FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy, the impact of the ongoing and global COVID-19 pandemic on our business, prospective products and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, may be forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
Statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, including, among others, statements regarding the liquidity, growth and profitability strategies and factors and trends affecting our business are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, in some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “aim,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “exploring,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “seek,” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results, performance, or achievements, and one should avoid placing undue reliance on such statements.
Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us. Such beliefs and assumptions may or may not prove to be correct. Additionally, such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to, those identified in Part II, Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and Part II, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to:
•downturns or volatility in general economic conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the automotive market;
•our ability to compete effectively, expand our market share and increase our net sales and profitability;
•our ability to compensate for decreases in average selling prices of our products;
•the cyclical nature of the analog semiconductor industry;
•shifts in our product mix or customer mix, which could negatively impact our gross margin;
•our ability to manage any sustained yield problems or other delays at our third-party wafer fabrication facilities or in the final assembly and test of our products;
•any disruptions at our primary third-party wafer fabrication facilities;
•our ability to fully realize the benefits of past and potential future initiatives designed to improve our competitiveness, growth and profitability;
•our ability to accurately predict our quarterly net sales and operating results;
•our ability to adjust our supply chain volume to account for changing market conditions and customer demand;
•our reliance on a limited number of third-party wafer fabrication facilities and suppliers of other materials;
•our dependence on manufacturing operations in the Philippines;
•our reliance on distributors to generate sales;
•our indebtedness may limit our flexibility to operate our business;
•the loss of one or more significant end customers;
•our ability to develop new product features or new products in a timely and cost-effective manner;
•our ability to meet customers’ quality requirements;
•uncertainties related to the design win process and our ability to recover design and development expenses and to generate timely or sufficient net sales or margins; changes in government trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs and export restrictions;
•our exposures to warranty claims, product liability claims and product recalls;
•our ability to protect our proprietary technology and inventions through patents or trade secrets;
•our ability to commercialize our products without infringing third-party intellectual property rights;
•disruptions or breaches of our information technology systems;
•risks related to governmental regulation and other legal obligations, including privacy, data protection, information security, consumer protection, environmental and occupational health and safety, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, and trade controls;
•our dependence on international customers and operations;
•the availability of rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives on end-user demands for certain products;
•the volatility of currency exchange rates;
•risks related to acquisitions of and investments in new businesses, products or technologies, joint ventures and other strategic transactions;
•our ability to raise capital to support our growth strategy;
•our ability to effectively manage our growth and to retain key and highly skilled personnel;
•changes in tax rates or the adoption of new tax legislation;
•risks related to litigation, including securities class action litigation; and
•our ability to accurately estimate market opportunity and growth forecasts.
Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties.
You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we reference in this Annual Report completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise.
Unless the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company” and “Allegro” refer to the operations of Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
PART I
Item 1. Business.
Our Mission
Our mission is to be a global leader in semiconductor sensing and power solutions for motion control and energy-efficient systems in automotive and industrial applications, moving the world to a safer and more sustainable future.
Company Overview
The Company is a leading global designer, developer, fabless manufacturer and marketer of sensor integrated circuits (“ICs”) and application-specific analog power ICs enabling critical technologies in the automotive and industrial markets. We are a leading supplier of power ICs and a market share leader in magnetic sensor ICs driven by our market leadership in the automotive market. Our products are foundational to automotive and industrial electronic systems. Our sensor ICs enable our customers to precisely measure motion, speed, position and current, while our power ICs include high-temperature and high-voltage capable motor driver, power management and light emitting diode (“LED”) driver ICs. Our recently acquired photonics portfolio provides eye-safe distance measurement and 3D imaging solutions. We believe that our technology expertise combined with our deep applications knowledge and strong customer relationships enable us to develop solutions that provide more value to customers than typical ICs. Our solutions are more highly integrated, more intelligent and sophisticated for complex applications are easier for customers to use.
Growth in the global semiconductor industry has traditionally been driven by the consumer market. Looking ahead, industry growth is expected to be driven by technology mega trends in the automotive and industrial markets. These mega trends have created requirements for new technologies in vehicles, both under the hood and in the cabin, to support vehicle electrification and advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”). These shifts also require technology to enable intelligence and automation in factories and to enable energy efficiency in data centers and green energy applications. According to industry experts, these mega trends are expected to dramatically increase the demand for sensing and power solutions like the ones we develop. We believe our patented portfolio of sensor and power ICs and photonics components provide the underlying technology required to establish an early lead in the market and win in the presence of larger competitors.
Our longstanding history of innovation over multiple economic and technology cycles in the semiconductor industry is built on our market leading magnetic sensor IC technology. Our “first of its kind” approach took the complexity of magnetic systems design and embedded it within our solutions, dramatically simplifying the customers’ design effort while increasing system reliability. This is a pattern we have repeated over consecutive generations of products, enabling us to establish a strong presence in the most rigorous and demanding automotive markets. Our portfolio now includes more than 1,000 products, and we ship over one billion units annually to more than 10,000 customers worldwide. By developing sophisticated, analog mixed-signal IC solutions that incorporate our patented intellectual property, proprietary and robust process technologies and our unique packaging know-how, we believe we are well-positioned to compete across all of our target markets. Our established position as an incumbent supplier for the automotive market and our long product life cycles attest to the strength of this competitive advantage.
Our value proposition is based on providing complete IC solutions that sense, regulate and drive a variety of mechanical systems. This includes sensing angular or linear position, driving an electric motor or actuator, and regulating the power applied to sensing and driving circuits so they operate safely and efficiently. These capabilities are based on fundamental technical advances we have made in the field of Hall-effect and xMR magnetic sensors and BCD power ICs. We continue to be instrumental in developing Hall-effect and magnetoresistive transducers (“xMR”) and power DMOS devices on silicon, application-optimized packaging, high-temperature operation, high-speed precision signal paths for signal processing, and 100-volt (“100V”) capable Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (“BCD”) wafer technology. Our photonics portfolio of ultra-miniature lasers and highly sensitive photodetectors relies on proprietary wafer and packaging technologies. In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (“HEV”), Electric Vehicles (“EV”) and ADAS applications, these innovations translate to increased driving range for an electric vehicle, smaller and more reliable power conversion systems, improved safety and efficiency of motor and power management systems and safer and more reliable autonomous driving through long-range object detection. In the industrial market, these technologies enable the automation at the heart of the industrial transformation commonly referred to as “Industry 4.0.” These innovations also improve reliability to avoid factory downtime, accurately measure current to support increased energy efficiency for high-density data centers and green energy applications and reduce the solution footprint to lower total system cost.