In addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we have identified the following risks and uncertainties that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Investors should carefully consider the risks described below before making an investment decision. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks not currently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also impair our business operations. Our business could be harmed by any of these risks. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks and investors may lose all or part of their investment. This section should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes thereto, and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The Global economic conditions and the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry can reduce demand for our products which in turn may cause us to operate unprofitably and may cause reductions in available cash, and may negatively impact our financial performance.

Global economic conditions, the gradual recovery of the global economy and the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry have impacted and could impact future customer demand for our products and our financial performance. Demand for our products is largely dependent on our customers' capital spending on semiconductor equipment, which depends, in large part, on consumer spending, required manufacturing capacity, and customer access to capital. Economic uncertainty, unemployment, higher interest rates, higher tax rates, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, and other economic factors may lead to a decrease in consumer spending and may cause certain customers to cancel existing orders or delay placing orders. If we are unable to timely and appropriately adapt to changes resulting from unfavorable economic conditions, it may cause volatility in our operating results, business, and financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.

In addition, demand for our products is highly inelastic which means we have little ability to control product revenues created by customer demand for more capacity. The market for our products is characterized by constant and rapid technological change, price erosion, product obsolescence, evolving standards, short product life cycles and significant volatility in supply and demand. Due to the inelastic nature of demand in the semiconductor industry, we may need to take actions to reduce costs in the future, which could reduce our ability to significantly invest in research and development at levels we believe are necessary. If we are unable to effectively align our cost structure with prevailing market conditions, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We may also experience supplier or customer issues as a result of adverse macroeconomic conditions. If our customers have difficulties in obtaining capital or financing, this could result in lower sales. Customers with liquidity issues could also result in an increase in bad debt expense. These conditions could also affect our key suppliers, which could affect their ability to supply parts and result in delays of our customer shipments.

Our largest customers account for a substantial portion of our net revenues, and our net revenues would materially decline if one or more of these customers were to purchase significantly fewer of our systems.

Historically, a significant portion of our net revenues in each quarter and each year has been derived from sales to relatively few customers, and we expect this trend to continue. In fiscal year 2017, five customers represented 73% of our total net revenues. There are only a limited number of large companies operating in the semiconductor manufacturing industry and our market is characterized by continued consolidation in the customer base. Accordingly, we expect that we will continue to depend on a small number of large customers for a significant portion of our net revenues for the foreseeable future. If our current relationships with our large customers are impaired, or if we are unable to develop similar collaborative relationships with important customers in the future, our net revenues could decline significantly. In addition, because there are a limited number of customers, customers may seek concessions related to price, terms and conditions and intellectual property. Any of these changes could negatively impact our financial performance and results of operations.

We rely on a limited number of outside suppliers and subcontractors to supply certain components and subassemblies, and on a single or a limited group of outside suppliers for certain materials for our products, which could result in a potential inability to obtain an adequate supply of required components due to the suppliers' failure or inability to provide such components in a timely manner, or at all, and reduced control over pricing and timely delivery of components and materials, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our manufacturing activities consist of integrating, assembling and testing components and subassemblies. We rely on a limited number of outside suppliers and subcontractors to manufacture certain components and subassemblies. We order one of the most critical components of our technology, the spectroscopic ellipsometer component incorporated into our advanced measurement systems, from external suppliers.

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We procure some of our other critical systems' components, subassemblies and services from single suppliers or a limited group of outside suppliers in order to ensure overall quality and timeliness of delivery. Many of these components and subassemblies have significant production lead times. To date, we have been able to obtain adequate supplies of components and subassemblies for our systems in a timely manner. However, disruption or termination o f certain of these sources could have a significant adverse impact on our ability to manufacture our systems. In addition, our failure to timely use components in our manufacturing processes due to delays or cancellation of orders may lead to write-downs o f inventory. A disruption in supply or inventory window would, in turn, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our reliance on a sole supplier or a limited group of suppliers and our reliance on subco ntractors involve several risks, including:

Although the timeliness, yield and quality of deliveries to date from our subcontractors have been acceptable, manufacture of certain of these components and subassemblies is an extremely complex process, and long lead times are required. Any inability to obtain adequate deliveries or any other circumstance that would require us to seek alternative sources of supply or to manufacture such components internally could delay our ability to ship our products, which could damage relationships with current and prospective customers and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Some of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater resources than we do, and increased competition could impair sales of our products.

We operate in the highly competitive semiconductor industry and face competition from a number of companies, some of which have greater financial, engineering, manufacturing, research and development, marketing and customer support resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies or market developments by devoting greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of products, which could impair sales of our products. Moreover, there has been merger and acquisition activity among our competitors and potential competitors. These transactions by our competitors and potential competitors may provide them with a competitive advantage over us by enabling them to rapidly expand their product offerings and service capabilities to meet a broader range of customer needs. Many of our customers and potential customers in the semiconductor industry are large companies that require global support and service for their metrology systems. Some of our larger or more geographically diverse competitors might be better equipped to provide this global support and service.

Because of the high cost of switching equipment vendors in our markets, it may be difficult for us to attract customers from our competitors even if our metrology systems are superior to theirs.

We believe that once a semiconductor customer has selected one vendor's metrology system, the customer generally relies upon that system and, to the extent possible, subsequent generations of the same vendor's system, for the life of the application. Once a vendor's metrology system has been installed, a customer must often make substantial technical modifications and may experience downtime to switch to another vendor's metrology system. Accordingly, unless our systems offer performance or cost advantages that outweigh a customer's expense of switching to our systems; it will be difficult for us to achieve significant sales from that customer once it has selected another vendor's system for an application.

Our integrated metrology systems are integrated onto systems sold independently by Wafer Fabrication Equipment Suppliers, and a decrease in sales by these suppliers, or the development of competing systems by these suppliers, could harm our business.

We believe that sales of integrated metrology systems will continue to be an important source of our net revenues. Sales of our integrated metrology systems depend upon the ability of a small number of Wafer Fabrication Equipment Suppliers to sell semiconductor manufacturing equipment products that are compatible with our metrology systems as components. If these suppliers, such as Applied Materials, Inc., Ebara Corporation, Lam Research Corporation and Tokyo Electron, are unable to sell such products, if they choose to focus their attention on products that do not integrate our systems, or if they choose to develop competing systems, our business could suffer.

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We are subject to order and shipment uncertainties. Our profitability will decline if we fail to accurately forecast customer demand when managing inventory.

We typically plan production and inventory levels based on internal forecasts of customer demand, which can be highly unpredictable and can fluctuate substantially, which could lead to excess inventory write-downs and resulting negative impacts on gross margin and net income. We have limited visibility into our customers' inventories, future customer demand and the product mix that our customers will require, which could adversely affect our production forecasts and operating margins. In addition, innovation in our industry could render significant portions of our inventory obsolete. If we overestimate our customers' requirements, we may have excess inventory, which could lead to obsolete inventory and unexpected costs. Conversely, if we underestimate our customers' requirements, we may have inadequate inventory, which could lead to foregone revenue opportunities, loss of potential market share and damage to customer relationships as product deliveries may not be made on a timely basis, disrupting our customers' production schedules. In response to anticipated long lead times to obtain inventory and materials from outside suppliers and foundries, we periodically order materials in advance of customer demand. This advance ordering has in the past and may in the future result in excess inventory levels or unanticipated inventory write-downs if expected orders fail to materialize, or other factors make our products less saleable. In addition, any significant future cancellation or deferral of product orders could adversely affect our revenue and margins, increase inventory write-downs due to obsolete inventory, and adversely affect our operating results and stock price.

If we do not manage our supply chain effectively, our operating results may be adversely affected.

We need to continually evaluate our global supply chains and assess opportunities to reduce costs. We must also enhance quality, speed and flexibility to meet changing demand for our products and product mix and uncertain market conditions. Our success also depends in part on refining our cost structure and supply chains so that we have flexibility and can maintain and improve profitability. To improve our margins on a product, we will need to establish high volume supply agreements with our vendors. We cannot be certain that we will be able to timely negotiate vendor supply agreements on improved terms and conditions, or at all. Failure to achieve the desired level of cost reductions could adversely affect our financial results. Despite our efforts to control costs and increase efficiency in our facilities, changes in demand could still cause us to realize lower operating margins and profitability.

If we choose to acquire new and complementary businesses, or products or technologies instead of developing them ourselves, we may be unable to complete these acquisitions or may not be able to successfully integrate an acquired business in a cost-effective and non-disruptive manner.

Our success depends on our ability to continually enhance and broaden our product offerings in response to changing technologies, customer demands and competitive pressures. To achieve this, from time to time we have acquired complementary businesses, products, or technologies instead of developing them ourselves and may choose to do so in the future. If we do identify suitable transactions in the future, we may not be able to complete them on commercially acceptable terms, or at all. We also face intense competition for acquisitions from other acquirers in our industry. These competing acquirers may have significantly greater financial and other resources than us, which may prevent us from successfully pursuing a transaction.

Potential risks associated with acquisitions could include, among other things:

If an acquisition is not successfully completed or integrated into our existing operations, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

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In addition, to finance any acquisitions we may be required to raise additional funds through public or private equity or debt financings; however:

Our success depends on the performance of key personnel, including our senior management and on our ability to identify, hire and retain key management personnel.

We believe our continued ability to recruit, hire, retain and motivate highly-skilled engineering, operations, sales, administrative and managerial personnel is key to our future success. Competition for these employees is intense, particularly with respect to attracting and retaining qualified technical and senior management personnel. We do not have employment agreements with key members of our technical staff and all of our senior management team. Further, we do not have key person life insurance on any of our executives and these individuals or other key employees may leave us. We have experienced turnover in our senior management team in the past. Our business may be harmed if we are unable to recruit, retain and effectively integrate our senior management into our business operations and our ability to implement our strategy could be compromised.

If we deliver systems with defects, our credibility will be harmed, revenue from, and market acceptance of, our systems will decrease and we could expend significant capital and resources as a result of such defects.

Our products are complex and frequently operate in high-performance, challenging environments. Notwithstanding our internal quality specifications, our systems have sometimes contained errors, defects and bugs, when introduced. If we deliver systems with errors, defects or bugs, our credibility and the market acceptance and sales of our systems would be harmed. Further, if our systems contain errors, defects or bugs, we may be required to expend significant capital and resources to alleviate such problems and incur significant costs for product recalls and inventory write-offs. Defects could also lead to product liability lawsuits against us or against our customers. We have agreed to indemnify our customers in some circumstances against liability arising from defects in our systems. In the event of a successful product liability claim, we could be obligated to pay damages significantly in excess of our product liability insurance limits.

If we experience significant delays in shipping our products to our customers, our business and reputation may suffer.

Our products are complex and require technical expertise to design and manufacture properly. Various problems occasionally arise during the manufacturing process that may cause delays and/or impair product quality. Any significant delays stemming from the failure of our products to meet or exceed our internal quality specifications, or for any other reasons, would delay our shipments. Shipment delays could harm our business and reputation in the industry.

Net average selling prices of our products may decrease over time, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and profitability.

It is common in our industry for the average selling price of a given product to decrease over time as production volumes increase, competing products are developed or latest technologies featuring higher performance or lower cost emerge. To combat the negative effects that erosion of average selling prices have had in the past and may in the future have on our net revenues, we attempt to actively manage the prices of our existing products and regularly introduce new process technologies and products in the market that exhibit higher performance, that are in demand, or that lower manufacturing cost. Failure to maintain our current prices or to successfully execute on our new product development strategy will cause our net revenues and gross margin to decline, which adversely affect our operating results and stock price.

Third party infringement claims could be costly to defend, and successful infringement claims by third parties could result in substantial damages, lost product sales and the loss of important intellectual property rights by us.

The semiconductor industry is generally subject to frequent litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Our commercial success depends, in part, on our ability to avoid infringing or misappropriating patents or other proprietary rights owned by third parties. From time to time we may receive communications from third parties asserting that our metrology systems may contain design features which are claimed to infringe on their proprietary rights. Our new or current products may infringe valid intellectual property rights, but even if our products do not infringe, we may be required to expend significant sums of money to defend against infringement claims, or to actively protect our intellectual property rights through litigation. In the event that a claim is made and there is an adverse result of any intellectual property rights litigation, we could be required to pay substantial damages for

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infringement, expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology, incur material liability for royalty payments or fees to obtain licenses to the technology covered by the litigation, or be subjected to an injunction, which could prevent us from selling our products and materially and adversely affect our net revenues and results of operations. We cannot be sure that we will be successful in any such non-infr inging development or that any such license would be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Any claims relating to the infringement of third-party proprietary rights, even if not meritorious, could result in costly litigation, lost sales or damaged customer relationships, and diversion of management's attention and resources.

Our intellectual property may be infringed by third parties despite our efforts to protect it, which could threaten our future success and competitive position and harm our operating results.

Our future success and competitive position depend in part upon our ability to obtain and maintain proprietary technology for our principal product families, and we rely, in part, on patent, trade secret and trademark law to protect that technology. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property, it will be easier for our competitors to sell competing products. We own or may license patents relating to our systems, and have filed applications for additional patents. Any of our pending patent applications may be rejected, and we may not in the future be able to develop additional proprietary technology that is patentable. In addition, the patents we own, have been issued or licensed, may not provide us with competitive advantages and may be challenged by third parties. Third parties may also design around these patents.

In addition to patent protection, we rely upon trade secret protection for our confidential and proprietary information and technology. We routinely enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees. However, in the event that these agreements may be breached, we may not have adequate remedies. Our confidential and proprietary information and technology might also be independently developed by or become otherwise known to third parties.

We may be required to initiate litigation to enforce patents issued to or licensed by us, or to determine the scope or validity of a third party's patent or to enforce trade secret, confidentiality or other proprietary rights. Any such litigation, regardless of outcome, could be expensive and time consuming, and could subject us to significant liabilities or require us to re-engineer our product or obtain expensive licenses from third parties, any of which would adversely affect our business and operating results.

Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain or use our products or technology. Our ability to enforce our patents and other intellectual property is limited by our financial resources and is subject to general litigation risks. If we seek to enforce our rights, we may be subject to claims that the intellectual property rights are invalid, are otherwise not enforceable or are licensed to the party against whom we assert a claim. In addition, our assertion of intellectual property rights could result in the other party seeking to assert alleged intellectual property rights of its own against us, which is a frequent occurrence in such litigation.

Our efforts to protect our intellectual property may be less effective in some foreign countries where intellectual property rights are not as well protected as in the United States.

In 2017, 2016, and 2015, 87%, 86% and 80%, respectively, of our total net revenues were derived from sales to customers in foreign countries, including certain countries in Asia, such as Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to as great an extent as do the laws of the United States, and many U.S. companies have encountered substantial problems in protecting their proprietary rights against infringement in these countries. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property in these countries, it would be easier for our competitors to sell competing products and our business would suffer.

Variations in the amount of time it takes for us to sell our systems may cause volatility in our operating results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Variations in the length of our sales and product acceptance cycles could cause our revenues to fluctuate widely from period to period. Our customers generally take long periods of time to evaluate our metrology systems. We expend significant resources educating and providing information to our prospective customers regarding the uses and benefits of our systems. The length of time that it takes for us to complete a sale depends upon many factors, including:

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Because of the number of factors influencing the sales process, the period between our initial contact with a customer and the time at which we recognize revenue from that customer, if at all, varies widely. Our sales cycles, including the time it takes for us to build a product to customer specifications after receiving an order, typically range from three to nine months. Occasionally our sales cycles can be much longer, particularly with customers in Asia who may require longer evaluation and acceptance periods. During the sales cycles, we commit substantial resources to our sales efforts in advance of receiving any revenue, and we may never receive any revenue from a customer despite our sales efforts.

If we do complete a sale, customers often purchase only one of our systems and then evaluate its performance for a lengthy period of time before purchasing additional systems. The purchases are generally made through purchase orders rather than through long-term contracts. The number of additional products that a customer purchases, if any, depends on many factors, including a customer’s capacity requirements, and/or shifting to more and advanced manufacturing processes that require more or different products to control. If they change their rate of capacity or have technological change, we cannot compensate for this fluctuation in demand by adjusting the price of our products. The period between a customer’s initial purchase and any subsequent purchases and acceptance is unpredictable and can vary from three months to a year or longer. Variations in the length of this period could cause fluctuations in our operating results, which could adversely affect our stock price.

Relatively small fluctuations in our system sales volume may cause our operating results to vary significantly each quarter.

During any quarter, a significant portion of our revenue is derived from the sale of a relatively small number of systems. Our automated metrology systems can be priced from $800,000 to $2,400,000 per system, and our integrated metrology systems can be priced up to $500,000 per system. Accordingly, a slight change in the number or mix of systems that we sell could cause significant changes in our operating results.

Lack of market acceptance for our products may affect our ability to generate revenue and may harm our business.

We have invested substantial time and resources into the development of new products, services and technologies. However, we cannot accurately predict the future level of acceptance of our products and services by our customers. As a result, we may not be able to generate anticipated revenue from sales of these products and services, or future new products, services and improvements.

We depend on new products and processes for our success. Consequently, we are subject to risks associated with rapid technological change.

Rapid technological changes in semiconductor manufacturing processes subject us to increased pressure to develop technological advances enabling such processes. We believe that our future success depends in part upon our ability to develop and offer new products with improved capabilities and to continue to enhance our existing products. We cannot make assurances if or when the products and solutions where we have focused our research and development expenditures will become commercially successful. If new products have reliability or quality problems, our performance could be impacted by reduced orders, higher manufacturing costs, and delays in acceptance or payment for new products, and additional service and warranty expenses. We might not be able to develop and manufacture new products successfully, or new products that we introduce may fail in the marketplace. Our failure to complete commercialization of these new products in a timely manner could result in unanticipated costs and inventory obsolescence, which would adversely affect our financial results. Any significant delay in releasing new systems could adversely affect our reputation, give a competitor a first-to-market advantage or allow a competitor to achieve greater market share.

To develop new products and processes, we expect to continue to make significant investments in research and development and to pursue joint development relationships with customers, suppliers or other members of the industry. We must manage product transitions and joint development relationships successfully, as introduction of new products could adversely affect our sale of existing products.

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We are subject to risks associat ed with our competitors’ strategic relationships and their introduction of new products, and we may lack the financial resources or technological capabilities of certain of our competitors needed to capture increased market share.

We expect to face significant competition from multiple current and future competitors. We believe that other companies are developing systems and products that are competitive to our products and are planning to introduce new products, which may affect our ability to sell our existing or future products. We face a greater risk if our competitors enter into strategic relationships with leading semiconductor manufacturers covering products similar to those we sell or may develop, as this could adversely affect our ability to sell products to those manufacturers.

Some of our competitors have substantially greater financial resources and more extensive engineering, manufacturing, marketing and customer service and support resources than we do and therefore have the potential to increasingly dominate the semiconductor equipment industry. These competitors may deeply discount products similar to those that we sell, challenging or even exceeding our ability to make similar accommodations and threatening our ability to sell those products. As a result, we may fail to continue to compete successfully worldwide.

In addition, our competitors may provide innovative technology that may have performance advantages over systems we currently offer or may offer in the future. They may be able to develop products comparable or superior to those that we offer or may adapt more quickly to new technologies or evolving customer requirements. In particular, while we currently are developing additional product enhancements that we believe will address future customer requirements, we may fail in a timely manner to complete the development or introduction of these additional product enhancements successfully, or these product enhancements may not achieve market acceptance or be competitive. Accordingly, we may be unable to continue to compete in our markets and competition may intensify, or future competition, operating results, financial condition, and/or cash flows could suffer.

If we are unable to adjust the scale of our business in response to rapid changes in demand in the semiconductor equipment industry, our operating results and our ability to compete successfully may be impaired.

The business cycle in the semiconductor equipment industry has historically been characterized by frequent periods of rapid change in demand that challenge our management to adjust spending and resources allocated to operating activities. During periods of growth or decline in demand for our products and services, we face significant challenges in maintaining adequate financial and business controls, management processes, information systems and procedures and in training, managing, and appropriately sizing our supply chain, our work force, and other components of our business on a timely basis. Our success will depend, to a significant extent, on the ability of our executive officers and other members of our senior management to identify and respond to these challenges, our gross margins and earnings may be impaired during periods of demand decline, and we may lack the infrastructure and resources to scale up our business to meet customer expectations and compete successfully during periods of demand growth.

We manufacture all of our systems at a limited number of facilities, and any prolonged disruption in the operations of those facilities could reduce our revenues.

We produce all of our systems in our manufacturing facilities located in Milpitas, California. We use contract manufacturers in China, Israel, Japan and the United States. Our manufacturing processes are highly complex and require sophisticated, costly equipment and specially designed facilities. As a result, any prolonged disruption in the operations of our manufacturing facilities, such as those resulting from acts of war, terrorism, political instability, health epidemics, fire, earthquake, flooding or other natural disaster could seriously harm our ability to satisfy our customer order deadlines.

We may outsource select manufacturing activities to third-party service providers, which decreases our control over the performance of these functions and quality of our products.

We may outsource product manufacturing to third-party service providers. Outsourcing reduces our control over the performance of the outsourced functions. Dependence on outsourcing may also adversely affect our ability to bring new products to market. If we do not effectively manage our outsourcing strategy or if third party service providers do not perform as anticipated, we may experience operational difficulties, increased costs, manufacturing interruptions or inefficiencies in the operation of our supply chain, any or all of which could delay our delivery of products to our customers, and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

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If our network security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to a customer's data, to our data, or to our information technology systems, we may incur significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities.

As part of our business, we store our data and certain data about our customers in our information technology system. While our system is designed with access security, if a third party gains unauthorized access to our data, including any data regarding our customers, the security breach could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, loss of business, litigation and possible liability. These security measures may be breached because of cyber-attacks, data breaches, malicious code such as viruses and worms, phishing attempts, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. Additionally, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information to gain access to our customers' data or our data, including our intellectual property and other confidential business information, or our information technology systems. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, or to sabotage systems, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures despite our efforts to create security barriers to such threats. Any security breach could result in a loss of confidence by our customers, damage our reputation, disrupt our business, lead to legal liability and negatively impact our future sales.

Our results of operations could vary as a result of the methods, estimates and judgments we use in applying our accounting policies.

The methods, estimates and judgments we use in applying our accounting policies have a significant impact on our results of operations. See “Note 1. Nature of Business, Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies” in Part II, Item 8 of our consolidated financial statements. These methods, estimates and judgments are, by their nature, subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and factors may arise over time that leads us to change our methods, estimates and judgments. Changes in these methods, estimates and judgments could significantly affect our results of operations. In particular, our operating results have been affected by changes in our valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets, the calculation of share-based compensation expense and by the testing and potential impairment of long-lived assets such as goodwill and other intangible assets. For example, during the year ended December 31, 2016, we recorded a $27.4 million release of valuation allowance against our U.S, certain state and certain foreign deferred tax assets as we determined, based upon an evaluation of all available objectively verifiable evidence, including but not limited to our operations, current earnings and anticipated future earnings that a release is required. The valuation allowance release had a significant impact to our operating results. The process of evaluating the valuation allowance is highly subjective and requires significant judgment, and our results of operations could vary significantly from estimates. To the extent that we believe it is more likely that we will not realize our deferred tax assets, our financial statements will reflect another significant change to our tax provision and operating results.

Changes in our effective income tax rate could affect our results of operations.

We are subject to taxation in numerous U.S. states and territories. As a result, our effective tax rate is derived from a combination of applicable tax rates in the various places that we operate. In preparing our financial statements, we estimate the amount of tax that will become payable in each of such places. Our effective tax rate, however, may be different than experienced in the past due to numerous factors, including the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, changes in the jurisdictions in which our profits are determined to be earned and taxed, increases in expenses not deductible for tax purposes, the results of examinations and audits of our tax filings, our inability to secure or sustain acceptable agreements with tax authorities, our utilization of net operating losses, changes in available tax credits, changes in accounting for income taxes, and changes in tax laws. Any of these factors could cause us to experience an effective tax rate significantly different from previous periods or our current expectations and may result in tax obligations in excess of amounts accrued in our financial statements.

The recently passed comprehensive tax reform bill could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

On December 22, 2017, the President signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that significantly reforms the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, among other things, contains significant changes to corporate taxation, including reduction of the corporate tax rate from a top marginal rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%, limitation of the tax deduction for interest expense to 30% of adjusted earnings (except for certain small businesses), limitation of the deduction of future net operating losses to 80% of current year taxable income and elimination of net operating loss carrybacks, one-time taxation of offshore earnings at reduced rates regardless of whether they are repatriated, elimination of U.S. tax on foreign earnings (subject to certain important exceptions), immediate deductions for certain new capital investments instead of deductions for depreciation expense over time, and modifying or repealing many business deductions and credits, including the deductibility of executive compensation. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is uncertain and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected. The impact of this tax reform on holders of our common stock is also uncertain and could be adverse. We urge our stockholders to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to this legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in or holding our common stock.

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We may incur impairments to goodwill or long-lived assets.

We review our long-lived assets, including goodwill and other intangible assets, for impairment annually or more frequently when events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of these assets may not be recoverable or it becomes more likely than not that the fair value is reduced below the carrying value of the reporting unit. Our valuation methodology for assessing impairment requires management to make judgments and assumptions based on historical experience and to rely heavily on projections of future operating performance.

Our recently announced share repurchase program may increase the volatility of our stock and impact our cash position and working capital balances.

In November 2017, our Board of Directors approved a program to repurchase up to $50 million of our common stock. Stock repurchases under the program may be made through open market and privately negotiated transactions, at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate. Although our share repurchase program is intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, we are unable to ensure the repurchase program’s effectiveness. In addition, the repurchase program could affect the price and increase the volatility of our stock. The program may also diminish our cash reserves that may be needed for business investments, acquisitions of products and technologies or any other purposes.

Our investment portfolio may suffer losses from changes in market interest rates and changes in market conditions, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and liquidity.

Our investment portfolio primarily comprises corporate debt securities, commercial paper, debt securities issued by U.S. governmental agencies and certificates of deposits. These investments are subject to general credit, liquidity, and market and interest rate risks. Substantially all of these securities are subject to interest rate and credit risk and will decline in value if interest rates increase or one or more of the issuers’ credit ratings is reduced. As a result of any of the foregoing, we may experience a reduction in value or loss of liquidity of our investments, which may have a negative adverse effect on our results of operations, liquidity and financial condition. We follow an established investment policy and set of guidelines to monitor, manage and limit our exposure to interest rate and credit risk. The policy sets forth credit quality standards and limits our exposure to any one issuer, as well as our maximum exposure to various asset classes.

Our operating results have varied in the past and probably will continue to vary significantly in the future, which will cause volatility in our stock price.

Our quarterly and annual operating results have varied significantly in the past and are likely to vary in the future, which volatility could cause our stock price to decline. Some of the factors that may influence our operating results and subject our stock to extreme price and volume fluctuations include:

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The foregoing factors are difficult to forecast, and these, as well as other factors, could materially and adversely affect our quarterly and annual operating results. If our operating results in any period fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, the market price of our common stock would likely decline.

We are highly dependent on international sales and operations, which exposes us to foreign political and economic risks.

A majority of our sales and operations are outside of the United States. As a result, we are subject to regulatory, geopolitical and other risks associated with doing business in foreign countries. We anticipate that international sales will continue to account for a significant portion of our revenues. International sales and operations carry inherent risks such as:

If any of these risks materialize and we are unable to manage them, our international sales and operations would suffer.

We are exposed to fluctuations in the foreign currency exchange rates.

As a global concern, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates. Our exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations arise in part from current intercompany accounts in which costs are charged between our U.S. headquarters and foreign subsidiaries. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve and could have a material adverse impact on our financial results and cash flow.

We are exposed to risks related to our banking arrangements and accounts receivable factoring.

We maintain bank accounts with both domestic and foreign financial institutions, any one of the institutions may prove to not be financially viable. If any of these financial institutions experiences financial difficulties or otherwise are unable to honor our deposit arrangements, we may experience material financial losses due to lack of access to our funds which could have an adverse impact on our operating results, financial condition and cash flows. In addition, we enter into factoring arrangements with certain financial institutions to sell a certain portion of our trade receivables. If we were to stop entering into these factoring arrangements, our operating results, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely impacted by delays or failure to collect the trade receivables.

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Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company and may affect the trading price of our common stock.

The anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company by limiting our ability to engage in a business combination with an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a change in our management or control over us that stockholders may consider favorable. Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws:

We are exposed to various risks related to legal proceedings that could result in substantial costs and disruption to normal business operations.

From time to time, and in the future, we may be, involved in legal proceedings or claims that involve breach of contract, product liability, employment, possible infringement of patents and intellectual property rights of third parties or by third parties. It is difficult to predict the outcome of litigation matters, and there can be no assurance that we will prevail in any litigation. Adverse determinations in such litigation could result in loss of our property rights, subject us to significant liabilities, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unable to maintain our internal control over financial reporting free of material weaknesses, it could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, our management is required to perform evaluations of our internal control over financial reporting and our independent auditors are required to publicly attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

In our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, management has concluded that, due to a material weakness in internal control surrounding our inventory accounts, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2016. In response to the material weakness, we have implemented additional reporting and monitoring controls over additions to or changes to our master records. Also, we have designed an automated methodology for determining and assigning the frequency levels of counting each inventory item. As of December 30, 2017, our management believe our remediation efforts resulted in the elimination of the previously identified material weakness, and has concluded that it has been remediated. While this material weakness has been remediated, we cannot be certain that we will not, in the future, have additional material weaknesses. We will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal controls to ensure that our financial statements continue to be fairly stated in all material respects.

We are subject to various environmental laws and regulations that could impose substantial costs upon us and may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Some of our operations use substances regulated under various federal, state, local, and international laws governing the environment, including those relating to the storage, use, discharge, disposal, labeling, and human exposure to hazardous and toxic materials. We could incur costs, fines and civil or criminal sanctions, third-party property damage or personal injury claims, or could be required to incur substantial investigation or remediation costs, if we were to violate or become liable under environmental laws. Liability under environmental laws can be joint and several and without regard to comparative fault. Compliance with current or future environmental laws and regulations could restrict our ability to expand our facilities or require us to acquire additional expensive equipment, modify our manufacturing processes, or incur other significant expenses. We may unintentionally violate environmental laws or regulations in the future as a result of human error, equipment failure or other causes.

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Compliance with federal securities laws, rules and regulations, as well as N asdaq requirements, is becoming increasingly complex, and the significant attention and expense we must devote to those areas may have an adverse impact on our business.

Federal securities laws, rules and regulations, as well as Nasdaq rules and regulations, require companies to maintain extensive corporate governance measures, impose comprehensive reporting and disclosure requirements, set strict independence and financial expertise standards for audit and other committee members and impose civil and criminal penalties for companies and their chief executive officers, chief financial officers and directors for securities law violations. These laws, rules and regulations have increased, and in the future, are expected to continue to increase, the scope, complexity and cost of our corporate governance, reporting and disclosure practices, which could harm our results of operations and divert management's attention from business operations.

We may be exposed to liabilities under the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws, and any determination that we violated these laws could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act of 1977 ("FCPA"), and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by U.S. persons and issuers as defined by the statute, for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Also, similar worldwide anti-bribery laws, such as the U.K. Bribery Act and Chinese anti-corruption laws, generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Some of our distribution partners are located in parts of the world that have experienced governmental corruption to some degree and, in certain circumstances, strict compliance with anti-bribery laws may conflict with local customs and practices. Although we have implemented policies and procedures to discourage these practices by our employees, our existing safeguards and any future improvements may prove to be less than effective, and our employees, consultants, sales agents or distributors may engage in conduct for which we might be held responsible. Violations of the FCPA or international anti-corruption laws may result in severe criminal or civil sanctions, and we may be subject to other liabilities, which could negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, the U.S. government may seek to hold us liable for successor liability FCPA violations committed by companies in which we invest or that we acquire. We cannot assure you that our internal control policies and procedures will protect us from reckless or negligent acts committed by our employees, distributors, partners, consultants or agents.

Regulations related to conflict minerals could adversely impact our business.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act contains provisions to improve transparency and accountability concerning the supply of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, known as conflict minerals, originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, and adjoining countries. As a result, in August 2012 the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, adopted annual disclosure and reporting requirements for public companies that use conflict minerals mined from the DRC and adjoining countries in their products. We have determined that we use at least one of these conflict minerals in the manufacture of our products, although we have not yet determined the source of the minerals that we use. These disclosure requirements require us to use diligent efforts to determine which conflict minerals we use and the source of those conflict minerals, and disclose the results of our findings. There have been and will continue to be costs associated with complying with these disclosure requirements, including those costs incurred in conducting diligent efforts to determine which conflict minerals we use and the sources of conflict minerals used in our products. Further, the implementation of these rules could adversely affect the sourcing, supply and pricing of materials used in our products. As there may be only a limited number of suppliers offering conflict free minerals, we cannot be sure that we will be able to obtain necessary conflict free conflict minerals in sufficient quantities or at competitive prices. In addition, we may face reputational challenges if we determine that our products contain minerals not determined to be conflict free or if we are unable to sufficiently verify the origins for all conflict minerals used in our products through the procedures we implement. If we determine it is necessary to redesign our products to not use conflict minerals, we would incur costs associated with doing so.