Annual Report on Form 10-K
Table of Contents

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

 

 

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010

or

 

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

333-168516-09

(Commission File Number)

 

 

LOGO

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation

(Exact name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

 

Delaware   83-0406195

(State or Other Jurisdiction of

Incorporation or Organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

c/o MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A.

74, rue de Merl, B.P. 709 L-2146 Luxembourg R.C.S.

Luxembourg B97483

(352) 45-62-62

(Address, including Zip Code, and telephone number, including area code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class

 

Name of each exchange on which registered

Depositary Shares   New York Stock Exchange*
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share   New York Stock Exchange**

 

* Depository Shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange until April 24, 2011, at which time they will be mandatorily converted into common stock.

 

** Common stock will not trade directly on the NYSE until April 24, 2011, at which time, all Depository Shares will cease to trade on the NYSE and the common stock will begin to trade on the NYSE.

Securities 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  x    No

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  x    No

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.   x    Yes  ¨    No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files.   ¨    Yes   ¨    No

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.   ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

 

Large Accelerated Filer  ¨

   Accelerated Filer  ¨    Non-Accelerated Filer  x    Smaller Reporting Company  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).  ¨    Yes  x    No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed all documents and reports required to be filed by Sections 12, 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 subsequent to the distribution of securities under a plan confirmed by a court.   x    Yes  ¨    No

State the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter. Not applicable.

As of March 16, 2011, the registrant had 39,351,989 shares of common stock outstanding.

 

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

None.

 

 

 


Table of Contents

MAGNACHIP SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

               Page  

PART I

        
   Item 1.    Business      2   
   Item 1A.    Risk Factors      19   
   Item 1B.    Unresolved Staff Comments      37   
   Item 2.    Properties      37   
   Item 3.    Legal Proceedings      38   

PART II

        
   Item 5.   

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

     38   
   Item 6.    Selected Financial Data      41   
   Item 7.   

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

     47   
   Item 7A.    Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk      89   
   Item 8.    Financial Statements and Supplementary Data      91   
   Item 9.   

Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

     158   
   Item 9A.    Controls and Procedures      158   
   Item 9B.    Other Information      159   

PART III

        
   Item 10.    Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance      160   
   Item 11.    Executive Compensation      165   
   Item 12.   

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

     186   
   Item 13.    Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence      191   
   Item 14.    Principal Accountant Fees and Services      192   

PART IV

        
   Item 15.    Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules      193   

SIGNATURES

     198   

EXHIBIT INDEX

  

CERTIFICATIONS

  

 

i


Table of Contents

PART I

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

In this Report, we rely on and refer to information regarding the semiconductor market from iSuppli Corporation, or iSuppli, and Gartner, Inc., or Gartner. Market data attributed to iSuppli is from “Display Driver ICs Q3 2010 Market Tracker” and “Power Management Q3 2010 Market Tracker” and market data attributed to Gartner is from “Semiconductor Forecast Worldwide: Forecast Database, 08 Dec 2010.” Although we believe that this information is reliable, we have not independently verified it. We do not have any obligation to announce or otherwise make publicly available updates or revisions to forecasts contained in these documents. In addition, in many cases, we have made statements in this Report regarding our industry and our position in the industry based on our experience in the industry and our own investigation of market conditions.

Statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Report”), unless the context otherwise requires, include the use of the terms “we,” “us,” “our” and “MagnaChip” refer to MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries. The term “Korea” refers to the Republic of Korea or South Korea.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

We have made certain “forward-looking” statements in this Report under the protection of the safe harbor of forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act. Information concerning us is subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements give our current expectations and projections relating to our financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this Report that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are largely based on our expectations and beliefs concerning future events, which reflect estimates and assumptions made by our management. These estimates and assumptions reflect our best judgment based on currently known market conditions and other factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Although we believe our estimates and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently uncertain and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that are beyond our control. In addition, management’s assumptions about future events may prove to be inaccurate. Management cautions all readers that the forward-looking statements contained in this Report are not guarantees of future performance, and we cannot assure any reader that those statements will be realized or the forward-looking events and circumstances will occur. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements due to the factors listed in the “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business” sections and elsewhere in this Report.

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Report. We do not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as required by law. These cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf.

 

 

“MagnaChip” is a registered trademark of us and our subsidiaries and “MagnaChip Everywhere” is our registered service mark. An application for United States trademark registration of “MagnaChip Everywhere” is pending. All other product, service and company names mentioned in this Report are the service marks or trademarks of their respective owners.

 

 

 

1


Table of Contents

Item 1. Business

Recent Events

On March 10, 2011, we completed our initial public offering, which we refer to as the “MagnaChip Corporation IPO.” Prior to the MagnaChip Corporation IPO, our board of directors and the holders of a majority of our outstanding common units converted MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC from a Delaware limited liability company to MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, a Delaware corporation. In order to consummate such a conversion, a certificate of conversion was filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement. In connection with the corporate conversion, the outstanding common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC were automatically converted into shares of common stock of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, outstanding options to purchase common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC were automatically converted into options to purchase shares of common stock of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation and outstanding warrants to purchase common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC were automatically converted into warrants to purchase shares of common stock of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, all at a ratio of one share of common stock for eight common units. We refer to such transactions as the “corporate conversion.”

General

We are a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high-volume consumer applications. We believe we have one of the broadest and deepest analog and mixed-signal semiconductor technology platforms in the industry, supported by our 30-year operating history, large portfolio of approximately 2,730 registered novel patents and 760 pending novel patent applications, and extensive engineering and manufacturing process expertise. Our business is comprised of three key segments: Display Solutions, Power Solutions and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Our Display Solutions products include display drivers that cover a wide range of flat panel displays and mobile multimedia devices. Our Power Solutions products include discrete and integrated circuit solutions for power management in high-volume consumer applications. Our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment provides specialty analog and mixed-signal foundry services for fabless semiconductor companies that serve the consumer, computing and wireless end markets.

Our wide variety of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products and manufacturing services combined with our deep technology platform allows us to address multiple high-growth end markets and to rapidly develop and introduce new products and services in response to market demands. Our substantial manufacturing operations in Korea and design centers in Korea and Japan place us at the core of the global consumer electronics supply chain. We believe this enables us to quickly and efficiently respond to our customers’ needs and allows us to better service and capture additional demand from existing and new customers.

We have a long history of supplying and collaborating on product and technology development with leading innovators in the consumer electronics market. As a result, we have been able to strengthen our technology platform and develop products and services that are in high demand by our customers and end consumers. We sold over 2,400 and 2,300 distinct products to over 500 and 185 customers for the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, respectively, with a substantial portion of our revenues derived from a concentrated number of customers. The increase in number of customers is due to the continuing growth of our Power Solutions business. Our largest semiconductor manufacturing services customers include some of the fastest growing and leading semiconductor companies that design analog and mixed-signal products for the consumer, computing and wireless end markets.

Our business is largely driven by innovation in the consumer electronics markets and the growing adoption by consumers worldwide of electronic devices for use in their daily lives. The consumer electronics market is large and growing rapidly, largely due to consumers increasingly accessing a wide variety of available rich media content, such as high definition audio and video, mobile television and games on advanced consumer electronic

 

2


Table of Contents

devices. According to Gartner, production of liquid crystal display, or LCD televisions, smartphones, mobile personal computers, or PCs, and media tablets is expected to grow from 2010 to 2013 by a compound annual growth rate of 8%, 39%, 25%, and 99%, respectively. Electronics manufacturers are continuously implementing advanced technologies in new generations of electronic devices using analog and mixed-signal semiconductor components, such as display drivers that enable display of high resolution images, encoding and decoding devices that allow playback of high definition audio and video, and power management semiconductors that increase power efficiency, thereby reducing heat dissipation and extending battery life. According to iSuppli Corporation, in 2009, the display driver semiconductor market was $6.2 billion and the power management semiconductor market was $22.4 billion. For the year ended December 31, 2010, we generated net sales of $770.4 million, income from continuing operations of $74.1 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $157.9 million and Adjusted Net Income of $89.2 million. For 2009 (on a combined basis), we generated net sales of $560.1 million, income from continuing operations of $832.0 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $98.7 million and Adjusted Net Income of $22.6 million. On June 12, 2009, we filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code and our plan of reorganization became effective on November 9, 2009. For 2008, we generated net sales of $601.7 million, losses from continuing operations of $325.8 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $59.8 million and Adjusted Net Loss of $71.7 million. See “Item 6. Selected Financial Data” and “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” elsewhere in this Report for an explanation of our use of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income.

Our History

Our business was named MagnaChip Semiconductor when it was acquired from Hynix Semiconductor, Inc., or Hynix, in October 2004. We refer to this acquisition as the Original Acquisition.

On June 12, 2009, MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC, along with certain of its subsidiaries, including MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A., filed a voluntary petition for relief in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which we refer to as the reorganization proceedings. On November 9, 2009, our plan of reorganization became effective and we emerged from the reorganization proceedings with our management team remaining in place. Our Chapter 11 plan of reorganization implemented a comprehensive financial reorganization that significantly reduced our outstanding indebtedness. Additionally, on that date, a new board of directors of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC was appointed, MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC’s previously outstanding common and preferred units, and options were cancelled, MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC issued approximately 300 million common units (approximately 37.5 million shares of common stock following the corporate conversion) and warrants to purchase 15 million common units (approximately 1.9 million shares of common stock following the corporate conversion) to two classes of creditors and affiliated funds of Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. became the majority unitholder of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC.

Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. is a global investment management firm, and it and its affiliated funds specialize in investing in high yield debt, debt of insolvent or financially distressed companies and equity of companies undergoing financial or operational turnarounds or reorganizations. In this Report, we refer to funds affiliated with Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. collectively as Avenue. Avenue generally does not manage or operate the companies in which it invests; however, in connection with some of its equity investments, Avenue will appoint one or more representatives to serve on the board of directors. Avenue was a holder of a significant portion of our indebtedness which was outstanding prior to our reorganization proceedings. In connection with our emergence from our reorganization proceedings, Avenue became our majority unitholder as a result of its participation in our rights offering and continued as a lender under our new term loan. In connection with our offering (the “senior notes offering”) of $250 million aggregate principal amount of 10.5% senior notes due April 15, 2018 (the “notes” or “senior notes”), Avenue purchased notes in the aggregate principal amount of $35.0 million, was repaid $42.8 million in connection with the repayment of our new term loan and received $91.2 million in connection with our distribution to unitholders. Avenue will continue to be able to elect a majority of our board as long as Avenue continues to hold or control a majority of our outstanding shares. See “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence” for additional information.

 

3


Table of Contents

On March 10, 2011, we completed the MagnaChip Corporation IPO. In connection with the corporate conversion effective immediately prior to the MagnaChip Semiconductor IPO, we completed a number of transactions pursuant to which MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation succeeded to the business of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC and its consolidated subsidiaries, the members of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC became stockholders of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation and all of the outstanding options and warrants to purchase common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC were automatically converted into options and warrants to purchase shares of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation’s common stock.

Our Products and Services

Our Display Solutions products include source and gate drivers and timing controllers that cover a wide range of flat panel displays used in LCD, light emitting diode, or LED, and 3D televisions and displays, mobile PCs and mobile communications and entertainment devices. Our display solutions support the industry’s most advanced display technologies, such as low temperature polysilicon, or LTPS, and active matrix organic light emitting diode, or AMOLED, as well as high-volume display technologies such as thin film transistor, or TFT. Our Display Solutions business represented 39.7%, 50.5% and 50.5% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 (on a combined basis) and 2008, respectively.

We expanded our business and market opportunity by establishing our Power Solutions business in late 2007. We have introduced a number of products for power management applications, including metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, or MOSFETs, analog switches, LED drivers, DC-DC converters and linear regulators for a range of devices, including LCD and LED digital televisions, mobile phones, computers and other consumer electronics products. Our Power Solutions business represented 7.4%, 2.2% and 0.9% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 (on a combined basis) and 2008, respectively.

We offer semiconductor manufacturing services to fabless analog and mixed-signal semiconductor companies that require differentiated, specialty analog and mixed-signal process technologies. We believe the majority of our top twenty semiconductor manufacturing services customers use us as their primary manufacturing source for the products that we manufacture for them. Our process technologies are optimized for analog and mixed-signal devices and include standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, or CMOS, high voltage CMOS, ultra-low leakage high voltage CMOS and bipolar complementary double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor, or BCDMOS, and electronically erasable programmable read only memory, or EEPROM. Our semiconductor manufacturing services customers use us to manufacture a wide range of products, including display drivers, LED drivers, audio encoding and decoding devices, microcontrollers, electronic tags and power management semiconductors. Our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services business represented 52.6%, 46.7% and 47.7% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 (on a combined basis) and 2008, respectively.

We manufacture all of our products at our three fabrication facilities located in Korea. We have approximately 240 proprietary process flows we can utilize for our products and offer to our semiconductor manufacturing services customers. Our manufacturing base serves both our display driver and power management businesses and semiconductor manufacturing services customers, allowing us to optimize our asset utilization and leverage our investments across our product and service offerings. Analog and mixed-signal manufacturing facilities and processes are typically distinguished by design and process implementation expertise rather than the use of the most advanced equipment. These processes also tend to migrate more slowly to smaller geometries due to technological barriers and increased costs. For example, some of our products use high-voltage technology that requires larger geometries and that may not migrate to smaller geometries for several years, if at all. As a result, our manufacturing base and strategy does not require substantial investment in leading edge process equipment, allowing us to utilize our facilities and equipment over an extended period of time with moderate required capital investments.

 

4


Table of Contents

Market Opportunity

The consumer electronics market is large and growing rapidly. Growth in this market is being driven by consumers seeking to enjoy a wide variety of available rich media content, such as high definition audio and video, mobile television and games. Consumer electronics manufacturers recognize that the consumer entertainment experience plays a critical role in differentiating their products. To address and further stimulate consumer demand, electronics manufacturers have been driving rapid advances in the technology, functionality, form factor, cost, quality, reliability and power consumption of their products. Electronics manufacturers are continuously implementing advanced technologies in new generations of electronic devices using analog and mixed-signal semiconductor components, such as display drivers that enable display of high resolution images, encoding and decoding devices that allow playback of high definition audio and video, and power management semiconductors that increase power efficiency, thereby reducing heat dissipation and extending battery life. These advanced generations of consumer devices are growing faster than the overall consumer electronics market. For example, according to Gartner, production of LCD televisions, smartphones, mobile PCs, and media tablets is expected to grow from 2010 to 2013 by a compound annual growth rate of 8%, 39%, 25%, and 99%, respectively.

The user experience delivered by a consumer electronic device is substantially driven by the quality of the display, audio and video processing capabilities and power efficiency of the device. Analog and mixed-signal semiconductors enable and enhance these capabilities. Examples of these analog and mixed-signal semiconductors include display drivers, timing controllers, audio encoding and decoding devices, or codecs, and interface circuits, as well as power management semiconductors such as voltage regulators, converters, and switches. According to iSuppli, in 2009, the display driver semiconductor market was $6.2 billion and the power management semiconductor market was $22.4 billion.

Requirements of Leading Consumer Electronics Manufacturers

We believe our target customers view the following characteristics and capabilities as key differentiating factors among available analog and mixed-signal semiconductor suppliers and manufacturing service providers:

 

 

Broad Offering of Differentiated Products with Advanced System-Level Features and Functions. Leading consumer electronics manufacturers seek to differentiate their products by incorporating innovative semiconductor products that enable unique system-level functionality and enhance performance. These consumer electronics manufacturers seek to closely collaborate with semiconductor solutions providers that continuously develop new and advanced products, technologies, and manufacturing processes that enable state of the art features and functions, such as bright and thin displays, small form factor and energy efficiency.

 

 

Fast Time to Market with New Products. As a result of rapid technological advancements and short product lifecycles, our target customers typically prefer suppliers who have a compelling pipeline of new products and can leverage a substantial intellectual property and technology base to accelerate product design and manufacturing when needed.

 

 

Nimble, Stable and Reliable Manufacturing Services. Fabless semiconductor providers who rely on external manufacturing services often face rapidly changing product cycles. If these fabless companies are unable to meet the demand for their products due to issues with their manufacturing services providers, their profitability and market share can be significantly impacted. As a result, they prefer semiconductor manufacturing services providers who can increase production quickly and meet demand consistently through periods of constrained industry capacity. Furthermore, many fabless semiconductor providers serving the consumer electronics and industrial sectors need specialized analog and mixed-signal manufacturing capabilities to address their product performance and cost requirements.

 

 

Ability to Deliver Cost Competitive Solutions. Electronics manufacturers are under constant pressure to deliver cost competitive solutions. To accomplish this objective, they need strategic semiconductor suppliers

 

5


Table of Contents
 

that have the ability to provide system-level solutions, highly integrated products, a broad product offering at a range of price points and have the design and manufacturing infrastructure and logistical support to deliver cost competitive products.

 

 

Focus on Delivering Highly Energy Efficient Products. Consumers increasingly seek longer run time, environmentally friendly and energy efficient consumer electronic products. In addition, there is increasing regulatory focus on reducing energy consumption of consumer electronic products. For instance, the California Energy Commission recently adopted standards that require televisions sold in California to consume 33% less energy by 2011 and 49% less energy by 2013. As a result of global focus on more environmentally friendly products, our customers are seeking analog and mixed-signal semiconductor suppliers that have the technological expertise to deliver solutions that satisfy these ever increasing regulatory and consumer power efficiency demands.

Our Competitive Strengths

Designing and manufacturing analog and mixed-signal semiconductors capable of meeting the evolving functionality requirements for consumer electronics devices is challenging. In order to grow and succeed in the industry, we believe semiconductor suppliers must have a broad, advanced intellectual property portfolio, product design expertise, comprehensive product offerings and specialized manufacturing process technologies and capabilities. Our competitive strengths enable us to offer our customers solutions to solve their key challenges. We believe our strengths include:

 

 

Advanced Analog and Mixed-Signal Semiconductor Technology and Intellectual Property Platform. We believe we have one of the broadest and deepest analog and mixed-signal semiconductor technology platforms in the industry. Our long operating history, large patent portfolio, extensive engineering and manufacturing process expertise and wide selection of analog and mixed-signal intellectual property libraries allow us to leverage our technology and develop new products across multiple end markets. Our product development efforts are supported by a team of approximately 394 engineers. Our platform allows us to develop and introduce new products quickly as well as to integrate numerous functions into a single product. For example, we were one of the first companies to introduce a commercial AMOLED display driver for mobile phones.

 

 

Established Relationships and Close Collaboration with Leading Global Electronics Companies. We have a long history of supplying and collaborating on product and technology development with leading innovators in the consumer electronics market. Our close customer relationships have been built based on many years of close collaborative product development which provides us with deep system level knowledge and key insights into our customers’ needs. As a result, we are able to continuously strengthen our technology platform in areas of strategic interest for our customers and focus on those products and services that our customers and end consumers demand the most.

 

 

Longstanding Presence in Asia and Proximity to Global Consumer Electronics Supply Chain. Our presence in Asia facilitates close contact with our customers, fast response to their needs and enhances our visibility into new product opportunities, markets and technology trends. According to Gartner, semiconductor consumption in Asia, excluding Japan, has increased from 49% of global production in 2004 to 60% in 2009 and is projected to grow to 66% by 2013. Our substantial manufacturing operations in Korea and design centers in Korea and Japan place us close to many of our largest customers and to the core of the global consumer electronics supply chain. We have active applications, engineering, product design, and customer support resources, as well as senior management and marketing resources, in geographic locations close to our customers. This allows us to strengthen our relationship with customers through better service, faster turnaround time and improved product design collaboration. We believe this also helps our customers to deliver products faster than their competitors and to solve problems more efficiently than would be possible with other suppliers.

 

 

Broad Portfolio of Product and Service Offerings Targeting Large, High-Growth Markets. We continue to develop a wide variety of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for multiple high-growth

 

6


Table of Contents
 

consumer electronics end markets. We believe our expanding product and service offerings allow us to provide additional products to new and existing customers and to cross-sell our products and services to our established customers. For example, we have leveraged our technology expertise and customer relationships to develop and grow a new business offering power management solutions to customers. Our power management solutions enable our customers to increase system stability and reduce heat dissipation and energy use, resulting in cost savings for our customers, as well as environmental benefits. We have been able to sell these new products to our existing customers as well as expand our customer base.

 

 

Distinctive Analog and Mixed-Signal Process Technology Expertise and Manufacturing Capabilities. We have developed specialty analog and mixed-signal manufacturing processes such as high voltage CMOS, power and embedded memory. These processes enable us to flexibly ramp mass production of display, power and mixed-signal products, and shorten the duration from design to delivery of highly integrated, high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. As a result of the depth of our process technology, captive manufacturing facilities and customer support capabilities, we believe the majority of our top twenty manufacturing services customers by revenue currently use us as their primary manufacturing source for the products that we manufacture for them.

 

 

Highly Efficient Manufacturing Capabilities. Our manufacturing strategy is focused on optimizing our asset utilization across our display driver and power management products as well as our semiconductor manufacturing services, which enables us to maintain the price competitiveness of our products and services through our low-cost operating structure and improve our operational efficiency. We believe the location of our primary manufacturing and research and development facilities in Asia and relatively low required ongoing capital expenditures provide us with a number of cost advantages. We offer specialty analog process technologies that do not require substantial investment in leading edge, smaller geometry process equipment. We are able to utilize our manufacturing base over an extended period of time and thereby minimize our capital expenditure requirements.

 

 

Strong Financial Model with a Low-Cost Structure. Over the past two years we implemented significant structural improvements to our operating and financial model that lowered our capital investment requirements and improved our cash flow and profitability. The long lifecycles of our manufacturing processes, equipment and facilities allow us to keep our new capital requirements relatively low. We believe that our low-cost but highly skilled design and support engineers and manufacturing base position us favorably to compete in the marketplace and provide operating leverage in our operating model.

Our Strategy

Our objective is to grow our business, our cash flow and profitability and to establish our position as a leading provider of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products and services for high-volume markets. Our business strategy emphasizes the following key elements:

 

 

Leverage Our Advanced Analog and Mixed-Signal Technology Platform to Innovate and Deliver New Products and Services. We intend to continue to utilize our extensive patent and technology portfolio, analog and mixed-signal design and manufacturing expertise and specific end-market applications and system-level design expertise to deliver products with high levels of performance by utilizing our systems expertise and leveraging our deep knowledge of our customers’ needs. For example, we have recently utilized our extensive patent portfolio, process technologies and analog and mixed-signal technology platform to develop cost-effective Super Junction MOSFETs as well as low power integrated power solutions for AC-DC offline switchers to address more of our customers’ needs. In Display Solutions, we continue to invest in research and development to introduce new technologies to support our customers’ technology roadmaps such as their transition to 240Hz 3D LED televisions. In Semiconductor Manufacturing Services, we are developing cost-effective processes that substantially reduce die size using deep trench isolation.

 

 

Increase Business with Existing Customers. We have a global customer base consisting of leading consumer electronics OEMs who sell into multiple end markets. We intend to continue to strengthen our

 

7


Table of Contents
 

relationships with our customers by collaborating on critical design and product development in order to improve our design win rates. We will seek to increase our customer penetration by more closely aligning our product roadmap with those of our key customers and by taking advantage of our broad product portfolio, our deep knowledge of customer needs and existing relationships to sell more existing and new products. For example, two of our largest display driver customers have display modules in production using our power management products. These power management products have been purchased and evaluated via their key subcontractors for LCD backlight units and LCD integrated power supplies.

 

 

Broaden Our Customer Base. We expect to continue to expand our global design centers, local application engineering support and sales presence, particularly in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, or collectively, Greater China, and other high-growth geographies, to penetrate new accounts. In addition, we intend to introduce new products and variations of existing products to address a broader customer base. In order to broaden our market penetration, we are complementing our direct customer relationships and sales with an expanded base of distributors, especially to aid the growth of our power management business. We expect to continue to expand our distribution channels as we broaden our power management penetration beyond existing customers.

 

 

Aggressively Grow the Power Business. We have utilized our extensive patent portfolio, process technologies, captive manufacturing facilities and analog and mixed-signal technology platform to develop power management solutions that expand our market opportunity and address more of our customers’ needs. We intend to increase the pace of our new power product introductions by continuing to collaborate closely with our industry-leading customers. For example, we began mass production of our first integrated power solution for LCD televisions at one of our major Korean customers in early 2010. We also intend to capitalize on the market needs and regulatory requirements for power management products that reduce energy consumption of consumer electronic products by introducing products that are more energy efficient than those of competitors. We believe our integrated designs, unique low-cost process technologies and deep customer relationships will enable us to increase sales of our power solutions to our current power solutions customers, and as an extension of our other product offerings, to our other customers.

 

 

Drive Execution Excellence. We have significantly improved our execution through a number of management initiatives implemented under the direction of our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Sang Park. As an example, we have introduced new processes for product development, customer service and personnel development. We expect these ongoing initiatives will continue to improve our new product development and customer service as well as enhance our commitment to a culture of quick action and execution by our workforce. In addition, we have focused on and continually improved our manufacturing efficiency during the past several years. As a result of our focus on execution excellence, we have also meaningfully reduced our time from new product definition to development completion. For example, we have improved our average development turnaround time by over 40% over the last three years for semiconductor manufacturing services by implementing continuous business process improvement initiatives and we improved our manufacturing productivity per operator by 22% from 2009 to 2010.

 

 

Optimize Asset Utilization, Return on Capital Investments and Cash Flow Generation. We intend to keep our capital expenditures relatively low by maintaining our focus on specialty process technologies that do not require substantial investment in frequent upgrades to the latest manufacturing equipment. We also believe our power management business should increase our utilization and return on capital as the manufacturing of these products primarily relies on our 0.35µm geometry and low-cost equipment. By utilizing our manufacturing facilities for both our display solutions and power solutions products and our semiconductor manufacturing services customers, we will seek to maximize return on our capital investments and our cash flow generation.

 

8


Table of Contents

Our Technology

We continuously strengthen our advanced analog and mixed-signal semiconductor technology platform by developing innovative technologies and integrated circuit building blocks that enhance the functionality of consumer electronics products through brighter, thinner displays, enhanced image quality, smaller form factor and longer battery life. We seek to further build our technology platform through proprietary research and development and selective licensing and acquisition of complementary technologies, as well as disciplined process improvements in our manufacturing operations. Our goal is to leverage our experience and development initiatives across multiple end markets and utilize our understanding of system-level issues our customers face to introduce new technologies that enable our customers to develop more advanced, higher performance products.

Our display technology portfolio includes building blocks for display drivers and timing controllers, processor and interface technologies, as well as sophisticated production techniques, such as chip-on-glass, or COG, which enables the manufacture of thinner displays. Our advanced display drivers incorporate LTPS and AMOLED panel technologies that enable the highest resolution displays. Furthermore, we are developing a broad intellectual property portfolio to improve the power efficiency of displays, including the development of our smart mobile luminance control, or SMLC, algorithm.

We have a long history of specialized process technology development and have a number of distinctive process implementations. We have approximately 240 process flows we can utilize for our products and offer to our semiconductor manufacturing services customers. Our process technologies include standard CMOS, high voltage CMOS, ultra-low leakage high voltage CMOS and BCDMOS. Our manufacturing processes incorporate embedded memory solutions such as static random access memory, or SRAM, one-time programmable, or OTP, memory, multiple-time programmable, or MTP, memory, EEPROM, and single-transistor random access memory, or 1TRAM. More broadly, we focus extensively on processes that reduce die size across all of the products we manufacture, in order to deliver cost-effective solutions to our customers.

Expertise in high voltage and deep trench BCDMOS process technologies, low power analog and mixed-signal design capabilities and packaging know-how are key requirements in the power management market. We are currently leveraging our capabilities in these areas with products such as AC-DC converters, DC-DC converters, linear regulators, including LDO, regulators and analog switches, and power MOSFETs. We believe our system level understanding of applications such as LCD televisions and mobile phones will allow us to more quickly develop and customize power management solutions for our customers in these markets.

Our Products and Services

Our broad portfolio of products and services addresses multiple high-growth, consumer-focused end markets. A key component of our product strategy is to supply multiple related product and service offerings to each of the end markets that we serve.

Display Solutions

Display Driver Characteristics. Display drivers deliver defined analog voltages and currents that activate pixels to exhibit images on displays. The following key characteristics determine display driver performance and end-market application:

 

 

Resolution and Number of Channels. Resolution determines the level of detail displayed within an image and is defined by the number of pixels per line multiplied by the number of lines on a display. For large displays, higher resolution typically requires more display drivers for each panel. Display drivers that have a greater number of channels, however, generally require fewer display drivers for each panel and command a higher selling price per unit. Mobile displays, conversely, are typically single chip solutions designed to deliver a specific resolution. We cover resolutions ranging from QVGA (240RGB x 320) to DVGA (960RGB x 640).

 

9


Table of Contents
 

Color Depth. Color depth is the number of colors that can be displayed on a panel. For example, for TFT-LCD panels, 262 thousand colors are supported by 6-bit source drivers; 16 million colors are supported by 8-bit source drivers; and 1 billion colors are supported by 10-bit and 12-bit source drivers.

 

 

Operational Voltage. Display drivers are characterized by input and output voltages. Source drivers typically operate at input voltages from 2.0 to 3.6 volts and output voltages between 4.5 and 18 volts. Gate drivers typically operate at input voltages from 2.0 to 3.6 volts and output voltages of up to 40 volts. Lower input voltage results in lower power consumption and electromagnetic interference, or EMI.

 

 

Gamma Curve. The relationship between the light passing through a pixel and the voltage applied to the pixel by the source driver is referred to as the gamma curve. The gamma curve of the source driver can correct some imperfections in picture quality in a process generally known as gamma correction. Some advanced display drivers feature up to three independent gamma curves to facilitate this correction.

 

 

Driver Interface. Driver interface refers to the connection between the timing controller and the display drivers. Display drivers increasingly require higher bandwidth interface technology to address the larger data transfer rate necessary for higher definition images. The principal types of interface technologies are transistor-to-transistor logic, or TTL, reduced swing differential signaling, or RSDS, advance intra panel I/F, or AIPI, mini-low voltage differential signaling, or m-LVDS, and ultra slim I/F, or USI.

 

 

Package Type. The assembly of display drivers typically uses chip-on-film, or COF, tape carrier package, or TCP, and COG package types.

Large Display Solutions. We provide display solutions for a wide range of flat panel display sizes used in LCD televisions, including high definition televisions, or HDTVs, LED TVs, 3D TVs, LCD monitors and mobile PCs.

Our large display solutions include source and gate drivers and timing controllers with a variety of interfaces, voltages, frequencies and packages to meet customers’ needs. These products include advanced technologies such as high channel count, with products in mass production to provide up to 960 channels. We also offer a distinctive interface technology known as LCDS, which supports thinner displays for mobile PCs. Our large display solutions are designed to allow customers to cost-effectively meet the increasing demand for high resolution displays. We focus extensively on reducing the die size of our large display drivers and other solutions products to reduce costs without having to migrate to smaller geometries. For example, we have implemented several solutions to reduce die size in large display drivers, such as optimizing design schemes and design rules and applying specific technologies that we have developed internally. We have recently introduced a number of new large display drivers with reduced die size.

 

10


Table of Contents

The table below sets forth the features of our products, both in mass production and in customer qualification, which is the final stage of product development, for large-sized displays:

 

Product

  

Key Features

  

Applications

TFT-LCD Source Drivers

  

•    480 to 960 output channels

  

•    LCD monitors, including widescreens

•    Mobile PCs, including netbooks

•    Digital televisions, including LED TVs

  

•    6-bit (262 thousand colors), 8-bit (16 million colors), 10-bit (1 billion colors)

  
  

•    Output voltage ranging from 3.3V to 18V

  
  

•    Low power consumption and low EMI

  
  

•    Supports COF package types

  
  

•    Supports RSDS, m-LVDS, AiPi*, USI* interface technologies

  
  

•    Geometries of 0.15µm to 0.35µm

  

TFT-LCD Gate Drivers

  

•    272 to 768 output channels

  

•    LCD monitors, including widescreens

•    Mobile PCs, including netbooks

•    Media tablets

  

•    Output voltage ranging up to 45V

  
  

•    Supports COF and COG package types

  
  

•    Geometries of 0.35µm

  

•    Digital televisions, including LED TVs

Timing Controllers

  

•    Product portfolio supports a wide range of resolutions

  

•    LCD monitors, including widescreens

•    Mobile PCs, including netbooks

  

•    Supports m-LVDS, AiPi* interface technologies

  
  

•    Input voltage ranging from 2.3V to 3.6V

  
  

•    Geometries of 0.18µm

  

 

* In customer qualification stage

Mobile Display Solutions. Our mobile display solutions incorporate the industry’s most advanced display technologies, such as LTPS and AMOLED, as well as high-volume technologies such as a-Si (amorphous silicon) TFT. Our mobile display products offer specialized capabilities, including high speed serial interfaces, such as mobile display digital interface, or MDDI, and mobile industry processor interface, or MIPI, as well as multi-time programmable, or MTP, memories, using EEPROM and logic-based OTP memory. We focus extensively on reducing the die size of our mobile display drivers and other solutions products to reduce costs without having to migrate to smaller geometries. For example, we have implemented several solutions to reduce die size in mobile display drivers, such as optimizing design schemes and design rules and applying specific technologies that we have developed internally. Further, we are building a distinctive intellectual property portfolio that allows us to provide features that reduce power consumption, such as SMLC, ambient light-based brightness control, or LABC, automatic brightness control, or ABC, and automatic current limit, or ACL. This intellectual property portfolio will also support our power management product development initiatives, as we leverage our system level understanding of power efficiency.

 

11


Table of Contents

The following table summarizes the features of our products, both in mass production and in customer qualification, which is the final stage of product development, for mobile displays:

 

Product

  

Key Features

  

Applications

LTPS

  

•    Resolutions of QVGA, WQVGA, VGA, WVGA*, DVGA*

  

•    Mobile phones

•    Game consoles

  

•    Color depth ranging from 262 thousand to 16 million

  
  

•    MDDI, MIPI interface

  
  

•    EEPROM and logic-based OTP, separated gamma control

  

AMOLED

  

•    Resolutions of WQVGA, HVGA, WVGA, QHD*

  

•    Mobile phones

•    Game consoles

•    Digital still cameras

•    Personal digital assistants

•    Portable media players

  

•    Color depth ranging from 262 thousand to 16 million

  
  

•    Geometries of 0.11µm to 0.15µm

  
  

•    MDDI, MIPI interface

  
  

•    EEPROM and logic-based OTP

  
  

•    ABC, ACL

  

a-Si TFT

  

•    Resolutions of QVGA, WQVGA, HVGA, WVGA, WSVGA, HD

  

•    Mobile phones

•    Game consoles

•    Netbooks

•    Portable navigation devices

  

•    Color depth ranging from 262 thousand to 16 million

  
  

•    MDDI, MIPI interface

  
  

•    Content adaptive brightness control, or CABC

  
  

•    LVDS, I(2)C, DCDC

  
  

•    Separated gamma control

  

 

* In customer qualification stage

Power Solutions

We develop, manufacture and market power management solutions for a wide range of end market customers. The products include MOSFETs, LED Drivers, DC-DC converters, analog switches and linear regulators, such as LDOs.

 

 

MOSFET. Our MOSFETs include low-voltage Trench MOSFETs, 20V to 100V, and high-voltage Planar MOSFETs, 400V through 600V. MOSFETs are used in applications to switch, shape or transfer electricity under varying power requirements. The key application segments are mobile phones, LCD televisions, desktop computers and power supplies for consumer electronics and industrial equipment. MOSFETs allow electronics manufacturers to achieve specific design goals of high efficiency and low standby power consumption. For example, computing solutions focus on delivering efficient controllers and MOSFETs for power management in VCORE, DDR and chipsets for audio, video and graphics processing systems.

 

 

LED Drivers. LED driver solutions serve the fast-growing LCD panel backlighting market for LCD televisions, LCD monitors and mobile PCs. Our products are designed to provide high efficiency and wide input voltage range as well as PWM dimming for accurate white LED dimming control.

 

12


Table of Contents
 

DC-DC Converters. We plan to release DC-DC converters targeting mobile applications and high power applications like LCD televisions, set-top boxes, DVD/Blu-ray players and display modules. We expect our DC-DC converters will meet customer green power requirements by featuring wide input voltage ranges, high efficiency and small size.

 

 

Analog Switches and Linear Regulators. We also provide analog switches and linear regulators for mobile applications. Our products are designed for high efficiency and low power consumption in mobile applications.

Our power management solutions enable customers to increase system stability and reduce heat dissipation and energy use, resulting in cost savings for our customers and consumers, as well as environmental benefits. Our in-house process technology capabilities and eight-inch wafer production lines increase efficiency and contribute to the competitiveness of our products.

The following table summarizes the features of our products, both in mass production and in customer qualification, which is the final stage of product development:

 

Product

  

Key Features

  

Applications

Low Voltage MOSFET

  

•    V(ds)(V) options of 20V—100V

  

•    Mobile phones

•    Desktop computers

•    Mobile PCs

•    Digital TVs

  

•    R(ds)(on) options of Max 5m W—50m W at 10V

  
  

•    Advanced 0.35µm Trench MOSFET Process

  
  

•    High cell density of 268Mcell/inch(2)

  
  

•    Advanced packages to enable reduction of PCB mounting area

  

High Voltage MOSFET

  

•    Voltage options of 400, 500, and 600V

  

•    Power supplies for consumer electronics

•    Industrial charger and adaptors

•    Lighting (ballast, HID, LED)

•    Industrial equipment

  

•    Drain current options of 1A—18A.

  
  

•    R(ds)(on) options of 0.22~8.0 W (typical)

  
  

•    R(2)FET (rapid recovery) option to shorten reverse diode recovery time

  
  

•    Zenor FET option for MOSFET protection for abnormal input

  
  

•    Advanced 0.50µm Planar MOSFET Process

  

 

13


Table of Contents

Product

  

Key Features

  

Applications

LED Drivers

  

•    High efficiency, wide input voltage range

  

•    LED backlights for digital TVs, LCD monitors and mobile PCs

  

•    Proven 0.35µm BCDMOS process

  
  

•    40V and 65V* modular BCDMOS

  
  

•    OCP, SCP, OVP and UVLO protections

  
  

•    Accurate LED current control and multi-channel matching

  
  

•    Programmable current limit, boost up frequency

  

DC-DC Converters*

  

•    High efficiency, wide input voltage range

  

•    LCD TVs

•    Set-top boxes

•    DVD/Blu-ray players

  

•    Proven 0.35µm BCDMOS process

  
  

•    30V modular BCDMOS

  
  

•    Fast load and line regulation

  
  

•    Accurate output voltage

  
  

•    OCP, SCP and thermal protections

  

Analog Switches

   USB Switches   

•    Mobile phones

  

•    Low C(on), 7.0pF (typical) limits signal distortion

  
  

•    Low R(on), 4.0 W (typical)

  
  

•    0.35µm CMOS process

  
   Audio Switches   
  

•    Negative Swing Support

  
  

•    Low R(on), 0.4 W (typical)

  
  

•    High ESD protection, 13kV

  
  

•    0.35µm CMOS process

  

Linear Regulators

  

•    Single and dual* LDOs

  

•    Mobile phones

  

•    Low Noise Output Linear µCap LDO Regulator

  
  

•    2.3V to 5.5V input voltage and 150mA, 300mA* output current

  
  

•    Small package size of DFN type

  
  

•    0.35µm CMOS process

  

 

* In customer qualification stage

 

14


Table of Contents

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services

We provide semiconductor manufacturing services to analog and mixed-signal semiconductor companies. We have approximately 240 process flows we offer to our semiconductor manufacturing services customers. We also often partner with key customers to jointly develop or customize specialized processes that enable our customers to improve their products and allow us to develop unique manufacturing expertise.

Our semiconductor manufacturing services offering is targeted at customers who require differentiated, specialty analog and mixed-signal process technologies such as high voltage CMOS, embedded memory and power. We refer to our approach of delivering specialized services to our customers as our application-specific technology, or AS Tech, strategy. We differentiate ourselves through the depth of our intellectual property portfolio, ability to customize process technology to meet the customers’ requirements effectively, long history in this business and reputation for excellence.

Our semiconductor manufacturing services customers typically serve high-growth and high-volume applications in the consumer, computing and wireless end markets. We strive to be the primary manufacturing source for our semiconductor manufacturing services customers.

Process Technology Overview

 

 

Mixed-Signal. Mixed-signal process technology is used in devices that require conversion of light and sound into electrical signals for processing and display. Our mixed-signal processes include advanced technologies such as low noise process using triple gate, which uses less power at any given performance level. MEMS process technology allows the manufacture of components that use electrical energy to generate a mechanical response. For example, MEMS devices are used in the accelerometers and gyroscopes of mobile phones.

 

 

Power. Power process technology, such as BCD, includes high voltage capabilities as well as the ability to integrate functionality such as self-regulation, internal protection, and other intelligent features. The unique process features such as deep trench isolation are suited for chip shrink and device performance enhancement.

 

 

High Voltage CMOS. High voltage CMOS process technology facilitates the use of high voltage levels in conjunction with smaller transistor sizes. This process technology includes several variations, such as bipolar processes, which use transistors with qualities well suited for amplifying and switching applications, mixed mode processes, which incorporate denser, more power efficient FETs, and thick metal processes.

 

 

Non-Volatile Memory. Non-volatile memory, or NVM, process technology enables the integration of non-volatile memory cells that allow retention of the stored information even when power is removed from the circuit. This type of memory is typically used for long-term persistent storage.

The table below sets forth the key process technologies in Semiconductor Manufacturing Services currently in mass production:

 

Process

 

Technology

 

Device

 

End Markets

Mixed-signal

 

•    0.13-0.8µm

 

•    Analog to digital converter

 

•    Consumer

 

•    Multipurpose

 

•    Digital to analog converter

 

•    Wireless

 

•    Low noise

 

•    Audio codec

 

•    Computing

 

•    Ultra low power

 

•    Chipset

 
 

•    Triple gate

   

 

15


Table of Contents

Process

 

Technology

 

Device

 

End Markets

Power

 

•    0.18-0.35µm

 

•    Power management

 

•    Consumer

 

•    aBCD

 

•    Mobile PMIC

 

•    Wireless

 

•    Deep Trench Isolation

 

•    LED drivers

 

•    Computing

 

•    Trench MOSFET

   
 

•    Planar MOSFET

   
 

•    Schottky Diode

   
 

•    Zener Diode

   

High Voltage CMOS

 

•    0.13-2.0µm

 

•    Display drivers

 

•    Consumer

 

•    5V-250V

 

•    CSTN drivers

 

•    Wireless

 

•    Bipolar, Thick Metal

   

•    Computing

NVM

 

•    0.18-0.5µm

 

•    Microcontroller

 

•    Consumer

 

•    EEPROM

 

•    Touch screen controller

 

•    Medical

 

•    eFlash

 

•    Electronic tag

 

•    Automotive

 

•    OTP

 

•    Hearing aid

 

Sales and Marketing

We focus our sales and marketing strategy on creating and strengthening our relationships with leading consumer electronics OEMs, as well as analog and mixed-signal semiconductor companies. We believe our close collaboration with customers allows us to align our product and process technology development with our customers’ existing and future needs. Because our customers often service multiple end markets, our product sales teams are organized by customers within the major geographies. We believe this facilitates the sale of products that address multiple end-market applications to each of our customers. Our semiconductor manufacturing services sales teams focus on marketing our services to analog and mixed-signal semiconductor companies that require specialty manufacturing processes.

We sell our products through a direct sales force and a network of authorized agents and distributors. We have strategically located our sales and technical support offices near our customers. Our direct sales force consists primarily of representatives co-located with our design centers in Korea and Japan, as well as our local sales and support offices in Greater China and Europe. We have a network of agents and distributors in Korea, Japan, Europe and Greater China. With the expansion of our Power Solutions portfolio, we have added sales agents in Europe and the United States in 2010 and we expect to expand in 2011. For the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, we derived 76% and 82% of net sales through our direct sales force, respectively, and 24% and 18% of net sales through our network of authorized agents and distributors, respectively.

Research and Development

Our research and development efforts focus on intellectual property, design methodology and process technology for our complex analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products and services. Research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2010, the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 and the year ended December 31, 2008 were $83.5 million, $70.9 million and $89.5 million, respectively, representing 10.8%, 12.7% and 14.9% of net sales, respectively.

Customers

We sell our display solutions and power solutions products to consumer electronics OEMs as well as subsystem designers and contract manufacturers. We sell our semiconductor manufacturing services to analog and mixed-signal semiconductor companies. For the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, our ten largest customers accounted for 63% and 69% of our net sales, respectively, and we had one customer, LG Display, representing 16% and 26% of our consolidated net sales, for

 

16


Table of Contents

the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, respectively. Substantially all of our sales to LG Display are in our Display Solutions segment and sales to LG Display represented 41% and 51% of net sales in our Display Solutions segment in the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, respectively. Our relationships with some of our ten largest customers were and may continue to be adversely impacted by our reorganization proceedings. Some of these customers did not offer us the opportunity to compete for new design wins during the pendency of our reorganization proceedings. However, subsequent to our emergence from our reorganization proceedings we have again been provided an opportunity to compete for these projects. For the year ended December 31, 2010, we recorded revenues of $90.0 million from customers in the United States and $680.4 million from all foreign countries, of which 55.7% was from Korea, 23.1% from Taiwan, 8.4% from Japan and 9.3% from China, Hong Kong and Macau. For the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, we recorded revenues of $59.0 million from customers in the United States and $501.1 million from all foreign countries, of which 61.2% was from Korea, 18.5% from Taiwan, 7.6% from Japan and 9.6% from China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Intellectual Property

As of December 31, 2010, our portfolio of intellectual property assets included approximately 3,470 registered patents and 1,055 pending patent applications. Approximately 2,730 and 760 of our patents and pending patents are novel in that they are not a foreign counterpart of an existing patent or patent application. Because we file patents in multiple jurisdictions, we additionally have approximately 1,035 registered and pending patents that relate to identical technical claims in our base patent portfolio. Our patents expire at various times over the next 18 years. While these patents are in the aggregate important to our competitive position, we do not believe that any single registered or pending patent is material to us.

We have entered into exclusive and non-exclusive licenses and development agreements with third parties relating to the use of intellectual property of the third parties in our products and our design processes, including licenses related to embedded memory technology, design tools, process simulation tools, circuit designs and processor cores. Some of these licenses, including our agreements with Silicon Works Co., Ltd. and ARM Limited, are material to our business and may be terminated prior to the expiration of these licenses by the licensors should we fail to cure any breach under such licenses. Our license with Silicon Works Co., Ltd. relates to our large display drivers and our license from ARM Limited primarily relates to product lines in our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services business. The loss of either license could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations. Additionally, in connection with the Original Acquisition, Hynix retained a perpetual license to use the intellectual property that we acquired from Hynix in the Original Acquisition. Under this license, Hynix and its subsidiaries are free to develop products that may incorporate or embody intellectual property developed by us prior to October 2004.

Competition

We operate in highly competitive markets characterized by rapid technological change and continually advancing customer requirements. Although no one company competes with us in all of our product lines, we face significant competition in each of our market segments. Our competitors include other independent and captive manufacturers and designers of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits including display driver and power management semiconductor devices, as well as companies providing specialty manufacturing services.

We compete based on design experience, manufacturing capabilities, the ability to service customer needs from the design phase through the shipping of a completed product, length of design cycle and quality of technical support and sales personnel. Our ability to compete successfully will depend on internal and external variables, both within and outside of our control. These variables include the timeliness with which we can develop new products and technologies, product performance and quality, manufacturing yields, capacity availability, customer service, pricing, industry trends and general economic trends.

 

17


Table of Contents

Employees

Our worldwide workforce consisted of 3,337 employees (full- and part-time) as of December 31, 2010, of which 391 were involved in sales, marketing, general and administrative, 394 were in research and development (including 205 with advanced degrees), 109 were in quality, reliability and assurance and 2,443 were in manufacturing (comprised of 351 in engineering and 2,092 in operations). As of December 31, 2010, 2,208 employees, or approximately 66.2% of our workforce, were represented by the MagnaChip Semiconductor Labor Union, which is a member of the Federation of Korean Metal Workers Trade Unions. We believe our labor relations are good.

Environmental

Our operations are subject to a variety of environmental, health and safety laws and regulations in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate, governing, among other things, air emissions, wastewater discharges, the generation, use, handling, storage and disposal of, and exposure to, hazardous substances (including asbestos) and waste, soil and groundwater contamination and employee health and safety. These laws and regulations are complex, constantly changing and have tended to become more stringent over time. For example, the Korean government is planning to adopt the Asbestos Safety Management Act and Emission Trading Act which we expect will result in additional compliance obligations and costs. There can be no assurance that we have been or will be in compliance with all these laws and regulations, or that we will not incur material costs or liabilities in connection with these laws and regulations in the future. The adoption of new environmental, health and safety laws, any failure to comply with new or existing laws or issues relating to hazardous substances could subject us to material liability (including substantial fines or penalties), impose the need for additional capital equipment or other process requirements upon us, curtail our operations or restrict our ability to expand operations.

Raw Materials

We use processes that require specialized raw materials that are generally available from a limited number of suppliers. Tape is one of the process materials required for our display drivers. We continue to attempt to qualify additional suppliers for our raw materials.

Segments

For a description of our business and the distribution of our assets by geographic regions and reporting segments, see note 23 to the consolidated financial statements for MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation for the year ended December 31, 2010 included elsewhere in this Report.

Available Information

Our principal executive offices are located at: c/o MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A., 74, rue de Merl, B.P. 709 L-2146 Luxembourg R.C.S., Luxembourg B-97483, and our telephone number is (352) 45-62-62. Our website address is www.magnachip.com. Our annual, quarterly and current reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q or 8-K, respectively, and all amendments thereto filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Security and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), can be accessed, free of charge, at our website as soon as practicable after such reports are filed with the SEC. In addition, our corporate governance guidelines, Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, audit committee charter, compensation committee charter and nominating and governance committee charter are available on our website. Information contained on our website does not constitute, and shall not be deemed to constitute, part of this Report and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into this Report.

You may read and copy any materials we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. In addition, the SEC maintains an internet site, http://www.sec.gov,

 

18


Table of Contents

from which you can access our annual, quarterly and current reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, respectively, and all amendments to these materials after such reports and amendments are filed with the SEC. In addition, you may request a copy of any of these filings, at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at the following address or phone number: c/o MagnaChip Semiconductor, Inc., 20400 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Suite 370, Cupertino, CA 95014, Attention: Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; the telephone number at that address is 408-625-5999.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the risk factors set forth below as well as the other information contained in this Report. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. As a result, the price of our common stock could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment in our common stock. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or those currently viewed by us to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We have a history of losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.

Since we began operations as a separate entity in 2004, we have not generated a profit for a full fiscal year and have generated significant net losses. As of October 25, 2009, prior to our emergence from reorganization proceedings, we had an accumulated deficit of $964.8 million and negative unitholders’ equity. We may increase spending and we currently expect to incur higher expenses in each of the next several quarters to support increased research and development and sales and marketing efforts. These expenditures may not result in increased revenue or an increase in the number of customers immediately or at all. Because many of our expenses are fixed in the short term, or are incurred in advance of anticipated sales, we may not be able to decrease our expenses in a timely manner to offset any shortfall of sales.

We recently emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings; because our consolidated financial statements reflect fresh-start accounting adjustments, our future consolidated financial statements will not be comparable in many respects to our financial information from prior periods.

On June 12, 2009, we filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in order to obtain relief from our debt, which was $845 million as of December 31, 2008. Our plan of reorganization became effective on November 9, 2009. In connection with our emergence from the reorganization proceedings, we implemented fresh-start accounting in accordance with ASC 852 effective from October 25, 2009, which had a material effect on our consolidated financial statements. Thus, our future consolidated financial statements will not be comparable in many respects to our consolidated financial statements for periods prior to our adoption of fresh-start accounting and prior to accounting for the effects of the reorganization proceedings. Our past financial difficulties and bankruptcy filing may have harmed, and may continue to have a negative effect on, our relationships with investors, customers and suppliers.

We operate in the highly cyclical semiconductor industry, which is subject to significant downturns that may negatively impact our results of operations.

The semiconductor industry is highly cyclical and is characterized by constant and rapid technological change and price erosion, evolving technical standards, short product life cycles (for semiconductors and for the end-user products in which they are used) and wide fluctuations in product supply and demand. From time to time, these and other factors, together with changes in general economic conditions, cause significant upturns and downturns in the industry in general and in our business in particular. Periods of industry downturns, including the recent economic downturn, have been characterized by diminished demand for end-user products, high inventory levels, underutilization of manufacturing capacity, changes in revenue mix and accelerated erosion of average selling prices. We have experienced these conditions in our business in the past and may experience renewed, and possibly more severe and prolonged, downturns in the future as a result of such cyclical changes. This may reduce our results of operations.

 

19


Table of Contents

We base our planned operating expenses in part on our expectations of future revenue, and a significant portion of our expenses is relatively fixed in the short term. If revenue for a particular quarter is lower than we expect, we likely will be unable to proportionately reduce our operating expenses for that quarter, which would harm our operating results for that quarter.

If we fail to develop new products and process technologies or enhance our existing products and services in order to react to rapid technological change and market demands, our business will suffer.

Our industry is subject to constant and rapid technological change and product obsolescence as customers and competitors create new and innovative products and technologies. Products or technologies developed by other companies may render our products or technologies obsolete or noncompetitive, and we may not be able to access advanced process technologies, including smaller geometries, or to license or otherwise obtain essential intellectual property required by our customers.

We must develop new products and services and enhance our existing products and services to meet rapidly evolving customer requirements. We design products for customers who continually require higher performance and functionality at lower costs. We must, therefore, continue to enhance the performance and functionality of our products. The development process for these advancements is lengthy and requires us to accurately anticipate technological changes and market trends. Developing and enhancing these products is uncertain and can be time-consuming, costly and complex. If we do not continue to develop and maintain process technologies that are in demand by our semiconductor manufacturing services customers, we may be unable to maintain existing customers or attract new customers.

Customer and market requirements can change during the development process. There is a risk that these developments and enhancements will be late, fail to meet customer or market specifications or not be competitive with products or services from our competitors that offer comparable or superior performance and functionality. Any new products, such as our new line of power management solutions, which we began marketing in 2008, or product or service enhancements, may not be accepted in new or existing markets. Our business will suffer if we fail to develop and introduce new products and services or product and service enhancements on a timely and cost-effective basis.

We manufacture our products based on our estimates of customer demand, and if our estimates are incorrect our financial results could be negatively impacted.

We make significant decisions, including determining the levels of business that we will seek and accept, production schedules, component procurement commitments, personnel needs and other resource requirements – based on our estimates of customer demand and expected demand for and success of their products. The short-term nature of commitments by many of our customers and the possibility of rapid changes in demand for their products reduces our ability to estimate accurately future customer demand for our products. On occasion, customers may require rapid increases in supply, which can challenge our production resources and reduce margins. We may not have sufficient capacity at any given time to meet our customers’ increased demand for our products. Conversely, downturns in the semiconductor industry have caused and may in the future cause our customers to reduce significantly the amount of products they order from us. Because many of our costs and operating expenses are relatively fixed, a reduction in customer demand would decrease our results of operations, including our gross profit.

Our customers may cancel their orders, reduce quantities or delay production, which would adversely affect our margins and results of operations.

We generally do not obtain firm, long-term purchase commitments from our customers. Customers may cancel their orders, reduce quantities or delay production for a number of reasons. Cancellations, reductions or delays by a significant customer or by a group of customers, which we have experienced as a result of periodic downturns in the semiconductor industry or failure to achieve design wins, have affected and may continue to

 

20


Table of Contents

affect our results of operations adversely. These risks are exacerbated because many of our products are customized, which hampers our ability to sell excess inventory to the general market. We may incur charges resulting from the write-off of obsolete inventory. In addition, while we do not obtain long-term purchase commitments, we generally agree to the pricing of a particular product over a set period of time. If we underestimate our costs when determining pricing, our margins and results of operations would be adversely affected.

We depend on high utilization of our manufacturing capacity, a reduction of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and the results of our operations.

An important factor in our success is the extent to which we are able to utilize the available capacity in our fabrication facilities. As many of our costs are fixed, a reduction in capacity utilization, as well as changes in other factors, such as reduced yield or unfavorable product mix, could reduce our profit margins and adversely affect our operating results. A number of factors and circumstances may reduce utilization rates, including periods of industry overcapacity, low levels of customer orders, operating inefficiencies, mechanical failures and disruption of operations due to expansion or relocation of operations, power interruptions and fire, flood or other natural disasters or calamities. The potential delays and costs resulting from these steps could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A significant portion of our sales comes from a relatively limited number of customers, the loss of which would adversely affect our financial results.

Historically, we have relied on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our total revenue. If we were to lose key customers or if customers cease to place orders for our high-volume products or services, our financial results would be adversely affected. Net sales to our ten largest customers represented 63%, 66%, 69% and 63% of our net sales for the year ended December 31, 2010, the two-month period ended December 31, 2009, the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and the year ended December 31, 2008, respectively. LG Display represented 16% and 26% of our net sales and a substantial portion of the net sales generated by our top ten customers for the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. Significant reductions in sales to any of these customers, especially our few largest customers, the loss of other major customers or a general curtailment in orders for our high-volume products or services within a short period of time would adversely affect our business.

The average selling prices of our semiconductor products have at times declined rapidly and will likely do so in the future, which could harm our revenue and gross profit.

The semiconductor products we develop and sell are subject to rapid declines in average selling prices. From time to time, we have had to reduce our prices significantly to meet customer requirements, and we may be required to reduce our prices in the future. This would cause our gross profit to decrease. Our financial results will suffer if we are unable to offset any reductions in our average selling prices by increasing our sales volumes, reducing our costs or developing new or enhanced products on a timely basis with higher selling prices or gross profit.

Our industry is highly competitive and our ability to compete could be negatively impacted by a variety of factors.

The semiconductor industry is highly competitive and includes hundreds of companies, a number of which have achieved substantial market share both within our product categories and end markets. Current and prospective customers for our products and services evaluate our capabilities against the merits of our competitors. Some of our competitors are well established as independent companies and have substantially greater market share and manufacturing, financial, research and development and marketing resources than we do. We also compete with emerging companies that are attempting to sell their products in certain of our end

 

21


Table of Contents

markets and with the internal semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities of many of our significant customers. We expect to experience continuing competitive pressures in our markets from existing competitors and new entrants.

Any consolidation among our competitors could enhance their product offerings and financial resources, further enhancing their competitive position. Our ability to compete will depend on a number of factors, including the following:

 

 

our ability to offer cost-effective and high quality products and services on a timely basis using our technologies;

 

 

our ability to accurately identify and respond to emerging technological trends and demand for product features and performance characteristics;

 

 

our ability to continue to rapidly introduce new products that are accepted by the market;

 

 

our ability to adopt or adapt to emerging industry standards;

 

 

the number and nature of our competitors and competitiveness of their products and services in a given market;

 

 

entrance of new competitors into our markets;

 

 

our ability to enter the highly competitive power management market; and

 

 

our ability to continue to offer in demand semiconductor manufacturing services at competitive prices.

Many of these factors are outside of our control. In the future, our competitors may replace us as a supplier to our existing or potential customers, and our customers may satisfy more of their requirements internally. As a result, we may experience declining revenues and results of operations.

Changes in demand for consumer electronics in our end markets can impact our results of operations.

Demand for our products will depend in part on the demand for various consumer electronics products, in particular, mobile phones and multimedia devices, digital televisions, flat panel displays, mobile PCs and digital cameras, which in turn depends on general economic conditions and other factors beyond our control. If our customers fail to introduce new products that employ our products or component parts, demand for our products will suffer. To the extent that we cannot offset periods of reduced demand that may occur in these markets through greater penetration of these markets or reduction in our production and costs, our sales and gross profit may decline, which would negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to achieve design wins for our semiconductor products, we may lose the opportunity for sales to customers for a significant period of time and be unable to recoup our investments in our products.

We expend considerable resources on winning competitive selection processes, known as design wins, to develop semiconductor products for use in our customers’ products. These selection processes are typically lengthy and can require us to incur significant design and development expenditures. We may not win the competitive selection process and may never generate any revenue despite incurring significant design and development expenditures. Once a customer designs a semiconductor into a product, that customer is likely to continue to use the same semiconductor or enhanced versions of that semiconductor from the same supplier across a number of similar and successor products for a lengthy period of time due to the significant costs associated with qualifying a new supplier and potentially redesigning the product to incorporate a different semiconductor. If we fail to achieve an initial design win in a customer’s qualification process, we may lose the opportunity for significant sales to that customer for a number of products and for a lengthy period of time. This may cause us to be unable to recoup our investments in our semiconductor products, which would harm our business.

 

22


Table of Contents

We have lengthy and expensive design-to-mass production and manufacturing process development cycles that may cause us to incur significant expenses without realizing meaningful sales, the occurrence of which would harm our business.

The cycle time from the design stage to mass production for some of our products is long and requires the investment of significant resources with many potential customers without any guarantee of sales. Our design-to-mass production cycle typically begins with a three-to-twelve month semiconductor development stage and test period followed by a three-to-twelve month end-product qualification period by our customers. The fairly lengthy front end of our sales cycle creates a risk that we may incur significant expenses but may be unable to realize meaningful sales. Moreover, prior to mass production, customers may decide to cancel their products or change production specifications, resulting in sudden changes in our product specifications, increasing our production time and costs. Failure to meet such specifications may also delay the launch of our products or result in lost sales.

In addition, we collaborate and jointly develop certain process technologies and manufacturing process flows custom to certain of our semiconductor manufacturing services customers. To the extent that our semiconductor manufacturing services customers fail to achieve market acceptance for their products, we may be unable to recoup our engineering resources commitment and our investment in process technology development, which would harm our business.

Research and development investments may not yield profitable and commercially viable product and service offerings and thus will not necessarily result in increases in revenues for us.

We invest significant resources in our research and development. Our research and development efforts, however, may not yield commercially viable products or enhance our semiconductor manufacturing services offerings. During each stage of research and development there is a substantial risk that we will have to abandon a potential product or service offering that is no longer marketable and in which we have invested significant resources. In the event we are able to develop viable new products or service offerings, a significant amount of time will have elapsed between our investment in the necessary research and development effort and the receipt of any related revenues.

We face numerous challenges relating to executing our growth strategy, and if we are unable to execute our growth strategy effectively, our business and financial results could be materially and adversely affected.

Our growth strategy is to leverage our advanced analog and mixed-signal technology platform, continue to innovate and deliver new products and services, increase business with existing customers, broaden our customer base, aggressively grow our power business, drive execution excellence and focus on specialty process technologies. As part of our growth strategy, we began marketing a new line of power management semiconductor products in 2008 and expect to introduce other new products and services in the future. If we are unable to execute our growth strategy effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities, execute our business plan or respond to competitive pressures. Moreover, if our allocation of resources does not correspond with future demand for particular products, we could miss market opportunities and our business and financial results could be materially and adversely affected.

We are subject to risks associated with currency fluctuations, and changes in the exchange rates of applicable currencies could impact our results of operations.

Historically, a portion of our revenues and greater than the majority of our operating expenses and costs of sales have been denominated in non-U.S. currencies, principally the Korean won, and we expect that this will remain true in the future. Because we report our results of operations in U.S. dollars, changes in the exchange rate between the Korean won and the U.S. dollar could materially impact our reported results of operations and distort period to period comparisons. In particular, because of the difference in the amount of our consolidated revenues and expenses that are in U.S. dollars relative to Korean won, a depreciation in the U.S. dollar relative to

 

23


Table of Contents

the Korean won could result in a material increase in reported costs relative to revenues, and therefore could cause our profit margins and operating income to appear to decline materially, particularly relative to prior periods. The converse is true if the U.S. dollar were to appreciate relative to the Korean won. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates also impact the reporting of our receivables and payables in non-U.S. currencies. Foreign currency fluctuations had a materially beneficial impact on our results of operations in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 relative to the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as well as in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 relative to the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008. However, foreign currency fluctuation had an unfavorable impact on our reported profit margins and operating income from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. As a result of foreign currency fluctuations, it could be more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and results of operations. In addition, to the extent that fluctuations in currency exchange rates cause our results of operations to differ from our expectations or the expectations of our investors, the trading price of our stock or the price of our outstanding notes could be adversely affected.

From time to time, we may engage in exchange rate hedging activities in an effort to mitigate the impact of exchange rate fluctuations. For example, in January 2010 and May 2010 our Korean subsidiary entered into foreign currency option and forward contracts in order to mitigate a portion of the impact of U.S. dollar-Korean won exchange rate fluctuations on our operating results. The January 2010 option and forward contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during each month of 2010 commencing February 2010 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified exchange rates. The May 2010 option and forward contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during the months of January 2011 through June 2011 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified fixed exchange rates. In August 2010 our Korean subsidiary additionally entered into zero cost collar contracts for the same purpose as the above hedge contracts. The August 2010 zero cost collar contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during the months of July 2011 through December 2011 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified fixed exchange rates. Obligations under these foreign currency option, forward and zero cost collar contracts must be cash collateralized if our exposure exceeds certain specified thresholds. These option, forward and zero cost collar contracts may be terminated by the counterparty in a number of circumstances, including if our long-term debt rating falls below B-/B3 or if our total cash and cash equivalents is less than $30 million at the end of a fiscal quarter. We cannot assure you that any hedging technique we implement will be effective. If our hedging activities are not effective, changes in currency exchange rates may have a more significant impact on our results of operations. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors Affecting our Results of Operations” for further details.

The global recession and related financial crisis negatively affected our business. Poor economic conditions may negatively affect our future business, results of operations and financial condition.

The global recession and related financial crisis led to slower economic activity, increased unemployment, concerns about inflation and energy costs, decreased business and consumer confidence, reduced corporate profits and capital spending, adverse business conditions and lower levels of liquidity in many financial markets. Consumers and businesses deferred purchases in response to tighter credit and negative financial news, which has in turn negatively affected product demand and other related matters. The global recession led to reduced customer spending in the semiconductor market and in our target markets, made it difficult for our customers, our vendors and us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities, and caused U.S. and foreign businesses to slow spending on our products. Although recently there have been indications of improved economic conditions generally and in the semiconductor industry specifically, we cannot assure you of the extent to which such conditions will continue to improve or whether the improvement will be sustainable. If the global economic recovery is not sustained or the global economy experiences another recession, such adverse economic conditions could lead to the insolvency of key suppliers resulting in product delays, limit the ability of customers

 

24


Table of Contents

to obtain credit to finance purchases of our products, lead to customer insolvencies, and also result in counterparty failures that may negatively impact our treasury operations. As a result, our business, financial condition and result of operations could be materially adversely affected in future periods as a result of economic downturns.

The loss of our key employees would materially adversely affect our business, and we may not be able to attract or retain the technical or management employees necessary to compete in our industry.

Our key executives have substantial experience and have made significant contributions to our business, and our continued success is dependent upon the retention of our key management executives, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Sang Park. The loss of such key personnel would have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, our future success depends on our ability to attract and retain skilled technical and managerial personnel. We do not know whether we will be able to retain all of these employees as we continue to pursue our business strategy. The loss of the services of key employees, especially our key design and technical personnel, or our inability to retain, attract and motivate qualified design and technical personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. This could hinder our research and product development programs or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we encounter future labor problems, we may fail to deliver our products and services in a timely manner, which could adversely affect our revenues and profitability.

As of December 31, 2010, 2,208 employees, or approximately 66.2% of our employees, were represented by the MagnaChip Semiconductor Labor Union, which is a member of the Federation of Korean Metal Workers Trade Unions. We can offer no assurance that issues with the labor union and other employees will be resolved favorably for us in the future, that we will not experience work stoppages or other labor problems in future years or that we will not incur significant expenses related to such issues.

We may incur costs to engage in future business combinations or strategic investments, and we may not realize the anticipated benefits of those transactions.

As part of our business strategy, we may seek to enter into business combinations, investments, joint ventures and other strategic alliances with other companies in order to maintain and grow revenue and market presence as well as to provide us with access to technology, products and services. Any such transaction would be accompanied by risks that may harm our business, such as difficulties in assimilating the operations, personnel and products of an acquired business or in realizing the projected benefits, disruption of our ongoing business, potential increases in our indebtedness and contingent liabilities and charges if the acquired company or assets are later determined to be worth less than the amount paid for them in an earlier original acquisition. In addition, our indebtedness may restrict us from making acquisitions that we may otherwise wish to pursue.

The failure to achieve acceptable manufacturing yields could adversely affect our business.

The manufacture of semiconductors involves highly complex processes that require precision, a highly regulated and sterile environment and specialized equipment. Defects or other difficulties in the manufacturing process can prevent us from achieving acceptable yields in the manufacture of our products or those of our semiconductor manufacturing services customers, which could lead to higher costs, a loss of customers or delay in market acceptance of our products. Slight impurities or defects in the photomasks used to print circuits on a wafer or other factors can cause significant difficulties, particularly in connection with the production of a new product, the adoption of a new manufacturing process or any expansion of our manufacturing capacity and related transitions. We may also experience manufacturing problems in achieving acceptable yields as a result of, among other things, transferring production to other facilities, upgrading or expanding existing facilities or changing our process technologies. Yields below our target levels can negatively impact our gross profit and may cause us to eliminate underperforming products.

 

25


Table of Contents

We rely on a number of independent subcontractors and the failure of any of these independent subcontractors to perform as required could adversely affect our operating results.

A substantial portion of our net sales are derived from semiconductor devices assembled in packages or on film. The packaging and testing of semiconductors require technical skill and specialized equipment. For the portion of packaging and testing that we outsource, we use subcontractors located in Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. We rely on these subcontractors to package and test our devices with acceptable quality and yield levels. We could be adversely affected by political disorders, labor disruptions, and natural disasters where our subcontractors are located. If our semiconductor packagers and test service providers experience problems in packaging and testing our semiconductor devices, experience prolonged quality or yield problems or decrease the capacity available to us, our operating results could be adversely affected.

We depend on successful parts and materials procurement for our manufacturing processes, and a shortage or increase in the price of these materials could interrupt our operations and result in a decline of revenues and results of operations.

We procure materials and electronic and mechanical components from international sources and original equipment manufacturers. We use a wide range of parts and materials in the production of our semiconductors, including silicon, processing chemicals, processing gases, precious metals and electronic and mechanical components, some of which, such as silicon wafers, are specialized raw materials that are generally only available from a limited number of suppliers. We do not have long-term agreements providing for all of these materials, thus, if demand increases or supply decreases, the costs of our raw materials could significantly increase. For example, worldwide supplies of silicon wafers, an important raw material for the semiconductors we manufacture, were constrained in recent years due to an increased demand for silicon. Silicon is also a key raw material for solar cells, the demand for which has increased in recent years. Although supplies of silicon have recently improved due to the entrance of additional suppliers and capacity expansion by existing suppliers, we cannot assure you that such supply increases will match demand increases. If we cannot obtain adequate materials in a timely manner or on favorable terms for the manufacture of our products, revenues and results of operations will decline.

We face warranty claims, product return, litigation and liability risks and the risk of negative publicity if our products fail.

Our semiconductors are incorporated into a number of end products, and our business is exposed to product return, warranty and product liability risk and the risk of negative publicity if our products fail. Although we maintain insurance for product liability claims, the amount and scope of our insurance may not be adequate to cover a product liability claim that is asserted against us. In addition, product liability insurance could become more expensive and difficult to maintain and, in the future, may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.

In addition, we are exposed to the product liability risk and the risk of negative publicity affecting our customers. Our sales may decline if any of our customers are sued on a product liability claim. We also may suffer a decline in sales from the negative publicity associated with such a lawsuit or with adverse public perceptions in general regarding our customers’ products. Further, if our products are delivered with impurities or defects, we could incur additional development, repair or replacement costs, and our credibility and the market’s acceptance of our products could be harmed.

We could suffer adverse tax and other financial consequences as a result of changes in, or differences in the interpretation of, applicable tax laws.

Our company organizational structure was created in part based on certain interpretations and conclusions regarding various tax laws, including withholding tax and other tax laws of applicable jurisdictions. Our Korean subsidiary, MagnaChip Semiconductor, Ltd., or MagnaChip Korea, was granted a limited tax holiday under Korean law in October 2004. This grant provided for certain tax exemptions for corporate taxes and withholding

 

26


Table of Contents

taxes until December 31, 2008, and for acquisition taxes, property and land use taxes and certain other taxes until December 31, 2013. Our interpretations and conclusions regarding tax laws, however, are not binding on any taxing authority and, if these interpretations and conclusions are incorrect, if our business were to be operated in a way that rendered us ineligible for tax exemptions or caused us to become subject to incremental tax, or if the authorities were to change, modify, or have a different interpretation of the relevant tax laws, we could suffer adverse tax and other financial consequences and the anticipated benefits of our organizational structure could be materially impaired.

Our ability to compete successfully and achieve future growth will depend, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary technology and know-how, as well as our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others.

We seek to protect our proprietary technologies and know-how through the use of patents, trade secrets, confidentiality agreements and other security measures. The process of seeking patent protection takes a long time and is expensive. There can be no assurance that patents will issue from pending or future applications or that, if patents issue, they will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, or that the rights granted under the patents will provide us with meaningful protection or any commercial advantage. Some of our technologies are not covered by any patent or patent application. The confidentiality agreements on which we rely to protect these technologies may be breached and may not be adequate to protect our proprietary technologies. We cannot assure you that other countries in which we market our services will protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the United States. In particular, the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property in China, where we derive a significant portion of our net sales, and certain other countries where we derive net sales, are uncertain and still evolving and historically have not protected and may not protect in the future, intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws and enforcement procedures in the United States.

Our ability to compete successfully depends on our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others. We have no means of knowing what patent applications have been filed in the United States until they are published. In addition, the semiconductor industry is characterized by frequent litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We may need to file lawsuits to enforce our patents or intellectual property rights, and we may need to defend against claimed infringement of the rights of others. Any litigation could result in substantial costs to us and divert our resources. Despite our efforts in bringing or defending lawsuits, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property. In the event of an adverse outcome in any such litigation, we may be required to:

 

 

pay substantial damages or indemnify customers or licensees for damages they may suffer if the products they purchase from us or the technology they license from us violate the intellectual property rights of others;

 

 

stop our manufacture, use, sale or importation of infringing products; expend significant resources to develop or acquire non-infringing technologies;

 

 

discontinue processes; or

 

 

obtain licenses to the intellectual property we are found to have infringed.

There can be no assurance that we would be successful in such development or acquisition or that such licenses would be available under reasonable terms, or at all. The termination of key third party licenses relating to the use of intellectual property in our products and our design processes, such as our agreements with Silicon Works Co., Ltd. and ARM Limited, would materially and adversely affect our business.

Our competitors may develop, patent or gain access to know-how and technology similar to our own. In addition, many of our patents are subject to cross licenses, several of which are with our competitors. The noncompetition arrangement agreed to by Hynix in connection with the Original Acquisition expired on October 1, 2007. Under that arrangement, Hynix retained a perpetual license to use the intellectual property that

 

27


Table of Contents

we acquired from Hynix in the Original Acquisition. Since noncompetition restrictions have expired, Hynix and its subsidiaries are free to develop products that may incorporate or embody intellectual property developed by us prior to October 2004.

Our expenses could increase if Hynix were unwilling or unable to provide certain services related to our shared facilities with Hynix, and if Hynix were to become insolvent, we could lose certain of our leases.

We are party to a land lease and easement agreement with Hynix pursuant to which we lease the land for our facilities in Cheongju, Korea. If this agreement were terminated for any reason, including the insolvency of Hynix, we would have to renegotiate new lease terms with Hynix or the new owner of the land. We cannot assure you that we could negotiate new lease terms on favorable terms or at all. Because we share certain facilities with Hynix, several services that are essential to our business are provided to us by or through Hynix under our general service supply agreement with Hynix. These services include electricity, bulk gases and de-ionized water, campus facilities and housing, wastewater and sewage management, environmental safety and certain utilities and infrastructure support services. If any of our agreements with Hynix were terminated or if Hynix were unwilling or unable to fulfill its obligations to us under the terms of these agreements, we would have to procure these services on our own and as a result may experience an increase in our expenses.

We are subject to many environmental laws and regulations that could affect our operations or result in significant expenses.

We are subject to requirements of environmental, health and safety laws and regulations in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate, governing air emissions, wastewater discharges, the generation, use, handling, storage and disposal of, and exposure to, hazardous substances (including asbestos) and wastes, soil and groundwater contamination and employee health and safety. These laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. There can be no assurance that we have been, or will be, in compliance with all such laws and regulations or that we will not incur material costs or liabilities in connection with these laws and regulations in the future. The adoption of new environmental, health and safety laws, the failure to comply with new or existing laws, or issues relating to hazardous substances could subject us to material liability (including substantial fines or penalties), impose the need for additional capital equipment or other process requirements upon us, curtail our operations or restrict our ability to expand operations.

Our Korean subsidiary has been designated as a regulated business under Korean environmental law, and such designation could have an adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations.

In April 2010, the Korean government’s Enforcement Decree to the Framework Act on Low Carbon Green Growth, or the Enforcement Decree, became effective. Businesses that exceed 25,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions and 100 terajoules of energy consumption for the prior three years will be subject to regulation and will be required to submit plans to reduce greenhouse emissions and energy consumption as well as performance reports and will be subject to government requirements to take further action. Our Korean subsidiary meets the thresholds under the Enforcement Decree and was designated as a regulated business on September 28, 2010. Our Korean subsidiary will have until September 2011 and December 2011 to cooperate and negotiate with Korean governmental authorities to set reduction targets and draft an implementation plan, respectively. If the ultimate implementation plan agreed upon with Korean governmental authorities requires us to reduce our emissions or energy consumption, we could be subject to additional and potentially costly compliance or remediation expenses, including potentially the installation of equipment and changes in the type of materials we use in manufacturing, that could adversely affect our financial position and results of operations.

 

28


Table of Contents

We will likely need additional capital in the future, and such capital may not be available on acceptable terms or at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We will likely require more capital in the future from equity or debt financings to fund operating expenses, such as research and development costs, finance investments in equipment and infrastructure, acquire complementary businesses and technologies, and respond to competitive pressures and potential strategic opportunities. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new shares we issue could have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of the holders of our common stock, including the shares of common stock sold in the MagnaChip Corporation IPO. In addition, additional capital may not be available when needed or, if available, may not be available on favorable terms. In addition, our indebtedness limits our ability to incur additional indebtedness under certain circumstances. If we are unable to obtain capital on favorable terms, or if we are unable to obtain capital at all, we may have to reduce our operations or forego opportunities, and this may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on international customers, suppliers and operations in Asia, and as a result we are subject to regulatory, operational, financial and political risks, which could adversely affect our financial results.

We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, suppliers, subcontractors and operations located primarily in Asia. As a result, we face risks inherent in international operations, such as unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, tariffs and other market barriers, political, social and economic instability, adverse tax consequences, war, civil disturbances and acts of terrorism, difficulties in accounts receivable collection, extended payment terms and differing labor standards, enforcement of contractual obligations and protection of intellectual property. These risks may lead to increased costs or decreased revenue growth, or both. Although we do not derive any revenue from, nor sell any products in, North Korea, any future increase in tensions between South Korea and North Korea that may occur, such as an outbreak of military hostilities, would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

You may not be able to bring an action or enforce any judgment obtained in United States courts, or bring an action in any other jurisdiction, against us or our subsidiaries or our directors, officers or independent auditors that are organized or residing in jurisdictions other than the United States.

Most of our subsidiaries are organized or incorporated outside of the United States and some of our directors and executive officers as well as our independent auditors are organized or reside outside of the United States. Most of our and our subsidiaries’ assets are located outside of the United States and in particular, in Korea. Accordingly, any judgment obtained in the United States against us or our subsidiaries may not be collectible in the United States. As a result, it may not be possible for you to effect service of process within the United States upon these persons or to enforce against them or us court judgments obtained in the United States that are predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States or of the securities laws of any state of the United States. In particular, there is doubt as to the enforceability in Korea or any other jurisdictions outside the United States, either in original actions or in actions for enforcement of judgments of United States courts, of civil liabilities predicated on the federal securities laws of the United States or the securities laws of any state of the United States.

Our level of indebtedness is substantial, and we may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful. A decline in the ratings of our existing or future indebtedness may make the terms of any new indebtedness we choose to incur more costly.

As of December 31, 2010, our total indebtedness was $246.9 million. Our substantial debt could have important consequences, including:

 

 

increasing our vulnerability to general economic and industry conditions;

 

29


Table of Contents
 

requiring a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness, therefore reducing our ability to use our cash flow to fund our operations, capital expenditures and future business opportunities;

 

 

limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions and general corporate or other purposes; and

 

 

limiting our ability to adjust to changing market conditions and placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors who have less debt.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and operating performance, which is subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We cannot assure you that we will generate a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness.

The credit ratings assigned to our debt reflect each rating agency’s opinion of our ability to make payments on the debt obligations when such payments are due. The current rating of our senior notes is B2 by Moody’s and B+ by Standard and Poors, both of which are below investment grade. A rating may be subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating agency. We may experience downgrades in our debt ratings in the future. Any lowering of our debt ratings would adversely impact our ability to raise additional debt financing and increase the cost of any such financing that is obtained. In the event any ratings downgrades are significant, we may choose not to incur new debt or refinance existing debt if we are unable to incur or refinance such debt at favorable interest rates or on favorable terms.

If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations or if we are unable to refinance existing indebtedness on favorable terms, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. In the absence of such operating results and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations. The indentures governing our notes restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from the disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or be able to obtain the proceeds which we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due.

We are a holding company and will depend on the business of our subsidiaries to satisfy our obligations under our outstanding notes and other obligations.

Each of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A. and MagnaChip Semiconductor B.V. is a holding company with no independent operations of its own. Our subsidiaries, including our principal manufacturing subsidiary, MagnaChip Korea, own all of our operating businesses. Our subsidiaries will conduct substantially all of the operations necessary to fund payments on our outstanding notes, other debt and any other obligations. Our ability to make payments on the notes and our other obligations will depend on our subsidiaries’ cash flow and their payment of funds to us. Our subsidiaries’ ability to make payments to us will depend on:

 

 

their earnings;

 

 

covenants contained in our debt agreements (including the indenture governing the notes) and the debt agreements of our subsidiaries;

 

 

covenants contained in other agreements to which we or our subsidiaries are or may become subject;

 

 

business and tax considerations; and

 

 

applicable law, including any restrictions under Korean law that may be imposed on MagnaChip Korea that would restrict its ability to make payments on intercompany loans from MagnaChip Semiconductor B.V.

 

30


Table of Contents

We cannot assure you that the operating results of our subsidiaries at any given time will be sufficient to make distributions or other payments to us or that any distributions or payments will be adequate to pay principal and interest, and any other payments, on our outstanding notes, other debt or any other obligations when due, and the failure to make such payments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Restrictions on MagnaChip Korea’s ability to make payments on its intercompany loans from MagnaChip Semiconductor B.V., or on its ability to pay dividends in excess of statutory limitations, could hinder our ability to make payments on our 10.500% senior notes due 2018.

We anticipate that payments under our 10.500% senior notes due 2018 will be funded in part by MagnaChip Korea’s repayment of its existing loans from MagnaChip Semiconductor B.V., with MagnaChip Semiconductor B.V. using such repayments in turn to repay the loans owed to MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A. Under the Korean Foreign Exchange Transaction Act, the minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is authorized to temporarily suspend payments in foreign currencies in the event of natural calamities, wars, conflicts of arms, grave and sudden changes in domestic or foreign economic conditions, or other similar situations. In addition, under the Korean Commercial Code, a Korean company is permitted to make a dividend payment in accordance with the provisions in its articles of incorporation out of retained earnings (as determined in accordance with the Korean Commercial Code and the generally accepted accounting principles in Korea), but no more than twice a year. If MagnaChip Korea is prevented from making payments under its intercompany loans due to restrictions on payments of foreign currency or if it has an insufficient amount of retained earnings under the Korean Commercial Code to make dividend payments to MagnaChip Semiconductor B.V., we may not have sufficient funds to make payments on the notes.

The indenture governing the senior notes contains, and our future debt agreements will likely contain, covenants that significantly restrict our operations.

The indenture governing our outstanding senior notes contains, and our future debt agreements will likely contain, numerous covenants imposing financial and operating restrictions on our business. These restrictions may affect our ability to operate our business, may limit our ability to take advantage of potential business opportunities as they arise and may adversely affect the conduct of our current business, including by restricting our ability to finance future operations and capital needs and by limiting our ability to engage in other business activities. These covenants will place restrictions on our ability and the ability of our operating subsidiaries to, among other things:

 

 

pay dividends, redeem shares or make other distributions with respect to equity interests, make payments with respect to subordinated indebtedness or other restricted payments;

 

 

incur debt or issue preferred stock;

 

 

create liens;

 

 

make certain investments;

 

 

consolidate, merge or dispose of all or substantially all of our assets, taken as a whole;

 

 

sell or otherwise transfer or dispose of assets, including equity interests of our subsidiaries;

 

 

enter into sale-leaseback transactions;

 

 

enter into transactions with our affiliates; and

 

 

designate our subsidiaries as unrestricted subsidiaries.

In addition, our future debt agreements will likely contain financial ratios and other financial conditions tests. Our ability to meet those financial ratios and tests could be affected by events beyond our control, and we cannot assure you that we will meet those ratios and tests. A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default under such debt agreements. Upon the occurrence of an event of default under such debt agreements, our lenders under such agreements could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under such debt agreements to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to extend further credit.

 

31


Table of Contents

Investor confidence may be adversely impacted if we fail to achieve and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures or are unable to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and as a result, the value of our securities could decline.

Beginning with our fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, we will be subject to rules adopted by the Securities Exchange Commission, or SEC, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires us to include in our Annual Report on Form 10-K our management’s report on, and assessment of the effectiveness of, our internal control over financial reporting. We may also in the future become subject to the requirement that our independent registered public accounting firm attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

In connection with audits of our consolidated financial statements for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and two-month period ended December 31, 2009, our independent registered public accounting firm reported two control deficiencies which represented a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. The two control deficiencies which represented a material weakness were that we did not have a sufficient number of financial personnel with the requisite financial accounting experience and that our controls over non-routine transactions were not effective to ensure that accounting considerations are identified and appropriately recorded. Based upon the remediation actions taken by us, our management has concluded that these two control deficiencies no longer exist as of December 31, 2010.

We cannot assure you that we will not discover additional material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. If we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting, there is a risk that we will have additional material weaknesses in the future. Moreover, effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to helping prevent financial fraud. Any of these possible outcomes could result in an adverse reaction in the financial marketplace due to a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our consolidated financial statements and could result in investigations or sanctions by the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, or other regulatory authorities or in stockholder litigation. Any of these factors ultimately could harm our business and could negatively impact the market price of our securities. Ineffective control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.

We are also required to periodically assess and report on the adequacy of our disclosure controls and procedures. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by the issuer in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, with the participation of it Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. However, our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. See “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.”

We may need to incur impairment and other restructuring charges, which could materially affect our results of operations and financial conditions.

During industry downturns and for other reasons, we may need to record impairment or restructuring charges. From April 4, 2005 through December 31, 2010, we recognized aggregate restructuring and impairment charges of $65.9 million, which consisted of $60.2 million of impairment charges and $5.6 million of restructuring charges. In the future, we may need to record additional impairment charges or to further restructure our business or incur additional restructuring charges, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

 

32


Table of Contents

We are subject to litigation risks, which may be costly to defend and the outcome of which is uncertain.

All industries, including the semiconductor industry, are subject to legal claims, with and without merit, that may be particularly costly and which may divert the attention of our management and our resources in general. We are involved in a variety of legal matters, most of which we consider routine matters that arise in the normal course of business. These routine matters typically fall into broad categories such as those involving customers, employment and labor and intellectual property. Even if the final outcome of these legal claims does not have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows, defense and settlement costs can be substantial. Due to the inherent uncertainty of the litigation process, the resolution of any particular legal claim or proceeding could have a material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

The price of our depositary shares and common stock may be volatile and you may lose all or a part of your investment.

Prior to the MagnaChip Corporation IPO, there has not been a public market for our depositary shares or common stock. Even though our depositary shares are quoted on the NYSE and we anticipate that our shares will be quoted on the New York Stock Exchange, an active trading market for our depositary shares or common stock may not develop. You may not be able to sell your shares quickly or at the current market price if trading in our depositary shares or common stock is not active. The price for the depositary shares sold in the MagnaChip Corporation IPO was determined by negotiations between the underwriters, the selling stockholders and us, and may not be indicative of prices that will prevail in the trading market.

In addition, the trading price of our depositary shares and common stock might be subject to wide fluctuations. Factors, some of which are beyond our control, that could affect the trading price of our depositary shares or common stock may include:

 

 

actual or anticipated variations in our results of operations from quarter to quarter or year to year;

 

 

announcements by us or our competitors of significant agreements, technological innovations or strategic alliances;

 

 

changes in recommendations or estimates by any securities analysts who follow our securities;

 

 

addition or loss of significant customers;

 

 

recruitment or departure of key personnel;

 

 

changes in economic performance or market valuations of competing companies in our industry;

 

 

price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market;

 

 

market conditions in our industry, end markets and the economy as a whole;

 

 

subsequent sales of stock and other financings;

 

 

litigation, legislation, regulation or technological developments that adversely affect our business; and

 

 

the expiration of contractual lock-up agreements with our executive officers, directors and greater than 1% stockholders.

In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a public company’s securities, securities class action litigation often has been instituted against the public company. Regardless of its outcome, this type of litigation could result in substantial costs to us and a likely diversion of our management’s attention. You may not receive a positive return on your investment when you sell your shares, and you could lose some or the entire amount of your investment.

 

33


Table of Contents

Control by principal stockholders could adversely affect our other stockholders.

Based upon the MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC units outstanding as of December 31, 2010, our executive officers, directors and greater than 5% unitholders collectively beneficially owned approximately 85.8% of the common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC, excluding units issuable upon exercise of outstanding options and warrants, and 86.1% of the common units, including units issuable upon exercise of outstanding options and warrants that are exercisable within sixty days of December 31, 2010. After giving effect to the corporate conversion and the sale of shares in the MagnaChip Corporation IPO, our executive officers, directors and greater than 5% stockholders, collectively, would have owned approximately 64.3% of our common stock as of December 31, 2010, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares from us or the selling stockholders. On the same adjusted basis, and assuming exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase an additional 142,500 shares from us and 1,282,500 shares from the selling stockholders, our executive officers, directors and greater than 5% stockholders, collectively, would have owned approximately 61.1% of our common stock as of December 31, 2010. In addition, Avenue currently has three designees serving as members of our seven-member board of directors. Therefore, Avenue will continue to have significant influence over our affairs for the foreseeable future, including influence over the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or our assets.

Our concentration of ownership will limit the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our non-sponsor stockholders do not view as beneficial. For example, our concentration of ownership could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control or otherwise discouraging a potential acquirer from attempting to obtain control of us, which in turn could cause the market price of our common stock to decline or prevent our stockholders from realizing a premium over the market price for their shares of our common stock.

Under our certificate of incorporation, our non-employee directors and non-employee holders of five percent or more of our outstanding common stock do not have a duty to refrain from engaging in a corporate opportunity in the same or similar activities or lines of business as those engaged in by us, our subsidiaries and other related parties. Also, we have renounced any interest or expectancy in such business opportunities even if the opportunity is one that we might reasonably have pursued or had the ability or desire to pursue if granted an opportunity to do so.

We are controlled by Avenue, whose interests in our business may conflict with yours, and we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of NYSE rules.

Upon completion of the MagnaChip Corporation IPO, Avenue beneficially owned approximately 20,789,539 shares, or 52.1%, of our outstanding common stock assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. Accordingly, Avenue will be able to control most matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, including mergers and sales of substantially all of our assets. Because of the equity ownership of Avenue, we will be considered a “controlled company” for purposes of the NYSE listing requirements. As such, we will be exempt from the NYSE corporate governance requirements that our board of directors meet the standards of independence established by those corporate governance requirements and exempt from the requirements that we have separate Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees made up entirely of directors who meet such independence standards. Although we do not intend to rely upon the exemption available for controlled companies, we may choose to utilize the exemption at any time that we remain a controlled company. The NYSE independence standards are intended to ensure that directors who meet the independence standards are free of any conflicting interest with management that could influence their actions as directors. It is possible that the interests of Avenue may in some circumstances conflict with our interests and the interests of our other stockholders.

 

34


Table of Contents

The future sale of significant amounts of our common stock may negatively affect our stock price, even if our business is doing well.

Sales of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the prospect of such sales, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. After giving effect to the corporate conversion and the sale of shares in the MagnaChip Corporation IPO, we would have had 39,351,985 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2010, based on the number of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC units outstanding as of that date. All of the shares outstanding prior to the MagnaChip Corporation IPO are subject to lock-up agreements under which the holders of such shares have agreed not to sell or otherwise dispose of any of their shares for a period of 180 days after the date of the completion of the MagnaChip Corporation IPO without the prior written consent of Barclays Capital Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (or other agreements which impose similar restrictions), other than any shares such holders may sell to the underwriters in the MagnaChip Corporation IPO after the date of the completion of the MagnaChip Corporation IPO pursuant to the underwriters’ option to purchase up to 142,500 additional shares of our common stock from us and 1,282,500 shares from the selling stockholders; provided, that these agreements do not restrict the ability of the stockholders party to the registration rights agreement to cause a resale registration statement to be filed in accordance with their demand registration rights. After the 180-day period, all currently outstanding shares will be eligible for sale from time to time in the future under Rule 144, Rule 701 or Section 4(1) of the Securities Act with respect to shares initially issued under Section 1145 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and not held by our affiliates.

Barclays Capital Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. can together waive the restrictions of the lock-up agreements at an earlier time without prior notice or announcement and allow stockholders to sell their shares. As restrictions on resale end, the market price of our common stock could drop significantly if the holders of the restricted shares sell such restricted shares or are perceived by the market as intending to sell such restricted shares.

Provisions in our charter documents and Delaware Law may make it difficult for a third party to acquire us and could depress the price of our common stock.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Among other things, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws:

 

 

authorize our board of directors to issue, without stockholder approval, preferred stock with such terms as the board of directors may determine;

 

 

divide our board of directors into three classes so that only approximately one-third of the total number of directors is elected each year;

 

 

permit directors to be removed only for cause by a majority vote;

 

 

prohibit action by written consent of our stockholders;

 

 

prohibit any person other than our board of directors, the chairman of our board of directors, our Chief Executive Officer or holders of at least 25% of the voting power of all then outstanding shares of capital stock of the corporation entitled to vote generally in the election of directors to call a special meeting of our stockholders; and

 

 

specify advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and director nominations.

In addition we are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, regulating corporate takeovers and which has an anti-takeover effect with respect to transactions not approved in advance by our board of directors, including discouraging takeover attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for shares of our common stock. In general, those provisions prohibit a Delaware

 

35


Table of Contents

corporation from engaging in any business combination with any interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder, unless:

 

 

the transaction is approved by the board of directors before the date the interested stockholder attained that status;

 

 

upon consummation of the transaction which resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of the voting stock of the corporation outstanding at the time the transaction commenced; or

 

 

on or after such date, the business combination is approved by the board of directors and authorized at a meeting of stockholders, and not by written consent, by at least two-thirds of the outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder.

In general, Section 203 defines a business combination to include the following:

 

 

any merger or consolidation involving the corporation and the interested stockholder;

 

 

any sale, transfer, pledge or other disposition of 10% or more of the assets of the corporation involving the interested stockholder;

 

 

subject to certain exceptions, any transaction that results in the issuance or transfer by the corporation of any stock of the corporation to the interested stockholder;

 

 

any transaction involving the corporation that has the effect of increasing the proportionate share of the stock of any class or series of the corporation beneficially owned by the interested stockholder; or

 

 

the receipt by the interested stockholder of the benefit of any loans, advances, guarantees, pledges or other financial benefits provided by or through the corporation.

In general, Section 203 defines an interested stockholder as any entity or person beneficially owning 15% or more of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation and any entity or person affiliated with or controlling or controlled by any such entity or person.

A Delaware corporation may opt out of this provision by express provision in its original certificate of incorporation or by amendment to its certificate of incorporation or bylaws approved by its stockholders. However, we have not opted out of, and do not currently intend to opt out of, this provision.

The U.S. federal income tax consequences of the cancellation of the depositary shares are not specifically addressed by applicable law.

Applicable law does not specifically address, under circumstances comparable to ours, the U.S. federal income tax consequences of cancellation of the depositary shares, and the issuance of a credit for the number of shares of common stock equal to the number of cancelled depositary shares. Further, we have not, and will not, obtain a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, with respect to the U.S. federal income tax consequences of the cancellation of the depositary shares and issuance of a credit for common stock. If the IRS were to conclude that a holder of our depositary shares did not own the underlying shares, the cancellation of the depositary shares might be a taxable transaction to the holder, causing the holder to recognize gain or loss in an amount equal to the difference between the fair market value of the underlying common stock at the time of cancellation of the depositary shares and the holder’s tax basis in the depositary shares.

We incur increased costs as a result of being a publicly listed company, and these additional costs could harm our business and results of operations.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules promulgated by the SEC and the NYSE, require us to adopt corporate governance practices applicable to U.S. public companies. These rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make certain compliance and reporting activities more time-consuming.

 

36


Table of Contents

We also expect it to be more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain and maintain director and officer liability insurance, which may cause us to accept reduced policy limits and reduced coverage or to incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur, but these additional costs and demands on management time and attention may harm our business and results of operations.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future, and therefore, investors should rely on sales of their common stock as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

We do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. The payment of cash dividends on common stock is restricted under the terms of the indenture for our senior notes. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Not Applicable.

Item 2. Properties

Our manufacturing operations consist of three fabrication facilities located at two sites in Cheongju and Gumi in Korea. These sites have a combined capacity of approximately 136,000 eight-inch equivalent wafers per month. We manufacture wafers utilizing geometries ranging from 0.11 to 2.0 micron. The Cheongju facilities have three main buildings totaling 164,058 square meters devoted to manufacturing and development. The Gumi facilities have one main building with 41,022 square meters devoted to manufacturing, testing and packaging.

In addition to our fabrication facilities, we lease facilities in Seoul, Korea, Cupertino, California, and Osaka, Japan. Each of these facilities includes administration, sales and marketing and research and development functions. We lease sales and marketing offices at our subsidiaries in several other countries.

The ownership of our wafer manufacturing assets is an important component of our business strategy. Maintaining manufacturing control enables us to develop proprietary, differentiated products and results in higher production yields, as well as shortened design and production cycles. We believe our facilities are suitable and adequate for the conduct of our business for the foreseeable future and that we have sufficient production capacity to service our business as currently contemplated without significant capital investment.

A substantial majority of our assembly, test and packaging services for our Display Solutions business and all of such services for our Power Solutions business are outsourced with the balance handled in-house. Our independent providers of these services are located in Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. The relative cost of outsourced services, as compared to in-house services, depends upon many factors specific to each product and circumstance. However, we generally incur higher costs for outsourced services, which can result in lower margins.

Although we own our manufacturing facilities, we are party to a land lease and easement agreement with Hynix pursuant to which we lease the land for our facilities in Cheongju, Korea from Hynix for an indefinite term. Because we share certain facilities with Hynix, several services that are essential to our business are provided to us by or through Hynix under our general service supply agreement with Hynix. These services include electricity, bulk gases and de-ionized water, campus facilities and housing, wastewater and sewage management, environmental safety and certain utilities and infrastructure support services. The services agreement continues for an indefinite term subject to each party having a right to terminate in the event of an uncured breach by the other party.

 

37


Table of Contents

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

We are subject to lawsuits and claims that arise in the ordinary course of business and intellectual property litigation and infringement claims. Intellectual property litigation and infringement claims, in particular, could cause us to incur significant expenses or prevent us from selling our products. We are currently not involved in any legal proceedings the outcome of which we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information

Our depositary shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MX.” Our depositary shares have not traded on the NYSE during any prior period. Our initial public offering price on March 10, 2011 was $14.00. On March 17, 2011, the last reported sales price of our depositary shares on the NYSE was $13.92 per share. On April 24, 2011 our depositary shares will be cancelled and each holder of depositary shares will be credited with an equal number of shares of our common stock.

Holders

The approximate number of record holders of our outstanding common stock as of March 17, 2011 was 148, including holders of our depositary shares.

Use of Proceeds

The SEC declared our registration statement for the MagnaChip Corporation IPO effective on March 10, 2011, under which we registered the offering and sale of 9,500,000 depositary shares. The depositary shares will be cancelled and holders will automatically receive an equal number of shares of common stock on April 24, 2011. The depositary shares were structured so that each purchaser purchased a combination of shares sold by us (primary shares) and shares sold by the selling stockholders (secondary shares) in a specified ratio. The MagnaChip Corporation IPO included the offering and sale of 950,000 depositary shares by MagnaChip Corporation, 6,576,389 depositary shares by Avenue Capital Group, as defined below, 722,251 depositary shares by Southpaw Management, as defined below, 635,013 depositary shares by Tennenbaum Cayman SPV, 390,461 depositary shares by O’Connor Capital Structure Opportunity Master Limited, 28,527 depositary shares by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., 130,907 depositary shares by Carlyle Strategic Partners LP, 19,317 depositary shares by Caspian Capital Partners LP, 19,317 depositary shares by Mariner LDC, 22,909 depositary shares by Quattro Fund, Ltd. and 4,909 depositary shares by Quattro Distressed Opportunities Fund LP. The offering closed on March 16, 2011. The managing underwriters were Barclays Capital Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co.

The net proceeds from the sale of common stock in the MagnaChip Corporation IPO by us was $1.6 million, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and the offering expenses payable by us. We did not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of our common stock by the selling stockholders.

We intend to use the net proceeds of the MagnaChip Corporation IPO to partially fund approximately $12 million in discretionary incentive payments to all of our employees, excluding our executive officers. The remainder of the proceeds necessary to fund our employee incentive payments will be made from cash on hand.

Pending such use, we intend to invest the net proceeds of the MagnaChip Corporation IPO in short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing securities.

 

38


Table of Contents

Dividends

We do not intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. The payment of cash dividends on our common stock is restricted under the terms of the indenture governing our senior notes.

On April 19, 2010, we made a $130.7 million cash distribution to our unitholders using proceeds from the sale of our senior notes. The per common unit distribution was $0.4254 or $3.4032 per share after giving effect to the corporate conversion.

Equity Compensation Plan Information

The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the information set forth in Item 12 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

The following relates to sales of securities that have occurred since January 1, 2008 and that have not been registered under the Securities Act:

We have converted from a Delaware limited liability company into a Delaware corporation. At the time of the corporate conversion, all of the outstanding common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC were automatically converted into shares of our common stock and all of the outstanding warrants to purchase common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC were automatically converted into warrants to purchase shares of our common stock. The issuance of common stock and warrants to purchase common stock to our members in the corporate conversion were exempt from registration under the Securities Act by virtue of the exemption provided under Section 3(a)(9) thereof as the common stock and warrants were exchanged by us with our existing security holders exclusively where no commission or other remuneration is paid or given directly or indirectly for soliciting such exchange. The issuance of common stock and warrants also was exempt from registration under the Securities Act by virtue of Section 4(2) thereof as a transaction not involving a public offering or, with respect to certain of our existing security holders, Regulation S thereof as an issuance to non-U.S. persons in transactions that took place outside of the U.S. In addition, as part of our corporate conversion, we converted outstanding options to purchase common units of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC into options to purchase shares of our common stock. The issuance of such options to purchase shares of our stock pursuant to such corporate conversion was exempt from registration in reliance upon exemptions from the registration requirements provided by Rule 701 under the Securities Act relating to transactions occurring under compensatory benefit plans or provided by Regulation S to non-U.S. persons in transactions that took place outside of the U.S.

In April 2010, our subsidiaries, MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A. and MagnaChip Semiconductor Finance Company, sold (and certain of our subsidiaries guaranteed) $250 million aggregate principal amount of 10.500% senior notes due 2018. We received net proceeds of $238.4 million pursuant to the sale of such notes. The initial purchasers of the foregoing notes were Goldman, Sachs & Co., Barclays Capital Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and UBS Securities LLC. The issuance of the notes to the initial purchasers was made in reliance on Section 4(2) under the Securities Act and the notes were subsequently resold by the initial purchasers pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S thereunder.

In March 2010, we issued to our director Nader Tavakoli a restricted unit bonus for 150,000 common units pursuant to the MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC 2009 Common Unit Plan. In March 2010, we also issued to certain of our directors and employees options to purchase up to 914,000 common units pursuant to the MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC 2009 Common Unit Plan at an exercise price of $2.12 per unit. The issuance of

 

39


Table of Contents

such restricted unit bonuses and options to purchase our common units was exempt from registration in reliance upon exemptions from the registration requirements provided by Rule 701 under the Securities Act relating to transactions occurring under compensatory benefit plans or provided by Regulation S to non-U.S. persons in transactions that took place outside of the U.S.

In December 2009, we issued to certain of our employees restricted unit bonuses for an aggregate of 7,084,000 common units pursuant to the MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC 2009 Common Unit Plan. In December 2009, we also issued to certain of our employees options to purchase up to 15,365,000 common units pursuant to the MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC 2009 Common Unit Plan at an exercise price of $1.16 per unit. The issuance of such restricted unit bonuses and options to purchase our common units was exempt from registration in reliance upon exemptions from the registration requirements provided by Rule 701 under the Securities Act relating to transactions occurring under compensatory benefit plans or provided by Regulation S to non-U.S. persons in transactions that took place outside of the U.S.

In November 2009, in connection with our emergence from reorganization proceedings, we issued an aggregate of 17,999,996 common units and warrants to purchase 15,000,000 common units to certain of our former creditors in satisfaction and retirement of their claims. The issuance of such common units and warrants and the distribution thereof was exempt from registration under applicable securities laws pursuant to Section 1145(a) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

In November 2009, in connection with our emergence from reorganization proceedings, we issued an aggregate of 252,000,000 common units in a rights offering to affiliated funds of Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. and certain of our other former creditors who were accredited investors, as defined in Regulation D of the Securities Act, for an aggregate purchase price of $35,280,000. In connection with such rights offering we issued an additional 30,000,000 common units to affiliated funds of Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. as payment of a backstop commitment fee payable pursuant to our Chapter 11 plan of reorganization. The sale and issuance of such securities was exempt from registration under applicable securities laws pursuant to Section 4(2) of the Securities Act and Regulation D promulgated thereunder.

On July 4, 2008, one of our former employees exercised options to acquire 4,375 of our common units at a purchase price of $12,040.87. The issuance of these securities was exempt from registration under Section 4(2) of the Securities Act, by reason of the fact that the offering was a limited private placement to one knowledgeable investor who agreed not to resell the securities to the public.

On April 14, 2008, one of our former executives exercised options to acquire 143,272.50 of our common units at a purchase price of $143,272.50. Because the offering transaction took place outside the U.S. and the optionee was not a U.S. person, the issuance of these securities was exempt from registration under Regulation S.

On March 12, 2008, one of our former employees exercised options to acquire 2,437.50 of our common units at a purchase price of $7,312.50. Because the offering transaction took place outside the U.S. and the optionee was not a U.S. person, the issuance of these securities was exempt from registration under Regulation S.

On February 19, 2008, two of our former employees exercised options to acquire 11,375 of our common units for an aggregate purchase price of $20,890. Because the offering transactions took place outside the U.S. and neither of the optionees was a U.S. person, the issuance of these securities was exempt from registration under Regulation S.

 

40


Table of Contents

Item 6. Selected Financial Data

The following tables set forth selected historical consolidated financial data of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation on or as of the dates and for the periods indicated. The selected historical consolidated financial data presented below should be read together with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements, including the notes to those consolidated financial statements, appearing elsewhere in this Report.

We have derived the selected consolidated financial data as of December 31, 2010 and 2009 and for the year ended December 31, 2010, the two-month period ended December 31, 2009, the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and the year ended December 31, 2008 from the historical audited consolidated financial statements of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC included elsewhere in this Report. We have derived the selected consolidated financial data as of December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006 and for the years ended December 31, 2007 and 2006 from the historical audited consolidated financial statements of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC not included in this Report. The historical consolidated financial data for the year ended December 31, 2010 and the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 give retroactive effect to the corporate conversion. The historical results of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation for any prior period are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in any future period.

In connection with our emergence from reorganization proceedings, we implemented fresh-start accounting in accordance with ASC 852 governing reorganizations. We elected to adopt a convenience date of October 25, 2009 (a month end for our financial reporting purposes) for application of fresh-start accounting. In accordance with the ASC 852 governing reorganizations, we recorded largely non-cash reorganization income and expense items directly associated with our reorganization proceedings including professional fees, the revaluation of assets, the effects of our reorganization plan and fresh-start accounting and write-off of debt issuance costs. As a result of the application of fresh-start accounting, our financial statements prior to and including October 25, 2009 represent the operations of our pre-reorganization predecessor company and are presented separately from the financial statements of our post-reorganization successor company. As a result of the application of fresh-start accounting, the financial statements prior to and including October 25, 2009 are not fully comparable with the financial statements for periods after October 25, 2009.

 

41


Table of Contents
     Successor(1)            Predecessor  
     Year Ended
December 31,
2010
    Two Month
Period Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten Month
Period Ended
October 25,
2009
    Years Ended
December 31,
 
            2008     2007     2006  
     (In millions, except per common unit/share data)  

Statements of Operations Data:

                 

Net sales

   $ 770.4      $ 111.1           $ 449.0      $ 601.7      $ 709.5      $ 683.9   

Cost of sales

     526.8        90.4             311.1        445.3        578.9        580.4   
                                                     

Gross profit

     243.6        20.7             137.8        156.4        130.7        103.4   

Selling, general and administrative expenses

     66.6        14.5             56.3        81.3        82.7        76.1   

Research and development expenses

     83.5        14.7             56.1        89.5        90.8        87.2   

Restructuring and impairment charges

     2.0        —               0.4        13.4        12.1        1.7   
                                                     

Operating income (loss) from continuing operations

     91.4        (8.6          25.0        (27.7     (54.9     (61.6

Interest expense, net

     (22.9     (1.3          (31.2     (76.1     (60.3     (57.2

Foreign currency gain (loss), net

     14.7        9.3             43.4        (210.4     (4.7     50.9   

Reorganization items, net

     —          —               804.6        —          —          —     

Others

     (0.7     —               —          —          —          —     
                                                     
     (8.9     8.1             816.8        (286.5     (65.0     (6.3
                                                     

Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes

     82.5        (0.5          841.8        (314.3     (120.0     (67.9

Income tax expenses

     8.4        1.9             7.3        11.6        8.8        9.1   
                                                     

Income (loss) from continuing operations

     74.1        (2.5          834.5        (325.8     (128.8     (76.9

Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes

     —          0.5             6.6        (91.5     (51.7     (152.4
                                                     

Net income (loss)

   $ 74.1      $ (2.0        $ 841.1      $ (417.3   $ (180.6   $ (229.3
                                                     

Dividends accrued on preferred units

     —          —               6.3        13.3        12.0        10.9   
                                                     

Income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to common units

   $ 74.1      $ (2.5        $ 828.2      $ (339.1   $ (140.9   $ (87.9
                                                     

Net income (loss) attributable to common units

   $ 74.1      $ (2.0        $ 834.8      $ (430.6   $ (192.6   $ (240.2
                                                     

Per unit/share data:

                 

Earnings (loss) from continuing operations per common unit/share—

                 

Basic

   $ 1.96      $ (0.07        $ 15.65      $ (6.43   $ (2.69   $ (1.66

Diluted

   $ 1.89      $ (0.07        $ 15.65      $ (6.43   $ (2.69   $ (1.66

Earnings (loss) from discontinued operations per common unit/share—

                 

Basic and diluted

   $ —        $ 0.02           $ 0.12      $ (1.73   $ (0.99   $ (2.88

Earnings (loss) per common unit/share—

                 

Basic

   $ 1.96      $ (0.05        $ 15.77      $ (8.16   $ (3.68   $ (4.54

Diluted

   $ 1.89      $ (0.05        $ 15.77      $ (8.16   $ (3.68   $ (4.54

Weighted average number of common units/stock

                 

Basic

     37.836        37.608             52.923        52.769        52.297        52.912   

Diluted

     39.144        37.608             52.923        52.769        52.297        52.912   

Balance Sheet Data (at period end):

                 

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 172.2      $ 64.9             $ 4.0      $ 64.3      $ 89.2   

Total assets

     625.7        453.3               399.2        707.9        770.1   

Total indebtedness(2)

     246.9        61.8               845.0        830.0        750.0   

Long-term obligations(3)

     250.0        61.5               143.2        879.4        867.4   

Stockholders’/Unitholders’ equity

     162.9        215.7               (787.8     (477.5     (284.5

Supplemental Data (unaudited):

                 

Adjusted EBITDA(4)

   $ 157.9      $ 22.1           $ 76.6      $ 59.8       

Adjusted Net Income (Loss)(5)

     89.2        13.3             9.3        (71.7    

 

(1)

As of October 25, 2009, the fresh-start adoption date, we adopted fresh-start accounting for our consolidated financial statements. Because of the emergence from reorganization proceedings and adoption of fresh-start accounting, the historical financial information for periods after October 25, 2009 is not fully comparable to periods before October 25, 2009. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and

 

42


Table of Contents
 

Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Recent Changes to Our Business.”

(2) Total indebtedness is calculated as long and short-term borrowings, including the current portion of long-term borrowings.
(3) Long-term obligations include long-term borrowings, capital leases and redeemable convertible preferred units.
(4) We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) less income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes, adjusted to exclude (i) depreciation and amortization associated with continuing operations, (ii) interest expense, net, (iii) income tax expenses (benefits), (iv) restructuring and impairment charges, (v) other restructuring charges, (vi) abandoned IPO expenses, (vii) reorganization items, net, (viii) the increase in cost of sales resulting from the fresh-start accounting inventory step-up, (ix) equity-based compensation expense, (x) foreign currency gain (loss), net and (xi) derivative valuation gain (loss), net. See the footnotes to the table below for further information regarding these items. We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure of our performance because:
   

Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the impact of a number of items that may be either one time or recurring items that we do not consider to be indicative of our core ongoing operating performance;

   

we believe that Adjusted EBITDA is an enterprise level performance measure commonly reported and widely used by analysts and investors in our industry;

   

we anticipate that our investor and analyst presentations after we are public will include Adjusted EBITDA; and

   

we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides investors with a more consistent measurement of period to period performance of our core operations, as well as a comparison of our operating performance to that of other companies in our industry.

We use Adjusted EBITDA in a number of ways, including:
   

for planning purposes, including the preparation of our annual operating budget;

   

to evaluate the effectiveness of our enterprise level business strategies;

   

in communications with our board of directors concerning our consolidated financial performance; and

   

in certain of our compensation plans as a performance measure for determining incentive compensation payments.

We encourage you to evaluate each adjustment and the reasons we consider them appropriate. In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure defined in accordance with GAAP and should not be construed as an alternative to income from continuing operations, cash flows from operating activities or net income (loss), as determined in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA is as follows:

 

     Successor            Predecessor  
     Year Ended
December 31,
2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year Ended
December 31,
2008
 
           (In millions)        

Net income (loss)

   $ 74.1      $ (2.0        $ 841.1      $ (417.3

Less: Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes

     —          0.5             6.6        (91.5
                                     

Income (loss) from continuing operations

     74.1        (2.5          834.5        (325.8

Adjustments:

             

Depreciation and amortization associated with continuing operations

     58.4        11.2             37.7        63.8   

Interest expense, net

     22.9        1.3             31.2        76.1   

Income tax expenses

     8.4        1.9             7.3        11.6   

Restructuring and impairment charges(a)

     2.0        —               0.4        13.4   

Other restructuring charges(b)

     —          —               13.3        6.2   

Abandoned IPO expenses(c)

     —          —               —          3.7   

Reorganization items, net(d)

     —          —               (804.6     —     

Inventory step-up(e)

     0.9        17.2             —          —     

Equity-based compensation expense(f)

     5.2        2.2             0.2        0.5   

Foreign currency loss (gain), net(g)

     (14.7     (9.3          (43.4     210.4   

Derivative valuation loss, net(h)

     0.7        —               —          —     
                                     

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 157.9      $ 22.1           $ 76.6      $ 59.8   
                                     

 

(a)

This adjustment is comprised of all items included in the restructuring and impairment charges line item on our consolidated statements of operations, and eliminates the impact of restructuring and impairment charges related to (i) for 2010, impairment charges of $2.0 million recorded, of which $1.6 million of impairment charges were recognized for abandoned in-process research and development projects and $0.4 million of impairment charges were recognized as a result of an annual impairment test of in-process research and development, accounted for as indefinite-lived intangible assets as part of the application of fresh-start accounting, (ii) for 2009, termination benefits and other related costs, for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 in connection with the closure of one of our research and development facilities in Japan, (iii) for 2008, goodwill impairment triggered by the significant adverse change in the revenue of our mobile display solutions, or MDS reporting unit, and a reversal of a portion of the restructuring accrual related to the

 

43


Table of Contents
 

closure of our Gumi five-inch wafer fabrication facilities in 2007. We do not believe these restructuring and impairment charges are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because we do not anticipate similar facility closures and market driven events in our ongoing operations, although we cannot guarantee that similar events will not occur in the future.

(b) This adjustment relates to certain restructuring charges that are not included in the restructuring and impairment charges line item on our consolidated statements of operations. These items are included in selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations. These charges are comprised of the following: (i) for 2009, a charge of $13.3 million for restructuring-related professional fees and related expenses, and (ii) for 2008, a charge of $6.2 million for restructuring-related professional fees and related expenses. We do not believe these other restructuring charges are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because these charges were related, in significant part, to actions we took in response to the impacts on our business resulting from the global economic recession that persisted through 2008 and 2009. We cannot guarantee that similar charges will not be incurred in the future.
(c) This adjustment eliminates a $3.7 million charge related to expenses incurred in connection with our abandoned initial public offering in 2008. We do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operating performance. We incurred similar costs in connection with the MagnaChip Corporation IPO.
(d) This adjustment eliminates the impact of largely non-cash reorganization income and expense items directly associated with our reorganization proceedings from our ongoing operations including, among others, professional fees, the revaluation of assets, the effects of the Chapter 11 reorganization plan and fresh-start accounting principles and the write-off of debt issuance costs. Included in reorganization items, net for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 was our predecessor’s gain recognized from the effects of our reorganization proceedings. The gain results from the difference between our predecessor’s carrying value of remaining pre-petition liabilities subject to compromise and the amounts to be distributed pursuant to the reorganization proceedings. The gain from the effects of the reorganization proceedings and the application of fresh-start accounting principles is comprised of the discharge of liabilities subject to compromise, net of the issuance of new common units and new warrants and the accrual of amounts to be settled in cash. For details regarding this adjustment, see note 5 to the consolidated financial statements of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation included elsewhere in this Report. We do not believe these items are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because they were incurred as a result of our Chapter 11 reorganization.
(e) This adjustment eliminates the one-time impact on cost of sales associated with the write-up of our inventory in accordance with the principles of fresh-start accounting upon consummation of the Chapter 11 reorganization.
(f) This adjustment eliminates the impact of non-cash equity-based compensation expenses. Although we expect to incur non-cash equity-based compensation expenses in the future, we believe that analysts and investors will find it helpful to review our operating performance without the effects of these non-cash expenses, as supplemental information.
(g) This adjustment eliminates the impact of non-cash foreign currency translation associated with intercompany debt obligations and foreign currency denominated receivables and payables, as well as the cash impact of foreign currency transaction gains or losses on collection of such receivables and payment of such payables. Although we expect to incur foreign currency translation gains or losses in the future, we believe that analysts and investors will find it helpful to review our operating performance without the effects of these primarily non-cash gains or losses, as supplemental information.
(h) This adjustment eliminates the impact of gain or loss recognized in income on derivatives, which represents hedge ineffectiveness or derivatives value changes excluded from the risk being hedged. We enter into derivative transactions to mitigate foreign exchange risks. As our derivative transactions are limited to a certain portion of our expected cash flows denominated in USD, and we do not enter into derivative transactions for trading or speculative purposes, we do not believe that these charges or gains are indicative of our core operating performance.

Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

   

Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect our cash expenditures, or future requirements, for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

   

Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

   

Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt;

   

although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements;

   

Adjusted EBITDA does not consider the potentially dilutive impact of issuing equity-based compensation to our management team and employees;

   

Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the costs of holding certain assets and liabilities in foreign currencies; and

   

other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Because of these limitations, Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the growth of our business. We compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our GAAP results and using Adjusted EBITDA only supplementally.

(5) We present Adjusted Net Income as a further supplemental measure of our performance. We prepare Adjusted Net Income by adjusting net income (loss) to eliminate the impact of a number of non-cash expenses and other items that may be either one time or recurring that we do not consider to be indicative of our core ongoing operating performance. We believe that Adjusted Net Income is particularly useful because it reflects the impact of our asset base and capital structure on our operating performance. We present Adjusted Net Income for a number of reasons, including:
   

we use Adjusted Net Income in communications with our board of directors concerning our consolidated financial performance;

 

44


Table of Contents
   

we believe that Adjusted Net Income is an enterprise level performance measure commonly reported and widely used by analysts and investors in our industry; and

   

we anticipate that our investor and analyst presentations after we are public will include Adjusted Net Income.

   

Adjusted Net Income is not a measure defined in accordance with GAAP and should not be construed as an alternative to income from continuing operations, cash flows from operating activities or net income (loss), as determined in accordance with GAAP. We encourage you to evaluate each adjustment and the reasons we consider them appropriate. Other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted Net Income differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. In addition, in evaluating Adjusted Net Income, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. We define Adjusted Net Income as net income (loss) less income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes, excluding (i) restructuring and impairment charges, (ii) other restructuring charges, (iii) abandoned IPO expenses, (iv) reorganization items, net, (v) the increase in cost of sales resulting from the fresh-start accounting inventory step-up, (vi) equity-based compensation expense, (vii) amortization of intangibles associated with continuing operations, (viii) foreign currency gain (loss) and (ix) derivative valuation gain (loss), net.

The following table summarizes the adjustments to net income (loss) that we make in order to calculate Adjusted Net Income for the periods indicated:

 

     Successor            Predecessor  
     Year Ended
December 31,
2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year Ended
December 31,
2008
 
           (In millions)        

Net income (loss)

   $ 74.1      $ (2.0        $ 841.1      $ (417.3

Less: Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes

     —          0.5             6.6        (91.5
                                     

Income (loss) from continuing operations

     74.1        (2.5          834.5        (325.8

Adjustments:

             

Restructuring and impairment charges(a)

     2.0        —               0.4        13.4   

Other restructuring charges(b)

     —          —               13.3        6.2   

Abandoned IPO expenses(c)

     —          —               —          3.7   

Reorganization items, net(d)

     —          —               (804.6     —     

Inventory step-up(e)

     0.9        17.2             —          —     

Equity-based compensation expense(f)

     5.2        2.2             0.2        0.5   

Amortization of intangibles associated with continuing operations(g)

     21.0        5.6             8.8        20.0   

Foreign currency loss (gain), net(h)

     (14.7     (9.3          (43.4     210.4   

Derivative valuation loss, net(i)

     0.7        —               —          —     
                                     

Adjusted Net Income (Loss)

   $ 89.2      $ 13.3           $ 9.3      $ (71.7
                                     

 

(a) This adjustment is comprised of all items included in the restructuring and impairment charges line item on our consolidated statements of operations, and eliminates the impact of restructuring and impairment charges related to (i) for 2010, impairment charges of $2.0 million recorded, of which $1.6 million of impairment charges were recognized for abandoned in-process research and development projects and $0.4 million of impairment charges were recognized as a result of an annual impairment test of in-process research and development, accounted for as indefinite-lived intangible assets as part of the application of fresh-start accounting, (ii) for 2009, termination benefits and other related costs, for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 in connection with the closure of one of our research and development facilities in Japan, (iii) for 2008, goodwill impairment triggered by the significant adverse change in the revenue of our MDS reporting unit and a reversal of a portion of the restructuring accrual related to the closure of our Gumi five-inch wafer fabrication facilities in 2007. We do not believe these restructuring and impairment charges are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because we do not anticipate similar facility closures and market driven events in our ongoing operations, although we cannot guarantee that similar events will not occur in the future.
(b) This adjustment relates to certain restructuring charges that are not included in the restructuring and impairment charges line item on our consolidated statements of operations. These items are included in selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations. These charges are comprised of the following: (i) for 2009, a charge of $13.3 million for restructuring-related professional fees and related expenses, and (ii) for 2008, a charge of $6.2 million for restructuring-related professional fees and related expenses. We do not believe these other restructuring charges are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because these charges were related, in significant part, to actions we took in response to the impacts on our business resulting from the global economic recession that persisted through 2008 and 2009. We cannot guarantee that similar charges will not be incurred in the future.
(c) This adjustment eliminates a $3.7 million charge in 2008 related to expenses incurred in connection with our abandoned initial public offering in 2008. We do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operating performance. We incurred similar costs in connection with the MagnaChip Corporation IPO.

 

45


Table of Contents
(d) This adjustment eliminates the impact of largely non-cash reorganization income and expense items directly associated with our reorganization proceedings from our ongoing operations including, among others, professional fees, the revaluation of assets, the effects of the Chapter 11 reorganization plan and fresh-start accounting principles and the write-off of debt issuance costs. Included in reorganization items, net for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 was our predecessor’s gain recognized from the effects of our reorganization proceedings. The gain results from the difference between our predecessor’s carrying value of remaining pre-petition liabilities subject to compromise and the amounts to be distributed pursuant to the reorganization proceedings. The gain from the effects of the reorganization proceedings and the application of fresh-start accounting principles is comprised of the discharge of liabilities subject to compromise, net of the issuance of new common units and new warrants and the accrual of amounts to be settled in cash. For details regarding this adjustment, see note 5 to the consolidated financial statements of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation included elsewhere in this Report. We do not believe these items are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because they were incurred as a result of our reorganization proceedings.
(e) This adjustment eliminates the one-time impact on cost of sales associated with the write-up of our inventory in accordance with the principles of fresh-start accounting upon consummation of the Chapter 11 reorganization.
(f) This adjustment eliminates the impact of non-cash equity-based compensation expenses. Although we expect to incur non-cash equity-based compensation expenses in the future, we believe that analysts and investors will find it helpful to review our operating performance without the effects of these non-cash expenses, as supplemental information.
(g) This adjustment eliminates the non-cash impact of amortization expense for intangible assets created as a result of the purchase accounting treatment of the Original Acquisition and other subsequent acquisitions, and from the application of fresh-start accounting in connection with the reorganization proceedings. We do not believe these non-cash amortization expenses for intangibles are indicative of our core ongoing operating performance because the assets would not have been capitalized on our balance sheet but for the application of purchase accounting or fresh-start accounting, as applicable.
(h) This adjustment eliminates the impact of non-cash foreign currency translation associated with intercompany debt obligations and foreign currency denominated receivables and payables, as well as the cash impact of foreign currency transaction gains or losses on collection of such receivables and payment of such payables. Although we expect to incur foreign currency translation gains or losses in the future, we believe that analysts and investors will find it helpful to review our operating performance without the effects of these primarily non-cash gains or losses, as supplemental information.
(i) This adjustment eliminates the impact of gain or loss recognized in income on derivatives, which represents hedge ineffectiveness or derivatives value changes excluded from the risk being hedged. We enter into derivative transactions to mitigate foreign exchange risks. As our derivative transactions are limited to a certain portion of our expected cash flows denominated in USD, and we do not enter into derivative transactions for trading or speculative purposes, we do not believe that these charges or gains are indicative of our core operating performance.

Adjusted Net Income has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

   

Adjusted Net Income does not reflect our cash expenditures, or future requirements, for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

   

Adjusted Net Income does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

   

Adjusted Net Income does not consider the potentially dilutive impact of issuing equity-based compensation to our management team and employees;

   

Adjusted Net Income does not reflect the costs of holding certain assets and liabilities in foreign currencies; and

   

other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted Net Income differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Because of these limitations, Adjusted Net Income should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the growth of our business. We compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our GAAP results and using Adjusted Net Income only supplementally.

 

46


Table of Contents

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Report. This discussion and analysis contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements that include risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Report.

Overview

We are a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high-volume consumer applications. We believe we have one of the broadest and deepest analog and mixed-signal semiconductor technology platforms in the industry, supported by our 30-year operating history, large portfolio of approximately 2,730 novel registered patents and 760 pending novel patent applications and extensive engineering and manufacturing process expertise. Our business is comprised of three key segments: Display Solutions, Power Solutions and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Our Display Solutions products include display drivers that cover a wide range of flat panel displays and multimedia devices. Our Power Solutions products include discrete and integrated circuit solutions for power management in high-volume consumer applications. Our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment provides specialty analog and mixed-signal foundry services for fabless semiconductor companies that serve the consumer, computing and wireless end markets.

Our wide variety of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products and manufacturing services combined with our deep technology platform allows us to address multiple high-growth end markets and to rapidly develop and introduce new products and services in response to market demands. Our substantial manufacturing operations in Korea and design centers in Korea and Japan place us at the core of the global consumer electronics supply chain. We believe this enables us to quickly and efficiently respond to our customers’ needs and allows us to better service and capture additional demand from existing and new customers.

To maintain and increase our profitability, we must accurately forecast trends in demand for consumer electronics products that incorporate semiconductor products we produce. We must understand our customers’ needs as well as the likely end market trends and demand in the markets they serve. We must balance the likely manufacturing utilization demand of our product businesses and foundry business to optimize our facilities utilization. We must also invest in relevant research and development activities and manufacturing capacity and purchase necessary materials on a timely basis to meet our customers’ demand while maintaining our target margins and cash flow.

The semiconductor markets in which we participate are highly competitive. The prices of our products tend to decrease regularly over their useful lives, and such price decreases can be significant as new generations of products are introduced by us or our competitors. We strive to offset the impact of declining selling prices for existing products through cost reductions and the introduction of new products that command selling prices above the average selling price of our existing products. In addition, we seek to manage our inventories and manufacturing capacity so as to mitigate the risk of losses from product obsolescence.

Demand for our products and services is driven primarily by overall demand for consumer electronics products and can be adversely affected by periods of weak consumer spending or by market share losses by our customers. To mitigate the impact of market volatility on our business, we seek to address market segments and geographies with higher growth rates than the overall consumer electronics industry. For example, in recent years, we have experienced increasing demand from OEMs and consumers in China and Taiwan relative to overall demand for our products and services. We expect to derive a meaningful portion of our growth from growing demand in such markets. We also expect that new competitors will emerge in these markets that may place increased pressure on the pricing for our products and services, but we believe that we will be able to

 

47


Table of Contents

successfully compete based upon our higher quality products and services and that the impact from the increased competition will be more than offset by increased demand arising from such markets. Further, we believe we are well-positioned competitively as a result of our long operating history, existing manufacturing capacity and our Korea-based operations.

Within our Display Solutions and Power Solutions segments, net sales are driven by design wins in which we or another company is selected by an electronics OEM or other potential customer to supply its demand for a particular product. A customer will often have more than one supplier designed in to multi-source components for a particular product line. Once designed in, we often specify the pricing of a particular product for a set period of time, with periodic discussions and renegotiations of pricing with our customers. In any given period, our net sales depend heavily upon the end-market demand for the goods in which our products are used, the inventory levels maintained by our customers and in some cases, allocation of demand for components for a particular product among selected qualified suppliers.

Within the Semiconductor Manufacturing Services business, net sales are driven by customers’ decisions on which manufacturing services provider to use for a particular product. Most of our semiconductor manufacturing services customers are fabless and depend upon service providers like us to manufacture their products. A customer will often have more than one supplier of manufacturing services; however, they tend to allocate a majority of manufacturing volume to one of their suppliers. We strive to be the primary supplier of manufacturing services to our customers. Once selected as a primary supplier, we often specify the pricing of a particular service on a per wafer basis for a set period of time, with periodic discussions and renegotiations of pricing with our customers. In any given period, our net sales depend heavily upon the end-market demand for the goods in which the products we manufacture for customers are used, the inventory levels maintained by our customers and in some cases, allocation of demand for manufacturing services among selected qualified suppliers.

In contrast to fabless semiconductor companies, our internal manufacturing capacity provides us with greater control over manufacturing costs and the ability to implement process and production improvements which can favorably impact gross profit margins. Our internal manufacturing capacity also allows for better control over delivery schedules, improved consistency over product quality and reliability and improved ability to protect intellectual property from misappropriation. However, having internal manufacturing capacity exposes us to the risk of under-utilization of manufacturing capacity which results in lower gross profit margins, particularly during downturns in the semiconductor industry.

Our products and services require investments in capital equipment. Analog and mixed-signal manufacturing facilities and processes are typically distinguished by the design and process implementation expertise rather than the use of the most advanced equipment. These processes also tend to migrate more slowly to smaller geometries due to technological barriers and increased costs. For example, some of our products use high-voltage technology that requires larger geometries and that may not migrate to smaller geometries for several years, if at all. Additionally, the performance of many of our products is not necessarily dependent on geometry. As a result, our manufacturing base and strategy does not require substantial investment in leading edge process equipment, allowing us to utilize our facilities and equipment over an extended period of time with moderate required capital investments. Generally, incremental capacity expansions in our segment of the market result in more moderate industry capacity expansion as compared to leading edge processes. As a result, this market, and we, specifically, are less likely to experience significant industry overcapacity, which can cause product prices to plunge dramatically. In general, we seek to invest in manufacturing capacity that can be used for multiple high-value applications over an extended period of time. We believe this capital investment strategy enables us to optimize our capital investments and facilitates deeper and more diversified product and service offerings.

Our success going forward will depend upon our ability to adapt to future challenges such as the emergence of new competitors for our products and services or the consolidation of current competitors. Additionally, we

 

48


Table of Contents

must innovate to remain ahead of, or at least rapidly adapt to, technological breakthroughs that may lead to a significant change in the technology necessary to deliver our products and services. We believe that our established relationships and close collaboration with leading customers enhance our visibility into new product opportunities, market and technology trends and improve our ability to meet these challenges successfully. In our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services business, we strive to maintain competitiveness and our position as a primary manufacturing services provider to our customers by offering high value added, unique processes, high flexibility and excellent service.

Controls and Procedures

In connection with the audits of our consolidated financial statements for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and two-month period ended December 31, 2009, our independent registered public accounting firm reported two control deficiencies which represented a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. The two control deficiencies were that we did not have a sufficient number of financial personnel with requisite financial accounting experience and that our internal controls over non-routine transactions were not effective to ensure that accounting considerations are identified and appropriately recorded. We identified and took steps to remediate this material weakness. Based on assessments of the remediation actions taken, our management has concluded that these two control deficiencies which represented a material weakness no longer exist as of December 31, 2010. See “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures” for management’s remediation initiatives.

Recent Changes to Our Business

Beginning in the second half of 2008, we began to take steps to refocus our business strategy, enhance our operating efficiency and improve our cash flow and profitability. We restructured our continuing operations by reducing our cost structure, increasing our focus on our core, profitable technologies, products and customers, and implemented various initiatives to lower our manufacturing costs and improve our gross margins. In connection with these initiatives, we closed our Imaging Solutions business segment, which had been a source of substantial ongoing operating losses amounting to $91.5 million and $51.7 million in 2008 and 2007, respectively, and which required substantial ongoing capital investment. Our employee headcount has declined from 3,648 as of the end of July 2008 to 3,156 at the end of 2009. As a result of these actions, we were able to reduce our costs and improve our margins. Although our goal is to continue to focus on lower costs and improved margins on an ongoing basis, we expect that the financial benefits derived from our ongoing efforts will be incremental and any such benefits may be offset by other negative factors affecting our operations.

On June 12, 2009, we filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in order to address the growing demands on our cash flow resulting from our long-term indebtedness. Our plan of reorganization went effective and we emerged from the reorganization proceeding on November 9, 2009. As a result of the plan of reorganization, our indebtedness was reduced from $845.0 million immediately prior to the effectiveness of our plan of reorganization to $61.8 million as of December 31, 2009.

During the first half of 2009, we instituted company-wide voluntary salary reductions, which resulted in one-time savings for our continuing operations during 2009 and which in turn contributed to the decrease in salaries and related expenses in 2009 relative to 2008. In June 2009, we returned to our employees one-third of the amount by which their salaries had been reduced. We reinstated salaries to prior levels in July 2009.

In connection with our emergence from reorganization proceedings, we implemented fresh-start accounting in accordance with ASC 852 governing reorganizations. We elected to adopt a convenience date of October 25, 2009 (a month end for our financial reporting purposes) for application of fresh-start accounting. In accordance with ASC 852 governing reorganizations, we recorded largely non-cash reorganization income and expense items directly associated with our reorganization proceedings including professional fees, the revaluation of assets, the effects of our reorganization plan and fresh-start accounting, and write-off of debt issuance costs.

 

49


Table of Contents

In implementing fresh-start accounting, we re-measured our asset values and stated all liabilities, other than deferred taxes and severance benefits, at fair value. Our reorganization value was determined based on consideration of numerous factors and various valuation methodologies, including discounted cash flows, believed by management and our financial advisors to be representative of our business and industry. Information regarding the determination of the reorganization value and application of fresh-start accounting is included in note 3 to the consolidated financial statements of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation included elsewhere in this Report. In addition, under fresh-start accounting, accumulated deficit and accumulated other comprehensive income were eliminated.

Under fresh-start accounting, our inventory, net, and intangible assets, net, increased by $17.9 million and $28.3 million, respectively, and property, plant and equipment decreased by $13.9 million, in each case to reflect the estimated fair value as of our emergence from our reorganization proceedings. As a result, our cost of sales for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 included $17.2 million of additional costs from the inventory step-up. This resulted in our gross margin for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 being significantly lower than for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and prior periods. The increase in intangible assets results in higher amortization expenses following our emergence from our reorganization proceedings which are included in cost of sales, selling general and administrative expenses and research and development expenses. The decrease in property, plant and equipment results in lower depreciation expenses, which are included in cost of sales, selling general and administrative expenses and research and development expenses following our emergence from our reorganization proceedings.

As a result of the application of fresh-start accounting, our consolidated financial statements prior to and including October 25, 2009 represent the operations of our pre- reorganization predecessor company and are presented separately from the consolidated financial statements of our post-reorganization successor company. For the purposes of our discussion and analysis of our results of operations, we often refer to results of operations for 2009 on a combined basis, including both the period before (predecessor company) and after (successor company) effectiveness of the plan of reorganization. We believe this comparison provides useful information as the principal impact of the plan of reorganization was on our debt and capital structure and not on our core operations; and many of the steps taken to improve our core operations had commenced prior to the commencement of our reorganization proceedings.

On April 9, 2010, we completed the sale of $250 million in aggregate principal amount of 10.500% senior notes due 2018. Of the $238.4 million of net proceeds, $130.7 million was used to make a distribution to our unitholders and $61.6 million was used to repay all outstanding borrowings under our term loan. The remaining proceeds of $46.1 million were retained to fund working capital and for general corporate purposes. As a result of the higher level of indebtedness from our senior notes offering, our interest expense will increase above that which was reported for the year ended December 31, 2010 to approximately $27.9 million per year.

Business Segments

We report in three separate business segments because we derive our revenues from three principal business lines: Display Solutions, Power Solutions, and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. We have identified these segments based on how we allocate resources and assess our performance.

 

   

Display Solutions: Our Display Solutions products include source and gate drivers and timing controllers that cover a wide range of flat panel displays used in LCD televisions and LED televisions and displays, mobile PCs and mobile communications and entertainment devices. Our display solutions support the industry’s most advanced display technologies, such as LTPS and AMOLED, as well as high-volume display technologies such as TFT. Our Display Solutions business represented 39.7%, 50.5% and 50.5% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 (on a combined basis) and 2008, respectively.

 

   

Power Solutions: Our Power Solutions segment produces power management semiconductor products including discrete and integrated circuit solutions for power management in high-volume consumer

 

50


Table of Contents
 

applications. These products include MOSFETs, LED drivers, DC-DC converters, analog switches and linear regulators, such as low-dropout regulators, or LDOs. Our power solutions products are designed for applications such as mobile phones, LCD televisions, and desktop computers, and allow electronics manufacturers to achieve specific design goals of high efficiency and low standby power consumption. Going forward, we expect to continue to expand our power management product portfolio. Our Power Solutions business represented 7.4%, 2.2% and 0.9% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 (on a combined basis) and 2008, respectively.

 

   

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services: Our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment provides specialty analog and mixed-signal foundry services to fabless semiconductor companies that serve the consumer, computing and wireless end markets. We manufacture wafers based on our customers’ product designs. We do not market these products directly to end customers but rather supply manufactured wafers and products to our customers to market to their end customers. We offer approximately 240 process flows to our manufacturing services customers. We also often partner with key customers to jointly develop or customize specialized processes that enable our customers to improve their products and allow us to develop unique manufacturing expertise. Our manufacturing services are targeted at customers who require differentiated, specialty analog and mixed-signal process technologies such as high voltage CMOS, embedded memory and power. These customers typically serve high-growth and high-volume applications in the consumer, computing and wireless end markets. Our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services business represented 52.6%, 46.7% and 47.7% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 (on a combined basis) and 2008, respectively.

Additional Business Metrics Evaluated by Management

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income

We use the terms Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income throughout this Report. Adjusted EBITDA, as we define it, is a non-GAAP measure. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) less income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes, adjusted to exclude: (i) depreciation and amortization associated with continuing operations, (ii) interest expense, net, (iii) income tax expense (benefits), (iv) restructuring and impairment charges, (v) other restructuring charges, (vi) abandoned IPO expenses, (vii) reorganization items, net, (viii) the increase in cost of sales resulting from the fresh-start accounting inventory step-up, (ix) equity-based compensation expense, (x) foreign currency gain (loss), net and (xi) derivative valuation gain (loss), net.

We define Adjusted Net Income as net income (loss) less income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes excluding (i) restructuring and impairment charges, (ii) other restructuring charges, (iii) abandoned IPO expenses, (iv) reorganization items, net, (v) the increase in cost of sales resulting from the fresh-start accounting inventory step-up, (vi) equity-based compensation expense, (vii) amortization of intangibles associated with continuing operations, (viii) foreign currency gain (loss), net and (ix) derivative valuation gain (loss), net.

We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure of our performance because:

 

   

Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the impact of a number of items that may be either one time or recurring that we do not consider to be indicative of our core ongoing operating performance;

 

   

we believe that Adjusted EBITDA is an enterprise level performance measure commonly reported and widely used by analysts and investors in our industry;

 

   

we anticipate that our investor and analyst presentations after we are public will include Adjusted EBITDA; and

 

   

we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides investors with a more consistent measurement of period to period performance of our core operations, as well as a comparison of our operating performance to companies in our industry.

 

51


Table of Contents

We use Adjusted EBITDA in a number of ways, including:

 

   

for planning purposes, including the preparation of our annual operating budget;

 

   

to evaluate the effectiveness of our enterprise level business strategies;

 

   

in communications with our board of directors concerning our consolidated financial performance; and

 

   

in certain of our compensation plans as a performance measure for determining incentive compensation payments.

We present Adjusted Net Income for a number of reasons, including:

 

   

we use Adjusted Net Income in communications with our board of directors concerning our consolidated financial performance;

 

   

we believe that Adjusted Net Income is an enterprise level performance measure commonly reported and widely used by analysts and investors in our industry; and

 

   

we anticipate that our investor and analyst presentations after we are public will include Adjusted Net Income.

In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income. Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income are not measures defined in accordance with GAAP and should not be construed as an alternative to operating income, cash flows from operating activities or net income (loss), as determined in accordance with GAAP.

Our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income for the year ended December 31, 2010 were $157.9 million and $89.2 million, respectively. Our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 were $98.7 million and $22.6 million, respectively. Our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Loss for the year ended December 31, 2008 were $59.8 million and $71.7 million, respectively. This improvement resulted from our restructuring efforts and improvements in market conditions.

Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Net Sales. We derive a majority of our sales (net of sales returns and allowances) from three reportable segments: Display Solutions, Power Solutions and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Our product inventory is primarily located in Korea and is available for drop shipment globally. Outside of Korea, we maintain limited product inventory, and our sales representatives generally relay orders to our factories in Korea for fulfillment. We have strategically located our sales and technical support offices near concentrations of major customers. Our sales offices are located in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. Our network of authorized agents and distributors consists of agents in the United States and Europe and distributors and agents in the Asia Pacific region. Our net sales from All other consist principally of rental income and, to a limited extent in 2008, semiconductor processing services for one customer where we completed a limited number of process steps, rather than the entire production process, which we refer to as unit processing.

We recognize revenue when risk and reward of ownership passes to the customer either upon shipment, upon product delivery at the customer’s location or upon customer acceptance, depending on the terms of the arrangement. For the year ended December 31, 2010 and the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, we sold products to over 500 and 185 customers, respectively, and our net sales to our ten largest customers represented 63% and 69% of our net sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 and the

 

52


Table of Contents

combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, respectively. The increase in number of customers is due to the continuing growth of our Power Solutions business. We have a combined production capacity of over 136,000 eight-inch equivalent semiconductor wafers per month. We believe our large-scale, cost-effective fabrication facilities enable us to rapidly adjust our production levels to meet shifts in demand by our end customers.

Gross Profit. Our overall gross profit generally fluctuates as a result of changes in overall sales volumes and in the average selling prices of our products and services. Other factors that influence our gross profit include changes in product mix, the introduction of new products and services and subsequent generations of existing products and services, shifts in the utilization of our manufacturing facilities and the yields achieved by our manufacturing operations, changes in material, labor and other manufacturing costs and variation in depreciation expense. Gross profit varies by our operating segments.

Average Selling Prices. Average selling prices for our products tend to be highest at the time of introduction of new products which utilize the latest technology and tend to decrease over time as such products mature in the market and are replaced by next generation products. We strive to offset the impact of declining selling prices for existing products through our product development activities and by introducing new products that command selling prices above the average selling price of our existing products. In addition, we seek to manage our inventories and manufacturing capacity so as to preclude losses from product and productive capacity obsolescence.

Material Costs. Our cost of sales consists of costs of raw materials, such as silicon wafers, chemicals, gases and tape, packaging supplies, equipment maintenance and depreciation expenses. We use processes that require specialized raw materials, such as silicon wafers, that are generally available from a limited number of suppliers. If demand increases or supplies decrease, the costs of our raw materials could significantly increase.

Labor Costs. A significant portion of our employees are located in Korea. Under Korean labor laws, most employees and certain executive officers with one or more years of service are entitled to severance benefits upon the termination of their employment based on their length of service and rate of pay. As of December 31, 2010, approximately 98% of our employees were eligible for severance benefits. We have in the past implemented temporary reductions in salaries to manage through downturns in the industry. We expect to and have reversed such temporary reductions when business conditions improve.

Depreciation Expense. We periodically evaluate the carrying values of long-lived assets, including property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, as well as the related depreciation periods. At December 31, 2010, we depreciated our property, plant and equipment using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of our assets. Depreciation rates vary from 30-40 years on buildings to five to ten years for certain equipment and assets. Our evaluation of carrying values is based on various analyses including cash flow and profitability projections. If our projections indicate that future undiscounted cash flows are not sufficient to recover the carrying values of the related long-lived assets, the carrying value of the assets is impaired and will be reduced, with the reduction charged to expense so that the carrying value is equal to fair value.

Selling Expenses. We sell our products worldwide through a direct sales force as well as a network of sales agents and representatives to OEMs, including major branded customers and contract manufacturers, and indirectly through distributors. Selling expenses consist primarily of the personnel costs for the members of our direct sales force, a network of sales representatives and other costs of distribution. Personnel costs include base salary, benefits and incentive compensation. As incentive compensation is tied to various net sales goals, it will increase or decrease with net sales.

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses consist of the costs of various corporate operations, including finance, legal, human resources and other administrative functions. These

 

53


Table of Contents

expenses primarily consist of payroll-related expenses, consulting and other professional fees and office facility-related expenses. Historically, our selling, general and administrative expenses have remained relatively constant as a percentage of net sales, and we expect this trend to continue in the future.

Research and Development. The rapid technological change and product obsolescence that characterize our industry require us to make continuous investments in research and development. Product development time frames vary but, in general, we incur research and development costs one to two years before generating sales from the associated new products. These expenses include personnel costs for members of our engineering workforce, cost of photomasks, silicon wafers and other non-recurring engineering charges related to product design. Additionally, we develop base-line process technology through experimentation and through the design and use of characterization wafers that help achieve commercially feasible yields for new products. The majority of research and development expenses are for process development that serves as a common technology platform for all of our product segments. Consequently, we do not allocate these expenses to individual segments. Although our research and development expenses declined significantly from 2008 to 2009, the expenses increased in the year ended December 31, 2010 and we expect the expenses to increase in future periods and to remain a relatively constant percentage of our net sales as we continue to increase our investments in research and development to develop additional products and expand our business.

Restructuring and Impairment Charges. We evaluate the recoverability of certain long-lived assets and in-process research and development assets on a periodic basis or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. In our efforts to improve our overall profitability in future periods, we have closed or otherwise impaired, and may in the future close or impair, facilities that are underutilized and that are no longer aligned with our long-term business goals. For example, in 2008 we discontinued our Imaging Solutions business segment.

Interest Expense, Net. Our interest expense was incurred under the Predecessor Company’s senior secured credit facility, the Predecessor Company’s second priority senior secured notes and senior subordinated notes and the Successor Company’s new term loan under the Successor Company. Our new term loan bore interest at six-month LIBOR plus 12%, and was minimally offset by interest income on cash balances. In April 2010, we repaid our new term loan with a portion of the proceeds from our sale of $250 million in aggregate principal amount of 10.500% senior notes due 2018. As a result of our reorganization, we expect that our interest expense will decrease in amount and as a percentage of net sales relative to historical periods. However, as a result of our senior notes offering, our interest expense will increase above that which was reported for the year ended December 31, 2010 to approximately $27.9 million per year.

Impact of Foreign Currency Exchange Rates on Reported Results of Operations. Historically, a portion of our revenues and greater than the majority of our operating expenses and costs of sales have been denominated in non-U.S. currencies, principally the Korean won, and we expect that this will remain true in the future. Because we report our results of operations in U.S. dollars, changes in the exchange rate between the Korean won and the U.S. dollar could materially impact our reported results of operations and distort period to period comparisons. In particular, because of the difference in the amount of our consolidated revenues and expenses that are in U.S. dollars relative to Korean won, depreciation in the U.S. dollar relative to the Korean won could result in a material increase in reported costs relative to revenues, and therefore could cause our profit margins and operating income (loss) from continuing operations to appear to decline materially, particularly relative to prior periods. The converse is true if the U.S. dollar were to appreciate relative to the Korean won. As a result of such foreign currency fluctuations, it could be more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and results of operations. In addition, to the extent that fluctuations in currency exchange rates cause our results of operations to differ from our expectations or the expectations of our investors, the trading price of our stock could be adversely affected.

For periods ended on or prior to October 25, 2009, we converted our non-U.S. revenues and expenses into U.S. dollars based on cumulative average exchange rates over the periods presented. Beginning on October 25,

 

54


Table of Contents

2009, we convert our non-U.S. revenues and expenses into U.S. dollars based on monthly average exchange rates. The following table provides the cumulative average exchange rates that we used to convert Korean won into U.S. dollars for each of the periods ended on our prior to October 25, 2009, as well as the monthly average exchange rates used for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and for the year ended December 31, 2010:

 

Period

   Rate  

Year ended December 31, 2007

     929:1   

Year ended December 31, 2008

     1,099:1   

Ten-month period ended October 25, 2009

     1,302:1   

Two-month period ended December 31, 2009

  

November 2009

     1,172:1   

December 2009

     1,165:1   

Year ended December 31, 2010

  

January 2010

     1,139:1   

February 2010

     1,157:1   

March 2010

     1,138:1   

April 2010

     1,117:1   

May 2010

     1,163:1   

June 2010

     1,212:1   

July 2010

     1,207:1   

August 2010

     1,180:1   

September 2010

     1,167:1   

October 2010

     1,123:1   

November 2010

     1,126:1   

December 2010

     1,148:1   

As a result of the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar from 2007 to 2008 and from 2008 to 2009, foreign currency fluctuations generally had a materially beneficial impact on our reported profit margins and operating income (loss) from continuing operations for such periods. In contrast, as a result of the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar from the year ended December 31, 2009 to the year ended December 31, 2010, foreign currency fluctuations had a net unfavorable impact on our reported profit margins and operating income (loss) from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the prior period. In order to provide more detailed information regarding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations on our results of operations, in our discussion of period to period comparisons under the heading “Results of Operations,” we have included information regarding the impact of the year-to-year change in the Korean won/U.S. dollar exchange rate. The information, which is described below as the impact of the depreciation or appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, measures the impact in the change in applicable monthly or cumulative average exchange rate for the most recent period discussed as compared to the applicable monthly or cumulative average exchange rate during the prior period. For net sales that were originally denominated in Korean won, we have compared the applicable monthly or cumulative average exchange rate in effect for the prior period against the applicable monthly or cumulative average exchange rate for the period in which the sale took place on a transaction-by-transaction basis. For cost of sales and other expenses, we have compared the applicable monthly or cumulative average exchange rate during the prior period to the applicable monthly or cumulative average exchange rate during the most recent period discussed and applied that to the amount of our aggregate cost of sales and other expenses for the period that were originally denominated in Korean won. A substantial portion of the net sales recorded at our Korean subsidiary are in U.S. dollars and are converted into Korean won for reporting purposes at the subsidiary level.

Although this approach does not reflect the fluctuations of the currency exchange rates for every transaction on a day-to-day basis, we believe that it provides a useful indication of the magnitude of the exchange rate impact for the periods presented.

 

55


Table of Contents

From time to time, we may engage in exchange rate hedging activities in an effort to mitigate the impact of exchange rate fluctuations. For example, in January 2010 and May 2010 our Korean subsidiary entered into foreign currency option and forward contracts in order to mitigate a portion of the impact of U.S. dollar-Korean won exchange rate fluctuations on our operating results. The January 2010 option and forward contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during each month of 2010 commencing February 2010 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified fixed exchange rates. The May 2010 option and forward contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during the months of January 2011 through June 2011 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified fixed exchange rates. In August 2010 our Korean subsidiary additionally entered into zero cost collar contracts for the same purpose with the above hedge contracts. The August 2010 zero cost collar contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during the months of July 2011 through December 2011 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified fixed exchange rates. In January 2011, our Korean subsidiary additionally entered into zero cost collar contracts for the same purpose with the above hedge contracts. The January 2011 zero cost collar contracts require us to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in U.S. dollars during the months of January 2012 through June 2012 to our counterparty, in each case, in exchange for Korean won at specified fixed exchange rates. Obligations under these foreign currency option, forward and zero cost collar contracts must be cash collateralized if our exposure exceeds certain specified thresholds. These option, forward and zero cost collar contracts may be terminated by the counterparty in a number of circumstances, including if our long-term debt rating falls below B-/B3 or if our total qualified and unrestricted cash and cash equivalents is less than $30 million at the end of a fiscal quarter. For further information regarding the derivative financial instruments, see note 11 to our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2010 elsewhere in this Report.

Foreign Currency Gain or Loss. Foreign currency translation gains or losses on transactions by us or our subsidiaries in a currency other than our or our subsidiaries’ functional currency are included in our statements of operations as a component of other income (expense). A substantial portion of this net foreign currency gain or loss relates to non-cash translation gain or loss related to the principal balance of intercompany borrowings at our Korean subsidiary that are denominated in U.S. dollars. This gain or loss results from fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Korean won and U.S. dollar.

Income Taxes. We record our income taxes in each of the tax jurisdictions in which we operate. This process involves using an asset and liability approach whereby deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded for differences in the financial reporting bases and tax bases of our assets and liabilities. We exercise significant management judgment in determining our provision for income taxes, deferred tax assets and liabilities. We periodically evaluate our deferred tax assets to ascertain whether it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will be realized. Our income tax expense has been low in absolute dollars and as a percentage of net sales principally due to the availability of tax loss carry-forwards and we expect such rate to remain low for at least the next few years.

Our operations are subject to income and transaction taxes in Korea and in multiple foreign jurisdictions. Significant estimates and judgments are required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. Some of these estimates are based on interpretations of existing tax laws or regulations. The ultimate amount of tax liability may be uncertain as a result.

Capital Expenditures. We invest in manufacturing equipment, software design tools and other tangible and intangible assets for capacity expansion and technology improvement. Capacity expansions and technology improvements typically occur in anticipation of seasonal increases in demand. We typically pay for capital expenditures in partial installments with portions due on order, delivery and final acceptance. Our capital expenditures include our payments for the purchase of property, plant and equipment as well as payments for the registration of intellectual property rights.

 

56


Table of Contents

Inventories. We monitor our inventory levels in light of product development changes and market expectations. We may be required to take additional charges for quantities in excess of demand, cost in excess of market value and product age. Our analysis may take into consideration historical usage, expected demand, anticipated sales price, new product development schedules, the effect new products might have on the sales of existing products, product age, customer design activity, customer concentration and other factors. These forecasts require us to estimate our ability to predict demand for current and future products and compare those estimates with our current inventory levels and inventory purchase commitments. Our forecasts for our inventory may differ from actual inventory use.

Principles of Consolidation. Our consolidated financial statements include the accounts of our company and our wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany transactions and balances are eliminated in consolidation.

Segments. We operate in three segments: Display Solutions, Power Solutions and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Our Power Solutions segment began to generate net sales in the second quarter of 2008. Net sales and gross profit for the All other category primarily relate to certain business activities that do not constitute operating or reportable segments.

 

57


Table of Contents

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, certain information related to our operations, expressed in U.S. dollars and as a percentage of our net sales:

 

     Successor Company           Predecessor Company  
   Year Ended
December 31,
2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31,
2009
          Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year Ended
December 31,
2008
 
   Amount     % of net
sales
    Amount     % of net
sales
          Amount     % of net
sales
    Amount     % of net
sales
 
                       (In millions)                    

Consolidated statements of operations data:

                     

Net sales

   $ 770.4        100.0   $ 111.1        100.0        $ 449.0        100.0   $ 601.7        100.0

Cost of sales

     526.8        68.4        90.4        81.4             311.1        69.3        445.3        74.0   
                                             

Gross profit

     243.6        31.6        20.7        18.6             137.8        30.7        156.4        26.0   

Selling, general and administrative expenses

     66.6        8.6        14.5        13.1             56.3        12.5        81.3        13.5   

Research and development expenses

     83.5        10.8        14.7        13.3             56.1        12.5        89.5        14.9   

Restructuring and impairment charges

     2.0        0.3        —          —               0.4        0.1        13.4        2.2   
                                             

Operating income (loss) from continuing operations

     91.4        11.9        (8.6     (7.7          25.0        5.6        (27.7     (4.6

Interest expense, net

     (22.9     (3.0     (1.3     (1.1          (31.2     (6.9     (76.1     (12.7

Foreign currency gain (loss), net

     14.7        1.9        9.3        8.4             43.4        9.7        (210.4     (35.0

Reorganization items, net

     —          —          —          —               804.6        179.2        —          —     

Others

     (0.7     (0.1     —          —               —          —          —          —     
                                             
     (8.9     (1.2     8.1        7.3             816.8        181.9        (286.5     (47.6
                                             

Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes

     82.5        10.7        (0.5     (0.5          841.8        187.5        (314.3     (52.2

Income tax expenses

     8.4        1.1        1.9        1.8             7.3        1.6        11.6        1.9   
                                             

Income (loss) from continuing operations

     74.1        9.6        (2.5     (2.2          834.5        185.9        (325.8     (54.2

Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes

     —          —          0.5        0.5             6.6        1.5        (91.5     (15.2
                                             

Net income (loss)

   $ 74.1        9.6   $ (2.0     (1.8 )%         $ 841.1        187.3   $ (417.3     (69.4 )% 
                                             

Net Sales:

                     

Display Solutions

   $ 305.9        39.7   $ 51.0        46.0        $ 231.9        51.6   $ 304.1        50.5

Power Solutions

     57.3        7.4        4.7        4.3             7.6        1.7        5.4        0.9   

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services

     405.2        52.6        54.8        49.3             206.7        46.0        287.1        47.7   

All other

     2.1        0.3        0.5        0.5             2.8        0.6        5.0        0.8   
                                             
   $ 770.4        100.0   $ 111.1        100.0        $ 449.0        100.0   $ 601.7        100.0
                                             

 

58


Table of Contents

Results of Operations—Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009

The following table sets forth consolidated results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2010, the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009:

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor
Company
       
     Year Ended
December 31, 2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31, 2009
           Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25, 2009
       
     Amount     % of
Net Sales
    Amount     % of
Net Sales
           Amount     % of
Net Sales
    Change
Amount
 
     (In millions)  

Net sales

   $ 770.4        100.0   $ 111.1        100.0        $ 449.0        100.0   $ 210.3   

Cost of sales

     526.8        68.4        90.4        81.4             311.1        69.3        125.3   
                                           

Gross profit

     243.6        31.6        20.7        18.6             137.8        30.7        85.0   
                                           

Selling, general and administrative expenses

     66.6        8.6        14.5        13.1             56.3        12.5        (4.2

Research and development expenses

     83.5        10.8        14.7        13.3             56.1        12.5        12.6   

Restructuring and impairment charges

     2.0        0.3        —          —               0.4        0.1        1.6   
                                           

Operating income (loss) from continuing operations

     91.4        11.9        (8.6     (7.7          25.0        5.6        75.0   
                                           

Interest expense, net

     (22.9     (3.0     (1.3     (1.1          (31.2     (6.9     9.5   

Foreign currency gain, net

     14.7        1.9        9.3        8.4             43.4        9.7        (38.1

Reorganization items, net

     —          —          —          —               804.6        179.2        (804.6

Others

     (0.7     (0.1     —          —               —          —          (0.7
                                           
     (8.9     (1.2     8.1        7.3             816.8        181.9        (833.8
                                           

Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes

     82.5        10.7        (0.5     (0.5          841.8        187.5        (758.8

Income tax expenses

     8.4        1.1        1.9        1.8             7.3        1.6        (0.9
                                           

Income (loss) from continuing operations

     74.1        9.6        (2.5     (2.2          834.5        185.9        (757.9
                                           

Income from discontinued operations, net of taxes

     —          —          0.5        0.5             6.6        1.5        (7.1
                                           

Net income (loss)

   $ 74.1        9.6   $ (2.0     (1.8 )%         $ 841.1        187.3   $ (765.0
                                           

Net Sales

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor
Company
       
     Year Ended
December 31, 2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31, 2009
           Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25, 2009
       
     Amount      % of
Net Sales
    Amount      % of
Net Sales
           Amount      % of
Net Sales
    Change
Amount
 
                         (In millions)               

Display Solutions

   $ 305.9         39.7   $ 51.0         46.0        $ 231.9         51.6   $ 22.9   

Power Solutions

     57.3         7.4        4.7         4.3             7.6         1.7        44.9   

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services

     405.2         52.6        54.8         49.3             206.7         46.0        143.8   

All other

     2.1         0.3        0.5         0.5             2.8         0.6        (1.3
                                              
   $ 770.4         100.0   $ 111.1         100.0        $ 449.0         100.0   $ 210.3   
                                            

 

59


Table of Contents

Net sales were $770.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, a $210.3 million, or 37.6 %, increase compared to $560.1 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, or $111.1 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $449.0 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009. This increase was primarily due to increases in our product sales volume driven by overall business recovery in the market, an improved product mix and a $16.5 million favorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, which were partially offset by a decrease in average selling prices.

Display Solutions. Net sales from our Display Solutions segment were $305.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, a $22.9 million, or 8.1%, increase compared to $282.9 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, or $51.0 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $231.9 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009. The increase was primarily due to a 26.6% increase in sales volume. Sales volume increased as the consumer electronics industry began to recover from the economic slowdown and demand and shipments for certain consumer electronics products such as digital televisions, PCs and smart phones increased. This increase was partially offset by a 15.1% decrease in average selling prices, which was primarily from consumer price declines for LCD televisions, PC monitors and mobile devices.

Power Solutions. Net sales from our Power Solutions segment were $57.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, a $44.9 million, or 362.9%, increase compared to $12.4 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, or $4.7 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $7.6 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009. The increase was primarily due to a 173.5% increase in sales volume and a 69.2% increase in average selling prices driven by an improved product mix and higher demand for MOSFET products from existing and new customers as we grew this business.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Net sales from our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment were $405.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, a $143.8 million, or 55.0%, increase compared to $261.4 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, or $54.8 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $206.7 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009. This increase was primarily due to a 52.1% increase in sales volume and 2.0% increase in average selling prices of eight-inch equivalent wafers driven by a strong market demand upside due to the recovery from the economic slowdown and an improved product mix of advanced process geometry.

All Other. Net sales from All other were $2.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, a $1.3 million, or 38.5%, decrease compared to $3.3 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, or $0.5 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $2.8 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009. This decrease resulted from lower rental income due to the relocation of one lessee of our building.

 

60


Table of Contents

Net Sales by Geographic Region

The following table sets forth our net sales by geographic region and the percentage of total net sales represented by each geographic region for the year ended December 31, 2010, the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009:

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor
Company
       
     Year Ended
December 31, 2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31, 2009
           Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25, 2009
       
     Amount      % of
Net Sales
    Amount      % of
Net Sales
           Amount      % of
Net Sales
    Change
Amount
 
            (In millions)  

Korea

   $ 379.1         49.2   $ 62.2         56.0        $ 244.3         54.4   $ 72.5   

Asia Pacific

     222.1         28.8        25.6         23.0             116.9         26.0        79.6   

Japan

     57.4         7.5        6.5         5.8             31.6         7.0        19.3   

North America

     95.2         12.4        14.9         13.4             48.5         10.8        31.8   

Europe

     14.9         1.9        1.9         1.7             7.7         1.7        5.4   

Africa

     1.7         0.2        —           —               —           —          1.7   
                                              
   $ 770.4         100.0   $ 111.1         100.0        $ 449.0         100.0   $ 210.3   
                                              

Net sales in Korea for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, primarily due to the overall business recovery in the market and increased demand for Display Solutions products and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Net sales in Asia Pacific and North America for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, primarily due to the overall business recovery in the market and increased demand for Semiconductor Manufacturing Services and Power Solutions products.

Gross Profit

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor
Company
       
     Year Ended
December 31, 2010
    Two-Month
Period Ended
December 31, 2009
           Ten-Month
Period Ended
October 25, 2009
       
     Amount      % of
Net Sales
    Amount      % of
Net Sales
           Amount      % of
Net Sales
    Change
Amount
 
     (In millions)  

Display Solutions

   $ 78.2         25.6   $ 8.7         17.1        $ 61.8         26.6   $ 7.6   

Power Solutions

     7.9         13.7        0.7         15.5             1.4         18.8        5.7   

Semiconductor Manufacturing

Services

     155.5         38.4        10.7         19.5             71.8         34.8        73.0   

All other

     2.1         100.0        0.5         100.0             2.8         100.0        (1.3
                                              
   $ 243.6         31.6   $ 20.7         18.6        $ 137.8         30.7   $ 85.0   
                                              

Total gross profit was $243.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to $158.5 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, or $20.7 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $137.8 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, a $85.0 million, or 53.6%, increase. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased to 31.6% compared to 28.3% for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. This increase in gross margin was primarily attributable to increased sales volume and a positive favorable impact on cost of sales in 2010 by the fresh-start inventory valuation, partially offset by lower average selling prices and a $15.9 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, which adversely

 

61


Table of Contents

impacted cost of sales to a greater extent than the favorable impact on net sales. Cost of sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased by $125.3 million compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. The increase in cost of sales was primarily due to a $32.4 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, a $27.0 million increase in material costs, a $40.0 million increase in labor costs resulting from the increased sales volume and the reinstatement of our salary levels from our company-wide voluntary salary reductions that were in effect in the first half of 2009, a $16.9 million increase in subcontractor costs due to the increased sales volume and a $22.4 million increase in overhead costs related to maintenance, repair and supplies expense incurred for maintaining higher levels of utilization of our manufacturing facilities.

Display Solutions. Gross margin for our Display Solutions segment for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased to 25.6% compared to 24.9% for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 primarily due to a 26.6% increase in sales volume and improved product mix offset in part by lower average selling prices. Cost of sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased by $15.3 million compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, primarily due to a $12.6 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar and a $10.2 million increase in labor costs resulting from the increased sales volume. The total increase was partially offset by the impact of the fresh-start step-up of our inventory valuation, which decreased by $6.4 million compared to 2009.

Power Solutions. Gross margin for our Power Solutions segment for the year ended December 31, 2010 decreased to 13.7% compared to 17.5% for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. However, gross profit increased by $5.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 due to increased sales volume and average selling prices. Cost of sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased by $39.2 million compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 primarily due to a $9.9 million increase in material costs, a $4.3 million increase in labor costs, a $16.8 million increase in subcontractor costs due to increased sales volume, a $3.9 million increase in overhead costs related to maintenance, repair and supplies expenses incurred for maintaining a higher level of utilization of our manufacturing facilities, and a $2.5 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Gross margin for our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment increased to 38.4% in the year ended December 31, 2010 from 31.6% in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. This increase was primarily due to a decrease in unit cost of sales resulting from higher utilization of our manufacturing facilities and improved product mix. Gross profit increased by $73.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 due to increased sales volume and average selling prices. Cost of sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 increased by $70.8 million compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, which was primarily attributable to a $17.3 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, a $19.2 million increase in material costs and a $25.5 million increase in labor costs resulting from the increased sales volume and the reinstatement of our salary level from our company-wide voluntary salary reductions that were in effect in the first half of 2009 and $16.3 million increase in overhead costs related to maintenance, repair and supplies expense incurred for maintaining higher levels of utilization of our manufacturing facilities. The total increase was partially offset by the impact of the fresh-start step-up of our inventory valuation, which decreased by $10.9 million compared to 2009.

All Other. Gross margin for All other remained the same as there was no cost of sales in either period.

Operating Expenses

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general, and administrative expenses were $66.6 million, or 8.6% of net sales for the year ended December 31, 2010, compared to $70.8 million, or 12.6% of net sales for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. The decrease of $4.2 million, or 5.9%, was primarily attributable to a $15.3 million decrease in outside service expenses, primarily due to a decrease in

 

62


Table of Contents

restructuring-related professional fees and related expenses. These decreases were partially offset by a $4.3 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar and a $7.3 million increase in salaries and severance benefits resulting from the reinstatement of our salary levels from our company-wide voluntary salary reductions that were in effect in the first half of 2009.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2010 were $83.5 million, an increase of $12.6 million, or 17.8%, from $70.9 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. This increase was due to a $5.8 million unfavorable impact resulting from the appreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, a $5.1 million increase in salaries and related expenses resulting from the reinstatement of our salary levels from our company-wide voluntary salary reductions that were in effect in the first half of 2009, a $1.9 million increase in material costs, a $1.1 million increase in outside service fees and a $4.2 million increase in amortization expenses due to the write-up of our intangible assets in accordance with fresh-start accounting. These increases were partially offset by a $5.3 million decrease in costs transferred from manufacturing to research and development expenses due to improved facilities utilization resulting from our higher net sales. Research and development expenses as a percentage of net sales were 10.8% in the year ended December 31, 2010, compared to 12.7% in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009.

Restructuring and Impairment Charges. Restructuring and impairment charges increased by $1.6 million in the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. Impairment charges of $2.0 million recorded in the year ended December 31, 2010 were related to impairment of in-process research and development projects, which were accounted for as indefinite-lived intangible assets as part of the application of fresh-start accounting. Of the impairment charges of $2.0 million, $1.6 million of impairment charges were recognized for abandoned in-process research and development projects and $0.4 million of impairment charges were recognized as a result of our annual impairment test of in-process research and development. Restructuring charges of $0.4 million recorded in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 were related to the closure of our research and development facilities in Japan.

Operating Income from Continuing Operations

As a result of the foregoing, operating income from continuing operations increased by $75.0 million, or 458.5%, in the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. As discussed above, the increase in operating income from continuing operations was primarily a result of the 37.6% increase in net sales over the prior year, partially offset by a $12.6 million, or 17.8%, increase in research and development expenses during the same year. The increase in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2010 is mainly due to increased sales volume driven by overall business recovery in the market and an improved product mix, primarily in connection with our Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment.

Other Income (Expense)

Interest Expense, Net. Net interest expense was $22.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2010, a decrease of $9.5 million compared to $32.4 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. Interest expense for the year ended December 31, 2010 was incurred under our $250.0 million principal amount senior notes issued on April 9, 2010 and partially incurred under our new term loan, which was fully repaid on April 9, 2010. Interest expense for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 was mainly incurred under our $750.0 million principal amount of notes and $95.0 million senior secured credit facility. Upon our emergence from reorganization proceedings, our $750.0 million notes were discharged pursuant to the reorganization plan. On November 6, 2009, $33.3 million of our senior secured credit facility was repaid in cash and $61.8 million was refinanced with the new term loan.

 

63


Table of Contents

Foreign Currency Gain (Loss), Net. Net foreign currency gain for the year ended December 31, 2010 was $14.7 million, compared to net foreign currency gain of $52.8 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. A substantial portion of our net foreign currency gain or loss is non-cash translation gain or loss recorded for intercompany borrowings at our Korean subsidiary and is affected by changes in the exchange rate between the Korean won and the U.S. dollar. Foreign currency translation gain from our intercompany borrowings was included in determining our consolidated net income since the intercompany borrowings were not considered long-term investments in nature because management intended to repay these intercompany borrowings at their respective maturity dates. The Korean won to U.S. dollar exchange rates were 1,138.9:1 and 1,167.6:1 using the first base rate as of December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009, respectively, as quoted by the Korea Exchange Bank.

Others. Others for the year ended December 31, 2010 was comprised of dividend income from our investment in equity instruments and loss on valuation of derivatives which were designated as hedging instruments. The majority of the loss was loss on valuation of derivatives which represents either hedge ineffectiveness or components of changes in fair value of derivatives excluded from the assessments of hedge effectiveness.

Income Tax Expenses. Income tax expenses for the year ended December 31, 2010 were $8.4 million, compared to income tax expenses of $9.2 million for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. Income tax expenses for the year ended December 31, 2010 were comprised of $0.6 million of current income tax expenses, net incurred in various jurisdictions in which our overseas subsidiaries are located, $5.4 million of withholding taxes mostly accrued on intercompany interest payments, which would be utilized as foreign tax credits, but due to the uncertainty of utilization, full valuation allowance was recognized, $2.5 million of additional recognition of liabilities for uncertain tax positions and a $1.5 million income tax effect from the change of deferred tax assets less $1.6 million reversal of liabilities for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of the applicable statute of limitations.

Income from Discontinued Operations, Net of Taxes

Income from Discontinued Operations, Net of Taxes. During 2008, we closed our Imaging Solutions business segment. During the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, we recognized net income of $7.1 million relating to our discontinued operations, largely due to the sales of patents related to our closed Imaging Solutions business segment, which resulted in an $8.3 million gain.

Net Income (Loss)

As a result of the foregoing, net income decreased by $765.0 million in the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009. As discussed above, the decrease in net income was primarily due to $804.6 million decrease in net reorganization gain directly associated with our reorganization proceedings and primarily reflects the discharge of liabilities of $798.0 million, partially offset by an increase in operating income from continuing operations of $75.0 million, or 458.5%, compared to the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009.

 

64


Table of Contents

Results of Operations—Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2009 and December 31, 2008

The following table sets forth consolidated results of operations for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009, the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and the year ended December 31, 2008:

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor Company     Change
Amount
 
     Two-Month
Period
Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten-Month
Period
Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year
Ended
December 31,
2008
   
     Amount     % of net
sales
           Amount     % of net
sales
    Amount     % of net
sales
   
     (In millions)                    

Net sales

   $ 111.1        100.0        $ 449.0        100.0   $ 601.7        100.0   $ (41.6

Cost of sales

     90.4        81.4             311.1        69.3        445.3        74.0        (43.7
                                           

Gross profit

     20.7        18.6             137.8        30.7        156.4        26.0        2.1   
                                           

Selling, general and administrative expenses

     14.5        13.1             56.3        12.5        81.3        13.5        (10.5

Research and development expenses

     14.7        13.3             56.1        12.5        89.5        14.9        (18.6

Restructuring and impairment charges

     —          —               0.4        0.1        13.4        2.2        (12.9
                                           

Operating income (loss) from continuing operations

     (8.6     (7.7          25.0        5.6        (27.7     (4.6     44.1   
                                           

Interest expense, net

     (1.3     (1.1          (31.2     (6.9     (76.1     (12.7     43.7   

Foreign currency gain (loss), net

     9.3        8.4             43.4        9.7        (210.4     (35.0     263.2   

Reorganization items, net

     —          —               804.6        179.2        —          —          804.6   
                                           
     8.1        7.3             816.8        181.9        (286.5     (47.6     1,111.5   
                                           

Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes

     (0.5     (0.5          841.8        187.5        (314.3     (52.2     1,155.5   

Income tax expenses

     1.9        1.8             7.3        1.6        11.6        1.9        (2.3
                                           

Income (loss) from continuing operations

     (2.5     (2.2          834.5        185.9        (325.8     (54.2     1,157.9   

Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes

     0.5        0.5             6.6        1.5        (91.5     (15.2     98.6   
                                           

Net income (loss)

   $ (2.0     (1.8 )%         $ 841.1        187.3   $ (417.3     (69.4 )%    $ 1,256.4   
                                           

 

65


Table of Contents

Net Sales

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor Company     Change
Amount
 
     Two-Month
Period
Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten-Month
Period
Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year Ended
December 31,
2008
   
     Amount      % of net
sales
           Amount      % of net
sales
    Amount      % of net
sales
   
            (In millions)                            

Display Solutions

   $ 51.0         46.0        $ 231.9         51.6   $ 304.1         50.5   $ (21.2

Power Solutions

     4.7         4.3             7.6         1.7        5.4         0.9        6.9   

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services

     54.8         49.3             206.7         46.0        287.1         47.7        (25.7

All other

     0.5         0.5             2.8         0.6        5.0         0.8        (1.7
                                              
   $ 111.1         100.0        $ 449.0         100.0   $ 601.7         100.0   $ (41.6
                                              

Net sales were $111.1 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $449.0 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, or $560.1 million in aggregate, a $41.6 million, or 6.9%, decrease, compared to $601.7 million in 2008. Net sales generated in our three operating segments during 2009 in aggregate were $556.7 million, a decrease of $39.9 million, or 6.7%, from 2008. This decrease was principally due to the impact of the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar in the amount of $17.6 million and a decrease in average selling prices of our products, both of which were partially offset by increases in product sales volume. Among our segments, net sales decreased for our Display Solutions and our Semiconductor Manufacturing Service segments which was offset in part by an increase in net sales from our Power Solutions segment.

Display Solutions. Net sales from Display Solutions were $51.0 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $231.9 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, or $282.9 million in aggregate, a $21.2 million, or 7.0%, decrease from $304.1 million for 2008. The decrease resulted from a 24.9% decrease in average selling prices, primarily from display driver products for LCD televisions, PC monitors and mobile devices. The reduction in average selling prices in 2009 resulted in part from reduced demand for consumer electronics products generally, and new products in particular, during the first half of 2009 as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown. These decreases in average selling prices were partially offset by a 24.6% increase in sales volume. Volume increased in the second half of 2009 as the consumer electronics industry began to recover from the economic slowdown as demand and shipments for consumer electronics products such as digital televisions, PCs, and smartphones increased.

Power Solutions. Net sales from Power Solutions were $4.7 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $7.6 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, or $12.4 million in aggregate, a $6.9 million, or 127.6%, increase from $5.4 million for 2008. The increase resulted from a 221.3% increase in sales volume, most of which was attributable to higher demand for MOSFET products driven by our existing and new customers. Such increases in volume were partially offset by a 29.4% decrease in average sales prices. We were able to attract new customers, largely due to MOSFET products utilized in high voltage technologies and computing solutions.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Net sales from Semiconductor Manufacturing Services were $54.8 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $206.7 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, or $261.4 million in aggregate, a $25.7 million, or 8.9%, decrease compared to net sales of $287.1 million for 2008. This decrease was primarily due to a 0.5% decrease in sales volume and 3.4% decrease in average selling price of eight-inch equivalent wafers given decreased market demand for such products.

 

66


Table of Contents

All other. Net sales from All other were $0.5 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $2.8 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, or $3.3 million in aggregate compared to $5.0 million for 2008. This decrease of $1.7 million, or 33.6%, resulted from lower rental income due to the relocation of one of the lessees of one of our buildings.

Net Sales by Geographic Region

The following table sets forth our net sales by geographic region and the percentage of total net sales represented by each geographic region for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009, the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 and the year ended December 31, 2008:

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor Company     Change
Amount
 
     Two-Month
Period
Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten-Month
Period
Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year Ended
December 31,
2008
   
     Amount      % of net
sales
           Amount      % of net
sales
    Amount      % of net
sales
   
            (In millions)                            

Korea

   $ 62.2         56.0        $ 244.3         54.4   $ 301.0         50.0   $ 5.5   

Asia Pacific

     25.6         23.0             116.9         26.0        144.5         24.0        (2.0

Japan

     6.5         5.8             31.6         7.0        79.9         13.3        (41.8

North America

     14.9         13.4             48.5         10.8        61.3         10.2        2.0   

Europe

     1.9         1.7             7.7         1.7        14.9         2.5        (5.4
                                              
   $ 111.1         100.0        $ 449.0         100.0   $ 601.7         100.0   $ (41.6
                                              

Net sales in Japan in 2009 declined as a percentage of total net sales principally as a result of declines in customer sales relating to electronic games due to the overall slowness in that market.

Gross Profit

 

     Successor
Company
           Predecessor Company     Change
Amount
 
     Two-Month
Period
Ended
December 31,
2009
           Ten-Month
Period
Ended
October 25,
2009
    Year Ended
December 31,
2008
   
     Amount      % of net
sales
           Amount      % of net
sales
    Amount     % of net
sales
   
            (In millions)                           

Display Solutions

   $ 8.7         17.1        $ 61.8         26.6   $ 57.4        18.9   $ 13.1   

Power Solutions

     0.7         15.5             1.4         18.8        (4.3     (78.6     6.4   

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services

     10.7         19.5             71.8         34.8        98.4        34.3        (15.9

All other

     0.5         100.0             2.8         100.0        4.9        97.3        (1.6
                                             
   $ 20.7         18.6        $ 137.8         30.7   $ 156.4        26.0   $ 2.1   
                                             

Total gross profit was $20.7 million for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 and $137.8 million for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009, or $158.5 million in aggregate compared to $156.4 million for 2008, a $2.1 million, or 1.3%, increase. Gross margin, or gross profit as a percentage of net sales, in 2009 increased to 28.3% compared to 26.0% for the year ended December 31, 2008. This increase in gross margin was primarily attributable to a $22.8 million favorable impact resulting from the depreciation of the Korean won

 

67


Table of Contents

against the U.S. dollar and an increase in sales volume. These increases were partially offset by lower average selling prices and the impact of a $17.2 million increase in our cost of sales as a result of the write-up of our inventory in accordance with the principles of fresh-start accounting upon the consummation of our reorganization proceedings. Cost of sales for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 decreased by $43.7 million compared to 2008. The decreases in cost of sales were primarily due to a $40.4 million favorable impact resulting from the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, a $10.2 million decrease in labor costs, a $9.6 million decrease in subcontractor costs and a $3.2 million decrease in depreciation, which were partially offset by a $6.4 million increase in material costs resulting from the increase in sales volume and a $1.8 million increase of overhead costs. Gross margin for the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 was 18.6% compared to 30.7% for the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009. Gross margin was higher in the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 compared to the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 principally due to a $17.2 million one-time impact on cost of sales which is recorded in the two-month period ended December 31, 2009 associated with the step up of our inventory as a result of adoption of fresh-start accounting. As of December 31, 2009, $0.7 million of the total increase in inventory valuation remained. We included the remaining increase in inventory valuation in cost of sales for the quarter ending March 31, 2010. As a result, we expect gross margin in future periods to return to historical levels, excluding foreign currency fluctuation impacts.

Display Solutions. Gross margin for Display Solutions for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 improved to 24.9% compared to 18.9% for the year ended December 31, 2008 primarily due to a decrease in unit costs resulting from a 24.6% increase in sales volume compared to 2008 offset in part by lower average selling prices and the impact of the write-up of our inventory in accordance with fresh-start accounting. Cost of sales for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 decreased by $34.3 million compared to 2008, primarily due to a $17.8 million favorable impact resulting from the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, a $7.1 million decrease in labor costs, a $8.2 million decrease in subcontractor costs and a $3.8 million decrease in depreciation, which were partially offset by a $3.8 million increase in material costs due to increased sales volume and a $7.2 million increase resulting from the step-up of our inventory valuation as a result of our adoption of fresh-start accounting.

Power Solutions. Gross margin for Power Solutions for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 improved to 17.5% compared to (78.6)% for the year ended December 31, 2008 primarily due to lower unit costs resulting from the 221.3% increase in sales volume offset in part by lower average selling prices and the impact of the write-up of our inventory in accordance with fresh-start accounting. Cost of sales for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 increased by $0.5 million compared to 2008, primarily due to a $2.3 million increase in material costs and a $1.1 million increase in overhead costs, which were partially offset by a $0.7 million favorable impact resulting from of the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar. Gross margin was negative in 2008 as we first began operating the segment in late 2007 and had not yet achieved sales volumes required to generate a positive gross margin.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. Gross margin for Semiconductor Manufacturing Services decreased to 31.6% in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 from 34.3% in the year ended December 31, 2008. This decrease was primarily due to an overall decrease in production volume and average selling prices in an aggregate amount of $29.5 million, partially offset by a $13.6 million favorable impact resulting from the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar. Cost of sales for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 decreased by $9.8 million compared to 2008, which was primarily attributable to a $21.9 million favorable impact resulting from the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, which was offset in part by a $0.4 million increase in material costs and a $10.9 million increase resulting from the step-up of our inventory valuation as a result of our adoption of fresh-start accounting.

 

68


Table of Contents

All other. Gross margin for All other for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 increased to 100.0% from 97.3% for the year ended December 31, 2008. All net sales included in All other in 2009 represent rent revenues for which there is no cost of sales. For 2008, All other included limited revenue from unit processing which resulted in a gross margin of 97.3%.

Operating Expenses

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general, and administrative expenses were $70.8 million, or 12.6%, of net sales for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 compared to $81.3 million, or 13.5%, for 2008. The decrease of $10.5 million, or 12.9%, from the prior-year period was attributable to a decrease of $7.2 million due to the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar and a decrease of $3.6 million due to a reduction in headcount and a short-term decrease in salaries and related expenses in connection with our cost-reduction efforts in 2009 as well as a decrease in depreciation and amortization expenses of $4.9 million. These decreases were partially offset by a $6.1 million increase in outside service expenses.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses for the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 were $70.9 million, a decrease of $18.6 million, or 20.8%, from $89.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. This decrease was due to the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar of $8.5 million, a $3.2 million decrease in salaries and related expenses due to lower headcount and our short-term decrease in salaries. Through our cost reduction initiatives, material costs decreased by $4.8 million and outside service fees decreased by $2.6 million. The remaining decrease in research and development expenses was attributable to reductions in various overhead expenses. Research and development expenses as a percentage of net sales were 12.7% in 2009, compared to 14.9% in 2008.

Restructuring and Impairment Charges. Restructuring and impairment charges decreased by $12.9 million in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 compared to the year ended December 31, 2008. Restructuring charges of $0.4 million recorded in the ten-month period ended October 25, 2009 were related to the closure of one of our research and development facilities in Japan. Restructuring charges of $13.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2008 reflected an impairment charge of $14.2 million as a result of the significant reduction in net sales attributable to our Display Solutions products, offset in part by an $0.9 million reversal of unused accrued restructuring charges from prior periods.

Operating Income (Loss) from Continuing Operations

As a result of the foregoing, operating income (loss) from continuing operations increased by $44.1 million in the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009 compared to a loss of $27.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2008. As discussed above, the increase in operating income from continuing operations was primarily a result of the decreases in selling, general and administrative expenses and research and development expenses, which are primarily due to the depreciation of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar, a decrease in depreciation and amortization expenses, and our cost reduction efforts to enhance our operating efficiency and improve our profitability. In connection with cost reduction, we implemented several restructuring plans including headcount reductions and a short-term decrease in salaries and related expenses, which had a positive effect on operating income.

Other Income (Expense)

Interest Expense, net. Net interest expense was $32.4 million during the combined twelve-month period ended December 31, 2009, a decrease of $43.7 million compared to $76.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. Interest expense was incurred under our $750 million principal amount of notes and our senior secured credit facility. From June 12, 2009, the date of our initial reorganization filing, to October 25, 2009, we did not accrue interest expenses related to our notes, which were categorized as liabilities subject to

 

69


Table of Contents

compromise. Upon our emergence from our reorganization proceedings, our $750.0 million notes were discharged pursuant to the reorganization plan. Net interest expense in 2008 included a write-off of remaining debt issuance costs of $12.3 million related to our notes since we were not compliant with certain financial covenants under the terms of our notes and therefore, amounts outstanding were reclassified as current portion of long-term debt in our balance sheet as of December 31, 2008.