Risks Related to Our Business
Producing sapphire material is expected to constitute an increasing portion of our operations, and if we are unable to successfully transition our business and establish our sapphire material operations our business will be harmed.
Pursuant to a contract we entered into on October 31, 2013 with Apple, we have agreed to supply sapphire materials. Historically, we have been a provider of crystal growth equipment, with very limited operations supplying sapphire material produced at our Salem, Massachusetts facility. Pursuant to the supply arrangement with Apple, we have agreed to commit significant resources to the growth of our sapphire material operations and have undertaken material obligations related thereto. We expect that the sapphire material-producing operations at our Arizona facility, which is still under development, will, if successful, constitute a significant part of our overall business. We have very limited experience operating a material manufacturing operation of this scale, and if we are unable to timely establish and maintain operations of the scale contemplated, our business and results of operations would be significantly impacted and we may be unable to perform some or all of the obligations we have undertaken as part of our agreement with Apple. Among the risks we face are: (i) hiring and maintaining a workforce necessary to operate the facility, (ii) the facility consistently complying with the specifications necessary to operate the ASF systems and that these specifications will be consistently adhered to, including adequate supply of power and water (some of which are beyond our control) and (iii) ensuring that the consumable components and parts necessary to generate sapphire materials and operate and maintain the ASF systems are available in time and quantity from our suppliers necessary to meet our expected delivery schedules.
In addition, we must supply sapphire material that meets agreed upon specifications by agreed upon deadlines and we must have available an adequate supply for expected, although not committed, demand. If we are unable to comply with each of these requirements, we will be subject to significant warranty claims and/or liquidated damages. We may also be subject to substantial liquidated damages for other violations, including breaching certain confidentiality obligations or the inability to replace certain key employees. We may be unable to make these liquidated damage payments or satisfy our warranty obligations and any such failure will have material adverse consequences for our business and results of operations.
Through the first half of 2014, we expect that we will sell a very limited number of ASF units to our customers. For this reason, we expect to convert very limited amounts in our sapphire equipment backlog into revenue during this period.
Apple has no minimum purchase obligation and if Apple does not purchase sufficient quantities of sapphire material, our revenues will suffer and we may be unable to meet our obligations to repay advances that were provided to us.
We have granted certain exclusivity rights to Apple with respect to the sapphire material manufactured with our ASF systems. Therefore, our sapphire material business will depend, to a large extent, on purchases of sapphire material by Apple. Although we have significant minimum supply obligations, Apple has no purchase obligations nor is Apple subject to any requirement to purchase sapphire materials only from us under our arrangements and if Apple purchases no sapphire material, or limited sapphire material, our anticipated sapphire business revenues would be materially and adversely affected.
Apple has committed to make a $578 million prepayment, or the Prepayment Amount, to us in four installments, if conditions are met. We have received the first two installments. We must repay the Prepayment Amount ratably over a five year period beginning in January 2015, either as a credit against Apple purchases of sapphire material or as a direct cash payment to Apple. Without significant sapphire revenue from Apple, we would still be required to repay in cash (on a quarterly basis) significant amounts of the Prepayment Amount beginning in 2015, which would limit our ability to invest in or operate other portions of our business, including our equipment operations, or to repay indebtedness at the time of maturity of such indebtedness. In addition, these repayments may exhaust all of our cash and, if we are unable to make a payment when due (or fail to meet our supply obligations), we will be in default and Apple will have the right to acquire control and possession of the ASF systems and/or our subsidiary (GT Advanced Equipment Holding LLC) that owns these systems (and to be paid in cash for any deficiency). The prepayment installments from Apple may also be cancelled prior to payment, or repayment accelerated, under certain circumstances, including if the ASF systems do not generate sapphire material to specification prior to an agreed upon date or we are unable to comply with certain financial requirements. Finally, if the repayment of the Prepayment Amount were to be accelerated, it would likely produce a cross-default under our 3.00% Convertible Senior Notes due in 2017, or the 2017 notes, and our 3.00% Convertible Notes due in 2020, or the 2020 notes (correspondingly, an acceleration of the 2017 notes and 2020 notes would likely produce a cross-default under the Prepayment Agreement), and we may not have sufficient resources at such time to satisfy these obligations.
Even if Apple does purchase adequate amounts of sapphire material, the margins related to this business (even when operating at expected capacity) will be lower than those of our equipment business. If we do not operate our facility at or near capacity or we are unable to manage certain expenses with respect to these sapphire material operations, we may have negative margins and our ability to meet our delivery and/or payment obligations under the arrangements with Apple would be significantly impacted, which would have a negative impact on our business and may impair our ability to operate our business and satisfy our obligations to Apple and others (including holders of our 2017 and 2020 convertible notes).
We have granted Apple certain exclusivity rights with respect to our sapphire growth technologies; such rights include an agreement that we will not sell our ASF systems to customers that generate sapphire material for use in certain products, and if our ASF customers were to generate sapphire for use in those restricted applications we could be subject to significant penalties which would harm our business.
In connection with our agreements to supply sapphire material to Apple, we also agreed that we would not directly or indirectly provide sapphire material, sell ASF systems to customers that would generate sapphire material, or provide licenses or services pertaining to our sapphire technology or related intellectual property to any company other than Apple in each case for use in certain applications, including consumer electronics (subject to certain exceptions). If we were to breach this provision, or our ASF customers were to produce sapphire for these restricted applications, we would be subject to penalties under our agreement with Apple, including significant monetary penalties. While we intend that all of our future ASF equipment contracts will place restrictions on the use of the ASF-generated material, there is no guarantee that our customers will honor this restriction or that, if they were to breach such contractual provision, that we would be able to collect (and we expect that we would be very unlikely to collect) sufficient amounts to off-set the monetary damages that we would owe Apple. Any violation of this exclusivity provision by us or by our customers, over which we will exercise no control, would have a material impact on our business and if we were required to pay damages to Apple, the amounts would likely be material and require significant amounts of our cash. Our future sales of ASF systems may also be limited due to these exclusivity requirements.
We have granted certain intellectual property rights with respect to our sapphire growth technology to Apple, and Apple may be able to acquire additional rights in the future under certain circumstances, and Apple may be able to transfer this intellectual property to others, including our competitors.
We have granted Apple certain intellectual property rights pertaining to our sapphire growth technology, including rights with respect to certain existing and future developments. Under certain circumstances, Apple would have the ability to use our technology to generate sapphire material for its use, or to engage one or more third parties to manufacture sapphire for Apple using our technology. If Apple were to exercise its right to use our sapphire growth technology (or grant that right to a third party), our business would be harmed, and we may be unable to meet our obligations under the Prepayment Agreement through the delivery of sapphire material to Apple. In addition, if a third party were to receive a license to our technology it may replace us as a supplier of sapphire material to Apple. Any of the foregoing would significantly harm our business and results of operations.
We expect to build inventory of sapphire material and if it is not purchased by Apple, our business could be harmed and we may be required to take a charge for this inventory.
We are required to maintain significant inventory of sapphire material under our agreements with Apple, although Apple has no commitment or obligation to purchase any sapphire material from us. If Apple does not purchase sapphire materials in the amounts we expect, it would have a material adverse effect on our cash flows, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, due to certain restrictions in our supply agreement on the sale of sapphire material, we may not be able to sell that material to other parties, which would result in increases in our inventory that we cannot otherwise sell and would have a negative impact on our margins and our operations and may require that we take a charge for that inventory if it becomes excess or obsolete.
If our sapphire equipment and material do not achieve market acceptance, prospects for our sapphire business will be limited.
The customers to whom we sell ASF equipment systems are, we believe, largely manufacturing for the LED industry and, in more limited cases, other industrial markets. Potential customers for sapphire equipment and sapphire-based LED materials manufactured with the ASF system may be reluctant to adopt these offerings as an alternative to existing sapphire materials and lighting technology or sapphire manufacturing processes. In addition, many of the customers who purchase our equipment, we believe, will utilize the material for LED lighting. However, LED lighting is currently more expensive than traditional lighting and if the price of sapphire-based LED does not decrease in the near future, our customers may not have a market in the near term for the material they produce with our ASF systems, which would reduce the demand for our ASF systems.
In addition, potential customers may have substantial investments and know-how related to their existing sapphire, LED and lighting technologies, and may perceive risks relating to the complexity, reliability, quality, usefulness and cost-effectiveness of our sapphire equipment and sapphire material products compared to alternative products and technologies available in the market or that are currently under development. For example, companies are developing general lighting technologies that utilize silicon-based material (in lieu of sapphire) and assert that the production costs are significantly lower than the costs to produce sapphire-based lighting materials. If acceptance of sapphire material and sapphire-based LEDs, particularly in general illumination, do not increase significantly, opportunities to increase the sapphire equipment portion of our business and revenues would be limited.
In addition, the price of sapphire-based LED material has recently experienced a marked drop due, in part, to the readily available supply of such material. If the price of LED material, which is driven, in large part due to the supply that is generally available, drops, we would expect that our equipment business would be negatively impacted.
Any of the foregoing factors could have an adverse impact on the growth of the sapphire portion of our business. Historically, the sapphire industry has experienced volatility in product demand and pricing. Changes in average selling prices of sapphire material as a result of competitive pricing pressures, availability of material, increased sales discounts and new product introductions by competitors could have an adverse impact on our results of operations.
Crystal growth using the ASF system requires a consistent supply of power and any interruption in the supply of power may result in sapphire material that has reduced or no sales value.
The process for growing sapphire boules using the ASF system technology requires that the system be supplied with a consistent supply of power during the cycle required to grow a boule. If there are power interruptions, which we have experienced at our Salem and Merrimack facilities, even for a brief period of time, the sapphire boule being generated by that system will be of inferior quality and we would likely be unable to sell that sapphire material to a customer. Our Arizona sapphire material facility will have a number of ASF systems operating and the power demand will be significant, in particular, at that location and if the power is not consistent, we may breach our material delivery commitments and the consequences could include accelerated repayment of prepayment advances made to us and payment of damages to Apple. Such power interruptions at our facilities could also delay and impair our research and development efforts with respect to sapphire material and ASF systems. In addition, if customers of our ASF system do not have consistent power supplies, our system would not gain market acceptance because it will not create boules of the quality that may be expected by our customers and we would likely not meet the required contractual criteria necessary to receive the final installment payment for ASF systems from an equipment customer.
Production and sale of sapphire growth systems for producing materials is a new industry and we have limited operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate the business prospects for this business segment.
Because of our limited operating history in the sapphire industry it is difficult to evaluate our business and prospects. While we have gained contractual acceptances on our ASF systems, our sapphire equipment business presents the difficulties frequently encountered by those businesses that are in the early stage of development, coupled with the risks and uncertainties encountered in new and evolving markets such as the market for sapphire growth technology. We may not be able to successfully address these challenges. If we fail to do so, we may incur losses and our business would be negatively impacted.
While we have commissioned ASF systems at customer sites, our customers generally lack experience in operating the ASF systems. Our sapphire furnaces require a skilled and trained employee base to properly operate and efficiently maintain the systems. While we offer training in connection with the sale of ASF systems, at certain customer sites, we have discovered that those customers have not yet hired the personnel or instituted the operations procedures necessary to properly run the ASF system they purchased. As a result of these factors, we believe that certain ASF systems have generated sapphire material that is not salable. Additionally, even in those cases where the sapphire boule met specification criteria, the boule has not always been properly oriented by the customer and some or all of the value of the sapphire boule was lost as it was sliced and cored. If our customers do not have the manufacturing expertise to operate the ASF systems and orient and cut the sapphire boules, they may be delayed in ramping up their operations and sapphire manufacturing operations, and the ASF systems may not gain wider market acceptance, all of which would harm our reputation and the results of our sapphire business segment.
We have identified a material weakness in accounting for income taxes in our internal control over financial reporting, which, if not remedied effectively, could have a further adverse effect on our share price.
Management, through documentation, testing and assessment of our internal control over financial reporting has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting had a material weakness in accounting for income taxes as of December 31, 2013. See Item 9AControls and Procedures elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If we are unable to effectively remediate this material weakness in a timely manner, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have a further adverse effect on our share price.
In future periods, if the testing and assessment of our internal controls reveals further material weaknesses or significant deficiencies, the correction of any such material weakness or significant deficiency could require additional remedial measures including additional personnel which could be costly and time-consuming. If a material weakness exists as of a future period year-end (including a material weakness identified prior to year-end for which there is an insufficient period of time to evaluate and confirm the effectiveness of the corrections or related new procedures), our management will be unable to report favorably as of such future period year-end to the effectiveness of our control over financial reporting. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective in any future period, or if we continue to experience material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting for accounting for income taxes, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have an adverse effect on our share price and potentially subject us to potentially costly litigation and governmental inquiries and investigations.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.
We have assessed and tested our system of internal controls. We concluded our system of internal controls over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2013. We will need to undertake remediation efforts and will need to strengthen our processes and systems and adapt them to changes as our business evolves (including with respect to our materials operations in Mesa, Arizona) and we acquire new business and technologies. This continuous process of maintaining and adapting our internal controls is expensive and time-consuming, and requires significant management attention. We cannot be certain that our internal control measures will, in the future, provide adequate control over our financial processes and reporting. Furthermore, as our business changes (including due to our sapphire material operations) and if we expand through acquisitions of other companies or make significant investments in other companies or enter into joint development (and similar arrangements), our internal controls may become more complex and we will require significantly more resources to ensure our internal controls remain effective. In addition, if we reduce a portion of our workforce, as we have done in the past, our ability to adequately maintain our internal controls may be adversely impacted. Failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. If we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify material weaknesses, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remediated, could reduce the market's confidence in our financial statements and harm our stock price.