Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3)
Registration No. 333–129834
PROSPECTUS
980,499 Shares
MARVELL TECHNOLOGY GROUP LTD.
Common Stock
The selling shareholder identified in this prospectus may sell up to 980,499 shares of our common stock.
Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “MRVL.” The last reported sale price of our common stock on the Nasdaq National Market on December 20, 2005 was $58.96 per share.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully read and consider the “Risk Factors” beginning on page 3.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The date of this prospectus is December 20, 2005
You should read carefully the entire prospectus, as well as the documents incorporated by reference in the prospectus, before making an investment decision.
We are a leading global semiconductor provider of high-performance analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing and embedded microprocessor integrated circuits. Our diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, wireless, PC connectivity, gateways, communications controller, storage and power management solutions that serve diverse applications used in business enterprise, consumer electronics and emerging markets. Our core technologies were initially focused on the storage market, where we provide high-performance products to storage companies such as Fujitsu, Hitachi, Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital. We subsequently applied our technology to the high-speed, or broadband, communications market, where we provide industry-leading physical layer transceivers, switched Ethernet and wireless solutions, which provide the interface between communications systems and data transmission media, to manufacturers of high-speed networking and wireless equipment including Asustek, Cisco, 3Com, Dell, Foundry Networks, Intel and NETGEAR. Our wireless technology has a variety of uses in emerging consumer electronic devices, including enabling applications such as wireless connectivity, ad-hoc gaming, streaming audio or video and voice over Internet applications for products offered by companies such as Motorola, PalmOne and Sony Corporation. We also applied our technology by introducing integrated circuits and modules that provide power management broadly to electronic devices.
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. was incorporated in Bermuda in January 1995. Our registered address is Canon’s Court, 22 Victoria Street, Hamilton HM 12, Bermuda, and our telephone number there is (441) 296-6395. The address of our United States subsidiary is Marvell Semiconductor, Inc., 5488 Marvell Lane, Santa Clara, California 95054, and our telephone number there is (408) 222-2500. Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31. For presentation purposes, we refer to January 31 as our fiscal year-end for all periods.
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Investing in Marvell common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully read and consider the risks described below and the other information in this prospectus, including the information incorporated by reference, before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the risks described below materializes, our operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected and the trading price of our common stock could decline. References to “Marvell,” “we,” “us” or “our” refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and our subsidiaries.
A significant portion of our business is dependent upon the hard disk drive industry, which is highly cyclical and experiences rapid technological change.
The hard disk drive industry is intensely competitive, and the technology changes rapidly. As a result, this industry is highly cyclical, with periods of increased demand and rapid growth followed by periods of oversupply and subsequent contraction. These cycles may affect us because our customers are suppliers to this industry. Hard disk drive manufacturers tend to order more components than they may need during growth periods, and sharply reduce orders for components during periods of contraction. In addition, advances in existing technologies and the introduction of new technologies may result in lower demand for disk drive storage devices, thereby reducing demand for our products. Rapid technological changes in the hard disk drive industry often result in significant and rapid shifts in market share among the industry’s participants. If the hard disk drive manufacturers using our products do not retain or increase their market share, our sales may decrease.
We depend on a small number of large customers for a significant portion of our sales. The loss of, or a significant reduction or cancellation in sales to, any key customer would significantly reduce our revenues.
In the first nine months of fiscal 2006, approximately 45% of our net revenue was derived from sales to three customers, each of whom individually accounted for 10% or more of our net revenue during this period. Of these customers, Western Digital accounted for approximately 18%, Samsung accounted for approximately 14% and Toshiba accounted for approximately 13%. Additionally, Wintech, a distributor, accounted for approximately 11% of our net revenue during the first nine months of fiscal 2006. Sales to our largest customers have fluctuated significantly from period to period primarily due to the timing and number of design wins with each customer, as well as the continued diversification of our customer base as we expand into new markets, and will likely continue to fluctuate in the future. The loss of any of our largest customers, a significant reduction in sales we make to them, or any problems we encounter collecting amounts due from them would likely seriously harm our financial condition, results of operations and liquidity. Our operating results in the foreseeable future will continue to depend on sales to a relatively small number of customers, as well as the ability of these customers to sell products that incorporate our products. In the future, these customers may decide not to purchase our products at all, purchase fewer products than they did in the past, or alter their purchasing patterns in some other way, particularly because:
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• substantially all of our sales are made on a purchase order basis, which permits our customers to cancel, change or delay product purchase commitments with little or no notice to us;
• our customers may develop their own solutions;
• our customers may purchase integrated circuits from our competitors; or
• our customers may discontinue sales or lose market share in the markets for which they purchase our products.
It is difficult to accurately predict our future sales and to appropriately budget for our expenses, and we expect to not be able to maintain our existing growth rate.
The rapidly changing nature of the markets in which we sell our products limits our ability to accurately forecast quarterly and annual sales. Additionally, 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 are currently expanding our staffing and increasing our expense levels in anticipation of future sales growth. If our sales do not increase as anticipated, significant losses could result due to our higher expense levels.
For the past four years, we have been able to report significant sequential quarterly growth in revenues; however, our revenues have grown at a slower sequential rate in the past six sequential quarters ending with the third quarter of fiscal 2006 compared to the double digit sequential growth rate of the previous eleven quarters. This slower growth rate is due, among other things, to the larger base of revenue and market share we now enjoy, which makes continuation of double digit revenue growth on a sequential quarterly basis unlikely in the current market. Accordingly, investors should not rely on the results of any prior quarterly or annual periods as an indication of our future performance.
If we are unable to develop new and enhanced products that achieve market acceptance in a timely manner, our operating results and competitive position will be harmed.
Our future success will depend on our ability, in a timely and cost-effective manner, to develop new products and enhancements to our existing products. We must also achieve market acceptance for these products and enhancements. If we do not successfully develop and achieve market acceptance for new and enhanced products, our ability to maintain or increase revenues will suffer. The development of our products is highly complex. We occasionally have experienced delays in completing the development and introduction of new products and product enhancements, and we could experience delays in the future. Even if the new and enhanced products are introduced to the market, we may not be able to achieve market acceptance of these products in a timely manner.
In addition, our longstanding relationships with some of our larger customers may also deter other potential customers who compete with these customers from buying our products. To attract new customers or retain existing customers, we may offer certain customers favorable prices on our products. If these prices are lower than the prices paid by our existing customers, we would have to offer the same lower prices to certain of our customers who have contractual “most favored nation” pricing arrangements. In that event, our average selling prices and gross margins would decline. The loss of a key customer, a reduction in sales to any key customer or our inability to attract new significant customers could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on independent foundries and subcontractors for the manufacture, assembly and testing of our integrated circuit products, and the failure of any of these third-party vendors to deliver products or otherwise perform as requested could damage our relationships with our customers, decrease our sales and harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We do not have our own manufacturing or assembly facilities and have very limited in-house testing facilities. Therefore, we must rely on third-party vendors to manufacture, assemble and test the products we design.
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We currently rely on several third-party foundries to produce substantially all of our integrated circuit products. We also currently rely on several third-party assembly and test subcontractors to assemble, package and test our products. The resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the outbreak of avian flu and any similar future outbreaks in Asia could affect the production capabilities of our manufacturers by resulting in quarantines or closures. In the event of such a quarantine or closure, if we were unable to quickly identify alternate manufacturing facilities, our revenues, cost of revenues and results of operations would be negatively impacted. If these vendors do not provide us with high-quality products and services in a timely manner, or if one or more of these vendors terminates its relationship with us, we may be unable to obtain satisfactory replacements to fulfill customer orders on a timely basis, our relationships with our customers could suffer, our sales could decrease and harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
With limited exceptions, our vendors are not obligated to perform services or supply products to us for any specific period, in any specific quantities, or at any specific price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order. These vendors may allocate capacity to the production of other companies’ products while reducing deliveries to us on short notice. In particular, some foundry customers may have long-term agreements with these foundries that may cause these foundries to reallocate capacity to those customers, decreasing the capacity available to us. If we need another integrated circuit foundry or assembly and test subcontractor because of increased demand, or we are unable to obtain timely and adequate deliveries from our providers at the required time, we might not be able to develop relationships with other vendors who are able to satisfy our requirements. Even if other integrated circuit foundries or assembly and test subcontractors are available at that time to satisfy our requirements, it would likely take several months to qualify a new provider. Such a change may also require the approval of our customers, which would take time to effect and could cause our customers to cancel orders or fail to place new orders.
Our Marvell Semiconductor Israel Ltd., Marvell T.I. Ltd. and RADLAN Computer Communications Ltd. subsidiaries are incorporated under the laws of, and their principal offices are located in, the State of Israel and therefore their business operations may be harmed by adverse political, economic and military conditions affecting Israel.
Each of Marvell Semiconductor Israel Ltd., or MSIL, Marvell T.I. Ltd., or MTIL, and RADLAN Computer Communications Ltd., or RADLAN, are incorporated under the laws of and has its principal offices in the State of Israel. In addition, MSIL and RADLAN maintain their research and development operations in Israel. Thus, MSIL, MTIL and RADLAN are directly influenced by the political, economic and military conditions affecting Israel. Major hostilities involving or within Israel could disrupt MSIL, MTIL and RADLAN’s operations. For example, continued hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian authority may cause substantial political unrest, which could lead to a potential economic downturn in Israel. Additionally, the ongoing situation in Iraq could lead to more economic instability and uncertainty in the State of Israel and the Middle East. Also, the interruption or curtailment of trade between Israel and its present trading partners or a significant downturn in the economic or financial condition of Israel could negatively impact the business operations and financial results of each of MSIL, MTIL and RADLAN.
We rely on third-party distributors and manufacturers’ representatives and the failure of these distributors and manufacturers’ representatives to perform as expected could reduce our future sales.
We sell many of our products to customers through distributors and manufacturers’ representatives. Our relationships with some of our distributors and manufacturers’ representatives have been established within the last two years, and we are unable to predict the extent to which our distributors and manufacturers’ representatives will be successful in marketing and selling our products. Moreover, many of our manufacturers’ representatives and distributors also market and sell competing products. Our representatives and distributors may terminate their relationships with us at any time. Our future performance will also depend, in part, on our ability to attract additional distributors or manufacturers’ representatives that will be able to market and support our products effectively, especially in markets in which we have not previously distributed our products. If we cannot retain our current distributors or manufacturers’ representatives or recruit additional or replacement distributors or manufacturers’ representatives, our sales and operating results will be harmed. The loss of one or more of our distributors or manufacturers’ representatives could harm our sales and results of operations. We generally realize a higher gross margin on direct sales and from sales through manufacturers’ representatives than on sales through distributors. Accordingly, if our distributors were to account for an increased portion of our net sales, our gross margins may decline.
The uncertain and volatile worldwide economy, acts of war, terrorism, international conflicts and related uncertainties may adversely impact our revenues and profitability.
In recent years, worldwide economic conditions have been volatile with concerns about inflation, increased reliance on consumer confidence, rising oil prices and the situation in Iraq. The events of September 11, 2001, the continuing international conflicts and terrorist acts, continued increases in the price of oil, the possibility of an extended United States presence in Iraq, and the potential pandemic of avian or other flu-like illnesses can be expected to place further pressure on economic conditions in the United States and worldwide. These conditions make it extremely difficult for our customers, our vendors and for us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities.
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We are a relatively small company with limited resources compared to some of our current and potential competitors, and we may not be able to compete effectively and increase or maintain revenue and market share.
We may not be able to compete successfully against current or potential competitors. If we do not compete successfully, our market share and revenues may not increase or may decline. In addition, most of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater resources and name recognition, and a larger base of customers than we do. As a result, these competitors may have greater credibility with our existing and potential customers. Moreover, our competitors may foresee the course of market developments more accurately than we do. They also may be able to adopt more aggressive pricing policies and devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we do, which would allow them to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. In addition, new competitors or alliances among existing competitors could emerge. We expect to face competition in the future from our current competitors, other manufacturers and designers of integrated circuits, and innovative start-up integrated circuit design companies. Many of our customers are also large, established integrated circuit suppliers. Our sales to and support of such customers may enable them to become a source of competition to us, despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights.
Because we do not have long-term commitments from our customers, we must estimate customer demand, and errors in our estimates can have negative effects on our inventory levels, sales and operating results.
Our sales are made on the basis of individual purchase orders rather than long-term purchase commitments. In addition, our customers may cancel or defer purchase orders. We have historically placed firm orders for products with our suppliers up to sixteen weeks prior to the anticipated delivery date and typically prior to receiving an order for the product. Therefore, our order volumes are based on our forecasts of demand from our customers. This process requires us to make multiple demand forecast assumptions, each of which may introduce error into our estimates. If we overestimate customer demand, we may allocate resources to manufacturing products that we may not be able to sell when we expect or at all. As a result, we would have excess inventory, which would harm our financial results. Conversely, if we underestimate customer demand or if insufficient manufacturing capacity is available, we would forego revenue opportunities, lose market share and damage our customer relationships. On occasion, we have been unable to adequately respond to unexpected increases in customer purchase orders, and therefore were unable to benefit from this increased demand.
Our future success depends in significant part on strategic relationships with customers. If we cannot maintain these relationships or if these customers develop their own solutions or adopt a competitor’s solutions instead of buying our products, our operating results would be adversely affected.
In the past, we have relied in significant part on our strategic relationships with customers that are technology leaders in our target markets. We intend to pursue and continue to form these strategic relationships in the future but we cannot assure you that we will be able to do so. These relationships often require us to develop new products that may involve significant technological challenges. These customers frequently place considerable pressure on us to meet their tight development schedules. Accordingly, we may have to devote a substantial amount of our limited resources to our strategic relationships, which could detract from or delay our completion of other important development projects. Delays in development could impair our relationships with our strategic customers and negatively impact sales of the products under development. Moreover, it is possible that our customers may develop their own solutions or adopt a competitor’s solution for products that they currently buy from us. If that happens, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.
If our foundries do not achieve satisfactory yields or quality, our relationships with our customers and our reputation will be harmed.
The fabrication of integrated circuits is a complex and technically demanding process. Our foundries have from time to time experienced manufacturing defects and reduced manufacturing yields. Changes in manufacturing processes or the inadvertent use of defective or contaminated materials by our foundries could result in lower than anticipated manufacturing yields or unacceptable performance. Many of these problems are difficult to detect at an early stage of the manufacturing process and may be time consuming and expensive to correct. Poor yields from our foundries, or defects, integration issues or other performance problems in our products could cause us significant customer relations and business reputation problems, harm our financial results and result in financial or other damages to our customers. Our customers could also seek damages from us for their losses. A product liability claim brought against us, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time consuming and costly to defend. In addition, defects
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in our existing or new products could result in significant warranty, support and repair costs, and divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts.
When demand for foundry capacity is high, we may take various actions to try to secure sufficient capacity, which may be costly and harm our operating results.
Availability of foundry capacity has in the recent past been reduced due to strong demand. The ability of each foundry to provide us with semiconductor devices is limited by its available capacity and existing obligations. Although we have entered into contractual commitments to supply specified levels of products to some of our customers, we may not have sufficient levels of production capacity with all of our foundries, despite signing a long-term guaranteed production capacity agreement with one of our foundries. Despite this agreement, foundry capacity may not be available when we need it or at reasonable prices. We place our orders on the basis of our customers’ purchase orders or our forecast of customer demand, and the foundries can allocate capacity to the production of other companies’ products and reduce deliveries to us on short notice. It is possible that foundry customers that are larger and better financed than we are or that have long-term agreements with our main foundries may induce our foundries to reallocate capacity to those customers. This reallocation could impair our ability to secure the supply of components that we need. Although we use several independent foundries to manufacture substantially all of our semiconductor products, most of our components are not manufactured at more than one foundry at any given time, and our products typically are designed to be manufactured in a specific process at only one of these foundries. Accordingly, if one of our foundries is unable to provide us with components as needed, we could experience significant delays in securing sufficient supplies of those components. We cannot assure you that any of our existing or new foundries will be able to produce integrated circuits with acceptable manufacturing yields, or that our foundries will be able to deliver enough semiconductor devices to us on a timely basis, or at reasonable prices. These and other related factors could impair our ability to meet our customers’ needs and have a material and adverse effect on our operating results.
In order to secure sufficient foundry capacity when demand is high and mitigate the risks described in the foregoing paragraph, we may enter into various arrangements with suppliers that could be costly and harm our operating results, such as nonrefundable deposits with or loans to foundries in exchange for capacity commitments, and contracts that commit us to purchase specified quantities of integrated circuits over extended periods.
We may not be able to make any such arrangement in a timely fashion or at all, and any arrangements may be costly, reduce our financial flexibility, and not be on terms favorable to us. For example, amounts payable under our foundry capacity are non-refundable regardless of whether we are able to utilize all or any of the guaranteed wafer capacity under the terms of the agreement. Moreover, if we are able to secure foundry capacity, we may be obligated to use all of that capacity or incur penalties. These penalties may be expensive and could harm our financial results.
The complexity of our products could result in unforeseen delays or expenses or undetected defects or bugs, which could adversely affect the market acceptance of new products, damage our reputation with current or prospective customers, and materially and adversely affect our operating costs.
Highly complex products such as the products that we offer may contain defects and bugs when they are first introduced or as new versions are released. We may in the future experience these defects and bugs. Historically, we have been able to design workarounds to fix these defects and bugs with minimal to no disruption to our business or our customers’ business. Going forward, if any of our products contain defects or bugs, or have reliability, quality, or compatibility problems, we may not be able to successfully design workarounds. Consequently, our reputation may be damaged and customers may be reluctant to buy our products, which could materially and adversely affect our ability to retain existing customers or attract new customers, and our financial results. In addition, these defects or bugs could interrupt or delay sales to our customers. To alleviate these problems, we may have to invest significant capital and other resources. Although our products are tested by our suppliers, our customers and ourselves, it is possible that our new products may contain defects or bugs. If any of these problems are not found until after we have commenced commercial production of a new product, we may be required to incur additional development costs and product recall, repair or replacement costs. These problems may also result in claims against us by our customers or others. In addition, these problems may divert our technical and other resources from other development efforts. Moreover, we would likely lose, or experience a delay in, market
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acceptance of the affected product or products, and we could lose credibility with our current and prospective customers. As a result, our financial results could be materially harmed.
We may experience difficulties in transitioning to smaller geometry process technologies or in achieving higher levels of design integration, which may result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses.
In order to remain competitive, we expect to continue to transition our semiconductor products to increasingly smaller line width geometries. This transition requires us to modify the manufacturing processes for our products and to redesign some products. We periodically evaluate the benefits, on a product-by-product basis, of migrating to smaller geometry process technologies. In the past, we have experienced some difficulties in shifting to smaller geometry process technologies or new manufacturing processes, which resulted in, among other things, reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses. We may face similar difficulties, delays and expenses as we continue to transition our products to smaller geometry processes. We are dependent on our relationships with our foundries to transition to smaller geometry processes successfully and cannot assure you that our foundries will be able to effectively manage the transition. If our foundries or we experience significant delays in this transition or fail to efficiently implement this transition, our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity could be materially and adversely affected. As smaller geometry processes become more prevalent, we expect to continue to integrate greater levels of functionality, as well as customer and third party intellectual property, into our products. However, we may not be able to achieve higher levels of design integration or deliver new integrated products on a timely basis, or at all.
If our internal control over financial reporting does not comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our business, reputation and stock price could be adversely affected.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires us to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of each year and to include a management report assessing the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in all annual reports. Section 404 also requires our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to, and report on, management’s assessment of our internal control over financial reporting.
We cannot assure you that we or our independent registered public accounting firm will not identify a material weakness in our internal controls in the future. A material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting would require management and our independent registered public accounting firm to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting as ineffective. If our internal control over financial reporting is considered ineffective, we may experience a loss of public confidence, which could have an adverse effect on our business and our stock price.
Past acquisitions and any future acquisitions or transactions may not be successful.
We expect to continue to make acquisitions of, and investments in, businesses that offer complementary products, services and technologies, augment our market segment coverage, or enhance our technological capabilities. We may also enter into strategic alliances or joint ventures to achieve these goals. We cannot assure you that we will be able to identify suitable acquisition, investment, alliance, or joint venture opportunities or that we will be able to consummate any such transactions or relationships on terms and conditions acceptable to us, or that such transactions or relationships will be successful.
Any transactions or relationships will be accompanied by the risks commonly encountered with those matters. Risks that could have a material adverse affect on our business, results of operations or financial condition include, among other things:
• the difficulty of assimilating the operations and personnel of acquired businesses;
• the potential disruption of our ongoing business;
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• the distraction of management from our business;
• the potential inability of management to maximize our financial and strategic position as a result of an acquisition;
• the potential difficulty maintaining uniform standards, controls, procedures and policies;
• the impairment of relationships with employees and customers as a result of any integration of new management personnel;
• the risk of entering market segments in which we have no or limited direct prior experience and where competitors in such market segments have stronger market segment positions;
• the risk that there could be deficiencies in the internal control of any acquired company or investments that could result in a material weakness in our overall internal controls taken as a whole; and
• the potential loss of key employees of an acquired company.
Our recent acquisitions and any future acquisitions could harm our operating results and share price.
We recently acquired the hard disk and tape drive controller semiconductor business of QLogic Corporation for consideration consisting of a combination of $180.0 million in cash and 980,499 shares of our common stock.
Any acquisitions could materially harm our operating results as a result of possible concurrent issuances of dilutive equity securities. In addition, the purchase price of any acquired businesses may exceed the current fair values of the net tangible assets of the acquired businesses. As a result, we would be required to record material amounts of goodwill and other intangible assets, which could result in significant impairment charges and amortization expense in future periods. These charges, in addition to the results of operations of such acquired businesses, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot forecast the number, timing or size of future acquisitions, or the effect that any such acquisitions might have on our operating or financial results.
Under generally accepted accounting principles, we are required to review our intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable. In addition, we are required to review our goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets on an annual basis. Over the past few years, there has been a slowdown in worldwide economies, including the United States, which has affected our business. End customers for our products have slowed their purchases of next-generation technology and have delayed or rescheduled existing orders for products that incorporate our technology. Although recently we have seen some signs of recovery in the worldwide economy, we cannot predict the timing, strength and duration of any economic recovery, worldwide or in our served markets. If the economy does not continue to recover, or if other presently unforeseen events or changes in circumstances arise which indicate that the carrying value of our goodwill or other intangible assets may not be recoverable, we will be required to perform impairment reviews of these assets, which have carrying values of approximately $1.5 billion as of October 31, 2005. An impairment review could result in a write-down of all or a portion of these assets to their fair values. We will perform an annual impairment review during the fourth quarter of each fiscal year or more frequently if we believe indicators of impairment exist. In light of the large carrying value associated with our goodwill and intangible assets, any write-down of these assets may result in a significant charge to our statement of operations in the period any impairment is determined and could cause our stock price to decline.
Changes in the accounting treatment of stock options could adversely affect our results of operations.
In December 2004, the FASB issued SFAS No. 123R, “Share-Based Payment.” SFAS No. 123R requires employee stock options and rights to purchase shares under stock participation plans to be accounted for under the
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fair value method, and eliminates the ability to account for these instruments under the intrinsic value method prescribed by APB Opinion No. 25, and allowed under the original provisions of SFAS No. 123. SFAS No. 123R requires the use of an option pricing model for estimating fair value, which is amortized to expense over the service periods. The requirements of SFAS No. 123R are effective for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2005. This stock option expensing would require us to value our employee stock option grants pursuant to an option valuation formula and then amortize that value against our earnings over the vesting period in effect for those options. We currently account for stock-based awards to employees in accordance with Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25, Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees, and have adopted the disclosure-only alternative to SFAS 123. When we are required to expense employee stock options in the quarter ending April 30, 2006, this change in accounting treatment will materially and adversely affect our reported results of operations because the stock-based compensation expense would be charged directly against our reported earnings.
We are subject to the risks of owning real property.
Our U.S. headquarters located in Santa Clara, California, subjects us to the risks of owning real property, including:
• the possibility of environmental contamination and the costs associated with fixing any environmental problems;
• adverse changes in the value of these properties, due to interest rate changes, changes in the neighborhood in which the property is located, or other factors;
• the need for structural improvements in order to comply with zoning, seismic and other legal or regulatory requirements;
• the potential disruption of our business and operations arising from or connected with a relocation due to moving to the facility;
• increased cash commitments for improvements to the buildings or the property or both;
• increased operating expenses for the buildings or the property or both;
• possible disputes with tenants or other third parties related to the buildings or the property or both; and
• the risk of financial loss in excess of amounts covered by insurance, or uninsured risks, such as the loss caused by damage to the buildings as a result of an earthquake.
We depend on key personnel with whom we do not have employment agreements to manage our business, and if we are unable to retain our current personnel and hire additional personnel, our ability to develop and successfully market our products could be harmed.
We believe our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, engineering and sales and marketing personnel. The loss of any key employees or the inability to attract or retain qualified personnel, including engineers and sales and marketing personnel, could delay the development and introduction of and harm our ability to sell our products. We do not have employment contracts with any of our key personnel, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace.
There is currently a shortage of qualified technical personnel with significant experience in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing and sales of integrated circuits. In particular, there is a shortage of engineers who are familiar with the intricacies of the design and manufacture of products based on analog technology, and competition for these engineers is intense. Our key technical personnel represent a significant asset and serve as the
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source of our technological and product innovations. We may not be successful in attracting and retaining sufficient numbers of technical personnel to support our anticipated growth.
Stock options generally comprise a significant portion of our compensation packages for all employees. The FASB requirement to expense the fair value of stock options awarded to employees beginning in the quarter ending April 30, 2006 will increase our operating expenses and may cause us to reevaluate our compensation structure for our employees. We cannot be certain that the changes in our compensation policies, if any, will improve our ability to attract, retain and motivate employees. Our inability to attract and retain additional key employees and the increase in stock-based compensation expense each could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our officers and directors own a large percentage of our voting stock, and three existing directors, who are also significant shareholders, are related by blood or marriage. These factors may allow the officers and directors as a group or the three related directors to greatly influence the approval or disapproval of corporate actions.
As of November 30, 2005, our executive officers and directors beneficially owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, approximately 21% of the outstanding shares our common stock. Additionally, Sehat Sutardja, Ph.D., and Weili Dai are husband and wife and Sehat Sutardja, Ph.D., and Pantas Sutardja, Ph.D., are brothers. All three are directors and together they held approximately 20% of our outstanding common stock as of November 30, 2005. As a result, if the directors and officers as a group or any of Sehat Sutardja, Ph.D., Weili Dai and Pantas Sutardja, Ph.D., act together, they could significantly influence the approval or disapproval of our corporate actions. In addition, the voting power of these officers or directors could have the effect of delaying or preventing an acquisition of our company on terms that other shareholders may desire. Furthermore, we have a classified board, which could also further delay or prevent an acquisition, under certain circumstances.
Under Bermuda law all of our officers, in exercising their powers and discharging their duties, must act honestly and in good faith with a view to our best interests and exercise the care, diligence and skill that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in comparable circumstances. Majority shareholders do not owe fiduciary duties to minority shareholders. As a result, the minority shareholders will not have a direct claim against the majority shareholders in the event the majority shareholders take actions that damage the interests of minority shareholders. Class actions and derivative actions are generally not available to shareholders under the laws of Bermuda, except that Bermuda courts would be expected to follow English case law precedent, which would permit a shareholder to bring an action in our name if the directors or officers are alleged to be acting beyond our corporate power, committing illegal acts or violating our Memorandum of Association or Bye-laws. In addition, minority shareholders would be able to challenge a corporate action that allegedly constituted a fraud against them or required the approval of a greater percentage of our shareholders than actually approved it. The winning party in such an action generally would be able to recover a portion of attorneys’ fees incurred in connection with the action.
Our rapid growth has strained our resources and our inability to manage any future growth could harm our profitability.
Our rapid growth has placed, and any future growth of our operations will continue to place, significant strain on our management personnel, systems and resources. We anticipate that we will need to implement a variety of new and upgraded operational and financial systems, procedures and controls, including the continuous improvement of our accounting and other internal management systems. We also expect that we will need to continue to expand, train, manage and motivate our workforce. All of these endeavors will require substantial management effort. If we are unable to effectively manage our expanding operations, our operating results could be harmed.
We are currently implementing, and also plan to implement, new modules of our ERP system in the future. Implementation of new modules of an ERP system is a very complex, costly and time-consuming process. Any unforeseen delays or difficulties after we begin transacting on the modified system or in performing financial closes on, or upgrades to the systems, may divert the attention of management and other employees and disrupt our ongoing business and could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
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We face foreign business, political and economic risks, which may harm our results of operations, because a majority of our products and our customers’ products are manufactured and sold outside of the United States.
A substantial portion of our business is conducted outside of the United States and, as a result, we are subject to foreign business, political and economic risks. All of our products are manufactured outside of the United States. Our current qualified integrated circuit foundries are located in the same region within Taiwan, and our primary assembly and test subcontractors are located in the Pacific Rim region. In addition, many of our customers are located outside of the United States, primarily in Asia, which further exposes us to foreign risks. Sales to customers located in Asia represented approximately 94% of our net revenue in the first nine months of fiscal 2006, and represented 93% and 90% of our net revenue in fiscal 2005 and 2004, respectively.
We anticipate that our manufacturing, assembly, testing and sales outside of the United States will continue to account for a substantial portion of our operations and revenue in future periods. Accordingly, we are subject to risks associated with international operations, including:
• difficulties in obtaining domestic and foreign export, import and other governmental approvals, permits and licenses;
• compliance with foreign laws;
• difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;
• trade restrictions or higher tariffs;
• transportation delays;
• difficulties of managing distributors, especially because we expect to continue to increase our sales through international distributors;
• political and economic instability, including wars, terrorism, other hostilities and political unrest, boycotts, curtailment of trade and other business restrictions; and
• inadequate local infrastructure.
Because substantially all of our sales to date have been denominated in United States dollars, increases in the value of the United States dollar will increase the price of our products so that they become relatively more expensive to customers in the local currency of a particular country, potentially leading to a reduction in sales and profitability for us in that country. A portion of our international revenue may be denominated in foreign currencies in the future, which will subject us to risks associated with fluctuations in exchange rates for those foreign currencies.
Our third-party foundries and subcontractors are concentrated in Taiwan and elsewhere in the Pan-Pacific region, an area subject to significant earthquake risks. Any disruption to the operations of these foundries and subcontractors resulting from earthquakes or other natural disasters could cause significant delays in the production or shipment of our products.
Substantially all of our products are manufactured by third-party foundries located in Taiwan. Currently our only alternative manufacturing sources are located in Taiwan, China and Singapore. In addition, substantially all of our assembly and testing facilities are located in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines. The risk of an earthquake in Taiwan and elsewhere in the Pacific Rim region is significant due to the proximity of major earthquake fault lines to the facilities of our foundries and assembly and test subcontractors. In September 1999, a major earthquake in Taiwan affected the facilities of several of these third-party contractors. As a consequence of this earthquake, these contractors suffered power outages and disruptions that impaired their production capacity. In March 2002 and June 2003, major earthquakes occurred in Taiwan. Although our foundries and subcontractors did
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not suffer any significant damage as a result of these most recent earthquakes, the occurrence of additional earthquakes or other natural disasters could result in the disruption of our foundry or assembly and test capacity. Any disruption resulting from such events could cause significant delays in the production or shipment of our products until we are able to shift our manufacturing, assembling or testing from the affected contractor to another third-party vendor. We may not be able to obtain alternate capacity on favorable terms, if at all.
In May 2005, a fire occurred at one of our third-party subcontractor’s production facilities that produce packaging substrates that we use in our products. In the recent past, others in our industry experienced a shortage in the supply of packaging substrates that we use for our products. We do not purchase substrates from the factory where the fire occurred; however, the fire affected the overall supply of substrates and has indirectly impacted us through increased lead times and less supply of substrates that we use in our products. If our third-party subcontractors are unable to obtain sufficient packaging materials for our products in a timely manner, we may experience a significant product shortage or delay in product shipments, which could seriously harm our customer relationships and materially and adversely affect our net revenue, business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
The average selling prices of products in our markets have historically decreased rapidly and may do so in the future, which could harm our revenues and gross profits.
The products we develop and sell are used for high volume applications. As a result, the prices of those products have historically decreased rapidly. Our gross profits and 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 profits. We expect that our gross profits on our products are likely to decrease over the next fiscal year below levels we have historically experienced due to (1) pricing pressures from our customers, (2) an increase in sales of storage systems on chips, which typically have lower margins than standalone read channel devices, and (3) an increase in sales of wireless and other products into consumer application markets, which are highly competitive and cost sensitive.
Additionally, because we do not operate our own manufacturing, assembly or testing facilities, we may not be able to reduce our costs as rapidly as companies that operate their own facilities, and our costs may even increase, which could also reduce our margins. In the past, we have reduced the average selling prices of our products in anticipation of future competitive pricing pressures, new product introductions by us or our competitors and other factors. We expect that we will have to do so again in the future.
We have a lengthy and expensive product sales cycle that does not assure product sales, and that if unsuccessful, may harm our operating results.
The sales cycle for many of our products is long and requires us to invest significant resources with each potential customer without any assurance of sales to that customer. Our sales cycle typically begins with an extended evaluation and test period, also known as qualification, during which our products undergo rigorous reliability testing by our customers.
Qualification is typically followed by an extended development period by our customers and an additional period before a customer commences volume production of equipment incorporating our products. This lengthy sales cycle creates the risk that our customers will decide to cancel or change product plans for products incorporating our integrated circuits. During our sales cycle, our engineers assist customers in implementing our products into the customers’ products. We incur significant research and development and selling, general and administrative expenses as part of this process, and this process may never generate related revenues. We derive revenue from this process only if our design is selected. Once a customer selects a particular integrated circuit for use in its storage product, the customer generally uses solely that integrated circuit for a full generation of its product. Therefore, if we do not achieve a design win for a product, we will be unable to sell our integrated circuit to a customer until that customer develops a new product or a new generation of its product. Even if we achieve a design win with a customer, the customer may not ultimately ship products incorporating our products or may cancel orders after we have achieved a sale. In addition, we will have to begin the qualification process again when a customer develops a new generation of a product for which we were the successful supplier.
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Also, during the final production of a mature product, our customers typically exhaust their existing inventory of our integrated circuits. Consequently, orders for our products may decline in those circumstances, even if our products are incorporated into both our customers’ mature and replacement products. A delay in a customer’s transition to commercial production of a replacement product may cause the customer to lose sales, which would delay our ability to recover the lost sales from the discontinued mature product. In addition, customers may defer orders in anticipation of new products or product enhancements from our competitors or us.
We are subject to the cyclical nature of the integrated circuit industry. Any future downturns will likely reduce our revenue and result in excess inventory.
The integrated circuit industry is highly cyclical and is characterized by constant and rapid technological change, rapid product obsolescence and price erosion, evolving standards, short product life cycles and wide fluctuations in product supply and demand. The industry has in the past experienced significant downturns. These downturns are often connected with, or in anticipation of, maturing product cycles of both integrated circuit companies’ and their customers’ products and declines in general economic conditions. These downturns have been characterized by diminished product demand, production overcapacity, high inventory levels and accelerated erosion of average selling prices. Any future downturns may reduce our revenue or our percentage of revenue growth on a quarter-to-quarter basis and result in us having excess inventory. Furthermore, any upturn in the integrated circuit industry could result in increased competition for access to third-party foundry, assembly and test capacity.
We must keep pace with rapid technological change and evolving industry standards in the semiconductor industry to remain competitive.
Our future success will depend on our ability to anticipate and adapt to changes in technology and industry standards and our customers’ changing demands. We sell products in markets that are characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions, short product life cycles and increasing demand for higher levels of integration and smaller process geometries. Our past sales and profitability have resulted, to a large extent, from our ability to anticipate changes in technology and industry standards and to develop and introduce new and enhanced products incorporating the new standards and technologies. Our ability to adapt to these changes and to anticipate future standards, and the rate of adoption and acceptance of those standards, will be a significant factor in maintaining or improving our competitive position and prospects for growth. If new industry standards emerge, our products or our customers’ products could become unmarketable or obsolete, and we could lose market share. We may also have to incur substantial unanticipated costs to comply with these new standards. In addition, our target markets continue to undergo rapid growth and consolidation. A significant slowdown in any of these markets could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our success will also depend on the ability of our customers to develop new products and enhance existing products for the markets we serve and to introduce and promote those products successfully.
We may be unable to protect our intellectual property, which would negatively affect our ability to compete.
We believe one of our key competitive advantages results from our collection of proprietary technologies that we have developed since our inception. If we fail to protect these intellectual property rights, competitors could sell products based on technology that we have developed which could harm our competitive position and decrease our revenues. We believe that the protection of our intellectual property rights is and will continue to be important to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as nondisclosure agreements and other methods, to protect our proprietary technologies. We also enter into confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, consultants and business partners, and control access to and distribution of our documentation and other proprietary information. We have been issued several United States patents and have a number of pending United States patent applications. However, a patent may not be issued as a result of any applications or, if issued, claims allowed may not be sufficiently broad to protect our technology. In addition, it is possible that existing or future patents may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. Despite our efforts, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our products or proprietary technology. Monitoring unauthorized use of our technology is difficult, and the steps that we have taken may not prevent unauthorized use of our technology, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States.
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We may become involved with costly and lengthy litigation, which could subject us to liability, require us to stop selling our products or force us to redesign our products.
Litigation involving patents and other intellectual property is widespread in the high-technology industry and is particularly prevalent in the integrated circuit industry, where a number of companies aggressively bring numerous infringement claims to protect their patent portfolios. From time to time we receive, and may continue to receive in the future, notices that claim we have infringed upon, misappropriated or misused the proprietary rights of other parties. These claims could result in litigation, which, in turn, could subject us to significant liability for damages. Any potential intellectual property litigation also could force us to do one or more of the following:
• stop selling products or using technology that contain the allegedly infringing intellectual property;
• pay substantial damages to the party claiming infringement that could adversely impact our liquidity or operating results;
• attempt to obtain a license to the relevant intellectual property, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; and
• attempt to redesign those products that contain the allegedly infringing intellectual property.
We are also party to other claims and litigation proceedings arising in the normal course of business. The impact on us as a result of such claims and litigation cannot currently be ascertained. There can be no assurance that these matters will be resolved without costly litigation, in a manner that is not adverse to our financial position, results of operations or cash flows or without requiring royalty payments in the future that may adversely impact gross margins. Any litigation, regardless of the outcome, is time-consuming and expensive to resolve, may require us to pay significant monetary damages and can divert management time and attention.
We are incorporated in Bermuda, and, as a result, it may not be possible for our shareholders to enforce civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States.
We are organized under the laws of Bermuda. As a result, it may not be possible for our shareholders to effect service of process within the United States upon us, or to enforce against us in United States courts judgments based on the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States. Most of our executive officers and directors are residents of the United States. However, there is significant doubt as to whether the courts of Bermuda would recognize or enforce judgments of United States courts obtained against us or our directors or officers based on the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state or hear actions brought in Bermuda against us or those persons based on those laws. The United States and Bermuda do not currently have a treaty providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. Therefore, a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by any federal or state court in the United States based on civil liability, whether or not based solely on United States federal or state securities laws, would not be automatically enforceable in Bermuda.
Our Bye-laws contain a waiver of claims or rights of action by our shareholders against our officers and directors, which will severely limit our shareholders’ right to assert a claim against our officers and directors under Bermuda law.
Our Bye-laws contain a broad waiver by our shareholders of any claim or right of action, both individually and on our behalf, against any of our officers and directors. The waiver applies to any action taken by an officer or director, or the failure of an officer or director to take any action, in the performance of his or her duties with or for us, other than with respect to any matter involving any fraud or dishonesty on the part of the officer or director. This waiver will limit the rights of our shareholders to assert claims against our officers and directors unless the act complained of involves actual fraud or dishonesty. Thus, so long as acts of business judgment do not involve actual fraud or dishonesty, they will not be subject to shareholder claims under Bermuda law. For example, shareholders will not have claims against officers and directors for a breach of trust, unless the breach rises to the level of actual fraud or dishonesty.
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Tax benefits we receive may be terminated or reduced in the future, which would increase our costs.
Under current Bermuda law, we are not subject to tax on our income or capital gains. We have obtained from the Minister of Finance of Bermuda under the Exempt Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966, as amended, an undertaking that, in the event that Bermuda enacts any legislation imposing tax computed on income or capital gains, those taxes should not apply to us until March 28, 2016. However, this exemption may not be extended beyond that date.
The Economic Development Board of Singapore granted Pioneer Status to our wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore in July 2000. Initially, this tax exemption was to expire after eight years, but the Economic Development Board on September 27, 2004 agreed to extend the term to 10 years. As a result we anticipate that a significant portion of the income we earn in Singapore during this period will be exempt from the Singapore income tax. We are required to meet several requirements as to investment, headcount and activities in Singapore to retain this status. If our Pioneer Status is terminated early, our financial results could be harmed. In addition, on October 1, 2004, the Economic Development Board of Singapore agreed to grant our Singapore subsidiary a Development and Expansion Incentive for a term of 5 years, commencing July 1, 2004, under which a portion of the income of the subsidiary which does not qualify for Pioneer Status will be taxed at a reduced rate of 10 percent. We agreed to maintain Singapore as our Asia Pacific headquarters and to meet several requirements relating to headcount, production activities and spending.
The Israeli government has granted Approved Enterprise Status to two of our wholly-owned subsidiaries in Israel, which provides a tax holiday on undistributed income derived from operations within certain “development regions” in Israel. In order to maintain our qualification, we must continue to meet specified conditions, including the making of investments in fixed assets in Israel. As our tax holidays expire, we expect that we will start paying income tax on our operations within these development regions.
Class action litigation due to stock price volatility or other factors could cause us to incur substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources.
On September 5, 2001, a putative class action was filed in the Southern District of New York relating to our initial public offering, or IPO. In this action, the plaintiffs named several defendants including Marvell and two of our officers, one of whom is also a director. This complaint relating to our IPO has been consolidated with hundreds of other lawsuits by plaintiffs against approximately 55 underwriters and approximately 300 issuers across the United States. Plaintiffs allege that defendants violated various provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In these actions, plaintiffs seek, among other items, unspecified damages, pre-judgment interest and reimbursement of attorneys’ and experts’ fees. A Consolidated Amended Class Action Complaint against Marvell and two of our officers was filed on April 19, 2002. Subsequently, defendants in the consolidated proceedings moved to dismiss the actions. In February 2003, the trial court issued its ruling on the motions, granting the motions in part, and denying them in part. Thus, the cases may proceed against the underwriters and us as to alleged violations of section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Claims against the individual officers have been voluntarily dismissed with prejudice by agreement with plaintiffs. On June 26, 2003, the plaintiffs announced that a settlement among plaintiffs, the issuer defendants and their directors and officers, and their insurers had been structured, a part of which the insurers for all issuer defendants would guarantee up to $1 billion to investors who are class members, depending upon plaintiffs’ success against non-settling parties. Our board of directors has approved the proposed settlement, which will result in the plaintiffs’ dismissing the case against us and granting releases that extend to all of our officers and directors. Definitive settlement documentation was completed in early June 2004 and first presented to the court on June 14, 2004. On February 15, 2005, the court issued an opinion preliminarily approving the proposed settlement, contingent upon certain modifications being made to one aspect of the proposed settlement — the proposed “bar order.” The court ruled that it had no authority to deviate from the wording of the Plaintiff’s Securities Law Reform Act of 1995 and that any bar order that may issue should the proposed settlement be finally approved must be limited to the express wording of 15 U.S.C. section 78u-4(f)(7)(A). On May 2, 2005 the issuer defendants and plaintiffs jointly submitted an amendment to the settlement agreement conforming the language of the settlement agreement with the court’s February 15, 2005 ruling regarding the bar order. The court on August 31, 2005 issued an order preliminarily approving the settlement and setting a public hearing on its fairness for April 24,
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2006 due to difficulties in mailing the required notice to class members. These claims and any resulting litigation could result in substantial costs and could divert the attention and resources of our management.
In the past, securities class action litigation often has been brought against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. Companies in the integrated circuit industry and other technology industries are particularly vulnerable to this kind of litigation due to the high volatility of their stock prices. Accordingly, we may in the future be the target of securities litigation. Any securities litigation could result in substantial costs and could divert the attention and resources of our management.
The price of our common stock historically has been volatile. This volatility may make it difficult for you to sell common stock, and the sale of substantial amounts of our common stock could adversely affect the price of our common stock.
The market price for our common stock has varied between a high of $58.82 and a low of $31.07 per share in the twelve months ended November 30, 2005. This volatility may make it difficult for you to sell the common stock, and the sale of substantial amounts of our common stock could adversely affect the price of our common stock. Our stock price is likely to continue to be volatile and subject to significant price and volume fluctuations in response to market and other factors, including the other factors discussed in “Risk Factors”; variations in our quarterly operating results from our expectations or those of securities analysts or investors; downward revisions in securities analysts’ estimates; and announcement by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments. In addition, the broader stock market has experienced significant price and volume fluctuations in recent years. This volatility has affected the market prices of securities issued by many companies for reasons unrelated to their operating performance and may adversely affect the price of our common stock. In addition, our announcements of our quarterly operating results, changes in general conditions in the economy or the financial markets and other developments affecting us, our affiliates or our competitors could cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate substantially. In addition, the sale or the availability for sale of a large number of shares of our common stock in the public market could cause the price of our common stock to decline.
Our Bye-laws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in corporate control, even if the change in corporate control would benefit our shareholders.
Our Bye-laws contain change in corporate control provisions, which include:
• authorizing the issuance of preferred stock without shareholder approval;
• providing for a classified board of directors with staggered, three-year terms; and
• requiring a vote of two-thirds of the outstanding shares to approve any change of corporate control.
These changes in corporate control provisions could impede a merger, takeover or other business combination involving us or make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would be a benefit to our shareholders which, under certain circumstances, could reduce the market price of our common stock.
We have never paid dividends and do not anticipate paying any dividends on our common stock in the future, so any short-term return on your investment will depend on the market price of our common stock.
We currently intend to retain any earnings to finance our operations and growth. We do not anticipate paying any dividends on our common stock in the future.
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This prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future periods, future events or our future operating or financial plans or performance. These statements can often be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “expects,” “believes,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “plans,” “may,” or “will,” or the negative of these terms, and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include statements in this prospectus under the caption “Risk Factors” as to: the purchasing patterns and needs of our customers; our ability to attract new customers; our ability to attract additional distributors and manufacturers’ representatives to market and support our products effectively; our devotion of a substantial amount of our limited resources to our strategic relationships; our ability to continue to transition our semiconductor products to increasingly smaller line width geometries; our expectation to continue to make acquisitions of, and investments in, business with complementary products, services and technologies; our intention to relocate the location of our U.S. subsidiary to recently acquired facilities; the ability to attract and retain highly skilled personnel; our ability to implement a variety of new and upgraded operational and financial systems, procedures and controls; our implementation of new modules of our ERP system; and the tax exempt status of income earned in Singapore.
These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events, are based on assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected and include, but are not limited to, our dependence on sales to a relatively small number of customers, our ability to develop new products and enhancements to our products, our dependence upon third parties for the manufacture of our products, our ability to protect our intellectual property, and the risks set forth under “Risk Factors.” Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future.
We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling shareholder. All proceeds from the sale of the shares will be for the accounts of the selling shareholder, as described below. See “Selling Shareholder” and “Plan of Distribution.”
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The following table sets forth certain information as of December 8, 2005 regarding the beneficial ownership of common stock by the selling shareholder, QLogic Corporation, and the shares being offered by the selling shareholder. Information with respect to beneficial ownership is based upon information obtained from the selling shareholder. Information with respect to shares owned beneficially after the offering assumes the sale of all of the shares offered and no other purchases or sales of common stock.
The selling shareholder received its shares of our common stock in connection with our acquisition of the hard disk and tape drive controller semiconductor business of the selling shareholder. The registration statement to which this prospectus relates is being filed pursuant to a registration rights agreement between us and the selling shareholder. Subject to the terms and conditions of the registration rights agreement, we agreed to file the registration statement to cover the shares of our common stock received by the selling shareholder and to keep the registration statement effective until the earlier of the date as of which the selling shareholder (1) has sold all of its shares of our common stock registered under this registration statement or (2) may sell all of its shares of our common stock registered under this registration statement without restriction pursuant to Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933.
To our knowledge, neither the selling shareholder nor any of its affiliates have held any position or office with, been employed by or otherwise has had any material relationship with us or our affiliates during the three years prior to the date of this prospectus.
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Shares Beneficially Owned |
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Number of |
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Shares Beneficially Owned |
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Prior to Offering(1) |
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Shares Being |
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After Offering(1) |
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Name of Selling Shareholder |
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Number |
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Percent |
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Offered |
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Number |
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Percent |
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QLogic Corporation |
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980,499 |
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* |
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980,499 |
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¾ |
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¾ |
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*Represents less than 1%.
(1 ) To our knowledge, the person named in the table has sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares of common stock shown as beneficially owned by it.
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The selling shareholders may offer and sell the shares covered by this prospectus at various times. As used in this prospectus, the term “selling shareholders” includes donees, pledgees, transferees or other successors-in-interest selling shares received from a named selling shareholder as a gift, partnership distribution, or other non-sale-related transfer after the date of this prospectus. The selling shareholders will act independently of us in making decisions with respect to the timing, manner and size of each sale. The shares may be sold by or for the account of the selling shareholders in transactions on the Nasdaq National Market, the over-the-counter market, or otherwise. These sales may be made at fixed prices, at prevailing market prices at the time of sale, at varying prices determined at the time of the sale, or at negotiated prices. The shares may be sold by means of one or more of the following methods:
• a block trade in which the broker-dealer so engaged will attempt to sell the shares as agent, but may position and resell a portion of the block as principal to facilitate the transaction;
• purchases by a broker-dealer as principal and resale by that broker-dealer for its account pursuant to this prospectus;
• ordinary brokerage transactions in which the broker solicits purchasers;
• in connection with short sales, in which the shares are redelivered to close out short positions;
• in connection with the loan or pledge of shares registered hereunder to a broker-dealer, and the sale of the shares so loaned or the sale of the shares so pledged upon a default;
• in connection with the writing of non-traded and exchange-traded call options, in hedge transactions and in settlement of other transactions in standardized or over-the-counter options;
• privately negotiated transactions; or
• in a combination of any of the above methods.
If required, we will distribute a supplement to this prospectus to describe material changes in the terms of the offering.
The selling shareholders may sell the shares described in this prospectus directly to purchasers or to or through broker-dealers, which may act as agents or principals. In effecting sales, broker-dealers engaged by the selling shareholders may arrange for other broker-dealers to participate in resales. Broker-dealers may receive compensation in the form of discounts, concessions or commissions from the selling shareholders or from the purchasers of the shares or from both. This compensation may exceed customary commissions. The selling shareholders may also transfer, devise or gift these shares by other means not described in this prospectus.
The selling shareholders also may resell all or a portion of the shares covered by this prospectus that qualify for sale under Rule 144 of the Securities Act in open market transactions in reliance upon Rule 144 under the Securities Act. The selling shareholders have not advised us of any specific plans for the distribution of the shares covered by this prospectus. When and if we are notified by the selling shareholders that any material arrangement has been entered into with a broker-dealer or underwriter for the sale of a material portion of the shares covered by this prospectus, we will file a prospectus supplement or post-effective amendment to the registration statement with the SEC. This supplement or amendment will include the following information:
• the name of the participating broker-dealer(s) or underwriters;
• the number of shares involved;
• the price(s) at which the shares were sold;
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• the commissions paid or discounts or concessions allowed by the selling shareholders to the broker- dealers or underwriters, if any; and
• other information material to the transaction.
The selling shareholders and any broker-dealers, agents or underwriters that participate with the selling shareholders in the distribution of the shares may be deemed to be “underwriters” within the meaning of the Securities Act. Any commissions paid or any discounts or concessions allowed to any of those persons, and any profits received on the resale of the shares purchased by them, may be deemed to be underwriting commissions or discounts under the Securities Act. Because the selling shareholders may be deemed to be “underwriters,” the selling shareholders will be subject to the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act. We have advised the selling shareholders that the anti-manipulation rules promulgated under the Exchange Act, including Regulation M, may apply to sales of the shares offered by the selling shareholders.
The selling shareholders may agree to indemnify any agent, broker or dealer that participates in sales of common stock against liabilities arising under the Securities Act from sales of common stock.
We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling shareholders.
We have agreed to bear all expenses of registration of the shares other than fees and expenses, if any, of counsel or other advisors to the selling shareholders. Any commissions, discounts, concessions or other fees, if any, payable to broker-dealers in connection with any sale of the shares will be borne by the selling shareholders selling those shares.
There can be no assurances that the selling shareholders will sell all or any of the shares of common stock offered under this prospectus.
The registration statement to which this prospectus relates is being filed pursuant to a registration rights agreement between Marvell and QLogic Corporation. The registration rights agreement provides that we will indemnify the selling shareholders against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, and that the selling shareholders will indemnify us against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Subject to the terms and conditions of the registration rights agreement, we agreed to file the registration statement to cover the shares of our common stock received by QLogic in our acquisition of its hard disk and tape drive controller semiconductor business and to keep the registration statement effective until the date as of which the selling shareholder (1) has sold all of its shares of our common stock registered under this registration statement or (2) may sell all of its shares of our common stock registered under this registration statement without restriction pursuant to Rule 144 under the Securities Act.
Appleby Spurling Hunter, Bermuda, will pass on the validity of common stock offered by this prospectus.
The financial statements and management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting (which is included in Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting) incorporated in this Prospectus by reference to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2005 have been so incorporated in reliance on the report of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, given on the authority of said firm as experts in auditing and accounting.
We file annual, quarterly and special reports, proxy statements, and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may read and copy any materials we file with the Commission at the Commission’s public reference room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the Commission at
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1-800-SEC-0330 for more information on its public reference room. The Commission also maintains an Internet Web site at http://www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the Commission.
Our Web site is http://www.marvell.com. We make available free of charge, on or through our Web site, our annual, quarterly and current reports, and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing such reports with the Commission. Information contained on our Web site is not part of this registration statement.
We have filed with the Commission a registration statement, which contains this prospectus, on Form S-3 under the Securities Act of 1933. The registration statement relates to the common stock offered by the selling shareholder. This prospectus does not contain all of the information set forth in the registration statement and the exhibits and schedules to the registration statement. Please refer to the registration statement and its exhibits and schedules for further information with respect to us and our common stock. Statements contained in this prospectus as to the contents of any contract or other document are not necessarily complete and, in each instance, we refer you to the copy of that contract or document filed as an exhibit to the registration statement. You may read and obtain a copy of the registration statement and its exhibits and schedules from the Commission, as described in the preceding paragraph.
The Commission allows us to “incorporate by reference” the information we file with them, which means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to those documents. The information incorporated by reference is considered to be a part of this prospectus, and later information that we file with the Commission will automatically update and supersede this information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below and any future filings we make with the Commission under Section 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (excluding any portions thereof furnished under Item 2.02 or 7.01 of Form 8-K) between the date of the initial filing of the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part and the effectiveness of the registration statement, as well as between the date of this prospectus and the time this offering is completed. The documents we incorporate by reference are:
• Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2005.
• Our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2005, July 30, 2005 and October 29, 2005.
• Our current reports on Form 8-K filed with the Commission on February 24, April 13, June 10, August 10, August 11, August 29, and November 4, 2005.
• The description of our common stock contained in our registration statement on Form 8-A filed under the Exchange Act on June 22, 2000, including any amendment or report filed for the purpose of updating such description.
You may request a copy of these filings, at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at the following address and number:
Investor Relations
c/o Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.
700 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, California 94089
Telephone (408) 222-2500
We have not authorized anyone to provide you with information or to represent anything not contained in this prospectus. You must not rely on any unauthorized information or representations. The selling shareholder is offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, only the shares of Marvell common stock covered by this prospectus, and only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus is current only as of its date, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of the shares.
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