL tax rules as they existed prior to the adoption of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017 Tax Act), which means that generally they will expire 20 years after they were generated if not used prior thereto. The 2017 Tax Act repealed the 20-year carryforward and two-year carryback of NOLs originating after December 31, 2017 and also limits the NOL deduction to 80% of taxable income for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. Any NOLs generated in 2018 and forward will be carried forward and will not expire. There is no current impact to us as we continue to be in a loss position for U.S. income tax purposes. Future changes in our stock ownership, many of which are outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. The ability to utilize our net operating losses and tax credits could also be impaired under state law. As a result, we might not be able to utilize a material portion of our state NOLs and tax credits.

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Risks Related to Our Common Stock

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We expect that the price of our common stock will fluctuate substantially.

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The market price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile and may fluctuate substantially due to many factors, including:

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●    the duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows;

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●    the introduction of new products or product enhancements by us or others in our industry;

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●    announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, capital commitments or restructurings;

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●    disputes or other developments with respect to our or others’ intellectual property rights;

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●    product liability claims or other litigation;

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●    quarterly variations in our results of operations or those of others in our industry;

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●    sales of large blocks of our common stock, including sales by our executive officers and directors;

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●    changes in senior management or key personnel;

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●    changes in earnings estimates or recommendations by securities analysts; and

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●    general market conditions and other factors, including factors unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including those due to the duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Stock markets generally have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Further, the semiconductor memory industry is highly cyclical and our markets may experience significant cyclical fluctuations in demand as a result of changing economic conditions, budgeting and buying patterns of customers and other factors. Fluctuations in our revenue and operating results could also cause our stock price to decline.

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In addition, in the past, class action litigation has often been instituted against companies whose securities have experienced periods of volatility in market price, or for other reasons. Securities litigation brought against us following volatility in our stock price or otherwise, regardless of the merit or ultimate results of such litigation, could result in substantial costs, which would hurt our financial condition and operating results and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.

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These and other factors may make the price of our stock volatile and subject to unexpected fluctuation.

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Provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.

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Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of us that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions could also limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our common stock. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors. Because our board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions could in turn affect any attempt by our stockholders to replace current members of our management team. Among others, these provisions include that:

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●    our board of directors has the right to expand the size of our board of directors and to elect directors to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;

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●    our stockholders may not act by written consent or call special stockholders’ meetings; as a result, a holder, or holders, controlling a majority of our capital stock would not be able to take certain actions other than at annual stockholders’ meetings or special stockholders’ meetings called by the board of directors pursuant to a resolution adopted by a majority of the total number of authorized directors, the chairman of the board or the chief executive officer;

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●    our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;

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●    the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66-2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of voting stock, voting as a single class, will be required (a) to amend certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation, including provisions relating to the size of the board, special meetings, actions by written consent and cumulative voting and (b) to amend or repeal our amended and restated bylaws, although such bylaws may be amended by a simple majority vote of our board of directors;

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●    stockholders must provide advance notice and additional disclosures to nominate individuals for election to the board of directors or to propose matters that can be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquiror from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquiror’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company; and

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●    our board of directors may issue, without stockholder approval, shares of undesignated preferred stock; the ability to issue undesignated preferred stock makes it possible for our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to acquire us.

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Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibits a person who owns in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner.

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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.

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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law:

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●    any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;

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●    any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee to us or our stockholders;

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●    any action asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; and

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●    any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine.

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This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions.

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These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could seriously harm our business.

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General Risk Factors

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Unfavorable economic and market conditions, domestically and internationally, may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

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We have significant customer sales both in the United States and internationally. We also rely on domestic and international suppliers, manufacturing partners and distributors. We are therefore susceptible to adverse U.S. and international economic and market conditions. If any of our manufacturing partners, customers, distributors or suppliers experience slowdowns in their business, serious financial difficulties or cease operations, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our business will be adversely affected. In addition, the adverse impact of an unfavorable economy may adversely impact consumer spending, which may adversely impact our customers’ spending and demand for our products.

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Our business may be adversely impacted by natural disasters and other catastrophic events.

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Our operations and business, and those of our manufacturing partners, customers, distributors or suppliers, can be disrupted by natural disasters; industrial accidents; public health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; cybersecurity incidents; interruptions of service from utilities, transportation, telecommunications, or IT systems providers; manufacturing equipment failures; or other catastrophic events. For example, some of our foundries and suppliers’ facilities in Asia are located near known earthquake fault zones and, therefore, are vulnerable to damage from earthquakes. We are also vulnerable to damage from other types of disasters, such as power loss, fire, floods and similar events. If any such natural disasters or other catastrophic events were to occur, our ability to operate our business could be seriously impaired. In addition, we may not have adequate insurance to cover our losses resulting from disasters or other similar significant business interruptions. Any significant losses that are not recoverable under our insurance policies could seriously impair our business and financial condition.

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We may not successfully manage the transition associated with our Interim Chief Executive Officer and the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, which could have an adverse impact on us.

In December 2020, Kevin Conley notified our board of directors of his decision to resign as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. In connection with Mr. Conley’s resignation, our board of directors appointed Darin Billerbeck to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Company until a permanent successor can be named. Our board of directors intends to initiate a search process to select the Company’s next Chief Executive Officer. Although our board of directors is confident in the interim leadership of Mr. Billerbeck, leadership transitions can be inherently difficult to manage, and an inadequate transition to a permanent Chief Executive Officer may cause disruption within the Company. In addition, if we are unable to attract and retain a qualified candidate to become the permanent Chief Executive Officer in a timely manner, our financial performance and ability to meet operational goals and strategic plans may be adversely impacted. This may also impact our ability to retain and hire other key members of management.

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Overall, our business remains operational in the midst of the pandemic. However, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the related responses from government authorities, our business, results of operations and financial condition have been, and continue to be, adversely impacted. For example, we have experienced electronics supply chain and demand disruptions from extended factory shutdowns, particularly in some Asian countries, which created unusual order patterns, and subsequently slowed Toggle MRAM demand, particularly from our industrial customers. We continue to see an impact as reflected in reduced demand from some customers and distributors. While we are working closely with our manufacturing partners and suppliers to support demand for our products, the full impact on our demand from customers remains unknown. Management is thus planning for a broad range of possible demand outcomes in an effort to ensure the success of our business under a variety of end market conditions.

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Further, in an effort to protect the health and safety of our employees, we transitioned most of our office and support employees and contractors to working from home; suspended all non-essential business travel; and implemented social distancing guidelines for our employees and contractors who must work in our manufacturing and laboratory locations. Consequently, the remote working environment we have implemented for our employees has adversely impacted manufacturing yield improvement projects given delays in data gathering, analysis and inefficiencies of teams solving technical problems via remote-only means, which has impacted, and continues to impact, our cost of sales.

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We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional actions as warranted. These actions may include further altering our operations in order to protect the best interests of our employees, customers and suppliers, and to comply with government requirements, while also planning and executing our business to best support our customers, suppliers, and partners.

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Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019

Revenue

We generated 62% and 66% of our revenue from products sold through distributors for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

We maintain a direct selling relationship, for strategic purposes, with several key customer accounts. We have organized our sales team and representatives into three primary regions: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific (APAC). We recognize revenue by geography based on the region in which our products are sold, and not to where the end products in which they are assembled are shipped. Our revenue by region for the periods indicated was as follows (in thousands):

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Total revenue increased by $4.5 million, or 12.1%, from $37.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2019, to $42.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. Product sales increased by $5.2 million or 15.2%, from $34.6 million to $39.8 million. The increase was primarily driven by a higher volume of new STT-MRAM product sales.

Licensing, royalty, and other revenue is a highly variable revenue item characterized by a small number of transactions annually with revenue based on size and terms of each transaction. Licensing, royalty, and other revenue decreased by $0.7 million, from $2.9 million in 2019 to $2.2 million in 2020. The decrease was primarily due to a $0.7 million decrease in sales of our backend foundry services.

Cost of sales increased by $4.8 million, or 24.9%, from $19.2 million during the year ended December 31, 2019, to $23.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase was due to a higher volume of wafers produced and sold as well as a $1.9 million reserve charge for excess and obsolete inventory in 2020, partly offset by higher yields on our MRAM products.

Our gross margin decreased from 48.9% during the year ended December 31, 2019 to 43.0% during the year ended December 31, 2020. Our product margins decreased as a result of charges for excess and obsolete inventory offsetting improvement of manufacturing yields throughout 2020.

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Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses consist of research and development, general and administrative and sales and marketing expenses. Personnel-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, bonuses and stock-based compensation, are among the most significant component of each of our operating expense categories.

Research and Development Expenses. Our research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel-related expenses for the design and development of our products and technologies, development wafers required to validate and characterize our technology, and expenses associated with our joint development agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Research and development expenses also include consulting services, circuit design costs, materials and laboratory supplies, fabrication and new packaging technology, and an allocation of related facilities and equipment costs. We recognize research and development expenses as they are incurred.

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Research and development expenses decreased by $3.3 million, or 23.2%, from $14.2 million during the year ended December 31, 2019, to $10.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to a $1.8 million decrease in expenses with GLOBALFOUNDRIES under our joint development agreement, as well as a decrease in employee and contract labor related costs from a reduction in headcount as a result of our corporate restructuring plan completed in January 2020 as discussed further below, a decrease in spending on direct materials and supplies used in research and development activities due to the timing of purchases, and a decrease in costs to repair equipment. The decreases were partly offset by an increase in software costs.

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General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses decreased by $1.6 million, or 13.2%, from $12.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2019, to $10.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to a $0.9 million decrease in employee costs due to a reduction in headcount as a result of our corporate restructuring plan as discussed further below, as well as a decrease in professional services expense.

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Sales and Marketing Expenses. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by $1.4 million, or 25.7%, from $5.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2019, to $4.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was partially due to a $0.9 million decrease in employee and contract labor related costs from reduction in headcount as a result of our corporate restructuring plan as discussed further below, as well as a decrease in travel costs due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions.

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Restructuring expenses. There were no restructuring costs during the year ended December 31, 2020. There were $0.8 million of restructuring expenses during the year ended December 31, 2019. During 2019, we implemented a corporate restructuring to further align strategy and long-term sustainability, which was completed in January 2020. As part of the restructuring, we reduced our workforce by approximately 15 positions across all functions. Restructuring expenses are costs associated with a formal restructuring plan and are related primarily to employee severance and benefit arrangements.

Interest Expense

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Interest expense decreased by $0.1 million, or 11.0%, from $0.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2019, to $0.6 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. The slight decrease was due in part to a decrease in non-cash interest related to the amortization of debt discounts derived from the issuance of a warrant, no end of term fee paid in 2020, and a decrease in floor interest rates charged on our credit facilities.

Other Income, Net

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Other income, net decreased by $0.5 million , or 104.9%, from income of $0.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2019 to expense of $24,000 during the year ended December 31, 2020 due to lower interest earned on our investments.

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pursuant to the 2019 Sales Agreement. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we received net proceeds of $2.1 million after deducting commissions and expenses payable by us, from the sale of 468,427 shares of common stock pursuant to the 2019 Sales Agreement. We suspended sales under the 2019 Sales Agreement in March 2020 and terminated the ATM program in November 2020.

Additionally, see “Credit Facilities” below for information regarding our debt financing.

Cash Flows From Operating Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2020, cash used in operating activities was $2.9 million, which consisted of a net loss of $8.5 million, adjusted by non-cash charges of $6.3 million and a change of $0.7 million in our net operating assets and liabilities. The non-cash charges consisted of stock-based compensation of $4.0 million, depreciation and amortization of $2.0 million, and non-cash interest expense of $0.3 million. The change in our net operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to an increase of $1.8 million in accounts receivable due to increased sales volume and timing of cash receipts for outstanding balances, an increase of $2.1 million in inventory to meet demand of future sales and growing backlog, a decrease of $0.8 million in accounts payable due to the timing of payments, and a decrease of $0.3 million in accrued liabilities primarily due to timing of payments on inventory purchases.

During the year ended December 31, 2019, cash used in operating activities was $8.1 million, which consisted of a net loss of $14.7 million, adjusted by non-cash charges of $5.6 million and a change of $1.0 million in our net operating assets and liabilities. The non-cash charges consisted of stock-based compensation of $3.6 million, depreciation and amortization of $1.7 million, and non-cash interest expense of $0.3 million. The change in our net operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a decrease of $1.7 million in accounts receivable due to decreased sales volume and timing of cash receipts for outstanding balances, a decrease of $1.2 million in inventory due to adjusting purchasing practices to meet expected sales volumes, and an increase of $0.2 million in accounts payable due to the timing of payments. These were partially offset by a decrease of $2.2 million in accrued liabilities primarily due to timing of payments on inventory purchases.

Cash Flows From Investing Activities

Cash used in investing activities during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 was $0.3 million and $0.9 million, respectively, which consisted of capital expenditures primarily for the purchase of manufacturing equipment and purchased software.

Cash Flows From Financing Activities

During the year ended December 31, 2020, cash provided by financing activities was $3.4 million, which consisted of $2.1 million in net proceeds from the sale of our common stock in our at-the-market offering under our 2019 Sales Agreement with Jefferies, and $1.3 million in proceeds from stock option exercises and purchases of shares in our employee stock purchase plan.

During the year ended December 31, 2019, cash provided by financing activities was $0.1 million, which consisted of $4.7 million in net proceeds from the sale of our common stock in our at-the-market offering under our 2019 Sales Agreement with Jefferies, and $0.3 million in proceeds from stock option exercises and purchases of shares in our employee stock purchase plan, partially offset by payments on long-term debt of $4.8 million and payment of debt issuance costs of $0.1 million.

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Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not entered into any off-balance sheet arrangements and do not have any holdings in variable interest entities.

Credit Facilities

In May 2017, we executed a Loan and Security Agreement (2017 Credit Facility) with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) for a $12.0 million term loan, which we subsequently amended in January 2019 and June 2019. In August 2019, we executed an Amended and Restated Loan and Security Agreement (2019 Credit Facility), which amended and restated the 2017 Credit Facility, providing for a formula revolving line of credit (Line of Credit) and a term loan (2019 Term Loan) with SVB to refinance in full the outstanding principal balance of $8.0 million under the 2017 Credit Facility.

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In July 2020, we executed the first amendment to the 2019 Credit Facility with SVB. The amendment, among other things, extended the initial 12-month interest-only period for the term loan to a 16-month interest-only period and lowered the floor interest rate. The floor interest rates for 2019 Term Loan and the Line of Credit Facility were reduced from 4.75% and 6.75% to 3.75% and 4.75%, respectively.

The amended Line of Credit allows for a maximum draw of $5.0 million, subject to a formula borrowing base, has a two-year term and bears interest at a floating rate equal to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) prime rate plus 1.5%, per annum, subject to a floor of 4.75%. At execution, $2.0 million from the Line of Credit was used to refinance a portion of the outstanding balance of the 2017 Credit Facility, and $3.0 million remains available under the Line of Credit, subject to borrowing base availability. As of December 31, 2020, the effective interest rate under the Line of Credit was 10.18% and the outstanding balance was $2.0 million. The Line of Credit matures on August 5, 2021.

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The amended 2019 Term Loan provides for a $6.0 million term loan, which was used to refinance the remaining balance of the 2017 Credit Facility. The amended 2019 Term Loan has a term of 46 months, and a 16-month interest-only period followed by 30 months of equal principal payments, plus accrued interest. The 2019 Term Loan bears interest at a floating rate equal to the WSJ prime rate minus 0.75%, subject to a floor of 3.75%. As of December 31, 2020, the effective interest rate under the 2019 Term Loan was 7.85% and the outstanding balance was $6.0 million. The 2019 Term Loan matures on June 1, 2023.

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In conjunction with entering into the 2019 Credit Facility, on August 5, 2019, we and SVB amended and restated the warrant issued to SVB in connection with the first amendment to the 2017 Credit Facility, which was a warrant to purchase 9,375 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $8.91 per share, to add an option by SVB to put the warrant back to us for $50,000 upon expiration or a liquidity event, to be prorated if SVB exercises a portion of the warrant. The warrant expires on July 6, 2023. Additionally, in conjunction with entering into the first amendment to the 2019 Credit Facility, on July 15, 2020, we issued an additional warrant to SVB to purchase 21,500 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.01 per share which expires on July 15, 2025.

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Collateral for the 2019 Credit Facility includes all of our assets except for intellectual property. We are required to comply with certain covenants under the 2019 Credit Facility, including requirements to maintain a minimum cash balance and availability under the Line of Credit, and restrictions on certain actions without the consent of the lender, such as limitations on our ability to engage in mergers or acquisitions, sell assets, incur indebtedness or grant liens or negative pledges on our assets, make loans or make other investments. Under these covenants, we are prohibited from paying cash dividends with respect to our capital stock. We were in compliance with all covenants at December 31, 2020. The 2019 Credit Facility contains a material adverse effect clause which provides that an event of default will occur if, among other triggers, an event occurs that could reasonably be expected to result in a material adverse effect on our business, operations or condition, or on our ability to perform our obligations under the 2019 Term Loan. As of December 31, 2020, we do not believe that it is probable that the clause will be triggered within the next 12 months.

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For additional information about the 2019 Credit Facility, see Note 6 to our financial statements in Part II, Item 8 of this report.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgements and Estimates

Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported revenue generated and expenses incurred during the reporting periods. We base our estimates on our historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue when a customer obtains control of the promised products or services, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to receive in exchange for those products or services. We recognize revenue net of allowances for returns and price concessions, and any taxes collected from customers, which are subsequently remitted to governmental authorities.

Our billing practices approximate our performance as measured by an output method, where each output represents the completion of a performance obligation. We utilize the invoice practical expedient as defined in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 606, resulting in recognition of revenue in the amount that we have the right to invoice.

We incur direct and incremental costs of obtaining contracts and expense such costs as incurred, as the life of the underlying contract is less than one year.

Nature of Products and Services

We derive our revenue from the sale of MRAM-based products in discrete unit form, licenses of and royalties on our MRAM and magnetic sensor technology, the sale of backend foundry services, and design services to third parties. We recognize sales of products in discrete unit form at a point in time, revenue related to licensing agreements when we have delivered control of the technology, revenue related to royalty agreements in the period in which sales generated from products sold using our technology occurs, sales of backend foundry services over time, and design services to third parties either at a point in time or over time, depending on the nature of the services.

Product Revenue

For products sold in their discrete form, we either sell our products directly to OEMs, ODMs, contract manufacturers (CMs), or through a network of distributors, who in turn sell to those customers. For sales directly to OEMs, ODMs and CMs, we recognize revenue when the OEM, ODM or CM obtains control of the product, which occurs at a point in time, generally upon shipment to the customer.

We sell a majority of our products to our distributors at a uniform list price. However, distributors may resell our products to end customers at a very broad range of individually negotiated price points. We provide distributors with price concessions subsequent to the delivery of product to them and such amounts are dependent on the end customer and product sales price. We base the price concessions on a variety of factors, including customer, product, quantity, geography and competitive differentiation. Price protection rights grant distributors the right to a credit in the event of declines in the price of our products. Under these circumstances, we remit back to the distributor a portion of their original purchase price after the resale transaction is completed in the form of a credit against the distributors’ outstanding accounts receivable balance. The credits are on a per unit basis and are not given to the distributor until the distributor provides information regarding the sale to their end customer. We estimate these credits and record such estimates in the same period the related revenue is recognized, resulting in a reduction of product revenue and the establishment of an allowance for price concessions for amounts due to distributors. We estimate credits to distributors based on the historical rate of credits provided to distributors relative to sales. Revenue on shipments to distributors is recorded when control of the products has been transferred to the distributor.

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We estimate the amount of our product sales that may be returned by our customers and record this estimate as a reduction of revenue in the period the related product revenue is recognized. We estimate our product return liability by analyzing our historical returns, current economic trends and changes in customer demand and acceptance of products. We have received insignificant returns to date and believe that returns of our products will continue to be minimal.

At the time of shipment to distributors, we record a trade receivable for the selling price as there is a legally enforceable obligation of the distributor to pay for the product delivered. We establish an allowance for estimated price concessions related to our distributor agreements. We estimate credits to distributors based on the historical rate of credits provided to distributors relative to sales.

License Revenue

For licenses of technology, recognition of revenue is dependent upon whether we have delivered rights to the technology, and whether there are future performance obligations under the contract. In some instances, the license agreements call for future events or activities to occur in order for milestones amounts to become due from the customer. The terms of such agreements include payment to us of one or more of the following: non-refundable upfront fees; and royalties on net sales of licensed products. Historically, these license agreements have not included other future performance obligations once the license has been transferred to the customer.

We recognize revenue from non-refundable upfront payments when the license is transferred to the customer and we have no other performance obligations.

Royalties

We recognize revenue from sales-based royalties from licenses of our technology at the later of when (1) the sale occurs or (2) the performance obligation to which some or all of the sales-based royalty has been allocated is satisfied (in whole or in part). We record an unbilled receivable (within accounts receivable, net) for the portion of sales-based royalties that have been earned, but not invoiced at the end of each reporting period.

Other Revenue

For certain revenue streams, we recognize revenue based on the pattern of transfer of the services. We use the input method of measuring costs incurred to date compared to total estimated costs to be incurred under the contract as this method most faithfully depicts its performance. We record an unbilled receivable (within accounts receivable, net) for the portion of the work that has been completed but not invoiced at the end of each reporting period.

At the inception of each agreement that includes milestone payments, we evaluate whether the milestones are considered probable of being reached and estimate the amount to be included in the transaction price by using the most likely amount method. If it is probable that a significant reversal of cumulative revenue would not occur, the associated milestone value is included in the transaction price. At the end of each subsequent reporting period, we re-evaluate the probability or achievement of each such milestone and any related constraint, and if necessary, adjust our estimate of the overall transaction price. Any such adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis, which would affect revenues and earnings in the period of adjustment.

Inventory

We record inventories at the lower of cost, determined on a first-in, first-out basis or specific identification method, or market. We write down inventory for estimated excess or obsolete inventory equal to the difference between cost and estimated net realizable value. Inventory write downs establish a new cost basis for inventory and charges are not subsequently reversed even if circumstances subsequently indicate that increased carrying amounts are recoverable. In estimating these reserves, our evaluation takes into consideration historical and expected future demand considering current market conditions and trends, the effect new products may have on the sale of existing products, technological obsolescence and other factors. We record inventory write-downs for the valuation of inventory when required based on our analyses and any write-downs result in a new cost basis for the affected item.

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JOBS Act Accounting Election

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act) and therefore we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various public company reporting requirements, including not being required to have our internal control over financial reporting audited by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments. We may take advantage of these exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will cease to be an emerging growth company upon the earliest of: (1) December 31, 2021, (2) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenues are $1.07 billion or more, (3) the date on which we have, during the previous rolling three-year period, issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities, or (4) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” as defined in the Exchange Act. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company,” which would allow us to take advantage of certain of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements discussed above.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our financial statements for more information about recent accounting pronouncements, the timing of their adoption, and our assessment, to the extent we have made one yet, of their potential impact on our financial condition of results of operations.

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

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