UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
| ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | |||||||||||
| For the fiscal year ended | |||||||||||
| or | |||||||||||
| TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | |||||||||||
| For the Transition Period from to | |||||||||||
Commission File Number: 0-29174
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Canton of Vaud, | None | ||||||||||
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | ||||||||||
Logitech International S.A.
EPFL - Quartier de l'Innovation
Daniel Borel Innovation Center
(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)
(510 ) 795-8500
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Name of each exchange on which registered | |||||||
| Registered Shares par value CHF 0.25 per share | The Nasdaq Global Select Market; SIX Swiss Exchange | |||||||
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ý No o
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o No ý
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ý No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data file required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ý No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
| ý | Accelerated filer | o | Non-accelerated filer | o | Smaller reporting company | Emerging Growth Company | |||||||||||||||||||||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. Yes ☒ No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the voting shares held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing sale price of the shares on September 24, 2021, the last business day of the registrant's second fiscal quarter on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, was $16,569,198,978 . For purposes of this disclosure, voting shares held by persons known to the Registrant to beneficially own more than 5% of the Registrant's shares and shares held by officers and directors of the Registrant have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. In the case of 5% or greater shareholders, we have not deemed such shareholders to be affiliates unless there are facts and circumstances which would indicate that such shareholders exercise any control over the Registrant, or unless they hold 10% or more of the Registrant’s share capital outstanding. This determination is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
As of May 4, 2022, there were 164,684,163 shares of the Registrant's share capital outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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| Part I | ||||||||
| Part II | ||||||||
| Part III | ||||||||
| Part IV | ||||||||
In this document, unless otherwise indicated, references to the "Company," "Logitech," "we," "our," and "us" are to Logitech International S.A. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Unless otherwise specified, all references to U.S. Dollar, Dollar or $ are to the United States Dollar, the legal currency of the United States of America. All references to CHF are to the Swiss Franc, the legal currency of Switzerland.
Logitech, the Logitech logo, and the Logitech products referred to herein are either the trademarks or the registered trademarks of Logitech. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The Company's fiscal year ends on March 31. Interim quarters are generally thirteen-week periods, each ending on a Friday. For purposes of presentation, the Company has indicated its quarterly periods end on the last day of the calendar quarter.
The term “Sales” means net sales, except as otherwise specified.
All references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only, and the content of such websites do not constitute a part of and are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 1
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on beliefs of our management as of the filing date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements related to:
•Our strategy for growth, future revenues, earnings, cash flow, uses of cash and other measures of financial performance, and market position;
•Our business strategy and investment priorities in relation to competitive offerings and evolving consumer demand trends affecting our products and markets, worldwide economic and capital market conditions, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, and current and future general regional economic conditions for fiscal year 2023 and beyond;
•The scope, nature or impact of acquisition, strategic alliance, and divestiture activities and restructuring of our organizational structure;
•Our expectations regarding the success of our strategic acquisitions, including integration of acquired operations, products, technology, internal controls, personnel and management teams;
•Our expectations regarding our effective tax rate, future tax benefits, tax settlements, the adequacy of our provisions for uncertain tax positions;
•Our expectations regarding our potential indemnification obligations, and the outcome of pending or future legal proceedings and tax audits;
•Our business and product plans and development and product innovation and their impact on future operating results and anticipated operating costs for fiscal year 2023 and beyond;
•Opportunities for growth and our ability to execute on and take advantage of them, market opportunities and marketing initiatives and strategy and our expectations regarding the success thereof;
•Potential tariffs, their effects and our ability to mitigate their effects;
•Capital investments and research and development;
•Our expectations regarding our share repurchase and dividend programs;
•The sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents, cash generated from operations, and available borrowings under our bank lines of credit to fund capital expenditures and working capital needs;
•The effects of environmental and other laws and regulations in the United States and other countries in which we operate; and
•The impact of global events, such as the coronavirus ("COVID-19") pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and any associated economic downturn and impacts to our business and future operating and financial performance.
Forward-looking statements also include, among others, those statements including the words "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should," "will" and similar language. These statements reflect our views and assumptions as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual performance to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements depending on a variety of factors. Important information as to these factors can be found in this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the headings of “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Overview,” “Critical Accounting Estimates” and “Liquidity and Capital Resources,” among others. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed under Item 1A "Risk Factors," as well as elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or "SEC." You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 2
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Company Overview
Logitech is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and marketing products that help connect people to digital and cloud experiences. Forty years ago, Logitech created products to improve experiences around the personal computer ("PC") platform, and today it is a multi-brand, multi-category company designing products that enable people to pursue their passions and connect to the world. Logitech’s products align with several large secular trends including work and learn from anywhere, video everywhere, the increasing popularity of gaming as a spectator and participant sport, and the democratization of content creation. Logitech's brands include Logitech, Logitech G, ASTRO Gaming, Streamlabs, Blue Microphones and Ultimate Ears. Our Company's website is www.logitech.com.
Logitech was founded in Switzerland in 1981, and Logitech International S.A. has been the parent holding company of Logitech since 1988. Logitech International S.A. is a Swiss holding company with its registered office in Hautemorges, Switzerland, which conducts its business through subsidiaries in the Americas (including North and South America), EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and Asia Pacific (including, among other countries, China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Australia). Shares of Logitech International S.A. are listed on both the SIX Swiss Exchange, under the trading symbol LOGN, and the Nasdaq Global Select Market, under the trading symbol LOGI. References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the "Company," "Logitech," "we," "our," and "us" refer to Logitech International S.A. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
We operate in a single operating segment: Peripherals. For more information, see Note 15 - Segment Information in our Notes to consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our products primarily participate in four large markets: Creativity & Productivity, Gaming, Video Collaboration and Music. We sell our products to a broad network of domestic and international customers, including direct sales to retailers and e-tailers, enterprise customers and consumers, and indirect sales through distributors. Our worldwide channel network includes consumer electronics distributors, retailers, e-tailers, mass merchandisers, specialty stores, computer and telecommunications stores, value-added resellers and online merchants.
From time to time, we may seek to partner with or acquire, when appropriate, companies that have products, personnel, and technologies that complement our strategic direction. For more information, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Note 3—Business Acquisitions in our Notes to consolidated financial statements.
Industry Overview
Historically, Logitech's business has been driven by the same trends that drove the adoption of desktop and laptop PCs for consumers and businesses, including the growth in affordable processing power, communications bandwidth, the increased accessibility of digital content, and the growing and pervasive use of the Internet for productivity, communication and entertainment. More recently, the increase in remote and hybrid work and learning, the expansion of video everywhere, the rise in gaming as a participant and spectator sport and the growth in streamers and creators fueled by the democratization of content creation have created multiple opportunities for Logitech to drive greater interaction and engagement between people and digital content.
In the past few years, new PC shipments have steadily increased and, combined with increased interest in smaller, mobile computing devices (such as smartphones and tablets), the market for PC peripherals has greatly expanded. We see opportunities within the large installed base of PCs, created by consumers' desire to refresh their current PC experiences with new peripherals, as well as new trends developing within the connected device ecosystems. In addition, the adoption of hybrid work has increased the number of new workspaces, thereby creating expanded opportunities to attach multiple peripherals. Consumers are also enhancing their tablet experience with a range of keyboards and cases that enable them to create, consume and do more with their tablets conveniently and comfortably. The recent shift toward remote and hybrid learning environments has also expanded the addressable education market for tablet keyboards and cases, as well as for other PC peripherals.
Growing adoption of cloud-based experiences in gaming, video and music has also increased our addressable market opportunities. More and more consumers today interact with cloud-based content platforms, such as Steam and Twitch for gaming, or Zoom and Microsoft Teams for video collaboration. Logitech offers peripherals and accessories to enhance the use of such cloud-based content platforms.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 3
In the gaming market, the rapid rise of esports and the growth of live streamers on platforms such as Twitch and broadcasters on platforms such as YouTube continue to drive growth. We leverage our deep research and development ("R&D") capabilities in the area of PC peripherals that include Pointing Devices, Keyboards & Combos and PC Webcams, to develop industry-leading gaming gear that enhances consumers' overall gaming experience and performance. As consumers increasingly watch various esports tournaments or other gaming broadcasts on cloud-based platforms such as Twitch, the gaming industry is becoming both a source of entertainment and participation by mainstream consumers. We sponsor and work closely with esports athletes to improve our brand and the quality and functionality of our gaming products. We also offer gaming peripherals that enhance the experience of more casual gamers.
The adoption of video everywhere - in large and small conference rooms and at home -- is a continuing trend that has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The video communication industry continues to make progress toward a vision in which people can conduct a video call from any of a variety of platforms - video-enabled rooms, PCs, laptops and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones - to any other platform. This trend to embrace cloud video conferencing by businesses and institutions and, in particular, the growing adoption of remote work, learning, and telemedicine, is driving sales of our Video Collaboration category and offers a long-term growth opportunity for Logitech. For businesses and institutions, video conferencing is increasingly substituted for travel, because of high travel costs as well as the productivity gain that can be achieved by a high-quality, face-to-face meeting that does not require travel away from the office. For some schools, remote learning has become a complementary or, in some cases, an alternative way to educate students. Further, with the increased availability of high Internet bandwidth, video conferencing is becoming a key component of Unified Communications, which is the integration of communications solutions such as voicemail, e-mail, chat, presentation sharing and live video meetings. The market opportunity to provide innovative, affordable, and easy-to-use video collaboration products to the millions of small- medium- and large-sized meeting rooms lacking video is substantial, and we are well-positioned to take advantage of that opportunity.
Cloud-based music services have experienced growth across the industry, fueled by smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices. Consumers are optimizing their audio experiences on their tablets and smartphones with a variety of music peripherals including wireless mobile speakers and in-ear and other headphones. Within the music category, the market for mobile speakers has matured and the integration of personal voice assistants has increased competition in the speaker category. Consumers are increasingly listening with wireless earphones while they undertake activities such as sports and fitness. The innovation in truly wireless headphones has led to industry growth in revenue, which highlights a growth opportunity for Logitech. In addition, consumers are increasingly streaming and broadcasting using microphones and other peripherals which also expands our opportunities.
Business Strategy
Logitech's foundation for future growth is built on five core capabilities that apply to all of our product categories:
•Design;
•Engineering;
•Go-to-market;
•Marketing; and
•Operations.
Design
In the past few years, Logitech has strengthened its design capabilities by building a world-class team of internal designers. Our designs have an everyday place in people’s lives, connecting them to the digital experiences they care about. These products have been earning prestigious design awards - 202 design awards during the past three fiscal years - and enthusiastic reviews in the media. This is one indication that Logitech’s strategic aim to become a design company is working. During fiscal year 2022, we won 50 design awards. As Logitech establishes itself as a design company, design thinking and culture are used as a strategic and cultural differentiator. Design also helps to reduce product costs through increased collaboration between our design, engineering and manufacturing teams. Our key design centers are in Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, and Taiwan.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 4
Engineering
Our decades-long expertise in key engineering disciplines such as sensors, acoustics, optics, wireless, and power management is a core competitive advantage of Logitech. Furthermore, we continue to extend our engineering capabilities into more advanced technologies such as software, apps, cloud, data analytics, machine learning and some core building blocks of navigation and tracking in augmented reality ("AR") / virtual reality ("VR"). Our engineering team has expertise in developing products for a broad array of platforms such as PCs, mobile and personal voice assistants (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant). These engineering capabilities combined with our award-winning design team form the basis of Logitech's key innovation engine.
Go-To-Market
Over the past 30-plus years, Logitech has built an extensive global go-to-market network that can be leveraged as we introduce new products, enter new market categories and optimize the value of our existing products and product categories. We have multiple opportunities to drive growth - existing products in existing and new retailers, and e-tailers as well as new products in existing and new retailers and e-tailers. Beyond online and offline retail and distribution channels, we have also strengthened other commercial channels. As we increase our investments in Video Collaboration, we are also expanding our enterprise sales coverage through our sales force as well as various channel partners. And with expansions into new channels, there are numerous cross-selling opportunities across our broad product portfolio. We have established Logitech as a neutral technology supplier that can work with a variety of leading technology vendors and platforms as well as provide connections among their products and ecosystems.
Marketing
As Logitech continues to expand into multiple categories, we are focusing on enhancing our marketing capabilities around brand strategy and execution, digital marketing, and marketing technology. With our products and designs as a foundation, we are building in consumer-centricity and demonstrating the relevancy of our products in the lives of our consumers. We are increasing our brand marketing investments to drive greater brand awareness and consideration, delivering advertising campaigns across our brand, our categories, and our products, which enables us to drive brand value and pivot from a push model to a demand generating pull model. Most of the marketing and creative efforts that were once outsourced to outside marketing agencies are now executed through our internal teams from concept to execution, which improves speed and cost efficiency. We are increasing our leverage of digital media channels and programs, and building relationships with creators to drive brand engagement and purchase across B2B and B2C. We are also increasing our focus on marketing analytics and platforms to improve our understanding of marketing investments and to maximize our return on investment. Additionally, we are making investments to upgrade and expand all aspects of our marketing technology infrastructure, including the re-platforming of our websites to support the global expansion of our brands across countries, enabling direct relationships with our consumers and customers and building the foundation for the acceleration of more personalized consumer communication and commerce.
Operations
Logitech’s operations capability consists of a hybrid model of in-house manufacturing and third-party contract manufacturers, which allows us to effectively respond to rapidly changing demand and leverage economies of scale. Our supply chain’s extensive global reach, key distribution channels, adoption of factory automation and strategic business relationships combined with extensive analytic modeling expertise, optimization tools and global processes provide a competitive advantage against many of our competitors.
Products
Logitech designs, manufactures and markets products that allow people to connect through computing, gaming, video, music, and other digital platforms. The large majority of our revenue has historically been derived from sales of our products for use by consumers while more recently we have experienced growth in sales of our products to enterprise customers.
Creativity & Productivity
Pointing Devices: Logitech offers a variety of pointing devices. Some of our key products in this category include:
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 5
•The Logitech MX Master 3 and MX Anywhere 3 wireless mice, our flagship wireless mouse products. Enabled with Logitech Flow cross-computer control software, these products represent the new paradigm for precise, fast, comfortable cross-computer digital navigation.
•The Logitech Wireless Mouse M325, which offers micro-precise scrolling, an 18-month battery life and comfortable design.
•The Logitech Wireless Mouse M185, a wireless mouse with nano receiver technology that is compatible with any computer.
•The Logitech Pebble Mouse, a wireless mobility mouse with dual connectivity (BT and unifying nano technology) that is compatible with any computer.
•Two recently introduced mice, Logitech Signature Wireless Mouse M650 with Bolt wireless connectivity and the new smart wheel in multiple sizes (large, medium and left hand), and Pop Mouse for younger generations that offers more style at the desk.
Keyboards & Combos: Logitech offers a variety of corded and cordless keyboards, living room keyboards, and combos (keyboard-and-mouse combinations). Some of our key products in this category include:
•The Logitech Wireless Combo MK270, a full-size keyboard and mouse combination with a tiny USB receiver.
•The Logitech MX Keys Wireless keyboard, a premium backlit keyboard with customizable keys to directly access menus and shortcuts within leading creativity and productivity apps. We recently added the MX Keys mini wireless keyboard ideal for smaller spaces and creators.
•The Logitech K380 wireless minimalist keyboard with multi-switch functionality to easily navigate from one screen to another (from PC to Phone to tablets) that is compatible with any computer.
PC Webcams: Our PC Webcams category comprises webcams targeted primarily at video conferencing users purchasing for individual use. A key market driver includes people upgrading their work-from-home video conferencing setup. The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 and C922 were our key products in this category during fiscal year 2022.
Tablet & Other Accessories: Our Tablet & Other Accessories category includes keyboards for tablets and smartphones as well as other accessories for mobile devices. These products are mostly for iPads but are also for select Samsung and other Android tablets. Some of our key products in this category include:
•The Combo Touch for the iPad 9th Generation, iPad Air, iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9, is our newest design offering a Smart Connected backlit full-size keyboard, any-angle kickstand for flexible viewing angles and a trackpad for gestures, clicks and navigation.
•The Rugged Folio Keyboard for the iPad 9th Generation, bringing a more protective rugged folio, with a wipeable fabric keyboard, a rugged and protective holder and an any-angle kickstand to allow multiple viewing angles. The Rugged Folio uses Smart Connector technology to connect to the iPad seamlessly, with no need for batteries or bluetooth pairing.
•The Logitech Slim Folio Keyboard for the iPad Pro 11 and 12.9, bringing a bluetooth backlit keyboard with a folio design for optimal working and viewing angle, light front and back protection and an Apple Pencil holder. The Logitech Slim Folio Keyboard for the 9th generation iPad for a light protection folio with a bluetooth keyboard.
•The Rugged Combo Keyboard and Rugged Combo Touch, Made for Education are designed to provide the best keyboard and touchpad experience for the iPad Entry 9th generation in classrooms or at home, featuring drop protection, secure sealed keyboard and any angle viewing.
Gaming
Logitech G provides gamers of all levels with industry-leading keyboards, mice, headsets and simulation products such as steering wheels and flight sticks, incorporating innovative design and advanced technologies. Some of our key products in this category include:
•The Logitech G915 LIGHTSPEED Wireless, RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard which features high-performance low-profile mechanical switches that provide all the speed, accuracy and performance of traditional switches, at half the height.
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•The Logitech G PRO X Superlight Wireless Gaming Mouse that was designed in collaboration with the world's top esports professionals, features our LIGHTSPEEDTM professional grade wireless technology, and weighs less than 63 grams
•The Logitech G923 Steering Wheel that works on PC, XBOX and Playstation, and features a hand-stitched leather-wrapped rim, stainless steel throttle, brake and clutch pedals and the exclusive TRUEFORCE force feedback system that connects directly to in-game physics for unprecedented realism.
•The ASTRO A50 Wireless Headset and Base Station that targets the discerning “prosumer” consumer, featuring integrated MixAmp technology, Dolby® Digital surround sound and the ASTRO Command Center Software system.
Video Collaboration
The Video Collaboration category includes Logitech’s ConferenceCams, which combine enterprise-quality audio and high definition ("HD") 4K video with affordability to bring video conferencing to businesses of any size, as well as state of the art webcams and headsets that turn any desktop into an instant collaboration space. Our key products in this category include:
•Logitech Rally Bar, an all-in-one video bar purpose-built for midsize rooms, featuring brilliant video, room-filling audio, and the flexibility to deploy in PC or appliance mode.
•Logitech Rally which offers best-in-class video conferencing with Ultra HD 4K video and professional audio that easily turns medium- to large-sized conference rooms into video-enabled collaboration rooms.
•Logitech MeetUp which is Logitech’s premier ConferenceCam designed for huddle rooms, with a room-capturing 120° field of view ("FOV"), 4K optics and exceptional audio performance.
•Logitech Tap touch-screen controller which connects to any computer via USB and serves as an ideal controller for video conferencing room solutions from Google®, Microsoft®, and Zoom.
•Logitech BRIO which has 4K video, RightLight 3 and high dynamic range ("HDR") to improve challenging lighting, and Windows Hello facial recognition support for secure login using just a user's face.
Music
Mobile Speakers: Our Mobile Speakers category is a portfolio of portable wireless Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connected speakers for music on the go. The top revenue-generating product in our Mobile Speakers category during fiscal year 2022 was Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 ("BOOM3"), our small sized ruggedized portable Bluetooth wireless speaker. During fiscal year 2022, our collection of portable bluetooth speakers included, WONDERBOOM2, BOOM3, MEGABOOM, MEGABOOM3, and our largest most powerful speaker HYPERBOOM that delivers the loudest and most rich audio performance in the portfolio.
Audio & Wearables: Our Audio & Wearables category comprises PC speakers, PC headsets, in-ear headphones, premium wireless audio wearables designed to enhance the audio experience and studio-quality Blue Microphones for professionals and consumers. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2022, we made a decision to cease future product launches under the Jaybird brand, but plan to continue developing custom in-ear and fit wireless audio products such as Ultimate Ears Fits.
Our Blue Microphones product line has a 25-year legacy of innovative design and premium performance across both professional and consumer markets. Blue Microphones offers a range of audio tools for recording or broadcasting applications, from YouTube and podcast production to music and gaming. Examples of products in the Blue Microphones lineup include:
•Yeti: A premium USB microphone for game streaming, podcasting, YouTube, Skype/VoIP and music. With its proprietary 3-capsule array, it delivers astounding details and presence and includes four recording patterns (cardioid, omni, bi-directional and stereo) for versatility.
•Yeti Nano: A premium USB microphone with broadcast sound quality in a more compact format. Dual capsule design enables cardioid and omni patterns.
•Yeti X: The next generation of Yeti, featuring a new proprietary 4-capsule array, fully digital architecture that is compatible with Blue Sherpa control software and Logi-G G-Hub gaming software, and Blue VO!CE, a new software application that allows the user to control and manipulate the sound of their voice through the microphone.
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Smart Home
In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, we made the decision to discontinue manufacturing and selling our Harmony line of advanced home entertainment controllers as the way people consume content has shifted to streaming services across multiple screens. Fiscal year 2022 included sales of remaining Harmony products in inventory. We continue to sell our Circle home security cameras within the Smart Home product category.
Research and Development
We recognize that continued investment in product research and development is critical to facilitate innovation of new and improved products, technologies and experiences. Our research and development expenses for fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020 were $291.8 million, $226.0 million and $177.6 million, respectively. We expect to continue to devote significant resources to research and development, including devices for digital platforms, video communications, wireless technologies, power management, and user interfaces to sustain our competitive position.
Sales and Distribution
Principal Markets
Sales by geographic region (based on customers' location) for fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020 are as follows (in thousands):
| Year Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Americas | $ | 2,317,941 | $ | 2,206,552 | $ | 1,286,527 | ||||||||||||||
| EMEA | 1,724,027 | 1,735,682 | 941,211 | |||||||||||||||||
| Asia Pacific | 1,439,133 | 1,310,045 | 748,113 | |||||||||||||||||
| Total Sales | $ | 5,481,101 | $ | 5,252,279 | $ | 2,975,851 | ||||||||||||||
Revenues from sales to customers in Switzerland, our home domicile, represented 3%, 3% and 4% of our sales in fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. In fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020, revenues from sales to customers in the United States represented 34%, 35% and 36% of our sales, respectively. In fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020, revenues from sales to customers in Germany represented 15%, 16% and 15% of our sales, respectively. Revenues from sales to customers in China represented 10% of our sales for fiscal year 2022. No other country represented more than 10% of our sales for fiscal years 2022, 2021 or 2020.
Sales and Distribution
Our sales and marketing activities are organized into three geographic regions: the Americas (North and South America), EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and Asia Pacific (China, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, India and other countries).
We sell our products primarily to a network of distributors, retailers and e-tailers. We support these channels with our direct sales force and third-party distribution centers located in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Our distributor customers typically resell products to retailers, value-added resellers, systems integrators and other distributors with whom Logitech does not have a direct relationship.
Logitech's products can be purchased in a number of major retail chains, where we typically have access to significant shelf space. In addition, Logitech products can be purchased online either directly or indirectly from Logitech.com or through e-tailers, the websites of our major retail chains, and others. Logitech products are also carried by business-to-business direct market resellers.
In fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020, Amazon Inc. and its affiliated entities together accounted for 17%, 13% and 14% of our gross sales, respectively. In fiscal years 2022, 2021 and 2020, Ingram Micro Inc. and its affiliated entities together accounted for 15%, 14% and 12% of our gross sales, respectively. Two of our customers merged during fiscal year 2022 and the combined company, TD Synnex, accounted for 14% of our gross sales for fiscal year 2022. No other customer individually accounted for more than 10% of our gross sales during fiscal years 2022, 2021 or 2020.
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Customer Service and Technical Support
Our customer service organization provides user technical support, support related to product inquiry, and order support. We support these customer service functions with two outsourced operations that have support centers located in China, South Korea, India, the Philippines, Mexico, the United States, Bulgaria, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. Our customer service and technical personnel in each of our regions provide support services to retail purchasers of products through telephone, e-mail, forums, chat, and the Logitech Support website. For some of our brands, dedicated support websites, dedicated internal support teams and channels are available. To improve our customers' experience and operate efficiently, we use technology to facilitate chatbot interactions, enable self-help and apply Artificial Intelligence to optimize support searches. Logitech provides warranties on our branded products that range from one to five years. For our Video Collaboration category, we also work with channel partners to offer bundled support services with Logitech Video Collaboration solutions.
In Korea and China, there are multiple locations where consumers may obtain service for their Logitech products. These locations are managed by third-party logistics providers. Consumers who have purchased Logitech products can visit these locations for product inspection, testing and return or exchange of products. Within China, there is also a mail-in center to provide these services for more remote locations in China.
Manufacturing
Logitech's manufacturing operations consist principally of final assembly and testing. Since 1994, we have had our own manufacturing operations in Suzhou, China, which currently handles approximately half of our total production of products. We continue to focus on ensuring the efficiency of the Suzhou facilities, through the implementation of quality management, automation, process improvements, and employee involvement programs. We outsource the remaining production to contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers located in Asia. Both our in-house and outsourced manufacturing operations are managed by our worldwide operations group. The worldwide operations group also supports the business units and marketing and sales organizations through the management of distribution centers and the supply chain and logistics networks.
New product launches, process engineering, commodities management, logistics, quality assurance, operations management and management of Logitech's contract manufacturers occur in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Certain components are manufactured to Logitech's specifications by vendors in Asia, the United States, and Europe. We also use contract manufacturers to supplement internal capacity and to reduce volatility in production volumes. In addition, some products, including most keyboards, certain gaming devices and certain audio products are manufactured by contract manufacturers to Logitech's specifications.
Our hybrid model of in-house manufacturing and contract manufacturers allows us to effectively respond to rapidly changing demand and leverage economies of scale. Through our high-volume manufacturing operations located in Suzhou, China, we believe we have been able to maintain strong quality process controls and have realized significant cost efficiencies. Our Suzhou operation provides for increased production capacity, manufacturing know-how, IP protection and greater flexibility in responding to product demand. Further, by outsourcing the manufacturing of certain products, we seek to reduce volatility in production volumes as well as improve time to market.
Competition
Our product categories are characterized by large, well-financed competitors, short product life cycles, continual performance enhancements, and rapid adoption of technological and product advancements by competitors in our retail markets. We have experienced aggressive price competition and other promotional activities from our primary competitors and less-established brands, including brands owned by some retail customers known as house brands. We may also encounter more competition if any of our competitors in one or more categories decide to enter other categories in which we currently operate.
As we target opportunities in new categories and markets and as some of our product categories demonstrate growth, we are confronting new competitors, many of which may have more experience in the categories or markets and have greater marketing resources and brand name recognition than we have. In addition, because of the continuing convergence of the markets for computing devices and consumer electronics, we expect greater competition in the future from well-established consumer electronics companies in our developing categories, as well as future ones we might enter. Many of these companies have greater financial, technical, sales, marketing, and other resources than we have.
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We expect continued competitive pressure in our business, including in the terms and conditions that our competitors offer customers, which may be more favorable than our terms and conditions and may require us to take actions to increase our customer incentive programs, which could impact our sales and operating margins.
Creativity and Productivity
Pointing Devices: Apple Inc. ("Apple"), Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft"), Lenovo Group Ltd (“Lenovo”) and HP Inc. are our main competitors worldwide. We also experience competition and pricing pressure from less-established brands, including house brands and local competitors in Asian markets, such as Elecom Co., Ltd., Buffalo Inc., Shenzhen Rapoo Technology Co., Ltd. (“Shenzhen Rapoo”), and Xiaomi Corporation.
Keyboards & Combos: Microsoft and Apple are the main competitors in our PC keyboard and combo product lines. We also experience competition and pricing pressure for corded and cordless keyboards and combos from less-established brands, including house brands and local competitors in Asian markets, such as Shenzhen Rapoo, IKBC, and Xiaomi Corporation.
PC Webcams: Our primary competitors for PC webcams are Microsoft and other manufacturers taking smaller market share such as Razer Inc ("Razer").
Tablet & Other Accessories: Competitors in the tablet keyboard market are Apple, Zagg Inc., Kensington Computer Products Group, Belkin International, Inc., Targus Corporation and other less-established brands. Although we are one of the leaders in the tablet keyboard market and continue to bring innovative offerings to the market, we expect the competition may increase. Competitors in the tablet case market include Apple, Otter Products LLC, Speck Products and a large number of smaller brands.
Gaming
Competitors for our Gaming products include Razer, Corsair Gaming, Inc., SteelSeries, Turtle Beach Corporation and HyperX (acquired by HP Inc. in 2021), among others.
Video Collaboration
Our competitors for Video Collaboration products include Cisco Systems, Inc., Poly, Inc. ("Poly"), GN Netcom/Jabra, AVer Information Inc., Neat and Yealink (Xiamen) Network Technology Co.Ltd, among others.
Music
Mobile Speakers: Our competitors for Bluetooth wireless speakers include Bose Corporation ("Bose"), Harman International Industries, Inc (owned by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Harman owns JBL and has Harman Kardon as a division), and Beats Electronics LLC ("Beats") (owned by Apple), among others. Harman is our largest competitor. Personal voice assistants and other devices that offer music, such as Sonos, Amazon's Echo, Google Home (owned by Alphabet, Inc.) and Apple HomePod, also compete with our products. Amazon is also a significant customer of our products.
Audio & Wearables: For PC speakers, our competitors include Bose, Cyber Acoustics, LLC, Philips Consumer Lifestyle (a division of Royal Philips), Creative Labs, Inc., among others.
For PC headsets, our main competitors include Poly and GN Netcom, among others. In-ear headphones competitors include Beats, Bose, Apple, Sony Corporation ("Sony"), JBL and Sennheiser, among others.
Our competitors for Blue Microphones products include Rode Microphones LLC, Audio Technica Corporation, Samson Technologies Corp., Shure Incorporated, Razer and Apogee Electronics Corp., among others.
Intellectual Property and Proprietary Rights
Intellectual property rights that apply to Logitech's products and services include patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
We hold various United States patents and pending applications, together with corresponding patents and pending applications from other countries. While we believe that patent protection is important, we also believe that patents are of less competitive significance than factors such as technological innovation, ease of use, and quality design. No single patent is in itself essential to Logitech as a whole. From time to time, we receive claims that we may be infringing on patents or other intellectual property rights of others. As appropriate, claims are referred to
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legal counsel, and current claims are in various stages of evaluation and negotiation. If necessary or desirable, we may seek licenses for certain intellectual property rights. Refer also to the discussion in Item 1A "Risk Factors—"We may be unable to protect our proprietary rights. Unauthorized use of our technology may result in the development of products that compete with our products." and "Claims by others that we infringe their proprietary technology could adversely affect our business."
To distinguish genuine Logitech products from competing products and counterfeit products, Logitech has used, registered, or applied to register certain trademarks and trade names in the United States and other countries and jurisdictions. Logitech enforces its trademark and trade name rights in the United States and other countries. In addition, the software for Logitech's products and services is entitled to copyright protection, and we generally require our customers to obtain a software license before providing them with that software. We also protect details about our products and services as trade secrets through employee training, license and non-disclosure agreements, technical measures and other reasonable efforts to preserve confidentiality.
Material Government Regulations
We conduct operations in a number of countries and we are subject to a variety of laws and regulations which vary from country to country. Such laws and regulations include, in addition to environmental regulations described below, tax, import/export and anti-corruption laws, varying accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, import or export restrictions or licensing requirements, trade protection measures, custom duties, tariffs, import or export duties, and other trade barriers, restrictions and regulations.
While we incur increasing costs to comply with such other government regulations, we do not believe that our compliance with such requirements will have a material effect on our capital expenditures, competitive position, consolidated results of operations, earnings, or cash flows. Nonetheless, as discussed below, we believe that certain environmental, social and governance ("ESG") regulations could potentially materially impact our business.
For more information about such regulations and how they may impact us, see "Risks Related to our Global Operations and Regulatory Environment" and “We are subject to risks related to our environmental, social and governance activities and disclosures” in Item 1A "Risk Factors" and Note 7—Income Taxes in our Notes to consolidated financial statements below.
Environmental Regulation
We are subject to environmental regulations in a number of jurisdictions, including the following regulations:
Targeted Substances. Our operations are subject to regulation under various federal, state, local and foreign laws concerning the environment, including laws addressing the discharge of pollutants into the air and water, the management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, and the cleanup of contaminated sites. We could incur costs, including cleanup costs, fines and civil or criminal sanctions, and third-party damage or personal injury claims, if we were to violate or become liable under environmental laws.
Our products are subject to various federal, state, local and foreign laws governing chemical substances in products and their safe use, including laws regulating the manufacture and distribution of chemical substances and laws restricting the presence of certain substances in electronics products.
Stewardship: In Europe, Logitech products are regulated by a number of end-of-life stewardship directives including the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) Directive, the Packaging Directive and the Battery Directive, which require producers of electrical goods, packaging, and batteries to finance the collection, recycling, treatment and disposal of relevant products. Similar legislation exists in many countries worldwide.
Conflict Minerals: Sourcing of certain metals is regulated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, specifically Section 1502, which addresses the use of "Conflict Minerals" in the supply chain. Similar legislation is emerging in other countries worldwide. We have established systems which facilitate our compliance with the sourcing, traceability and reporting obligations and the reporting requirements of this Act aligned with guidelines published by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (“RBA”) and the Responsible Minerals Initiative, we participate in the industry-wide Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative and its Responsible Minerals Assessment Program (“RMAP”). The RMAP standards are developed to meet the requirements of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, the Regulation (EU) 2017/821 of the European Parliament and the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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Modern Slavery: Our commitment to combat slavery and human trafficking is underpinned by the Transparency in Supply Chain Act of 2010 (S.B. 657), the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act of 2015, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010, the Australian Modern Slavery Act of 2018 and exiting or emerging similar legislation worldwide. We utilize our adherence to the RBA code of conduct and transparently report our programs to identify and eradicate slavery and human trafficking in global supply chains.
Climate & Carbon: Our operations, supply chain and products are not currently subject to carbon pricing or other legally required carbon taxation or penalties. We have made a voluntary adherence to the Paris Accord international agreement for climate action and we have developed and adopted the principle of Carbon Transparency to catalyze reductions in our corporate carbon footprint, uptake of renewable power and materials and our journey to net zero. With our annual Sustainability Report and Carbon Disclosure Project reports, we report progress, risks and opportunities around climate and carbon.
Our operations, supply chain and our products are expected to become increasingly subject to federal, state, local and foreign laws, regulations and international treaties relating to climate change, such as climate disclosure, carbon pricing or product energy efficiency requirements, requiring us to comply or potentially face market access limitations or other sanctions including fines. We strive to continually improve the energy and carbon efficiency of our operations, supply chain and product portfolio. We are committed to carbon transparency through product carbon footprint labeling and ensuring that the consumer is engaged and aware of the impact of their purchase. We believe that this consumer centric approach is fundamental in moving towards a more sustainable future and we are collaborating with industry and business groups to find and promote ways to achieve broader adoption of this approach.
Energy: Our products are subject to various federal, state, local and foreign laws governing energy management or encouraging manufacturers and importers to produce products designed to minimize overall environmental impact.
The effects on Logitech's business of complying with these environmental regulations currently are limited to the cost of agency fees and testing, as well as the time required to obtain agency approvals. There are also stewardship costs associated with the end-of-life collection, recycling and recovery of Logitech products, packaging and batteries where Logitech is recognized as the steward and participates in relevant programs. The costs and schedule requirements are industry requirements and therefore do not represent an undue burden relative to Logitech's competitive position. As regulations change, we will modify our products or processes to address those changes.
Seasonality
Our product sales are typically seasonal. Sales are generally highest during our third fiscal quarter (October to December) primarily due to the increased consumer demand for our products during the year-end holiday buying season and year-end spending by enterprises. Cash flow is correspondingly lower in the first half of our fiscal year as we typically build inventories in advance for the third quarter and we pay an annual dividend following our Annual General Meeting, which is typically in September. Due to the timing of our new product introductions, which could occur at any point during the fiscal year, we believe that year-over-year comparisons are more indicative of variability in our results of operations than the current quarter to prior quarter comparisons.
Materials
We purchase certain products and key components used in our products from a limited number of sources. If the supply of these products or key components, such as micro-controllers and optical sensors, were to be delayed or constrained, or more recently, impacted by global shortages of semiconductor chips, or if one or more of our single-source suppliers go out of business, we might be unable to find a new supplier on acceptable terms, or at all, and our shipments to our customers could be delayed, potentially resulting in lost revenue, market presence and market share. In addition, lead times for materials, components, and products ordered by us or by our contract manufacturers can vary significantly and depend on factors such as contract terms, demand for a component, our ability to forecast product demand, and supplier capacity. From time to time, we have experienced component shortages and extended lead times on semiconductors, such as micro-controllers and optical sensors, and base metals used in our products. Shortages or interruptions in the supply of components or subcontracted products, or our inability to procure these components or products from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could delay shipment of our products or increase our production costs.
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Human Capital Resources
Employees
Our human capital resources include persons employed directly by us or indirectly through contingent workforce arrangements. As of March 31, 2022, we employed approximately 8,200 persons, of which approximately 3,000 were employed, directly and indirectly in our Suzhou manufacturing operations. None of Logitech's U.S. direct employees are represented by a labor union or are subject to a collective bargaining agreement. Certain other countries, such as China, provide by law for employee rights, which include requirements similar to collective bargaining agreements. We believe that our employee relations are good.
We rely on different programs and initiatives to support our goals. Some of our key human capital management programs are summarized below.
Diversity and Inclusion
We believe that reflecting the diverse world in which we live - through our people and by fostering an inclusive culture - provides us with the foundation needed to create experiences that enable all people to pursue their passions, which is our corporate purpose. Our direct employees are located across Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific and bring a range of perspectives and skills to Logitech. As of March 31, 2022, 44% of our office employees were located in Asia-Pacific, 33% in the Americas, and 23% in EMEA. As of March 31, 2022, females represented 37% of our global office employees, 37% of our manufacturing workforce, and 34% were in managerial roles. In the U.S., underrepresented minorities (defined as Black or African American, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander) represented 45% of our workforce, and 43% were in managerial roles.
To foster a more inclusive environment, we offer training sessions to emphasize awareness of self, bias and privilege, and inclusion. In addition, to measure our employees’ satisfaction at Logitech, we distribute a bi-annual employee engagement survey. Most recently, we conducted a survey in December 2021, in which 83% of our global office employees participated. As part of the survey, employees provided weighted feedback on their experience at Logitech, on measures such as happiness, retention and their perspective on our current state of workplace inclusivity at Logitech.
Safety, Health and Well-being
We look to safeguard the safety, health and well-being of all members of the Logitech team. We implement training and communication programs across the business each year to ensure employee awareness of the importance of health and safety management and our key programs and provisions. To help us ensure the safety, health and well-being of employees at our production facility in Suzhou, China, we follow the RBA Code of Conduct and have an Environmental, Health and Safety ("EHS") Management System that is certified to ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. We implement the RBA Code as a full supply chain initiative. Further, we operate an audit and verification program to verify compliance with the RBA code. We believe health and well-being are critical to our employee’s personal and professional success and provide, in addition to healthcare benefits, wellness tools, resources and programs designed to help employees achieve good physical, financial, emotional, intellectual and social well-being.
Further, we have managed the continuing impact of COVID-19 under the guidance of our Corporate Crisis Management Team and in collaboration with our local site leaders and provide regular updates to our board of directors on our actions. During 2021, most of our offices have begun to reopen as and where permitted by local regulations. We are regularly evaluating the local COVID-19 infection rate as a key metric for when we begin to gradually reopen an office. To support our employees during the pandemic and while offices were closed, we offered and continue to offer additional benefits, including a partial internet reimbursement, work-from-home equipment contribution, and increased flexibility in our leave programs to support employees caring for children and others.
Talent Acquisition and Development
Our geographic diversity gives Logitech an excellent foundation to recruit diverse talent from around the world. We believe that the entire talent process must be executed through a lens of equity and inclusion. We provide learning and development tools and resources to all our employees through our key programs. Our talent development program includes a dedicated training center at our production facility, a number of workshop-based,
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leadership development, mentorship, coaching career development and team building programs that remain available remotely.
Information About Our Executive Officers. The following sets forth certain information regarding our executive officers as of May 18, 2022:
| Name | Age | Nationality | Position | |||||||||||||||||
| Bracken Darrell | 59 | U.S. | President and Chief Executive Officer | |||||||||||||||||
| Nate Olmstead | 50 | U.S. | Chief Financial Officer | |||||||||||||||||
| Prakash Arunkundrum | 47 | U.S. | Head of Global Operations & Sustainability | |||||||||||||||||
| Samantha Harnett | 46 | U.S. | General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | |||||||||||||||||
Bracken Darrell joined Logitech as President in April 2012 and became Chief Executive Officer in January 2013. Prior to joining Logitech, Mr. Darrell served as President of Whirlpool EMEA and Executive Vice President of Whirlpool Corporation, a home appliance manufacturer and marketing company, from January 2009 to March 2012. Previously, Mr. Darrell had been Senior Vice President, Operations of Whirlpool EMEA from May 2008 to January 2009. From 2002 to May 2008, Mr. Darrell was with the Procter & Gamble Company ("P&G"), a consumer brand company, most recently as the President of its Braun GmbH subsidiary. Prior to rejoining P&G in 2002, Mr. Darrell served in various executive and managerial positions with General Electric Company from 1997 to 2002, with P&G from 1991 to 1997, and with PepsiCo Inc. from 1987 to 1989. Mr. Darrell holds a BA degree from Hendrix College and an MBA from Harvard University.
Nate Olmstead joined Logitech in April 2019 as Vice President of Business Finance and was appointed interim Chief Financial Officer as of June 2019 and Chief Financial Officer as of July 2019. Prior to joining Logitech, Mr. Olmstead served in various financial management roles at Hewlett-Packard Company and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, a multinational information technology company, most recently as the Vice President of Finance for Global Operations at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise from June 2017 to March 2019. He also served as Vice President of Finance, EG Global Supply Chain and Quality from February 2015 to June 2017, Vice President of Finance, HP Storage and HP Converged Systems from 2009 to February 2015, and Director, HP Investor Relations from 2006 to 2009. Mr. Olmstead holds a BA degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard University.
Prakash Arunkundrum is Logitech’s Head of Global Operations & Sustainability, a position he has held since May 2018. He joined Logitech in 2015 and held operations positions as Vice President New Product Introductions & Strategic Initiatives from August 2015 to July 2016 and Vice President Global Sourcing and New Product Introductions from July 2016 to May 2018. Prior to joining Logitech, Mr. Arunkundrum was a Principal at A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, from July 2014 to August 2015. He also served as Director, Management Consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a multinational professional services network of firms, from September 2011 to July 2014 and Principal at PRTM Management Consultants LLC, a management consulting firm acquired by PricewaterhouseCoopers, from March 2010 to September 2011. Prior to his management consulting roles, Mr. Arunkundrum held several management positions at i2 Technologies, a supply chain management company acquired by JDA Software, from March 2007 to February 2010. Early in his career, he held product management positions at supply chain startups and i2 Technologies. Mr. Arunkundrum holds a BTech degree in Chemical Engineering from Central ElectroChemical Research Institute ("CECRI") in Karaikudi, India and a Master of Science in Materials Engineering from University of Maryland at College Park.
Samantha Harnett joined Logitech as General Counsel in June 2020. Prior to joining Logitech, Ms. Harnett served in various legal and management roles at Eventbrite, Inc., a global self-service ticketing and experience technology platform, most recently as Chief Legal and Operations Officer from October 2019 to June 2020. While at Eventbrite, she also served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel from May 2018 to October 2019 and Vice President, General Counsel from November 2015 to May 2018. From March 2005 to November 2015, Ms. Harnett served in various positions at ZipRealty, Inc., a real estate technology and online brokerage company, including most recently as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Business Development from October 2009 to November 2015. She also served as an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, P.C. Ms. Harnett currently serves on the board of directors of GLAAD, a non-profit organization. Ms. Harnett holds a BA degree from California State University, Chico and a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law.
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Available Information
Our Investor Relations website is located at https://ir.logitech.com. We post and maintain an archive of our earnings and other press releases, current reports, annual and quarterly reports, earnings release schedule, information regarding annual general meetings, further information on corporate governance, and other information regarding the Company on the Investor Relations website. The information we post includes filings we make with the SEC, including reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, and our proxy statement related to our annual shareholders' meeting and any amendments to those reports or statements filed or furnished pursuant to U.S. securities laws or Swiss laws. All such filings and information are available free of charge on the website, and we make them available on the website as soon as reasonably possible after we file or furnish them with the SEC. The contents of these websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this report or in any other report or document we file and our references to these websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
In addition, Logitech publishes press releases upon the occurrence of significant events within Logitech. Shareholders and members of the public may elect to receive e-mails when Logitech issues press releases upon the occurrence of significant events within Logitech or other press releases by subscribing through
http://ir.logitech.com/alerts.cfm.
As a Swiss company traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange, and as a company subject to the provisions of Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, we file reports on transactions in Logitech securities by members of Logitech's Board of Directors and executive officers. The reports that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Forms 3, 4 and 5, along with our other SEC filings, may be accessed on our website or on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov, and the reports we file that are published by the SIX Swiss Exchange may be accessed at http://www.six-exchange-regulation.com/obligations/management_transactions_en.html.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The risk factors summarized and disclosed below could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, and may cause volatility in the price of our shares. These are not all the risks we face and other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also affect our business if they occur. See also the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including in Part I, Item 1 "Business," Part II, Item 7 "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and the related Notes.
Summary of Risk Factors
Risks Related to our Business
•If we fail to innovate and develop new products in a timely and cost-effective manner for our new and existing product categories, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
•Our future growth will depend on our diversified product growth opportunities, and if we do not successfully execute on our growth opportunities, or if our growth opportunities are more limited than we expect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
•We purchase key components and products from a limited number of sources, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected if supply were delayed or constrained or if there were shortages of required components.
•Our principal manufacturing operations and third-party contract manufacturers are located in China and Southeast Asia, which exposes us to risks associated with doing business in that geographic area as well as potential tariffs, adverse trade regulations, adverse tax consequences and pressure to move or diversify our manufacturing locations.
•If we do not successfully coordinate the worldwide manufacturing and distribution of our products, we could lose sales.
•If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brands, or if our brands or reputation are damaged, our reputation, business and operating results could be adversely affected.
•If we do not compete effectively, demand for our products could decline and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
•The full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is still uncertain and cannot be predicted, and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
•We rely on third parties to sell and distribute our products, and we rely on their information to manage our business. Disruption of our relationship with these channel partners, changes in or issues with their business practices, their failure to provide timely and accurate information, changes in distribution partners, practices or models, conflicts among our channels of distribution, or failure to build and scale our own sales force for certain product categories and enterprise channel partners could adversely affect our business, results of operations, operating cash flows and financial condition.
•If we do not accurately forecast market demand for our products, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
•Our business depends in part on access to third-party platforms or technologies, and if the access is withdrawn, denied, or is not available on terms acceptable to us, or if the platforms or technologies change without notice to us, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
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•Our success largely depends on our ability to hire, retain, integrate and motivate sufficient numbers of qualified personnel, including senior management. Our strategy and our ability to innovate, design and produce new products, sell products, maintain operating margins and control expenses depend on key personnel that may be difficult to replace.
•As we focus on growth opportunities, we are divesting or discontinuing non-strategic product categories and pursuing strategic acquisitions and investments, which could have an adverse impact on our business.
•Product quality issues could adversely affect our reputation, business and operating results.
Risks Related to Global Nature of our Operations and Regulatory Environment
•We conduct operations in a number of countries and have invested significantly in growing our sales and marketing activities in China, and the effect of business, legal and political risks associated with international operations could adversely affect us.
•Changes in trade policy and regulations in the United States and other countries, including changes in trade agreements and the imposition of tariffs and the resulting consequences, may have adverse impacts on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
•Our financial performance is subject to risks associated with fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
•We are subject to risks related to our environmental, social and governance activities and disclosures.
•As a company operating in many markets and jurisdictions, expanding into new growth categories, and engaging in acquisitions, and as a Swiss, dual-listed company, we are subject to risks associated with new, existing and potential future laws and regulations.
•As a result of changes in tax laws, treaties, rulings, regulations or agreements, or their interpretation, of Switzerland or any other country in which we operate, the loss of a major tax dispute or a successful challenge to our operating structure, intercompany pricing policies or the taxable presence of our key subsidiaries in certain countries, or other factors, our effective income tax rates may increase, which could adversely affect our net income and cash flows.
Risks Related to Cyber Security, Privacy, and Intellectual Property
•Significant disruptions in, or breaches in security of, our websites or information technology systems could adversely affect our business.
•The collection, storage, transmission, use and distribution of user data could give rise to liabilities and additional costs of operation as a result of laws, governmental regulation and risks of data breaches and security incidents.
•Claims by others that we infringe their proprietary technology could adversely affect our business.
•We may be unable to protect our proprietary rights. Unauthorized use of our technology may result in the development of products that compete with our products.
Risks Related to our Financial Results
•Our operating results are difficult to predict and fluctuations in results may cause volatility in the price of our shares
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•Our gross margins can vary significantly depending on multiple factors, which can result in unanticipated fluctuations in our operating results.
•We cannot ensure that our current share repurchase program will be fully utilized or that it will enhance long-term shareholder value. Share repurchases may also increase the volatility of the trading price of our shares. We similarly cannot ensure that we will continue to increase our dividend payments or to pay dividends at all. Share repurchases and dividends diminish our cash reserves.
Risk Factors
Risks Related to our Business
If we fail to innovate and develop new products in a timely and cost-effective manner for our new and existing product categories, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our product categories are characterized by short product life cycles, intense competition, frequent new product introductions, rapidly changing technology, dynamic consumer demand and evolving industry standards. As a result, we must continually innovate in our new and existing product categories, introduce new products and technologies, and enhance existing products in order to remain competitive.
The success of our product portfolio depends on several factors, including our ability to:
•Identify new features, functionality and opportunities;
•Anticipate technology, market trends and consumer preferences;
•Develop innovative, high-quality, and reliable new products and enhancements in a cost-effective and timely manner;
•Distinguish our products from those of our competitors; and
•Offer our products at prices and on terms that are attractive to our customers and consumers.
If we do not execute on these factors successfully, products that we introduce or technologies or standards that we adopt may not gain widespread commercial acceptance, and our business and operating results could suffer. In addition, if we do not continue to differentiate our products through distinctive, technologically advanced features, designs, and services that are appealing to our customers and consumers, as well as continue to build and strengthen our brand recognition and our access to distribution channels, our business could be adversely affected.
The development of new products and services can be very difficult and requires high levels of innovation. The development process also can be lengthy and costly. There are significant initial expenditures for research and development, tooling, manufacturing processes, inventory and marketing, and we may not be able to recover those investments. If we fail to accurately anticipate technological trends or our users’ needs or preferences, are unable to complete the development of products and services in a cost-effective and timely fashion or are unable to appropriately increase production to fulfill customer demand, we will be unable to successfully introduce new products and services into the market or compete with other providers. Even if we complete the development of our new products and services in a cost-effective and timely manner, they may not be competitive with products developed by others, they may not achieve acceptance in the market at anticipated levels or at all, they may not be profitable or, even if they are profitable, they may not achieve margins as high as our expectations or as high as the margins we have achieved historically.
As we introduce new or enhanced products, integrate new technology into new or existing products, or reduce the overall number of products offered, we face risks including, among other things, disruption in customers’ ordering patterns, excessive levels of new and existing product inventories, revenue deterioration in our existing product lines, insufficient supplies of new products to meet customers’ demand, possible product and technology defects, and a potentially different sales and support environment. Premature announcements or leaks of new products, features or technologies may exacerbate some of these risks by reducing the effectiveness of our product launches, reducing sales volumes of current products due to anticipated future products, making it more difficult to
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compete, shortening the period of differentiation based on our product innovation, straining relationships with our partners or increasing market expectations for the results of our new products before we have had an opportunity to demonstrate the market viability of the products. Our failure to manage the transition to new products and services or the integration of new technology into new or existing products and services could adversely affect our business, results of operations, operating cash flows and financial condition.
Our future growth will depend on our diversified product growth opportunities, and if we do not successfully execute on our growth opportunities, or if our growth opportunities are more limited than we expect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
We have historically targeted peripherals for the PC platform and in recent years, have expanded the categories of products we sell and entered new markets.
Our sales of our products might be less than we expect due to a decline in business or economic conditions in one or more of the countries or regions, a greater decline than we expect in demand for our products, our inability to successfully execute our sales and marketing plans, or for other reasons. Global economic concerns, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the varying pace of global economic recovery, tariffs and policies that inhibit trade, the impact of sovereign debt issues in Europe, the impact of oil prices from Russia and other countries, conflicts with either local or global financial implications and economic slowdown in China, create unpredictability and add risk to our future outlook. In particular, there are a number of factors worldwide contributing to supply chain challenges, which are due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic disruption, rising prices, labor and material shortages, and most recently Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a result, we are attempting to diversify our product category portfolio. We also are focusing more of our attention, which may include personnel, financial resources and management attention, on product innovations and growth opportunities, including products and services for gaming, for video collaboration, for the consumption of digital music, and on other potential growth opportunities in addition to our PC peripherals product categories. Our investments may not result in the growth we expect, or when we expect it, for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, changes in growth trends, evolving and changing market and increasing competition, market opportunities, and product innovation.
Trends and opportunities in each of our product categories are rapidly evolving, declining in some categories and increasing in others, and may also be different by region, as a result of which we are constantly required to adapt to such changing markets, increased competition, and new challenges and opportunities. If we don’t allocate our resources in line with the market and new opportunities, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.
In addition to our current growth opportunities, our future growth may be reliant on our ability to identify and develop potential new growth opportunities. This process is inherently risky and will result in investments in time and resources for which we do not achieve any return or value.
Our growth opportunities and those we may pursue are subject to constant and rapidly changing and evolving technologies and evolving industry standards and may be replaced by new technology concepts or platforms. Some of these growth categories and opportunities are also characterized by short product cycles, frequent new product introductions and enhancements and rapidly changing and evolving consumer preferences with respect to design and features that require calculated risk-taking and fast responsiveness and result in short opportunities to establish a market presence. In addition, some of these growth categories and opportunities are characterized by price competition, erosion of premium-priced segments and average selling prices, commoditization, and sensitivity to general economic conditions and cyclical downturns. The growth opportunities and strength and number of competitors that we face in all of our product categories mean that we are at risk of new competitors coming to market with more innovative products that are more attractive to customers than ours or priced more competitively. If we do not develop innovative and reliable product offerings and enhancements in a cost-effective and timely manner that are attractive to consumers in these markets, if we are otherwise unsuccessful entering and competing in these growth categories or responding to our many competitors and to the rapidly changing conditions in these growth categories, if the growth categories in which we invest our limited resources do not emerge as the opportunities or do not produce the growth or profitability we expect, or when we expect it, or if we do not correctly anticipate changes and evolutions in technology and platforms, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.
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We purchase key components and products from a limited number of sources, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected if supply were delayed or constrained or if there were shortages of required components.
We purchase certain products and key components from a limited number of sources. If the supply of these products or key components were to be delayed or constrained, impacted by global shortages of semiconductor chips, or if one or more of our single-source suppliers experience disruptions or go out of business as a result of adverse global economic conditions, natural disasters or regional or global pandemics, including COVID-19, we might be unable to find a new supplier on acceptable terms, or at all, and our product shipments to our customers could be delayed, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. In particular, there are a number of factors worldwide contributing to supply chain challenges, which are due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic disruption, rising prices, labor and material shortages, and most recently Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lead times for materials, components and products ordered by us or by our contract manufacturers can vary significantly and depend on factors such as contract terms, demand for a component, and supplier capacity. From time to time, we have experienced component shortages and extended lead times on semiconductors, such as microcontrollers and optical sensors, and base metals used in our products. Shortages or interruptions in the supply of components or subcontracted products, or our inability to procure these components or products from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could delay shipment of our products or increase our production costs, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.
Our principal manufacturing operations and third-party contract manufacturers are located in China and Southeast Asia, which exposes us to risks associated with doing business in that geographic area as well as potential tariffs, adverse tax consequences and pressure to move or diversify our manufacturing locations.
We produce approximately half of our products at the facilities we own in China. The majority of our other production is performed by third-party contract manufacturers, including original design manufacturers, in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Our manufacturing operations in China could be adversely affected by changes in the interpretation and enforcement of legal standards, strains on China’s available labor pool, changes in labor costs and other employment dynamics, high turnover among Chinese employees, infrastructure issues, import-export issues, cross-border intellectual property and technology restrictions, currency transfer restrictions, natural disasters, regional or global pandemics, conflicts or disagreements between China and Taiwan or China and the United States, labor unrest, and other trade customs and practices that are dissimilar to those in the United States and Europe. Interpretation and enforcement of China’s laws and regulations continue to evolve, and we expect differences in interpretation and enforcement to continue in the foreseeable future.
Our manufacturing operations at third-party contractors could be adversely affected by contractual disagreements, by labor unrest, by natural disasters, by regional or global pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by wars and armed conflicts, by strains on local communications, trade, and other infrastructures, by competition for the available labor pool or manufacturing capacity, by increasing labor and other costs, and by other trade customs and practices that are dissimilar to those in the United States and Europe.
Further, we have been exposed in the past and may be exposed to fluctuations in the value of the local currency in the countries in which manufacturing occurs. Future appreciation of these local currencies could increase our component and other raw material costs. In addition, our labor costs could continue to rise as wage rates increase and the available labor pool declines. These conditions could adversely affect our financial results.
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If we do not successfully coordinate the worldwide manufacturing and distribution of our products, we could lose sales.
Our business requires us to coordinate the manufacture and distribution of our products over much of the world. We rely on third parties to manufacture many of our products, manage centralized distribution centers, and transport our products. If we do not successfully coordinate the timely manufacturing and distribution of our products, if our manufacturers, distribution logistics providers or transport providers are not able to successfully and timely process our business or if we do not receive timely and accurate information from such providers, and especially if we expand into new product categories or our business grows in volume, we may have an insufficient supply of products to meet customer demand, we could lose sales, we may experience a build-up in inventory, we may incur additional costs, and our financial performance and reporting may be adversely affected.
By locating our manufacturing in China and Southeast Asia, we are reliant on third parties to get our products to distributors around the world. Transportation costs, fuel costs, labor unrest, natural disasters, regional or global pandemics, military conflicts, and other adverse effects on our ability, timing and cost of delivering products can increase our inventory, decrease our margins, adversely affect our relationships with distributors and other customers and otherwise adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
A significant portion of our quarterly retail orders and product deliveries generally occur in the last weeks of the fiscal quarter. This places pressure on our supply chain and could adversely affect our revenues and profitability if we are unable to successfully fulfill customer orders.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brands, or if our brands or reputation are damaged, our reputation, business and operating results could be adversely affected.
We have developed long-term value in our brands and have invested significantly in design and in our existing and new brands over the past several years. We believe that our design and brands have significantly contributed to the success of our business and that maintaining and enhancing our brands is very important to our future growth and success. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will require significant investments and will depend largely on our future design, products and marketing, which may not be successful and may damage our brands. Our brands and reputation are also dependent on third parties, such as suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, product reviewers and the media as well as online consumer product reviews, consumer recommendations and referrals. It can take significant time, resources and expense to overcome negative publicity, reviews or perception. Any negative effect on our brands, regardless of whether it is in our control, could adversely affect our reputation, business and results of operations.
If we do not compete effectively, demand for our products could decline and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
The industry in which we operate is intensely competitive. Most of our product categories are characterized by large, well-financed competitors with strong brand names and highly effective research and development, marketing and sales capabilities, short product life cycles, continual performance enhancements, and rapid adoption of technological and product advancements by competitors in our product markets. Many of our competitors have broad product portfolios across several of our product categories and are able to use the strength of their brands to move into adjacent categories. Our competitors have the ability to bring new products to market quickly and at competitive prices. We experience aggressive price competition and other promotional activities from our primary competitors and from less-established brands, including brands owned by retail customers known as house brands. As we shift the focus of our marketing efforts in certain categories from a push model to a demand-generating pull model, the pressures from this competition and from our distribution channels, combined with the implementation risks of such a strategy shift, could adversely affect our competitive position, market share and business. In addition, our competitors may offer customers terms and conditions that may be more favorable than our terms and conditions and may require us to take actions to maintain or increase our customer incentive programs, which could impact our revenues and operating margins.
We have historically expanded the categories of products we sell and entered new markets. We remain alert to opportunities in new categories and markets. As we do so, we are confronting new competitors, many of which have more experience in the categories or markets and have greater marketing resources and brand name recognition than we have. In addition, because of the continuing convergence of the markets for computing devices and consumer electronics, we expect greater competition in the future from well-established consumer electronics
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companies in our developing categories as well as in future categories we might enter. Many of these companies, such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Cisco, Sony, Samsung, Amazon and others, have greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we have.
Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon are leading producers of operating systems, hardware, platforms and applications with which our mice, keyboards, wireless speakers and other products are designed to operate. In addition, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon each has significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than Logitech, as well as greater name recognition and a larger customer base. As a result, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon each may be able to improve the functionality of its products, if any, or may choose to show preference to our competitors' products, to correspond with ongoing enhancements to its operating systems, hardware and software applications before we are able to make such improvements. This ability could provide Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon or other competitors with significant lead-time advantages. In addition, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon or other competitors may be able to control distribution channels or offer pricing advantages on bundled hardware and software products that we may not be able to offer, and maybe financially positioned to exert significant downward pressure on product prices and upward pressure on promotional incentives in order to gain market share. For additional information, see "Competition” in Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is still uncertain and cannot be predicted, and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the world, causing volatility and disruption in financial markets, curtailing global economic activity, raising the prospect of an extended global recession, and prompting governments and businesses to take unprecedented measures in response. Such measures have included restrictions on travel and business operations, quarantines and shelter-at-home orders, and often resulted in indefinite business closures. The full effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be predicted as a result of uncertainties, including if and how the extent and rate of the spread continue to fluctuate in different parts of the world, the gravity and transmissibility level of the current and future variants, the availability and effectiveness of treatments and vaccines, and vaccination progress. The impact of different variants cannot be predicted at this time, and could depend on numerous factors, including the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against such variants and the response by governmental bodies and regulators.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken by many countries in response have contributed to a general slowdown in the global economy and had a mixed effect and could in the future have a mixed or adverse effect on our business and operations, our customers and our partners. We have experienced and may continue to experience disruptions and higher costs in our manufacturing, supply chain and logistics operations and outsourced services, resulting in shortages of our products in our distribution channels and loss of market share and opportunities. We have also incurred additional costs related to business continuity. Most recently, Shanghai, China, began a lockdown in late March 2022 due to another outbreak of COVID-19, resulting in a lockdown of the city, closures of ports and airports, and disruption of commercial activities. If the Shanghai lockdown is extended, including to our Suzhou manufacturing facility, and to other places where our suppliers and partners are located, such measures, depending on their duration, could cause additional negative impact on our business and results of operation.
While we believe that the pandemic has accelerated certain trends that are favorable to us, its effects on the use patterns and demand for our products has been evolving and may lead to increased competition in certain of our product markets. The COVID-19 pandemic also may have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described under this heading “Risk Factors.” We continue to monitor the situation and attempt to take appropriate actions in accordance with the recommendations and requirements of relevant authorities. The full extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and on our operational and financial performance and condition is still uncertain and will depend on many factors outside our control, including but not limited to the timing, extent, duration and effects of the virus and any of its mutations and variants, the further development and availability of effective treatments and vaccines and the vaccination progress, the imposition of effective public safety and other protective measures, the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and demand for our products and services, and the impact of the virus on the business, operations and financial condition of our partners and customers. Should the COVID-19 situation or global economic slowdown not improve or worsen, or if our attempts to mitigate its impact on our operations and costs are not successful, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects may be adversely affected.
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We rely on third parties to sell and distribute our products, and we rely on their information to manage our business. Disruption of our relationship with these channel partners, changes in or issues with their business practices, their failure to provide timely and accurate information, changes in distribution partners, practices or models, conflicts among our channels of distribution, or failure to build and scale our own sales force for certain product categories and enterprise channel partners could adversely affect our business, results of operations, operating cash flows and financial condition.
We primarily sell our products to a network of distributors, retailers and e-tailers (together with our direct sales channel partners). We are dependent on those direct sales channel partners to distribute and sell our products to indirect sales channel partners and ultimately to consumers. The sales and business practices of all such sales channel partners, their compliance with laws and regulations, and their reputations - of which we may or may not be aware - may affect our business and our reputation.
While our overall distribution relationships are diffuse, in fiscal year 2022 our gross sales were concentrated with three customers - Amazon Inc., Ingram Micro and TD Synnex - and their affiliated entities. We do not have long-term commitments with those customers. If online sales grow as a percentage of overall sales, we expect that we will become even more reliant on Amazon. While we believe that we have good relationships with Amazon, Ingram Micro and TD Synnex, any adverse change in those relationships could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
The impact of economic conditions, labor issues, natural disasters, regional or global pandemics, evolving consumer preferences, and purchasing patterns on our distribution partners, or competition between our sales channels, could result in sales channel disruption. For example, if sales at large retail stores are displaced as a result of bankruptcy, competition from Internet sales channels or otherwise, our product sales could be adversely affected and our product mix could change, which could adversely affect our operating costs and gross margins. Any loss of a major partner or distribution channel or other channel disruption could make us more dependent on alternate channels, increase pricing and promotional pressures from other partners and distribution channels, increase our marketing costs, or adversely impact buying and inventory patterns, payment terms or other contractual terms, sell-through or delivery of our products to consumers, our reputation and brand equity, or our market share.
Our sales channel partners also sell products offered by our competitors and, in the case of retailer house brands, may also be our competitors. If product competitors offer our sales channel partners more favorable terms, have more products available to meet their needs, or utilize the leverage of broader product lines sold through the channel, or if our sales channel partners show preference for their own house brands, our sales channel partners may de-emphasize or decline to carry our products. In addition, certain of our sales channel partners could decide to de-emphasize the product categories that we offer in exchange for other product categories that they believe provide them with higher returns. If we are unable to maintain successful relationships with these sales channel partners or to maintain our distribution channels, our business will suffer.
As we expand into new product categories and markets in pursuit of growth, we will have to build relationships with new channel partners and adapt to new distribution and marketing models. These new partners, practices and models may require significant management attention and operational resources and may affect our accounting, including revenue recognition, gross margins, and the ability to make comparisons from period to period. Entrenched and more experienced competitors will make these transitions difficult. Certain product categories, such as Video Collaboration, may also require that we further build and scale our own enterprise sales force. Several of our competitors already have large enterprise sales forces and experience and success with that sales model. If we are unable to build successful distribution channels, build and scale our own enterprise sales force, or successfully market our products in these new product categories, we may not be able to take advantage of the growth opportunities, and our business and our ability to grow our business could be adversely affected.
We reserve for cooperative marketing arrangements, incentive programs and pricing programs with our sales channel partners. These reserves are based on judgments and estimates, using historical experience rates, inventory levels in distribution, current trends and other factors. There could be significant differences between the actual costs of such arrangements and programs and our estimates.
We use sell-through data, which represents sales of our products by our direct retailer and e-tailer customers to consumers, and by our distributor customers to their customers, along with other metrics, to assess consumer demand for our products. Sell-through data is subject to limitations due to collection methods and the third-party
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nature of the data and thus may not be an accurate indicator of actual consumer demand for our products. The customers supplying sell-through data vary by geographic region and from period to period, but typically represent a majority of our retail sales. In addition, we rely on channel inventory data from our sales channel partners. If we do not receive this information on a timely and accurate basis, if this information is not accurate, or if we do not properly interpret this information, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
If we do not accurately forecast market demand for our products, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
We use our forecasts of product demand to make decisions regarding investments of our resources and production levels of our products. Although we receive forecasts from our customers, many are not obligated to purchase the forecasted demand. Also, actual sales volumes for individual products in our retail distribution channel can be volatile due to changes in consumer preferences and other reasons. In addition, our products have short product life cycles, so a failure to accurately predict high demand for a product can result in lost sales that we may not recover in subsequent periods, or higher product costs if we meet demand by paying higher costs for materials, production and delivery. We could also frustrate our customers and lose shelf space and market share. Our failure to predict low demand for a product can result in excess inventory, lower cash flows and lower margins if we are required to reduce product prices in order to reduce inventories.
If our sales channel partners have excess inventory of our products or decide to decrease their inventories for any reason, they may decrease the number of products they acquire in subsequent periods, which could cause disruption in our business and adversely affect our forecasts and sales.
Over the past few years, we have expanded the types of products we sell and the geographic markets in which we sell them. The changes in our product portfolio and the expansion of our sales markets have increased the difficulty of accurately forecasting product demand. We are also utilizing sea shipments more extensively than air delivery, which will cause us to build and ship products to our distribution centers earlier and will also result in increases in inventory. These operational shifts increase the risk that we have excess or obsolete inventory if we do not accurately forecast product demand.
In addition, market demand remains less predictable and more volatile than pre-COVID-19. As a result, we have experienced in the past and may continue experiencing large differences between our forecasts and actual demand for our products that may result in excess inventory or product unavailability, inventory and restructuring reserves, increases in operational logistics and other costs, damaged relationships with suppliers or customers, opportunities for our competitors, and lost market share and revenue. If we do not accurately predict product demand, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our business depends in part on access to third-party platforms or technologies, and if the access is withdrawn, denied, or is not available on terms acceptable to us, or if the platforms or technologies change without notice to us, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our peripherals business has historically been built largely around the PC platform, which over time became relatively open, and its inputs and operating system standardized. With the growth of mobile, tablet, gaming and other computer devices, digital music and personal voice assistants, the number of platforms has grown, and with it the complexity and increased need for us to have business and contractual relationships with the platform owners in order to produce products compatible with these platforms. Our product portfolio includes current and future products designed for use with third-party platforms or software, such as the Apple iPad, iPod, iPhone and Siri, Android phones and tablets, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Our business in these categories relies on our access to the platforms of third parties, some of whom are our competitors. Platform owners that are competitors have a competitive advantage in designing products for their platforms and may produce peripherals or other products that work better, or are perceived to work better, than our products in connection with those platforms. As we expand the number of platforms and software applications with which our products are compatible, we may not be successful in launching products for those platforms or software applications, we may not be successful in establishing strong relationships with the new platform or software owners, or we may negatively impact our ability to develop and produce high-quality products on a timely basis for those platforms and software applications or we may otherwise adversely affect our relationships with existing platform or software owners.
Our access to third-party platforms may require paying a royalty, which lowers our product margins or may otherwise be on terms that are not acceptable to us. In addition, the third-party platforms or technologies used to
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interact with our product portfolio can be delayed in production or can change without prior notice to us, which can result in our having excess inventory, lower margins, lost investment in time and expense, or lost opportunity cost.
If we are unable to access third-party platforms or technologies, or if our access is withdrawn, denied, or is not available on terms acceptable to us, or if the platforms or technologies are delayed or changed without notice to us, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our success largely depends on our ability to hire, retain, integrate and motivate sufficient numbers of qualified personnel, including senior leadership. Our strategy and our ability to innovate, design and produce new products, sell products, maintain operating margins and control expenses depend on key personnel that may be difficult to replace.
Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, including senior leadership and international personnel. From time to time, we experience turnover in some of our senior leadership positions.
We compensate our employees through a combination of salary, bonuses, benefits and equity compensation. Recruiting and retaining skilled personnel, including software and hardware engineers, is highly competitive. The pandemic and hybrid work environment have driven acute competition for talent, increased employee burnout and attrition, increased employment litigation and wage inflation across multiple industries. If we fail to provide competitive compensation to our employees, it will be difficult to retain, hire and integrate qualified employees and contractors, and we may not be able to maintain and expand our business. If we do not retain or maintain the continuity of our senior leaders or other key employees for any reason, including voluntary or involuntary departure, death or permanent or temporary disability (the risk of which has been underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic), we risk losing institutional knowledge, experience, expertise and other benefits of continuity as well as the ability to attract and retain other key employees. In addition, we must carefully balance the size of our employee base with our current infrastructure, management resources and anticipated operating cash flows. If we are unable to manage the size of our employee base, particularly engineers, we may fail to develop and introduce new products successfully and in a cost-effective and timely manner. If our revenue growth or employee levels vary significantly, our operating cash flows and financial condition could be adversely affected. Volatility or lack of positive performance in our stock price may also affect our ability to retain key employees, many of whom have been granted equity incentives. Logitech’s practice has been to provide equity incentives to its employees, but the number of shares available for equity grants is limited. We may find it difficult to provide competitive equity incentives, and our ability to hire, retain and motivate key personnel may suffer.
As we focus on growth opportunities, we are divesting or discontinuing non-strategic product categories and pursuing strategic acquisitions and investments, which could have an adverse impact on our business.
We continue to review our product portfolio and update our non-strategic product categories and products. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2022, we ceased future product launches under the Jaybird brand within our Audio & Wearables product category and during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, we discontinued our Harmony line of home entertainment controllers within our Smart Home product category. If we are unable to effect sales on favorable terms or if realignment is more costly or distracting than we expect or has a negative effect on our organization, employees and retention, then our business and operating results may be adversely affected. Discontinuing products with service components may also cause us to continue to incur expenses to maintain services within the product life cycle or may adversely affect our customer and consumer relationships and brand. Divestitures may also involve warranties, indemnification or covenants that could restrict our business or result in litigation, additional expenses or liabilities. In addition, discontinuing product categories, even categories that we consider non-strategic, reduces the size and diversification of our business and causes us to be more dependent on a smaller number of product categories.
As we attempt to grow our business in strategic product categories and emerging market geographies, we will consider growth through acquisition or investment. We will evaluate acquisition opportunities that could provide us with additional product or service offerings or with additional industry expertise, assets and capabilities. For example, we acquired ASTRO Gaming to expand into the console gaming market, we acquired Saitek to expand into the gaming simulation and controller markets, we acquired Blue Microphones to expand into the microphones market, we acquired General Workings, Inc. ("Streamlabs") to expand our software and service capabilities and tools for the streaming market, and we acquired Mevo Inc. to expand our camera hardware and software for live streaming and video conferencing. Acquisitions could result in difficulties integrating acquired operations, products, technology, internal controls, personnel and management teams and result in the diversion of capital and management’s attention away from other business issues and opportunities. If we fail to successfully integrate
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acquisitions, our business could be harmed. Acquisitions could also result in the assumption of known and unknown liabilities, product, regulatory and other compliance issues, dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, disputes over earn-outs or other litigation, and adverse effects on relationships with our and our target’s employees, customers and suppliers. Moreover, our acquisitions may not be successful in achieving our desired strategy, product, financial or other objectives or expectations, which would also cause our business to suffer.
Acquisitions can also lead to large non-cash charges that can have an adverse effect on our results of operations as a result of write-offs for items such as future impairments of intangible assets and goodwill or the recording of share-based compensation.
If we divest or discontinue product categories or products that we previously acquired, or if the value of those parts of our business become impaired, we may need to evaluate the carrying value of our goodwill. Additional impairment charges could adversely affect our results of operations. Several of our past acquisitions have not been successful and have led to significant impairment charges. Acquisitions and divestitures may also cause our operating results to fluctuate and make it difficult for investors to compare operating results and financial statements between periods. In addition, from time to time we make strategic venture investments in other companies that provide products and services that are complementary to ours. If these investments are unsuccessful, this could have an adverse impact on our results of operations, operating cash flows and financial condition.
Product quality issues could adversely affect our reputation, business and operating results.
The market for our products is characterized by rapidly changing technology and evolving industry standards. To remain competitive, we must continually introduce new products and technologies. The products that we sell could contain defects in design or manufacture. Defects could also occur in the products or components that are supplied to us. There can be no assurance we will be able to detect and remedy all defects in the hardware and software we sell. Failure to do so could result in product recalls, product liability claims and litigation, product redesign efforts, lost revenue, loss of reputation, and significant warranty and other expenses to remedy.
While we maintain reserves for reasonably estimable liabilities and purchase liability insurance, our reserves may not be adequate to cover such claims and liabilities and our insurance is subject to deductibles and may not be adequate to cover such claims and liabilities. Furthermore, our contracts with distributors and retailers may contain warranty, indemnification and other provisions related to product quality issues, and claims under those provisions may adversely affect our business and operating results.
Risks Related to our Global Operations and Regulatory Environment
We conduct operations in a number of countries and have invested significantly in growing our sales and marketing activities in China, and the effect of business, legal and political risks associated with international operations could adversely affect us.
We conduct operations in a number of countries and have invested significantly in growing our personnel and sales and marketing activities in China and, to a lesser extent, other emerging markets. We may also increase our investments to grow sales in other emerging markets, such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. There are risks inherent in doing business in international markets, including:
•Difficulties in staffing and managing international operations;
•Compliance with increasing amounts of laws and regulations, including environmental, tax, import/export and anti-corruption laws, which vary from country to country, and the European Union legislation, and over time, increasing the costs of compliance and potential risks of non-compliance;
•Varying laws, regulations and other legal protections, uncertain and varying enforcement of those laws and regulations, dependence on local authorities, and the importance of local networks and relationships;
•Varying accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, accountability and protections, including risks related to the lack of access by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") to inspect PCAOB-registered accounting firms in emerging market countries such as China;
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•Exposure to political and financial instability, especially with the uncertainty associated with the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in certain Euro zone countries and the stability of the European Union, which may lead to reduced sales, currency exchange losses and collection difficulties or other losses;
•Political and economic uncertainty around the world. For example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in a sharp increase of commodity prices, sanctions and trade restrictions have been imposed on Russian banks, businesses, and individuals, and the conflict has sparked a massive refugee crisis. This conflict has driven and could continue to drive economic uncertainty, including inflation and restricted component availability, among other things;
•Import or export restrictions or licensing requirements that could affect some of our products, including those with encryption technology;
•Trade protection measures, custom duties, tariffs, import or export duties, and other trade barriers, restrictions and regulations, including recent and ongoing United States - China tariffs and trade restrictions, including China's 2021 Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law;
•Lack of infrastructure or services necessary or appropriate to support our products and services;
•Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that may be more concentrated where we operate internationally;
•Exposure to fluctuations in the value of local currencies;
•Difficulties and increased costs in establishing sales and distribution channels in unfamiliar markets, with their own market characteristics and competition, including entrenched local competition;
•Weak protection of our intellectual property rights;
•Higher credit risks;
•Variations in VAT (value-added tax) or VAT reimbursement;
•Imposition of currency exchange controls;
•Delays from customs brokers or government agencies; and
•A broad range of customs, consumer trends, and more.
Any of these risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Sales growth in key markets, including China, is an important part of our expectations for our business. As a result, if economic, political or business conditions deteriorate in these markets, or if one or more of the risks described above materialize in these markets, our overall business and results of operations will be adversely affected.
Changes in trade policy and regulations in the United States and other countries, including changes in trade agreements and the imposition of tariffs and the resulting consequences, may have adverse impacts on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
In recent years, the U.S. government has instituted or proposed changes to international trade policy through the renegotiation, and potential termination, of certain existing bilateral or multilateral trade agreements and treaties with, and the imposition of tariffs on a wide range of products and other goods from, China, countries in EMEA and other countries. As previously disclosed, we have invested significantly in manufacturing facilities in China and Southeast Asia. Given our manufacturing in those countries, and our lack of manufacturing elsewhere, policy or regulations changes in the United States or other countries present particular risks for us.
In addition, the current Chinese administration has imposed an increased volume of regulation creating a more challenging environment for non-Chinese companies operating in the region, including in the areas of intellectual property, trade, contract enforcement, data privacy, capital markets and human rights. As a result, such regulations
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may have the effect of limiting our growth and market share in China, and disrupting manufacturing and operations in the region.
For example, on June 10, 2021, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee of the People’s Republic of China passed China's new Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. The Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law took immediate effect and allows China to take “retaliatory action” against any “discriminatorily restrictive measures” imposed by foreign countries against Chinese organizations and citizens. As a result, China may impose countermeasures against government and private entities and/or persons that formulate, implement or comply with any regulation deemed a “discriminatorily restrictive measure.” Penalties may include denial of entry to China, prohibition of doing business in or with China, freezing of assets and “any other necessary measures.”
New or increased tariffs could adversely affect more or all of our products. There also are risks associated with retaliatory tariffs and resulting trade wars. We cannot predict future trade policy and regulations in the United States and other countries, the terms of any renegotiated trade agreements or treaties, or tariffs and their impact on our business. A trade war could have a significant adverse effect on world trade and the world economy. To the extent that trade tariffs and other restrictions imposed by the United States or other countries increase the price of, or limit the amount of, our products or components or materials used in our products imported into the United States or other countries, or create adverse tax consequences, the sales, cost or gross margin of our products may be adversely affected and the demand from our customers for products and services may be diminished. Uncertainty surrounding international trade policy and regulations as well as disputes and protectionist measures could also have an adverse effect on consumer confidence and spending. If we deem it necessary to alter all or a portion of our activities or operations in response to such policies, agreements or tariffs, our capital and operating costs may increase.
In addition, as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sanctions and trade restrictions have been imposed on Russia, including banks, businesses, and individuals, by the U.S., the European Union and Switzerland. This conflict has driven and could continue to drive economic uncertainty, including inflation, and component availability, among other things.
Our ongoing efforts to address these risks may not be effective and may have long-term adverse effects on our operations and operating results that we may not be able to reverse. Such efforts may also take time to implement or to have an effect and may result in adverse quarterly financial results or fluctuations in our quarterly financial results. As a result, changes in trade policy and regulations in the United States and other countries as well as changes in trade agreements and tariffs and sanctions imposed on Russia could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our financial performance is subject to risks associated with fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
A significant portion of our business is conducted in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. Therefore, we face exposure to movements in currency exchange rates.
Our primary exposure to movements in currency exchange rates relates to non-U.S. Dollar-denominated sales and operating expenses worldwide. For fiscal year 2022, approximately 50% of our revenue was in non-U.S. denominated currencies. The weakening of currencies relative to the U.S. Dollar adversely affects the U.S. Dollar value of our non-U.S. Dollar-denominated sales and earnings. If we raise international pricing to compensate, it could potentially reduce demand for our products, adversely affecting our sales and potentially having an adverse impact on our market share. Margins on sales of our products in non-U.S. Dollar-denominated countries and on sales of products that include components obtained from suppliers in non-U.S. Dollar-denominated countries could be adversely affected by currency exchange rate fluctuations. In some circumstances, for competitive or other reasons, we may decide not to raise local prices to fully offset the U.S. Dollar’s strengthening, which would adversely affect the U.S. Dollar value of our non-U.S. Dollar-denominated sales and earnings. Competitive conditions in the markets in which we operate may also limit our ability to increase prices in the event of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Conversely, strengthening of currency rates may also increase our product component costs and other expenses denominated in those currencies, adversely affecting operating results. We further note that a larger portion of our sales than of our expenses are denominated in non-U.S. denominated currencies.
We use derivative instruments to hedge certain exposures to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. The use of such hedging activities may not offset any, or more than a portion, of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable
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movements in currency exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place and do not protect us from long term shifts in currency exchange rates.
As a result, fluctuations in currency exchange rates could and have in the past adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. Moreover, these exposures may change over time.
We are subject to risks related to our environmental, social and governance activities and disclosures.
Concern over climate change may result in new or additional legal, legislative and regulatory requirements to reduce or mitigate the effects of climate change on the environment, which could result in future tax, transportation and other cost increases that could adversely affect our business. Compliance with such requirements could also require additional expenditures by us or our suppliers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
In addition, ESG reporting and disclosure requirements continue to evolve, with increasing global regulation and heightened investor expectations. Companies must develop an expanded set of metrics and measures, data collection and processing, controls, and reporting processes in order to meet regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations. Failure to promptly and accurately meet these expectations and requirements may result in reputational and brand damage, regulatory penalties and litigation among other things.
As a company operating in many markets and jurisdictions, expanding into new growth categories, and engaging in acquisitions, and as a Swiss, dual-listed company, we are subject to risks associated with new, existing and potential future laws and regulations.
Based on our current business model and as we expand into new markets and product categories and acquire companies, businesses and assets, we must comply with a wide variety of laws, standards and other requirements governing, among other things, health and safety, hazardous materials usage, product-related energy consumption, conflict minerals, packaging, recycling, environmental and human rights matters. Our products may be required to obtain regulatory approvals and satisfy other regulatory concerns in the various jurisdictions where they are manufactured, sold or both. Companies, businesses and assets that we acquire may not be in compliance with regulations in all jurisdictions. These requirements create procurement and design challenges, which, among other things, require us to incur additional costs identifying suppliers and contract manufacturers who can provide or obtain compliant materials, parts and end products. Failure to comply with such requirements can subject us to liability, additional costs, and reputational harm and, in severe cases, force us to recall products or prevent us from selling our products in certain jurisdictions. We also are subject to the SEC disclosure requirements regarding the use of certain minerals, known as conflict minerals, which are mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries, as well as procedures regarding a manufacturer’s efforts to identify and prevent the sourcing of such minerals and metals produced from those minerals. The moral and regulatory imperatives to avoid purchasing conflict minerals are causing us to incur additional expenses, could limit the supply and increase the cost of certain metals used in manufacturing our products and could adversely affect the distribution and sales of our products.
As a Swiss company with shares listed on both the SIX Swiss Exchange and the Nasdaq Global Select Market, we are also subject to both Swiss and United States corporate governance and securities laws and regulations. In addition to the extra costs and regulatory burdens of our dual regulatory obligations, the two regulatory regimes may not always be compatible and may impose disclosure obligations, operating restrictions or tax effects on our business to which our competitors and other companies are not subject. For example, on January 1, 2014, subject to certain transitional provisions, the Swiss Federal Council Ordinance Against Excessive Compensation at Public Companies ("Ordinance") became effective in connection with the Minder initiative approved by Swiss voters during 2013. The Ordinance, among other things, (a) requires a binding shareholder “say on pay” vote with respect to the compensation of members of our executive management and Board of Directors, (b) generally prohibits the making of severance, advance, transaction premiums and similar payments to members of our executive management and Board of Directors, (c) imposes other restrictive compensation practices, and (d) requires that our articles of incorporation specify various compensation-related matters. In addition, during 2013, Swiss voters considered an initiative to limit pay for a chief executive officer to a multiple of no more than twelve times the salary of the lowest-paid employee. Although voters rejected that initiative, it did receive substantial voter support. The Ordinance, potential future initiatives relating to corporate governance or executive compensation, and Swiss voter sentiment in favor of such regulations may increase our non-operating costs and adversely affect our ability to attract and retain executive management and members of our Board of Directors.
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We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. ("U.S. GAAP") which are subject to interpretation or changes by the Financial Accounting Standard Board ("FASB"), the SEC and other various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. New accounting pronouncements and changes in accounting principles have occurred in the past and are expected to occur in the future which may have a significant effect on our financial results or our compliance with regulations.
As a result of changes in tax laws, treaties, rulings, regulations or agreements, or their interpretation, of Switzerland or any other country in which we operate, the loss of a major tax dispute or a successful challenge to our operating structure, intercompany pricing policies or the taxable presence of our key subsidiaries in certain countries, or other factors, our effective income tax rates may increase, which could adversely affect our net income and cash flows.
We are incorporated in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and our effective income tax rate benefited from a longstanding ruling from the canton of Vaud through December 31, 2019. As a result of the Federal Act on the Tax Reform and AHV Financing (“TRAF”), the canton of Vaud enacted tax reforms on March 10, 2020 that took effect as of January 1, 2020. As a result of the reform, Logitech will incur cash income taxes that will increase over time as the deferred income tax benefit established in connection with the reform diminishes. The canton’s tax authority is primarily delegated by the Swiss federal government and its implementation of TRAF in general or with respect to Logitech is subject to Swiss federal review and challenge. Implementation of any material change in tax laws or policies or the adoption of new interpretations of existing tax laws and rulings, or termination or replacement of our tax arrangements with the canton of Vaud, by Switzerland or the canton of Vaud could result in a higher effective income tax rate, or a decreased tax asset, a charge to earnings and an accelerated pace of increase in our effective income tax rate, or a combination of such impacts, on our worldwide earnings and any such change will adversely affect our net income. Changes in our effective income tax rate may also make it more difficult to compare our net income and earnings per share between periods.
We operate in multiple jurisdictions and our profits are taxed pursuant to the tax laws of these jurisdictions. Our effective income tax rate may be affected by changes in or interpretations of tax laws, treaties, rulings, regulations or agreements in any given jurisdiction, or changes in international tax reform by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and similar organizations, utilization of net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards, changes in geographical allocation of income and expense, and changes in management’s assessment of matters such as the realizability of deferred tax assets. In the past, we have experienced fluctuations in our effective income tax rate. Our effective income tax rate in a given fiscal year reflects a variety of factors that may not be present in the succeeding fiscal year or years. There is no assurance that our effective income tax rate will not change in future periods.
We file Swiss and foreign tax returns. We are frequently subject to tax audits, examinations and assessments in various jurisdictions. If any tax authority successfully challenges our operational structure, intercompany pricing policies or the taxable presence of our key subsidiaries in certain countries, if the terms of certain income tax treaties are interpreted in a manner that is adverse to our structure, or if we lose a material tax dispute in any country, our effective income tax rate could increase. For example, policy changes in Switzerland, the United States or China predicated on our presence in those countries could adversely affect where we recognize profit and our effective income tax rate. A material assessment by a governing tax authority could adversely affect our profitability. If our effective income tax rate increases in future periods, our net income and cash flows could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Cyber Security, Privacy, and Intellectual Property
Significant disruptions in, or breaches in security of, our websites, or information technology systems, or our products could adversely affect our business.
As a consumer electronics company, our websites are an important presentation of our company, identity and brands and an important means of interaction with and source of information for consumers of our products. We also rely on our centralized information technology systems for product-related information and to store intellectual property, forecast our business, maintain financial records, manage operations and inventory, and operate other critical functions. We allocate significant resources to maintain our information technology systems and deploy network security, data encryption, training and other measures to protect against unauthorized access or misuse. Nevertheless, our websites and information technology systems have been and could continue to be subject to or
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threatened with, and are susceptible to damage, disruptions or shutdowns due to power outages, hardware failures, structural or operational failures, computer viruses, attacks by computer hackers, other data security issues, telecommunication failures, user error, malfeasance, catastrophes, system or software upgrades, integration or migration, or other foreseeable and unforeseen events. From time to time, we and our suppliers have identified vulnerabilities or other issues that we believe have been addressed, and we expect such issues to continue to arise. None of such disruptions or issues has individually or in the aggregate resulted in security incidents with a material impact on us. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increased risk that we may experience security breach related incidents as a result of our employees, service providers, and third parties working remotely on less secure systems. In addition, our growth, and increased frequency and sophistication of cyber and product security attacks may increase the likelihood of the Company becoming a target of increasingly complex and damaging attacks that substantially disrupt operations and expose sensitive data. Further, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the European Central Bank have both issued warnings about potential Russian cyberattacks as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia. Breaches or disruptions of our websites or information technology systems, breaches of confidential information, data corruption or other data security issues could adversely affect our brands, reputation, relationships with customers or business partners, or consumer or investor perception of our company, business or products or result in disruptions of our operations, loss of intellectual property or our customers’ or our business partners’ data, reduced value of our investments in our brands, design, research and development or engineering, or costs to address regulatory inquiries or actions or private litigation, to respond to customers or partners or to rebuild or restore our websites or information technology systems.
The collection, storage, transmission, use and distribution of user data could give rise to liabilities and additional costs of operation as a result of laws, governmental regulation and risks of data breaches and security incidents.
In connection with our operations, we collect personal data, including that of our consumers. This information is increasingly subject to legislation, regulations and enforcement in numerous jurisdictions around the world. Global data privacy regulation is increasingly fragmented, with increasing enforcement efforts and penalties. Such fragmentation requires more complex and costly compliance structures, while heightened enforcement increases the cost and reputational risk associated with even minor compliance errors.
For example, the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), which is applicable to us and to all companies processing data of people in the European Union, imposes significant fines and sanctions for violation of the Regulation. Compliance with the GDPR's international transfer rules has been made more difficult by the invalidation of the U.S. European Union Privacy Shield and we are now required to put in place additional privacy protective measures for transfer of data of people in the European Union to certain countries outside of the European Economic Area. In the United States, California and Virginia have already adopted privacy laws and other legislations may follow, at states and federal levels. Such laws and regulations are typically intended to protect the privacy and security of personal information and its collection, storage, transmission, use and distribution in or from the governing jurisdiction. In addition, because various jurisdictions have different laws and regulations concerning the use, storage and transmission of such information, we may face requirements that pose compliance challenges in existing markets as well as new international markets that we seek to enter. The collection of user data heightens the risk of security breaches and other data security issues related to our IT systems and the systems of third-party data storage and other service and IT providers. Such laws and regulations, and the variation between jurisdictions, as well as additional security measures and risk, could subject us to increased costs, allocation of additional resources, financial penalties or other liabilities or negative publicity that could adversely affect our business.
Claims by others that we infringe their proprietary technology could adversely affect our business.
We have been expanding the categories of products we sell, such as entering new markets and introducing products for tablets, other mobile devices, digital music, and video collaboration. We expect to continue to enter new categories and markets. As we do so, we face an increased risk that claims alleging we infringe the patent or other intellectual property rights of others, regardless of the merit of the claims, may increase in number and significance. Infringement claims against us may also increase as the functionality of video, voice, data and conferencing products begin to overlap. This risk is heightened by the increase in lawsuits brought by holders of patents that do not have an operating business or are attempting to license broad patent portfolios and by the increasing attempts by companies in the technology industries to enjoin their competitors from selling products that they claim infringe their intellectual property rights. Intellectual property lawsuits are subject to inherent uncertainties due to the complexity of the technical issues involved, and we cannot be certain that we will be successful in
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defending ourselves against intellectual property claims. A successful claimant could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages or prevents us from distributing certain products or performing certain services. We might also be required to seek a license for the use of such intellectual property, which may not be available on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Alternatively, we may be required to develop non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Any claims or proceedings against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time consuming, result in costly litigation or the diversion of significant operational resources, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We may be unable to protect our proprietary rights. Unauthorized use of our technology may result in the development of products that compete with our products.
Our future success depends in part on our proprietary technology, technical know-how and other intellectual property. We rely on a combination of patent, trade secret, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws, and confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions such as nondisclosure terms and licenses, to protect our intellectual property.
We hold various United States patents and pending applications, together with corresponding patents and pending applications from other countries. It is possible that any patent owned by us will be invalidated, deemed unenforceable, circumvented or challenged, that the patent rights granted will not provide competitive advantages to us, or that any of our pending or future patent applications will not be granted, maintained or enforced. In addition, other intellectual property laws or our confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions may not adequately protect our intellectual property. Also, others may independently develop similar technology, duplicate our products, or design around our patents or other intellectual property rights. Unauthorized parties have copied and may in the future attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to our Financial Results
Our operating results are difficult to predict and fluctuations in results may cause volatility in the price of our shares.
Our revenues and profitability are difficult to predict due to the nature of the markets in which we compete, fluctuating user demand, the uncertainty of current and future global economic conditions, and for many other reasons, including the following:
•Our operating results are highly dependent on the volume and timing of orders received during the quarter, which are difficult to forecast. Customers generally order on an as-needed basis and we typically do not obtain firm, long-term purchase commitments from our customers. As a result, our revenues in any quarter depend primarily on orders booked and shipped in that quarter.
•A significant portion of our quarterly retail sales typically occurs in the last weeks of each quarter, further increasing the difficulty in predicting quarterly revenues and profitability.
•Our sales are impacted by consumer demand and current and future global economic and political conditions, including trade restrictions and tariffs, and can, therefore, fluctuate abruptly and significantly during periods of uncertain economic conditions or geographic distress, as well as from shifts in distributor inventory practices and consumer buying patterns.
•We must incur a large portion of our costs in advance of sales orders because we must plan research and production, order components, buy tooling equipment, and enter into development, sales and marketing, and other operating commitments prior to obtaining firm commitments from our customers. This makes it difficult for us to rapidly adjust our costs during the quarter in response to a revenue shortfall, which could adversely affect our operating results.
•From time to time, we engage in opportunistic marketing and sales activities, including advertising and promotional events to enhance our brand awareness. The effectiveness of our marketing and sales efforts is uncertain and it is difficult to predict whether our marketing and sales efforts will result in increased sales.
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•The COVID-19 pandemic has led to evolving changes in our supply, operations, logistics and related expenses and use patterns and demand for certain of our products that may not recur or be sustainable in future periods, as well as uncertainty in global macroeconomic conditions.
•We engage in acquisitions and divestitures, and such activity varies from period to period. Such variance may affect our growth, our previous outlook and expectations, and comparisons of our operating results and financial statements between periods.
•We are continuously attempting to simplify our organization, to control operating costs through expense and global workforce management, to reduce the complexity of our product portfolio, and to better align costs with our current business as we expand from PC accessories and provide leverage for growth opportunities in accessories and other products and services for creativity and productivity, gaming, video collaboration, mobile devices, music, digital home and other product categories. We may not achieve the cost savings or other anticipated benefits from these efforts, and the success or failure of such efforts may cause our operating results to fluctuate and to be difficult to predict.
•Fluctuations in currency exchange rates can impact our revenues, expenses and profitability because we report our financial statements in U.S. Dollars, whereas a significant portion of our revenues and expenses are in other currencies. We attempt to adjust product prices over time to offset the impact of currency movements. However, over short periods of time, during periods of weakness in consumer spending or given high levels of competition in many product categories, our ability to change local currency prices to offset the impact of currency fluctuations is limited.
Because our operating results are difficult to predict, our results may be below the expectations of financial analysts and investors, which could cause the price of our shares to decline.
Our gross margins can vary significantly depending on multiple factors, which can result in unanticipated fluctuations in our operating results.
Our gross margins can vary due to consumer demand, competition, product pricing, product lifecycle, product mix, new product introductions, unit volumes, acquisitions and divestitures, commodity, supply chain and logistics costs, capacity utilization, geographic sales mix, currency exchange rates, trade policy and tariffs, and the complexity and functionality of new product innovations and other factors. In particular, if we are not able to introduce new products in a timely manner at the product cost we expect, or if consumer demand for our products is less than we anticipate, or if there are product pricing, marketing and other initiatives by our competitors to which we need to react or that are initiated by us to drive sales that lower our margins, then our overall gross margin will be less than we project.
In addition, our gross margins may vary significantly by product line, sales geography and customer type, as well as within product lines. When the mix of products sold shifts from higher margin product lines to lower margin product lines, to lower margin sales geographies, or to lower margin products within product lines, our overall gross margins and our profitability may be adversely affected.
As we expand within and into new product categories, our products in those categories may have lower gross margins than in our traditional product categories. Consumer demand in these product categories, based on style, color and other factors, tends to be less predictable and tends to vary more across geographic markets. As a result, we may face higher up-front investments, inventory costs associated with attempting to anticipate consumer preferences, and increased inventory write-offs. If we are unable to offset these potentially lower margins by enhancing the margins in our more traditional product categories, our profitability may be adversely affected.
Changes in trade policy, including tariffs and the tariffs focused on China in particular, and currency exchange rates also have adverse impacts on our gross margins.
The impact of these factors on gross margins can create unanticipated fluctuations in our operating results, which may cause volatility in the price of our shares.
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We cannot ensure that our current share repurchase program will be fully utilized or that it will enhance long-term shareholder value. Share repurchases may also increase the volatility of the trading price of our shares. We similarly cannot ensure that we will continue to increase our dividend payments or to pay dividends at all. Share repurchases and dividends diminish our cash reserves.
In April 2021, our Board of Directors increased our current repurchase program of our registered shares to $1.0billion. We have also paid cash dividends and increased the size of our dividend, each year since fiscal year 2013. Our share repurchase program and dividend policy may be affected by many factors, including general business and economic conditions, our financial condition and operating results, our views on potential future capital requirements, restrictions imposed in any future debt agreements, the emergence of alternative investment or acquisition opportunities, changes in our business strategy, legal requirements, changes in tax laws, and other factors. Our share repurchase program does not obligate us to repurchase all or any of the dollar value of shares authorized for repurchase. The program could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our shares. Similarly, we are not obligated to pay dividends on our registered shares. Under Swiss law, we may only pay dividends upon the approval of a majority of our shareholders, which is under the discretion of and generally follows a recommendation by our Board of Directors that such a dividend is in the best interests of our shareholders. There can be no assurance that our Board of Directors will continue to recommend, or that our shareholders will approve, dividend increases or any dividend at all. If we do not pay a regular dividend, we may lose the interest of investors that focus their investments on dividend-paying companies, which could create downward pressure on our share price. Any announcement of termination or suspension of our share repurchase program or dividend may result in a decrease in our share price. The share repurchase program and payment of cash dividends could also diminish our cash reserves that may be needed for investments in our business, acquisitions or other purposes. Without dividends, the trading price of our shares must appreciate for investors to realize a gain on their investment.
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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Our headquarters is located in Lausanne, Switzerland, where we occupy approximately 50,500 square feet under a lease that expires in July 2025. Our principal corporate and administrative offices, which includes our headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and corporate offices in Newark, California and Hsinchu, Taiwan, together make up approximately 286,000 square feet of leased space. Both our Lausanne, Switzerland and Newark, California locations serve our research and development, product marketing, sales management, technical support and administrative functions. Our Hsinchu, Taiwan location serves our mechanical engineering, process engineering, manufacturing support, quality assurance, design, research and development, and administrative functions. We maintain marketing and channel support offices in approximately 80 locations and over 40 countries, with lease expiration dates from 2022 to 2031.
As of March 31, 2022, the majority of our properties are leased; however, we also own some of the manufacturing units and employee dormitories in Suzhou, China, from which we occupy approximately 720,000 square feet. We anticipate no difficulty in extending the leases of our facilities or obtaining comparable facilities in suitable locations. We also contract with various third-party distribution centers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific for additional warehouses in which we store inventory.
We believe that our manufacturing and distribution facilities are adequate for our ongoing needs and we continue to evaluate the need for facilities to meet current and anticipated future requirements.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
From time-to-time, we are involved in claims and legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of our business. We are currently subject to several such claims and a small number of legal proceedings. We believe that these matters lack merit and we intend to vigorously defend against them. Based on the currently available information, we do not believe that resolution of pending matters will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, cash flows or results of operations. However, litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties, and there can be no assurances that our defenses will be successful or that any such lawsuit or claim would not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations in a particular period. Any claims or proceedings against us, whether meritorious or not, can have an adverse impact because of defense costs, diversion of management and operational resources, negative publicity and other factors. Any failure to obtain a necessary license or other rights, or litigation arising out of intellectual property claims, could adversely affect our business.
As a result of amendments to Regulation S-K disclosure requirements related to environmental proceedings to which the government is a party and such proceedings involve potential monetary sanctions, we selected the quantitative threshold of $1.0 million.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
None.
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PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Logitech's shares are listed and traded on both the SIX Swiss Exchange, where the share price is denominated in Swiss francs and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, where the share price is denominated in U.S. Dollars. The trading symbol for Logitech shares is LOGN on the SIX Swiss Exchange and LOGI on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. As of May 4, 2022, there were 173,106,620 shares issued (including 8,422,457 shares held as treasury stock) held by 43,886 holders of record, and the closing price of our shares was CHF 61.32 ($62.71 based on exchange rates on such date) per share on the SIX Swiss Exchange and $65.88 per share as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Dividends
Under Swiss law, a corporation may only pay dividends upon a vote of its shareholders. This vote typically follows the recommendation of the corporation's Board of Directors. In May 2022, the Board of Directors recommended that the Company increase the cash dividend per share for fiscal year 2022 by 10% to approximately CHF 0.96 per share (approximately $1.04 per share based on the exchange rate on March 31, 2022). Based on our shares outstanding, net of treasury shares, as of March 31, 2022 (165,252,020 shares), this would result in an aggregate gross dividend of approximately CHF 159.0 million (approximately $172.1 million based on the exchange rate on March 31, 2022). This amount may vary based on the number of shares outstanding, net of treasury shares, as of the record date for the dividend, but will not exceed approximately CHF 166.5 million (based on our shares currently issued or 173,106,620 shares). This recommendation will be voted on by our shareholders at the Company’s Annual General Meeting in September 2022.
On September 8, 2021, Logitech's shareholders approved a cash dividend payment of CHF 147.0 million out of retained earnings to Logitech's shareholders who owned shares on September 21, 2021. Eligible shareholders were paid CHF 0.87 per share ($0.95 per share in U.S. Dollars), totaling $159.4 million in U.S. Dollars on September 22, 2021. On September 9, 2020, Logitech's shareholders approved a cash dividend payment of CHF 134.0 million out of retained earnings to Logitech shareholders who owned shares on September 21, 2020. Eligible shareholders were paid CHF 0.79 per share ($0.87 per share in U.S. Dollars), totaling $146.7 million in U.S. Dollars on September 22, 2020.
Dividends paid and similar cash or in-kind distributions made by Logitech to a holder of Logitech shares (including dividends or liquidation proceeds and stock dividends), other than distributions of qualifying additional paid-in-capital if it is available under the current Swiss tax regime, are subject to a Swiss federal anticipatory tax at a rate of 35%. The anticipatory tax must be withheld by Logitech from the gross distribution and paid to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration.
A Swiss resident holder and beneficial owner of Logitech shares may qualify for a full refund of the Swiss anticipatory tax withheld from such dividends. A holder and beneficial owner of Logitech shares who is a non-resident of Switzerland, but a resident of a country that maintains a double tax treaty with Switzerland, may qualify for a full or partial refund of the Swiss anticipatory tax withheld from such dividends by virtue of the provisions of the applicable treaty between Switzerland and the country of residence of the holder and beneficial owner of the Logitech shares.
In accordance with the tax convention between the United States and the Swiss Confederation (Treaty), a mechanism is provided whereby a U.S. resident (as determined under the Treaty), and U.S. corporations, other than U.S. corporations having a "permanent establishment" or a fixed base, as defined in the Treaty, in Switzerland, generally can obtain a refund of the Swiss anticipatory tax withheld from dividends in respect of Logitech shares, to the extent that 15% of the gross dividend is withheld as final withholding tax (i.e. 20% of the gross dividend may generally be refunded). In specific cases, U.S. companies not having a "permanent establishment" or a fixed base in Switzerland owning at least 10% of Logitech registered shares may receive a refund of the Swiss anticipatory tax withheld from dividends to the extent it exceeds 5% of the gross dividend (i.e., 30% of the gross dividend may be refunded). To get the benefit of a refund, holders must beneficially own Logitech shares at the time such dividend becomes due.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 36
Share Repurchases
In fiscal year 2022, the following approved share repurchase program was in place (in thousands):
| Share Repurchase Program | Approved Shares | Approved Amounts (1) | |||||||||
| May 2020 | 17,311 | $ | 1,000,000 | ||||||||
(1) In April 2021, our Board of Directors approved an increase of $750.0 million of the 2020 share repurchase program, to an aggregate amount of $1.0 billion. The Swiss Takeover Board approved this increase and it became effective on May 21, 2021.
The following tables present certain information related to purchases made by Logitech of its equity securities under its publicly announced share repurchase programs (in thousands, except per share amounts):
| Weighted Average Price Per Share | Remaining Amount that May Yet Be Repurchased under the Program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| During Fiscal Year Ended | Shares Repurchased** | CHF (LOGN) | USD (LOGI) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 31, 2020 * | 1,251 | 38.91 | — | $ | 137,386 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| March 31, 2021 | 1,845 | 81.35 | 89.20 | $ | 85,382 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| March 31, 2022 | 4,607 | 82.15 | 89.36 | $ | 423,696 | |||||||||||||||||||||
* The 2017 share repurchase program expired in April 2020 and the unused amount was forfeited.
** All shares were repurchased on the SIX in fiscal year 2020. In fiscal year 2021, 969 thousand shares were repurchased on the SIX and 876 thousand shares on NASDAQ. In fiscal year 2022, 3,921 thousand shares were repurchased on the SIX and 686 thousand shares on NASDAQ.
| Total Number of Shares Repurchased | Weighted Average Price Paid Per Share | Remaining Amount that May Yet Be Repurchased under the Program | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| During the three months ended March 31, 2022 | CHF (LOGN) | USD (LOGI) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Month 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 1, 2022 to January 28, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SIX | 449 | 75.01 | — | $ | 508,293 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nasdaq | 63 | — | 82.15 | 503,093 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Month 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 29, 2022 to February 25, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SIX | 379 | 72.93 | — | 473,171 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Month 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| February 26, 2022 to March 31, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SIX | 652 | 67.77 | — | 425,692 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nasdaq | 29 | — | 69.55 | 423,696 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1,572 | 71.33 | 77.20 | $ | 423,696 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Performance Graph
The information contained in the Performance Graph shall not be deemed to be "soliciting material" or "filed" with the SEC or subject to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), except to the extent that we specifically incorporate it by reference into a document filed under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), or the Exchange Act.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 37
The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our shares, the Nasdaq Composite Index, and the S&P 500 Information and Technology Index. The graph assumes that $100 was invested in our LOGI shares, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P 500 Information and Technology Index on March 31, 2017 and calculates the annual return through March 31, 2022. The stock price performance on the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
________________________________________
*$100 invested on March 31, 2017, in stock or index, including reinvestment of dividends.
Fiscal year ending March 31.
Copyright© 2022 Standard & Poor's, a division of S&P Global. All rights reserved.
| March 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Logitech | $ | 100 | $ | 117 | $ | 126 | $ | 139 | $ | 341 | $ | 242 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nasdaq Composite Index | $ | 100 | $ | 121 | $ | 134 | $ | 135 | $ | 233 | $ | 252 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| S&P 500 Information and Technology Index | $ | 100 | $ | 128 | $ | 147 | $ | 163 | $ | 271 | $ | 328 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ITEM 6. (Reserved)
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 38
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth above in Item 1A "Risk Factors," and below in Item 7A, "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk." Please read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included under Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Overview of Our Company
Logitech is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and marketing products that help connect people to digital and cloud experiences. Forty years ago, Logitech created products to improve experiences around the personal computer ("PC") platform, and today it is a multi-brand, multi-category company designing products that enable people to pursue their passions and connect to the world. Logitech’s products align with several large secular trends including work and learn from anywhere, video everywhere, the increasing popularity of gaming as a spectator and participant sport, and the democratization of content creation. Logitech's brands include Logitech, Logitech G, ASTRO Gaming, Streamlabs, Blue Microphones, and Ultimate Ears. Our Company's website is www.logitech.com.
Our products participate primarily in four large market opportunities: Creativity & Productivity, Gaming, Video Collaboration and Music. We sell our products to a broad network of domestic and international customers, including direct sales to retailers, e-tailers and enterprise customers, and indirect sales through distributors. Our worldwide channel network includes consumer electronics distributors, retailers, e-tailers, mass merchandisers, specialty stores, computer and telecommunications stores, value-added resellers and online merchants. We primarily sell our services directly to end customers.
From time to time, we may seek to partner with or acquire, when appropriate, companies that have products, personnel, and technologies that complement our strategic direction. For example, in February 2021, we acquired Mevo Inc. ("Mevo") to complement our PC webcams portfolio and enable us to offer end-to-end solution for streaming and content creation, and in October 2019, we acquired General Workings, Inc. ("Streamlabs") to complement our Gaming portfolio (see Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements). We continually review our product offerings and our strategic direction in light of our profitability targets, competitive conditions, changing consumer trends and the evolving nature of the interface between the consumer and the digital world.
Impacts of COVID-19 to Our Business
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic, which continues to spread throughout the world. The spread of COVID-19 has caused public health officials to recommend precautions to mitigate the spread of the virus and, in certain markets in which we operate, government authorities have from time to time issued orders that require the closure of or restrictions on non-essential businesses and people to be quarantined or to shelter-at-home. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed global economic activity, caused volatility and disruption in global financial and commercial markets, and is likely to continue to cause uncertainty for an indeterminate amount of time. While most of our offices have at least partially reopened or will be reopening in the near future, we are conducting our business with substantial modifications, such as employee remote work in many non-manufacturing facilities and travel limitations, among other changes. We are continuing to actively monitor the situation and may take further actions that alter our business operations as may be required by federal, state or local authorities in the countries in which we operate, or that we determine are in the best interest of our employees, customers, partners, suppliers or shareholders.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 we experienced disruptions to our supply chain and logistics, inventory constraints, and increased logistics costs, as we attempted to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, due to the shelter-at-home requirements or other restrictions in many countries, there was an acceleration of work-from-anywhere, learn-from-anywhere, gaming, video collaboration and streaming trends and high demand and consumption of certain of our products that led to increased sales and operating income. While we continued to experience increased sales in fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, we also experienced supply and demand volatility, as the COVID-19 pandemic and related safety measures and restrictions have evolved differently across the world. Further, the demand volatility has led to, and could continue to lead to in the future, higher promotions and marketing expenses, or excess inventories, or both, which could have an adverse impact on our results of operations.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 39
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and could continue to result in, industry-wide global supply chain challenges, including manufacturing, transportation and logistics. We purchase certain products and key components from a limited number of sources, and depend on the supply chain, including freight, to receive components, transport finished goods and deliver our products across the world. While we proactively manage our supply chain, we expect to continue to be impacted by higher logistics and component costs, prolonged delays, and challenges with component availability. Most recently, Shanghai, China, began a lockdown in late March 2022 due to another outbreak of COVID-19, resulting in a lockdown of the city, closures of ports and airports, and disruption of commercial activities, further constraining our supply chain. If the Shanghai lockdown is extended, including to our Suzhou manufacturing facility, and to other places where our suppliers and partners are located, such measures, depending on their duration, could cause additional negative impact on our business and results of operations.
It is still difficult to predict the progression, the duration and all of the effects of COVID-19, how business restrictions and shelter-at-home guidelines will continue evolving on a global basis, how consumer demand, supply chain challenges, including inventory and logistical effects and costs, may change over time, and the impact on our future sales and results of operations. The full extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and our operational and financial performance remains uncertain and will depend on many factors outside our control. For additional information, see "Liquidity and Capital Resources" below and Item 1A "Risk Factors," including under the caption "The full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is still uncertain and cannot be predicted, and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.", "If we do not successfully coordinate the worldwide manufacturing and distribution of our products, we could lose sales” and “We purchase key components and products from a limited number of sources, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected if supply were delayed or constrained or if there were shortages of required components.”
Impacts of Macroeconomic and Geopolitical Conditions on our Business
Adverse macroeconomic conditions, including but not limited to inflation, slower growth or recession, new or increased tariffs, changes to fiscal and monetary policy, higher interest rates and currency fluctuations could adversely affect demand for our products. In addition, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine resulting in, among other things, broad economic sanctions being imposed on Russia, which has further increased existing global supply chain, logistics, and inflationary challenges. Such global or regional economic and political conditions may also have a significant impact on our suppliers, contract manufacturers, logistics providers, and distributors, causing increases in cost of materials. Furthermore, these conditions may lead to price increases in certain of our product markets. Price increases may not successfully offset cost increases or may cause us to lose market share and in turn adversely impact our operations.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022, we indefinitely ceased all sales and shipments to Russia. Our sales in Ukraine have also been halted due to the ongoing military operations on the Ukrainian territory. Our business in Russia and Ukraine were not material to our results and accounted for approximately 2% of total revenue for fiscal year 2022.
For additional information, see item 1A "Risk Factors," including under the caption “We purchase key components and products from a limited number of sources, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected if supply were delayed or constrained or if there were shortages of required components,” “Our principal manufacturing operations and third-party contract manufacturers are located in China and Southeast Asia, which exposes us to risks associated with doing business in that geographic area as well as potential tariffs, adverse tax consequences and pressure to move or diversify our manufacturing locations” and “If we do not accurately forecast market demand for our products, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.”
Summary of Financial Results
Our total sales for fiscal year 2022 increased 4% compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily driven by growth in sales in Gaming, Keyboards & Combos, and Pointing Devices, partially offset by a decline in sales of Tablet & Other Accessories, Audio & Wearables, and Video Collaboration.
Sales for fiscal year 2022 increased 5% and 10% in the Americas and Asia Pacific, respectively, and declined 1% in EMEA, compared to fiscal year 2021.
Gross margin for fiscal year 2022 decreased by 320 basis points to 41.3%, compared to fiscal year 2021, due to increased promotional spending, higher reserves for excess inventories, and higher material and logistic costs, partially offset by favorable impacts from product mix and changes in currency exchange rates.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 40
Operating expenses for fiscal year 2022 were $1,489.0 million, or 27.2% of sales, compared to $1,187.6 million, or 22.6% of sales, for fiscal year 2021. The increase in operating expenses was primarily driven by $195.6 million higher third-party costs to support our long-term growth opportunities and branding development as well as $124.6 million higher personnel-related costs due to additional headcount across departments to support business growth. These increases were partially offset by a $30 million contribution into a charitable donor advised fund in fiscal year 2021 to support our social giving strategies.
Included in the income tax provision of $131.3 million and $200.9 million in fiscal year 2022 and 2021 was $88.7 million and $152.6 million, respectively, of tax expense from Switzerland that reflects the post enactment of the Tax Reform and AHV Financing (“TRAF") by the canton of Vaud. TRAF was enacted in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020 and took effect as of January 1, 2020.
Net income for fiscal year 2022 was $644.5 million, compared to $947.3 million for fiscal year 2021.
Trends in Our Business
Our products participate primarily in four large multi-category market opportunities, including Creativity & Productivity, Gaming, Video Collaboration and Music. The following discussion represents key trends specific to our market opportunities.
Trends Specific to Our Market Opportunities
Creativity & Productivity: In the past few years, new PC shipments were strong due to work-from-home and learn-from-home trends. We believe that innovative PC peripherals, such as our mice and keyboards, can renew the PC usage experience and help improve the productivity and engagement of remote work and learning, thus providing growth opportunities. Hybrid work culture will also greatly expand the number of new workspaces to which we can attach our PC peripherals. Increasing adoption of various cloud-based applications has led to multiple unique consumer use cases, which we are addressing with our innovative product portfolio and a deep understanding of our customer base. The popularity of streaming coupled with work-from-home trends, provide growth opportunities for our webcam products as well as other products in our portfolio. Smaller mobile computing devices, such as tablets, have created new markets and usage models for peripherals and accessories. We offer a number of products to enhance the use of mobile devices, including a combo backlit keyboard case with trackpad for the iPad.
Gaming: The PC gaming and console gaming platforms continue to show strong structural growth opportunities as online gaming, multi-platform experiences, and esports gain greater popularity and gaming becomes more social. We expect gaming will increasingly become one of the largest participant and spectator sports in the world. We believe Logitech is well positioned to benefit from the overall gaming market growth. In addition, our acquisition of Streamlabs provides a solid platform to deliver recurring services and subscriptions to gamers and streamers.
Video Collaboration: The near and long-term structural growth opportunities in the video collaboration market continue to be strong as commercial and consumer adoption of video has seen substantial growth since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Video meetings continue to be an opportunity as companies want lower-cost, cloud-based solutions that can provide their employees with the ability to work from anywhere. We are continuing our efforts to create and sell innovative products to accommodate the increasing demand from home offices and small-size meeting rooms, such as huddle rooms, to medium and large-sized meeting rooms. We will continue to invest in the development of select business-specific products (both hardware and software), targeted product marketing and sales channel development. The digitization of learning and hybrid learning environments have also created demand and growth opportunities in the education market.
Music: Consumers are optimizing their audio experiences on their tablets and smartphones with a variety of music peripherals including wireless mobile speakers and in-ear and other headphones. However, the mobile speaker market has matured and the integration of personal voice assistants has increased competition in the speaker category. In addition, the retail footprint has decreased significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors have led to a decline in our Mobile Speakers category sales in the past three years. In the wireless headphone industry, the largest growth in recent years has been in true wireless headphones while traditional wireless headphones have declined significantly. We will continue developing wireless audio products as growth in the wireless headphone market is expected for the next several years.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 41
Business Seasonality and Product Introductions
We have historically experienced higher sales in our third fiscal quarter ending December 31, compared to other fiscal quarters in our fiscal year, primarily due to the increased consumer demand for our products during the year-end holiday buying season and year-end spending by enterprises. Additionally, new product introductions and business acquisitions can significantly impact sales, product costs and operating expenses. Product introductions can also impact our sales to distribution channels as these channels are filled with new product inventory following a product introduction, and often channel inventory of an earlier model product declines as the next related major product launch approaches. Sales can also be affected when consumers and distributors anticipate a product introduction or changes in business circumstances. However, neither historical seasonal patterns nor historical patterns of product introductions should be considered reliable indicators of our future pattern of product introductions, future sales or financial performance. Furthermore, cash flow is correspondingly lower in the first half of our fiscal year as we typically build inventories in advance for the third quarter and we pay an annual dividend following our Annual General Meeting, which is typically in September.
Swiss Federal Tax Reform
As we described above, the canton of Vaud in Switzerland enacted TRAF on March 10, 2020 that took effect as of January 1, 2020. Our cash tax payments have increased in Switzerland beginning in fiscal year 2020 as a result of our transition out of our longstanding tax ruling from the canton of Vaud.
Capitalization and amortization of research and development expenses in the U.S.
Pursuant to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, research and development expenses are required to be capitalized and amortized over five years for U.S. tax purposes if the research and development activities are performed in the U.S, effective for tax year beginning after December 31, 2021. Absent a change in legislation, the provision is effective for us beginning in fiscal year 2023 which will delay the deductibility of research and development expenses. Cash tax payments in the U.S. are expected to increase beginning in fiscal year 2023.
Critical Accounting Estimates
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires us to make judgments, estimates, and assumptions that affect reported amounts of assets, liabilities, sales and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities.
We consider an accounting estimate critical if it: (i) requires management to make judgments and estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain; and (ii) is important to an understanding of our financial condition and operating results.
We base our estimates on historical experience and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Although these estimates are based on management's best knowledge of current events and actions that may impact us in the future, actual results could differ from those estimates. Management has discussed the development, selection and disclosure of these critical accounting estimates with the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.
We believe the following accounting estimates are most critical to our business operations and to an understanding of our financial condition and results of operations and reflect the more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Accruals for Customer Programs and Product Returns
We record accruals for cooperative marketing, customer incentive, pricing programs ("Customer Programs") and product returns. The estimated cost of these programs is usually recorded as a reduction of revenue. Significant management judgments and estimates must be used to determine the cost of these programs in any accounting period. Customer Programs require management to estimate the percentage of those programs that will not be claimed in the current period or will not be earned by customers, which is commonly referred to as "breakage." Breakage is estimated based on historical claim experience, the period in which the claims are expected to be submitted, specific terms and conditions with customers, and other factors. If we receive a separately identifiable benefit from a customer and can reasonably estimate the fair value of that benefit, the cost of the Customer Programs is recognized in operating expenses.
Customer Incentive Programs. Customer incentive programs include performance-based incentives and consumer rebates. We offer performance-based incentives to our customers and indirect partners based on pre-
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 42
determined performance criteria. Consumer rebates are offered from time to time at our discretion for the primary benefit of end-users. Customer incentive programs are considered variable consideration, which we estimate and record as a reduction to revenue at the time of sale based on negotiated terms, historical experiences, forecasted incentives, the anticipated volume of future purchases, and inventory levels in the channel.
Product Returns. We grant limited rights to return products. Return rights vary by customer and range from just the right to return the defective product to stock rotation rights limited to a percentage of sales approved by management. Estimates of expected future product returns are recognized at the time of sale based on analyses of historical return trends by the customer and by product, inventories owned by and located at customers, current customer demand, current operating conditions, and other relevant customer and product information. Upon recognition, we reduce sales and cost of goods sold for the estimated return. Return trends are influenced by product life cycle status, new product introductions, market acceptance of products, sales levels, product sell-through, the type of customer, seasonality, product quality issues, competitive pressures, operational policies and procedures, and other factors. Return rates can fluctuate over time but are sufficiently predictable to allow us to estimate expected future product returns.
We apply a breakage rate to reduce our accruals of Customer Programs based on the estimated percentage of these Customer Programs that will not be claimed or earned. The breakage rate is applied at the time of sale. Assessing the period in which claims are expected to be submitted and the relevance of the historical claim experience require significant management judgment to estimate the breakage of Customer Programs in any accounting period.
We regularly evaluate the adequacy of our accruals for Customer Programs and product returns. Future market conditions and product transitions may require us to take action to increase such programs. In addition, when the variables used to estimate these costs change, or if actual costs differ significantly from the estimates, we would be required to record incremental increases or reductions to revenue or operating expenses.
Inventory Valuation
We must order components for our products and build inventory in advance of customer orders. Further, our industry is characterized by rapid technological change, short-term customer commitments and rapid changes in demand.
We record inventories at the lower of cost and net realizable value and record write-downs of inventories that are obsolete or in excess of anticipated demand or net realizable value. A review of inventory is performed each fiscal quarter that considers factors including the marketability and product lifecycle stage, product development plans, component cost trends, historical sales, and demand forecasts that consider the assumptions about future demand and market conditions. Inventory on hand that is not expected to be sold or utilized is considered excess, and we recognize the write-down in the cost of goods sold at the time of such determination. The write-down is determined by the excess of cost over net realizable value. Net realizable value is the estimated selling price in the ordinary course of business, less reasonably predictable costs of completion, disposal and transportation. At the time of loss recognition, new cost basis per unit and the lower-cost basis for that inventory are established and subsequent changes in facts and circumstances would not result in an increase in the cost basis. If there is an abrupt and substantial decline in demand for Logitech's products or an unanticipated change in technological or customer requirements, we may be required to record additional write-downs that could adversely affect gross margins in the period when the write-downs are recorded. We also extend the assessment to non-cancelable purchase orders if the inventories are considered excess and record the liability that is reasonably possible to be incurred in accrued and other liabilities.
Accounting for Income Taxes
We operate in multiple jurisdictions and our profits are taxed pursuant to the tax laws of these jurisdictions. Our effective income tax rate may be affected by the changes in or interpretations of tax laws and tax agreements in any given jurisdiction, utilization of net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards, changes in geographical mix of income and expense, and changes in our assessment of matters such as the ability to realize deferred tax assets. As a result of these considerations, we must estimate income taxes in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate. This process involves estimating current tax exposure together with assessing temporary differences resulting from the different treatment of items for tax and accounting purposes. These differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which are included in the consolidated balance sheet.
We assess the likelihood that our deferred tax assets will be recovered from future taxable income, considering all available evidence such as historical levels of income, expectations and risks associated with estimates of future
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 43
taxable income and ongoing prudent and feasible tax strategies. When we determine that it is not more likely than not that we will realize all or part of our deferred tax assets, an adjustment is charged to earnings in the period when such determination is made. Likewise, if we later determine that it is more likely than not that all or a part of our deferred tax assets would be realized, the previously provided valuation allowance would be reversed.
We make certain estimates and judgments about the application of tax laws, the expected resolution of uncertain tax positions and other matters surrounding the recognition and measurement of uncertain tax benefits. In the event that uncertain tax positions are resolved for amounts different than our estimates, or the related statutes of limitations expire without the assessment of additional income taxes, we will be required to adjust the amounts of the related assets and liabilities in the period in which such events occur. Such adjustments may have a material impact on our income tax provision and our results of operations.
Business Acquisitions
Accounting for business acquisitions requires us to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially at the acquisition date with respect to tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed and pre-acquisition contingencies. We use our best estimates and assumptions to accurately assign fair value to the tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the acquisition date.
Examples of critical estimates in valuing certain intangible assets and goodwill we have acquired and liabilities we have assumed include but are not limited to:
•assumptions regarding royalty rate range and forecasted revenue growth rate;
•assumptions regarding the estimated useful life of the acquired intangibles;
•discount rates;
•projected risk-based net revenues forecast; and
•asset volatility.
Unanticipated events and circumstances may occur that may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results.
The economic useful life of the developed technology from the business acquisitions was determined based on the technology cycle related to developed technology of existing products, as well as the cash flows over the forecasted periods.
The economic useful life of the customer relationships from the business acquisitions was determined based on historical customer turnover rates and the industry benchmarks.
The economic useful life of the trademarks and trade names from the business acquisitions was determined based on the expected life of the trade names and the cash flows anticipated over the forecasted periods.
For additional information about our Critical Accounting Estimates, see Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in our Notes to our consolidated financial statements below.
Adoption of New Accounting Pronouncements
Refer to Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for recent accounting pronouncements adopted and to be adopted.
Constant Currency
We refer to our net sales growth rates excluding the impact of currency exchange rate fluctuations as "constant currency" sales growth rates. Percentage of constant currency sales growth is calculated by translating prior period sales in each local currency at the current period’s average exchange rate for that currency and comparing that to current period sales.
Given our global sales presence and the reporting of our financial results in U.S. Dollars, our financial results could be affected by significant shifts in currency exchange rates. See “Results of Operations” for information on the effect of currency exchange results on our sales. If the U.S. Dollar appreciates or depreciates in comparison to other currencies in future periods, this will affect our results of operations in future periods as well.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 44
References to Sales
The term “sales” means net sales, except as otherwise specified and the sales growth discussion and sales growth rate percentages are in U.S. Dollars, except as otherwise specified.
Results of Operations
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended March 31, 2022 compared to the year ended March 31, 2021. For a discussion of the year ended March 31, 2021 compared to the year ended March 31, 2020, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on May 12, 2021.
Net Sales
Our sales in fiscal year 2022 increased 4%, compared to fiscal year 2021. The increase in sales was primarily driven by growth in sales in Gaming, Keyboards & Combos, and Pointing Devices, partially offset by a decline in sales of Tablet & Other Accessories, Audio & Wearables, and Video Collaboration. Our sales growth in fiscal year 2022 was driven by continued demand from hybrid work trends and popularity of esports and social gaming, partially offset by the negative impacts from higher promotions and industry-wide supply chain challenges, including supply availability and logistics delays. If currency exchange rates had been constant in 2022 and 2021, our constant currency sales growth rate would have remained at 4%.
Sales Denominated in Other Currencies
Although our financial results are reported in U.S. Dollars, a portion of our sales was generated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, such as the Euro, Chinese Renminbi, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Pound Sterling and New Taiwan Dollar. For the years ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, approximately 50% and 52%, respectively, of our sales were denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar.
Sales by Region
The following table presents the change in sales by region for fiscal year 2022 compared with fiscal year 2021:
| 2022 vs. 2021 | ||||||||||||||
| Sales Growth Rate | Sales Growth Rate in Constant Currency | |||||||||||||
| Americas | 5 | % | 4 | % | ||||||||||
| EMEA | (1) | — | ||||||||||||
| Asia Pacific | 10 | 9 | ||||||||||||
Americas:
The increase in sales in the Americas region for fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021, was primarily driven by growth in sales of Video Collaboration, Keyboards & Combos, Gaming, and Tablet & Other Accessories, partially offset by declines in sales of Audio & Wearables and Mobile Speakers.
EMEA:
The decrease in sales in the EMEA region for fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021, was primarily driven by decline in sales of Video Collaboration, Audio & Wearables, and PC Webcams, partially offset by growth in sales of Gaming, Keyboards & Combos, Pointing Devices, and Tablets & Other Accessories.
Asia Pacific:
The increase in sales in the Asia Pacific region for fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021, was primarily driven by growth in sales of a majority of our product categories, partially offset by decline in sales of Tablet & Other Accessories.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 45
Sales by Product Categories
Sales by product categories for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 were as follows (Dollars in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | 2022 vs. 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pointing Devices | $ | 781,108 | $ | 680,907 | 15 | % | ||||||||||||||
| Keyboards & Combos | 967,301 | 784,488 | 23 | |||||||||||||||||
| PC Webcams | 403,651 | 439,865 | (8) | |||||||||||||||||
| Tablet & Other Accessories | 310,123 | 384,301 | (19) | |||||||||||||||||
Gaming (1) | 1,451,883 | 1,239,005 | 17 | |||||||||||||||||
| Video Collaboration | 997,164 | 1,044,935 | (5) | |||||||||||||||||
| Mobile Speakers | 149,782 | 174,895 | (14) | |||||||||||||||||
| Audio & Wearables | 401,424 | 468,776 | (14) | |||||||||||||||||
| Smart Home | 18,463 | 34,394 | (46) | |||||||||||||||||
Other (2) | 202 | 713 | (72) | |||||||||||||||||
| Total Sales | $ | 5,481,101 | $ | 5,252,279 | 4 | % | ||||||||||||||
(1) Gaming includes streaming services revenue generated by Streamlabs.
(2) Other includes products that we phased out because they are no longer strategic to our business.
Sales by Product Categories:
Creativity & Productivity market:
Pointing Devices
Our Pointing Devices category comprises PC- and Mac-related mice including trackballs, touchpads and presentation tools.
During fiscal year 2022, Pointing Devices sales increased 15%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily driven by the increase in sales for cordless and corded mice.
Keyboards & Combos
Our Keyboards & Combos category comprises PC keyboards, keyboard/mice combo products, and living room keyboards.
During fiscal year 2022, Keyboards & Combos sales increased 23%, compared to fiscal year 2021, driven by increases in sales of cordless and corded keyboards and keyboard/mice combos.
PC Webcams
Our PC Webcams category comprises PC-based webcams targeted primarily at consumers, including streaming cameras.
During fiscal year 2022, PC Webcams sales decreased 8%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily driven by decline in sales of 1080P PRO Webcam, HD Pro Webcam 920, Streamcam, partially offset by an increase in sales of Mevo Video Cameras.
Tablet & Other Accessories
Our Tablet & Other Accessories category primarily comprises keyboards for tablets.
During fiscal year 2022, Tablet & Other Accessories sales decreased 19%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily driven by decline in sales of Rugged Folio and Slim Folio Products, partially offset by sales of Combo Touch for iPad Pro 12.9-inch, introduced in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022, Combo Touch for iPad Pro 11-inch and Combo Touch for iPad Air, introduced in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 46
Gaming market:
Gaming
Our Gaming category comprises gaming mice, keyboards, headsets, gamepads, steering wheels, simulation controllers, console gaming headsets, console gaming controllers, and Streamlabs services.
During fiscal year 2022, Gaming sales increased 17%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily driven by strong performance in nearly all of our Gaming sub-categories, including our gaming mice, gaming steering wheels, and gaming headsets, partially offset by a decline in the sales of our console gaming headsets and console gaming controllers.
Video Collaboration market:
Video Collaboration
Our Video Collaboration category includes Logitech’s ConferenceCams, which combine affordable enterprise-quality audio and high definition 4K video to bring video conferencing to businesses of any size, as well as webcams and headsets that turn any desktop into an instant collaboration space.
During fiscal year 2022, Video Collaboration sales decreased 5%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily driven by the decline in sales of webcams and headsets, partially offset by the increase in sales of conference peripherals.
Music market:
Mobile Speakers
Our Mobile Speakers category is made up entirely of Bluetooth wireless speakers.
During fiscal year 2022, Mobile Speakers sales decreased 14%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily due to a decline in sales of most of our Mobile Speaker sub-categories, partially offset by an increase in sales of our Boom 3 speakers.
Audio & Wearables
Our Audio & Wearables category comprises PC speakers, PC headsets, in-ear headphones, premium wireless audio wearables and studio-quality Blue Microphones for professionals and consumers.
During fiscal year 2022, Audio & Wearables sales decreased 14%, compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily due to the decrease in sales of Blue Microphone products, cordless headsets and Jaybird products, partially offset by an increase in sales of our Ultimate Ears custom and wireless headsets.
In the third quarter of fiscal year 2022, we made a decision to cease future product launches under the Jaybird brand, but plan to continue developing wireless audio products such as Ultimate Ears.
Smart Home market:
Smart Home
Our Smart Home category is mainly comprised of our Harmony line of advanced home entertainment controllers and home security cameras.
During fiscal year 2022, Smart Home sales decreased 46%, compared to fiscal year 2021. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, we made the decision to discontinue manufacturing and selling our Harmony line of advanced home entertainment controllers as the way people consume content has shifted to streaming services across multiple screens. Fiscal year 2022 included sales of remaining Harmony products in inventory. We continue to sell our Circle home security cameras within the Smart Home product category.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 47
Gross Profit
Gross profit for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 was as follows (Dollars in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | ||||||||||||||||||
| Net sales | $ | 5,481,101 | $ | 5,252,279 | 4.4 | % | ||||||||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 2,263,006 | $ | 2,335,735 | (3.1) | % | ||||||||||||||
| Gross margin | 41.3 | % | 44.5 | % | ||||||||||||||||
Gross profit consists of sales, less cost of goods sold (which includes materials, direct labor and related overhead costs, costs of manufacturing facilities, royalties, costs of purchasing components from outside suppliers, distribution costs, warranty costs, customer support costs, shipping and handling costs, outside processing costs and write-down of inventories), and amortization of intangible assets.
Gross margin decreased by 320 basis points to 41.3% during fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021. The decrease in gross margin was primarily due to increased promotional spending, higher reserves for excess inventories, higher material costs and logistic costs, partially offset by favorable impacts from a shift in product mix and currency exchange rates. The higher material costs were due to industry-wide supply chain challenges and supply availability.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 were as follows (Dollars in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||
| Marketing and selling | $ | 1,025,899 | $ | 770,284 | ||||||||||
| % of sales | 18.7 | % | 14.7 | % | ||||||||||
| Research and development | 291,844 | 226,023 | ||||||||||||
| % of sales | 5.3 | % | 4.3 | % | ||||||||||
| General and administrative | 148,648 | 166,577 | ||||||||||||
| % of sales | 2.7 | % | 3.2 | % | ||||||||||
| Amortization of intangible assets and acquisition-related costs | 16,947 | 19,064 | ||||||||||||
| % of sales | 0.3 | % | 0.4 | % | ||||||||||
| Impairment of intangible assets | 7,000 | — | ||||||||||||
| % of sales | 0.1 | % | — | % | ||||||||||
| Change in fair value of contingent consideration for business acquisition | (3,509) | 5,716 | ||||||||||||
| % of sales | (0.1) | % | 0.1 | % | ||||||||||
| Restructuring charges (credits), net | 2,165 | (54) | ||||||||||||
| % of sales | — | % | — | % | ||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | $ | 1,488,994 | $ | 1,187,610 | ||||||||||
| % of sales | 27.2 | % | 22.6 | % | ||||||||||
The increase in total operating expenses during fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021, was mainly due to increases in marketing and selling expenses, research and development expenses, impairment of intangible assets and restructuring charges related to the Jaybird exit, partially offset by decrease in general and administrative expenses and change in fair value of contingent consideration for business acquisition.
Marketing and Selling
Marketing and selling expenses consist of personnel and related overhead costs, corporate and product marketing, promotions, advertising, trade shows, technical support for customer experiences and facilities costs.
During fiscal year 2022, marketing and selling expenses increased $255.6 million, compared to fiscal year 2021. The higher expenses were primarily related to increases of $172.8 million in third-party costs and
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 48
$73.5 million in personnel-related costs. The increase in third-party costs was primarily due to increased marketing and advertising spend to support our investment in brand awareness and consideration. The higher personnel spend was driven by increased headcount to support business growth and go-to-market expansion.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist of personnel and related overhead costs for contractors and outside consultants, supplies and materials, equipment depreciation and facilities costs, all associated with the design and development of new products and enhancements of existing products.
During fiscal year 2022, research and development expenses increased $65.8 million, compared to fiscal year 2021. The increases were primarily driven by $39.9 million of additional personnel-related costs due to increased headcount to support our investment in innovation. Higher third-party costs of $18.2 million also contributed to the growth in research and development expense and were mainly comprised of costs for contractors to support the increased research and development initiatives.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel and related overhead, information technology, and facilities costs for the infrastructure functions such as finance, information systems, executives, human resources and legal.
During fiscal year 2022, general and administrative expenses decreased $17.9 million, compared to fiscal year 2021. The decrease was primarily driven by a $30.0 million contribution into a charitable donor advised fund in fiscal year 2021, partially offset an increase of $10.2 million in personnel-related costs due to increased headcount to support business growth.
Amortization of Intangible Assets and Acquisition-Related Costs
Amortization of intangible assets included in operating expense and acquisition-related costs during fiscal years 2022 and 2021 were as follows (in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||
| Amortization of intangible assets | $ | 16,156 | $ | 18,489 | ||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | 791 | 575 | ||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 16,947 | $ | 19,064 | ||||||||||
Amortization of intangible assets consists of amortization of acquired intangible assets, including customer relationships and trademarks and trade names. Acquisition-related costs include legal expense, due diligence costs, and other professional costs incurred for business acquisitions.
The decrease in amortization of intangible assets and acquisition-related costs from fiscal year 2021 to 2022 was primarily driven by write-off Jaybird intangible assets in fiscal year 2022, partially offset by full year of amortization in fiscal year 2022 for intangible assets acquired through acquisitions completed in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021.
Impairment of Intangible Assets
During fiscal year 2022, we recognized a pre-tax impairment charge of $7.0 million, related to the intangibles acquired as part of the Jaybird acquisition due to our decision to discontinue Jaybird-branded products.
Change in Fair Value of Contingent Consideration for Business Acquisition
The change in fair value of contingent consideration was a decrease of $3.5 million for fiscal year 2022, primarily due to the release of the contingent consideration from the acquisition of Mevo as a result of not achieving the net sales milestone upon completion of the earn-out period. The change in fair value of contingent consideration was an increase of $5.7 million for fiscal year 2021, primarily due to growth in Streamlabs' net sales and the achievement of the net sales targets during the six-month earn-out period ended June 30, 2020.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 49
Restructuring Charges (Credits), Net
During fiscal year 2022, we recorded restructuring charges of $2.1 million related to our decision to exit Jaybird-branded products. The total charges consisted of $1.3 million, primarily related to costs of production cancellation, and $0.8 million related to cash severance and termination benefits. We expect to complete the restructuring within the next nine months.
Interest Income
Interest income for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 was as follows (in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||
| Interest Income | $ | 1,246 | $ | 1,784 | ||||||||||
We invest in highly liquid instruments with an original maturity of three months or less at the date of purchase, which are classified as cash equivalents. The decrease in interest income for fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021, was primarily driven by the decline in interest rates.
Other Income (Expense), Net
Other income and expense for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 was as follows (in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||
| Investment income related to the deferred compensation plan | $ | 1,231 | $ | 5,916 | ||||||||||
| Currency exchange loss, net | (4,604) | (2,688) | ||||||||||||
| Loss on investments, net | (1,683) | (5,910) | ||||||||||||
| Other | 5,616 | 893 | ||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 560 | $ | (1,789) | ||||||||||
Investment income related to the deferred compensation plan for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 represents earnings, gains, and losses on marketable securities related to a deferred compensation plan offered by one of our subsidiaries. The decrease in investment income for fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021 primarily relates to the change in market performance of the underlying securities.
Currency exchange loss, net, relates to balances denominated in currencies other than the functional currency in our subsidiaries, as well as the sale of currencies, and gains or losses recognized on currency exchange forward contracts. We do not speculate in currency positions, but we are alert to opportunities to maximize currency exchange gains and minimize currency exchange losses. The loss for fiscal year 2022 was primarily related to the strengthening of the Chinese Renminbi against the U.S. Dollar.
Loss on investments, net, represents the realized gain (loss) on sales of investment, unrealized gain (loss) from the fair value change of investment and gain (loss) on equity-method investments during the periods presented.
Other, includes the components of net periodic benefit cost other than the service costs component. The increase in the net gains for fiscal year 2022, compared to fiscal year 2021, was related to the actuarial gains primarily resulting from change in termination rate assumption used for one of our defined benefit plans.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 50
Provision for Income Taxes
The provision for income taxes and the effective income tax rate for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 were as follows (Dollars in thousands):
| Years Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||
| Provision for income taxes | $ | 131,305 | $ | 200,863 | ||||||||||
| Effective income tax rate | 16.9 | % | 17.5 | % | ||||||||||
The change in the effective income tax rate between fiscal years 2022 and 2021 was primarily due to the mix of income and losses in the various tax jurisdictions in which we operate.
We recognized excess tax benefits from share-based payments, net of shortfalls of $16.3 million and $8.7 million in the United States in fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively, and recognized income tax benefit from the reversal of uncertain tax positions from the expiration of statutes of limitations in the amount of $4.9 million and $4.7 million in fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively. In addition, we recognized income tax benefit of $3.7 million from the reversal of uncertain tax positions from an effective settlement of a foreign income tax audit in fiscal year 2022.
As of March 31, 2022 and 2021, the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits due to uncertain tax positions was $176.0 million and $160.3 million, respectively, all of which would affect the effective income tax rate if recognized.
As of March 31, 2022 and 2021, we had $83.4 million and $59.2 million, respectively, in non-current income taxes payable, including interest and penalties, related to our income tax liability for uncertain tax positions. We recognized $1.5 million and $1.1 million, in interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax positions in income tax expense during fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively. As of March 31, 2022 and 2021, we had $3.6 million and $4.9 million, respectively, of accrued interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions.
We file Swiss and foreign tax returns. We received final tax assessments in Switzerland through fiscal year 2019. For other material foreign jurisdictions such as the United States and China, we are generally not subject to tax examinations for years prior to fiscal year 2019 and calendar year 2019, respectively. In the United States, the federal and state tax agencies have the authority to examine periods prior to fiscal year 2019, to the extent allowed by law, where tax attributes were generated, carried forward, and being utilized in subsequent years. We are under examination in foreign tax jurisdictions. If the examinations are resolved unfavorably, there is a possibility that they may have a material negative impact on our results of operations.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Cash Balances, Available Borrowings, and Capital Resources
As of March 31, 2022, we had cash and cash equivalents of $1,328.7 million, compared with $1,750.3 million as of March 31, 2021. Our cash and cash equivalents consist of bank demand deposits and short-term time deposits, of which 70% is held in Switzerland, 12% is held in China (including Hong Kong), and 10% is held in Germany. We do not expect to incur any material adverse tax impact except for what has already been recognized, or to be significantly inhibited by any country in which we do business from the repatriation of funds to Switzerland, our home domicile.
As of March 31, 2022, our working capital was $1,651.8 million, compared with working capital of $1,477.5 million as of March 31, 2021. The increase was primarily driven by higher inventories, higher accounts receivable, net, lower accounts payable and lower accrued and other current liabilities, partially offset by lower cash and cash equivalents.
We had several uncommitted, unsecured bank lines of credit aggregating to $195.0 million as of March 31, 2022. There are no financial covenants under these lines of credit with which we must comply. As of March 31, 2022, we had outstanding bank guarantees of $25.5 million under these lines of credit.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 51
The following table presents selected financial information and statistics as of March 31, 2022 and 2021 (Dollars in thousands):
| March 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||
| Accounts receivable, net | $ | 675,604 | $ | 612,225 | ||||||||||
| Accounts payable | $ | 636,306 | $ | 823,233 | ||||||||||
| Inventories | $ | 933,124 | $ | 661,116 | ||||||||||
Days sales in accounts receivable (DSO)(Days)(1) | 49 | 36 | ||||||||||||
Days accounts payable outstanding (DPO) (Days)(2) | 78 | 90 | ||||||||||||
Inventory turnover (ITO)(x)(3) | 3.2 | 5.0 | ||||||||||||
(1)DSO is determined using ending accounts receivable, net as of the most recent quarter-end and sales for the most recent quarter.
(2)DPO is determined using ending accounts payable as of the most recent quarter-end and cost of goods sold for the most recent quarter.
(3)ITO is determined using ending inventories and annualized cost of goods sold (based on the most recent quarterly cost of goods sold).
DSO as of March 31, 2022 increased by 13 days to 49 days, as compared to 36 days as of March 31, 2021, primarily due to the timing of sales and customer payments within the quarter.
DPO as of March 31, 2022 decreased 12 days, compared to March 31, 2021, primarily due to lower inventory purchases than prior year as well as timing of purchases and related payments.
ITO as of March 31, 2022 was lower compared to March 31, 2021, primarily due to lower demand than prior year and industry wide logistic delays.
If we are not successful in launching and phasing in our new products, or market competition increases, or we are not able to sell the new products at the prices planned, it could have a material impact on our sales, gross profit margin, operating results including operating cash flow, and inventory turnover in the future.
During fiscal year 2022, we generated $298.3 million in cash from operating activities, resulting from net income of 644.5 million, a favorable impact from adding back non-cash expenses totaling $245.7 million, and an unfavorable net change in operating assets and liabilities of $591.9 million. Non-cash expenses were primarily related to share-based compensation expenses, depreciation, amortization, and deferred income taxes. The increase in accounts receivable, net was primarily driven by timing of sales. The increase in inventories was primarily driven by higher inventory levels compared to the previously constrained supply from COVID-19 impacts and industry wide logistic delays. The decrease in accounts payable was primarily driven by lower inventory purchases than prior years as well as the timing of purchases and related payments. The decrease in accrued and other liabilities was primarily driven by a higher annual bonus accrual and a higher annual income tax payment, both due to strong business performance in fiscal year 2021.
For fiscal year 2022, net cash used in investing activities was $107.9 million, primarily due to purchases of property, plant, and equipment of $89.2 million and payments for an acquisition, net of cash acquired, of $16.2 million. Our expenditures for property, plant and equipment during fiscal year 2022 were primarily for tooling and equipment as well as computer hardware and software.
For fiscal year 2022, net cash used in financing activities was $606.8 million, resulting from repurchases of our registered shares of $412.0 million, payments of cash dividends of $159.4 million, and tax withholdings related to net share settlements of restricted stock units of $64.2 million, partially offset by proceeds from exercise of stock options and purchase rights of $29.6 million.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 52
During fiscal year 2022, there was a $5.2 million loss from currency exchange rate effect on cash and cash equivalents, primarily due to the weakening of the Euro and Australian dollar versus the U.S. Dollar by 3%, and 5%, respectively.
Cash Outlook
Our principal sources of liquidity are our cash and cash equivalents, cash flow generated from operations and, to a much lesser extent, capital markets and borrowings. Our future working capital requirements and capital expenditures may increase to support investments in product innovations and growth opportunities or to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, products, services, and technologies. The future impact of COVID-19 cannot be predicted with certainty and may increase our costs of capital and otherwise adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.
In May 2022, the Board of Directors recommended that we pay cash dividends for fiscal year 2022 of CHF 0.96 per share (approximately $1.04 per share based on the exchange rate on March 31, 2022). Based on our shares outstanding, net of treasury shares, as of March 31, 2022 (165,252,020 shares), this would result in an aggregate gross dividend of approximately CHF 159.0 million (or approximately $172.1 million based on the exchange rate on March 31, 2022). In fiscal year 2022, we paid a cash dividend of CHF 0.87 per share, or CHF 147.0 million (U.S. Dollar amount of $159.4 million) on an aggregate gross basis, out of fiscal year 2021 retained earnings. In fiscal year 2021, we paid a cash dividend of CHF 0.79 per share, or CHF 134.0 million (U.S. Dollar amount of $146.7 million) on an aggregate gross basis, out of fiscal year 2020 retained earnings. In fiscal year 2020, we paid a cash dividend of CHF 0.73 per share, or CHF 121.8 million (U.S. Dollar amount of $124.2 million) on an aggregate gross basis, out of fiscal year 2019 retained earnings.
In May 2020, our Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase program, which authorizes us to invest up to $250.0 million to purchase our own shares, following the expiration date of the 2017 share repurchase program. In April 2021, our Board of Directors approved an increase of $750.0 million of the 2020 share repurchase program, to an aggregate amount of $1.0 billion. The Swiss Takeover Board approved this increase and it became effective on May 21, 2021. As of March 31, 2022, $423.7 million was available for repurchase under the 2020 repurchase program.
Although we enter into trading plans for systematic repurchases (e.g., 10b5-1 trading plans) from time to time, our share repurchase program provides us with the opportunity to make opportunistic repurchases during periods of favorable market conditions and is expected to remain in effect for a period of three years through July 27, 2023. Shares may be repurchased from time to time on the open market, through block trades or otherwise. Opportunistic purchases may be started or stopped at any time without prior notice depending on market conditions and other factors.
For over ten years, we have generated positive cash flows from our operating activities, including cash from operations of $298.3 million, and $1,458.6 million during fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively. If we do not generate sufficient operating cash flows to support our operations and future planned cash requirements, our operations could be harmed and our access to credit facilities could be restricted or eliminated. However, we believe that the trend of our historical cash flow generation, our projections of future operations and our available cash balances will provide sufficient liquidity to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months.
Our other contractual obligations and commitments that require cash are described in the following sections.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Purchase Commitments
As of March 31, 2022, we had non-cancelable purchase commitments of $736.9 million for inventory purchases made in the normal course of business from original design manufacturers, contract manufacturers and other suppliers, the majority of which are expected to be fulfilled during the first two quarters of fiscal year 2023. We recorded a liability for firm, non-cancelable, and unhedged inventory purchase commitments in excess of anticipated demand or net realizable value consistent with our valuation of excess and obsolete inventory. As of March 31, 2022, the liability for these purchase commitments was $46.4 million and is recorded in accrued and other current liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet.
We have firm purchase commitments of $29.5 million for capital expenditures, primarily related to commitments for tooling and equipment for new and existing products. We expect to continue making capital expenditures in the future to support product development activities and ongoing and expanded operations.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 53
Although open purchase commitments are considered enforceable and legally binding, the terms generally allow us to reschedule or adjust our requirements based on business needs prior to delivery of goods or performance of services.
Operating Leases Obligation
We lease facilities under operating leases, certain of which require us to pay property taxes, insurance and maintenance costs. Operating leases for facilities are generally renewable at our option and usually include escalation clauses linked to inflation. The remaining terms of our non-cancelable operating leases expire in various years through 2031. See Note 17 - Leases in our Notes to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information on leases.
Income Taxes Payable
As of March 31, 2022, we had $83.4 million in non-current income taxes payable, including interest and penalties, related to our income tax liability for uncertain tax positions. At this time, we are unable to make a reasonably reliable estimate of the timing of payments in individual years in connection with these tax liabilities.
Indemnifications
We indemnify certain suppliers and customers for losses arising from matters such as intellectual property disputes and product safety defects, subject to certain restrictions. The scope of these indemnities varies, but in some instances includes indemnification for damages and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees. As of March 31, 2022, no amounts have been accrued for indemnification provisions. We do not believe, based on historical experience and information currently available, that it is probable that any material amounts will be required to be paid under our indemnification arrangements.
We also indemnify our current and former directors and certain current and former officers. Certain costs incurred for providing such indemnification may be recoverable under various insurance policies. We are unable to reasonably estimate the maximum amount that could be payable under these arrangements because these exposures are not capped, the obligations are conditional in nature, and the facts and circumstances involved in any situation that might arise are variable.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 54
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Market Risk
Market risk represents the potential for loss due to adverse changes in the fair value of financial instruments. As a company with global operations, we face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates and interest rates. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve and could have a material adverse impact on our financial results.
Currency Exchange Rates
We report our results in U.S. Dollars. Changes in currency exchange rates compared to the U.S. Dollar can have a material impact on our results when the financial statements of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are translated into U.S. Dollars. The functional currency of our operations is primarily the U.S. Dollar. Certain operations use the Swiss Franc or the local currency of the country as their functional currencies. Accordingly, unrealized currency gains or losses resulting from the translation of net assets or liabilities denominated in other currencies to the U.S. Dollar are accumulated in the cumulative translation adjustment component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) ("AOCI") in shareholders' equity.
We are exposed to currency exchange rate risk as we transact business in multiple currencies, including exposure related to anticipated sales, anticipated purchases and assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. We transact business in over 30 currencies worldwide, of which the most significant to operations are the Euro, Chinese Renminbi, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Pound Sterling and New Taiwan Dollar. For the year ended March 31, 2022, approximately 50% of our sales were in non-U.S. denominated currencies, with 25% of our sales denominated in Euro. The mix of our costs of goods sold and operating expenses by currency are significantly different from the mix of our sales, with a larger portion denominated in U.S. Dollar and less denominated in Euro and other currencies. A strengthening U.S. Dollar has a more unfavorable impact on our sales compared to the favorable impact on our cost of goods sold and operating expenses, resulting in an adverse impact on our operating results.
We enter into currency forward and swap contracts to reduce the short-term effects of currency fluctuations on certain receivables or payables denominated in currencies other than the functional currencies of our subsidiaries. These contracts generally mature within one month. The gains or losses on these contracts are recognized in earnings based on the changes in fair value.
If an adverse 10% foreign currency exchange rate change had been applied to total monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currencies at the balance sheet dates, it would have resulted in an adverse effect on income before income taxes of approximately $24.4 million and $37.8 million as of March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The adverse effect as of March 31, 2022 and 2021 is after consideration of the offsetting effect of approximately $15.9 million and $12.4 million, respectively, from foreign exchange contracts in place as of such dates.
We enter into cash flow hedge contracts to protect against exchange rate exposure of forecasted inventory purchases. These hedging contracts mature within four months. Gains and losses in the fair value of the effective portion of the hedges are deferred as a component of AOCI until the hedged inventory purchases are sold, at which time the gains or losses are reclassified to cost of goods sold.
If the U.S. dollar had weakened by 10%, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign exchange contracts before tax effect as of March 31, 2022 and 2021 would have been approximately $12.5 million and $16.5 million lower, respectively. The change in the fair value recorded in AOCI would be expected to offset a corresponding foreign currency change in cost of goods sold when the hedged inventory purchases are sold.
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Logitech's financial statements and supplementary data required by this item are set forth as a separate section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See Item 15(a) for a listing of financial statements provided in the section titled "Financial Statements."
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 55
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
Not applicable.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
(a) Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
The Company's management, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), has conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of the Company's disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act)) as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this Annual Report) required by Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(b) or 15d-15(b). Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to reasonably assure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act, such as this Annual Report on Form 10-K, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures are also designed to reasonably assure that this information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the CEO and CFO, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Based on this evaluation, the CEO and CFO concluded that, as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report, the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective at a reasonable assurance level.
Attached as exhibits to this Annual Report are certifications of the CEO and CFO, which are required in accordance with Rule 13a-14 of the Exchange Act. This Controls and Procedures section includes the information concerning the controls evaluation referred to in the certifications, and it should be read in conjunction with the certifications for a more complete understanding of the topics presented.
(b) Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
The Company's management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s management, including the CEO and CFO, the Company conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria established in the Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013), issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of March 31, 2022.
The effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2022 has been audited by KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in its report, which appears in Item 15.
(c) Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in the Company's internal control over financial reporting during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
(d) Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls
The Company's management, including the CEO and the CFO, does not expect that the Company's disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. Internal control over financial reporting, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in internal control over financial reporting, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Controls can also be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls is based in part on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 56
or deterioration in the degree of compliance with policies or procedures. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
None.
ITEM 9C. DISCLOSURE REGARDING FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS THAT PREVENT INSPECTIONS
None.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 57
PART III
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Information regarding our executive officers is incorporated herein by reference to Part I, Item 1, above.
Other information required by this Item may be found in the definitive Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
The Company's code of ethics policy entitled, "Logitech Code of Conduct" covers members of the Company's board of directors, the principal executive officer, principal financial and accounting officer and other executive officers as well as all other employees.
Any amendments or waivers of the code of ethics for members of the Company's board of directors or executive officers will be disclosed in the investor relations section of the Company's website within four business days following the date of the amendment or waiver. During fiscal year 2020, the Company updated and revised its code of ethics. The new code was posted to the investor relations section of the Company's website.
Logitech's code of ethics is available on the Company's website at www.logitech.com, and for no charge, a copy of the Company's code of ethics can be requested via the following address or phone number:
Logitech
Investor Relations
7700 Gateway Boulevard
Newark, CA 94560 USA
Main (510) 795-8500
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The information required by this item may be found in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
The information required by this item may be found in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
The information required by this item may be found in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
The information required by this item may be found in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
(a)The following documents are filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K:
1. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
Financial Statements:
Consolidated Statements of Changes in Shareholders' Equity—Years Ended March 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020
2. Financial Statement Schedule
3. Exhibits
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 59
Index to Exhibits
| Incorporated by Reference | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exhibit No. | Exhibit | Form | File No. | Filing Date | Exhibit No. | Filed Herewith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2.1 | *** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 10/25/2018 | 2.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2.2 | *** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 10/24/2019 | 2.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3.1 | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 10/22/2020 | 3.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3.2 | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 1/21/2021 | 3.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4.1 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.1 | ** | S-8 | 333-100854 | 5/27/2003 | 4.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.2 | ** | DEFA14A | 0-29174 | 7/22/2016 | App. A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.3 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 11/4/2008 | 10.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.4 | ** | DEFA14A | 0-29174 | 7/23/2013 | App. A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.5 | ** | DEFA14A | 0-29174 | 7/23/2013 | App. B | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.6 | ** | 20-F | 0-29174 | 5/21/2003 | 4.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.7 | ** | 20-F | 0-29174 | 5/21/2003 | 4.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.8 | ** | DEFA14A | 0-29174 | 7/23/2013 | App. C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.9 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 11/4/2009 | 10.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.10 | ** | S-8 | 333-180726 | 4/13/2012 | 10.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.11 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 2/5/2013 | 10.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.12 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 1/22/2016 | 10.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.13 | ** | 10-K | 0-29174 | 5/26/2017 | 10.33 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 60
| 10.14 | ** | 10-K | 0-29174 | 5/26/2017 | 10.34 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.15 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 10/25/2018 | 10.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.16 | ** | 8-K | 0-29174 | 7/23/2019 | 10.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.17 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 7/23/2020 | 10.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.18 | ** | 10-Q | 0-29174 | 7/23/2020 | 10.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 21.1 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 23.1 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 24.1 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 31.1 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 31.2 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 32.1 | X | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 101.INS | XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 101.SCH | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 101.CAL | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 101.DEF | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 101.LAB | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 101.PRE | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101) | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_______________________________________________________________________________
* This exhibit is furnished herewith, but not deemed "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to liability under that section. Such certification will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, except to the extent that we explicitly incorporate it by reference.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 61
** Indicates management compensatory plan, contract or arrangement.
*** Confidential treatment has been requested for certain provisions omitted from this exhibit pursuant to Rule 406 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The omitted information has been filed separately with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 62
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this Report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
| LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL S.A. | ||||||||
| /s/ BRACKEN DARRELL | ||||||||
Bracken Darrell President and Chief Executive Officer | ||||||||
| /s/ NATE OLMSTEAD | ||||||||
Nate Olmstead Chief Financial Officer | ||||||||
| May 18, 2022 | ||||||||
Logitech International S.A. | Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K | 63
POWER OF ATTORNEY AND SIGNATURES
KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Bracken Darrell and Nate Olmstead, jointly and severally, his or her attorney-in-fact, with the power of substitution, for him or her in any and all capacities, to sign any amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and to file the same, with exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereby ratifying and confirming all that each of said attorneys-in-fact, or his or her substitute or substitutes, may do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Annual Report on Form 10-K has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.