Business description of INTEVAC-INC from last 10-k form

Risk Factors

The following factors could materially affect Intevac’s business, financial condition or results of operations and should be carefully considered in evaluating the Company and its business, in addition to other information presented elsewhere in this report.

The industries we serve are cyclical, volatile and unpredictable.

The majority of our revenue is derived from the sale of equipment used to manufacture commodity technology products such as disk drives and photovoltaic (“PV”) solar cells. This subjects us to business cycles, the timing, length and volatility of which can be difficult to predict. When demand for commodity technology products exceeds production capacity, then demand for new capital equipment such as ours tends to be amplified. Conversely, when supply of commodity technology products exceeds demand, then demand for new capital equipment such as ours tends to be depressed. For example, sales of systems for magnetic disk production were severely depressed from mid-1998 until mid-2003 and grew rapidly from 2004 through 2006, followed by a downturn in the cycle in late 2007 which continued through 2009. The number of new systems delivered increased in 2010 as customers increased their production capacity in response to increased demand for digital storage, but decreased in 2011, as the hard disk drive industry did not add the same level of capacity that it did in 2010. We cannot predict with any certainty when these cycles will begin or end.

Our equipment represents only a portion of the capital expenditure that our customers incur when they upgrade or add production capacity. Accordingly, our customers generally commit to making large capital expenditures far in excess of the cost of our systems alone when they decide to purchase our systems. The magnitude of these capital expenditures requires our customers to have access to large amounts of capital. Our customers generally reduce their level of capital investment during downturns in the overall economy or during a downturn in their industries.

We must effectively manage our resources and production capacity to meet rapidly changing demand. Our business experiences rapid growth and contraction, which stresses our infrastructure, internal systems and managerial resources. During periods of increasing demand for our products, we must have sufficient manufacturing capacity and inventory to meet customer demand; attract, retain and motivate a sufficient number of qualified individuals; and effectively manage our supply chain. During periods of decreasing demand for our products, we must be able to align our cost structure with prevailing market conditions; motivate and retain key employees and effectively manage our supply chain.

Sales of our equipment are primarily dependent on our customers’ upgrade and capacity expansion plans and whether our customers select our equipment.

We have no control over our customers’ upgrade and capacity expansion plans, and we cannot be sure they will select, or continue to select, our equipment when they upgrade or expand their capacity. The sales cycle for our equipment systems can be a year or longer, involving individuals from many different areas of Intevac and numerous product presentations and demonstrations for our prospective customers. Our sales process also commonly includes production of samples, customization of our products, and installation of evaluation systems in the factories of our prospective customers. We do not enter into long-term contracts with our customers, and until an order is actually submitted by a customer there is no binding commitment to purchase our systems.

Intevac Photonics’ business is also subject to long sales cycles because many of its products, such as our military imaging products, often must be designed into the customers’ end products, which are often complex state-of-the-art products. These development cycles are typically multi-year, and our sales are contingent on our customers successfully integrating our product into their product, completing development of their product and then obtaining production orders for their product from the U.S. government or its allies.

13