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Table of Contents
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
 
 
FORM
10-K
 
 
(Mark One)
☒
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended
 
December 31, 2020
or
 
☐
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from
    
        
    
    
to
        
    
    
    
Commission File Number
001-34791
 
 
 
 
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.
1, Allée Scheffer,
L-2520
Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (352)
45-62-62
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
 
 
 
Title of each class
 
Trading Symbol
 
Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par
 
value
 
$0.01
 
per
 
share
 
MX
 
New York Stock Exchange
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    ☒   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    ☒   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.    ☒   Yes    ☐   No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation
S-T
(§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files.    ☒   Yes    ☐   No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a
non-accelerated
filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in
Rule 12b-2
of the Exchange Act.
 
Large Accelerated Filer
 
☐
  
Accelerated Filer
 
☒
Non-Accelerated
Filer
 
☐
  
Smaller Reporting Company
 
☐
Emerging growth company
 
☐
  
  
 
  
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule
12b-2
of the Act).    ☐   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.
$
332,177,863.40.
As of February 
26
, 2021
, the registrant had 46,130,726
 
shares of common stock outstanding.
 
 
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2021 annual meeting of stockholders will be incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form
10-K
or included by amendment to this report within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates.
Table of Contents
MAGNACHIP SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES
FORM
10-K
FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
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Table of Contents
PART I
INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA
We have made statements in this Annual Report on Form
10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2020 (this “Report”) regarding our industry and our position in the industry based on our experience in the industry and our own views of market conditions, but we have not independently verified those statements. We do not have any obligation to announce or otherwise make publicly available updates or revisions to forecasts contained in these documents.
Statements made in this Report, unless the context otherwise requires, include the use of the terms “us,” “we,” “our,” the “Company” and “Magnachip” to refer to Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries. The term “Korea” refers to the Republic of Korea or South Korea. On September 1, 2020, we completed the sale of our Foundry Services Group business and our fabrication facility located in Cheongju to Key Foundry Co., Ltd. Unless otherwise noted herein, historical operational metrics presented herein do not include those of the Foundry Services Group.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
We have made certain “forward-looking” statements in this Report within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), that involve 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. You can identify these statements 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 trademark and service mark. 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
General
We are a designer and supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions for communications, Internet of Things (“IoT”) applications, consumer, industrial and automotive applications. We have a proven record with more than 40 years of operating history, a portfolio of approximately 1,200 registered patents and pending applications and extensive engineering and manufacturing process expertise. On September 1, 2020, we completed the previously announced sale of our Foundry Services Group business and its fabrication facility located in Cheongju known as “Fab 4,” marking a strategic shift in our operational focus to our standard products business. For a further description of the Foundry Services Group business, see “—Legacy Foundry Services Group Business” below. Our standard products business includes our Display Solutions and Power Solutions business lines. Our Display Solutions products provide panel display solutions to major suppliers of large and small rigid and flexible panel displays, and mobile, automotive applications and home appliances. Our Power Solutions products include discrete and integrated circuit solutions for power management in communications, consumer, computing, servers and industrial applications.
Our wide variety of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products allow us to address multiple high-growth end markets and rapidly develop and introduce new products in response to market demands. Our design center and substantial manufacturing operations in Korea place us at the core of the global electronics device supply chain. We believe this enables us to quickly and efficiently respond to our customers’ needs, and allows us to better serve 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 and develop products that are in high demand by our customers and end consumers. We sold approximately 400 distinct products in the year ended December 31, 2020 with a substantial portion of our revenues derived from a concentrated number of customers.
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 rich media content, such as high definition audio and video, mobile devices, televisions and games on advanced consumer electronic devices. 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 improving heat dissipation and extending battery life.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, we generated total revenues of $507.1 million, net income of $345.0 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $52.9 million, Adjusted Operating Income of $41.6 million and Adjusted Net Income of $28.3 million. See “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, Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Net Income and a reconciliation to income (loss) from continuing operations prepared in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“U.S. GAAP”).
Our History
Our business was named “MagnaChip Semiconductor” when it was acquired from SK hynix Inc., formerly known as Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. (“SK hynix”), in October 2004. We refer to this acquisition as the “Original Acquisition.”
On March 10, 2011, we completed our initial public offering. In connection with our initial public offering, we converted from a Delaware limited liability company to a Delaware corporation.
 
2
Table of Contents
On December 30, 2020, we changed our name from “MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation” to “Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation.”
Legacy Foundry Services Group Business
On September 1, 2020, we completed the sale of our Foundry Services Group business and our fabrication facility located in Cheongju to Key Foundry Co., Ltd. This sale was part of a strategic shift in our operational focus to our standard products business. The Foundry Services Group provided specialty analog and mixed signal foundry services mainly for fabless and Integrated Device Manufacturer semiconductor companies.
Our Products
Our Display Solutions line of products provide flat panel display solutions to major suppliers of large and small flat panel displays. These products include source and gate drivers and timing controllers that cover a wide range of flat panel displays used in mobile communications, automotives, entertainment devices, notebook PCs, monitors and liquid crystal display (LCD), organic light emitting diodes (OLED), Micro light emitting diode (LED) televisions. Our Display Solutions line of products support the industry’s most advanced display technologies, such as OLEDs, and low temperature polysilicon thin film transistor (LTPS TFT), as well as high-volume display technologies such as amorphous silicon thin film transistors
(a-Si
TFTs). Our Display Solutions products represented 59.0%, 59.3% and 55.0% of our total revenues for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
We expanded our business and market opportunity by establishing our Power Solutions product line in late 2007. We have introduced a number of power management semiconductor products, including discrete and integrated circuit solutions for power management in high-volume consumer applications. These products include metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs),
AC-DC
converters,
DC-DC
converters, LED drivers, switching regulators, linear regulators and power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for a range of devices, including televisions, smartphones, mobile phones, wearable devices, desktop PCs, notebooks, tablet PCs, other consumer electronics, and industrial applications such as power suppliers,
e-bike,
photovoltaic inverter, LED lighting, motor drive and home appliances. Our Power Solutions products represented 32.8%, 33.9% and 36.4% of our total revenues for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
Market Opportunity
The semiconductor market is large and is expanding its applications. Growth in this market is being driven by consumers seeking to enjoy a wide variety of rich media content, such as high definition audio and video, mobile devices, televisions and games. Recently, industrial applications such as power suppliers,
e-bikes,
photovoltaic inverters, LED lighting and motor drives are also driving growth in the semiconductor market. Electronics device 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 improving heat dissipation and extending battery life. These advanced generations of consumer devices are growing faster than the overall electronics device market.
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
 
3
Table of Contents
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.
Requirements of Leading Electronic Devices Manufacturers
We believe our target customers view the following characteristics and capabilities as key differentiating factors among available analog and mixed-signal semiconductor suppliers:
 
•  
Broad Offering of Differentiated Products with Advanced System-Level Features and Functions.
Leading electronic devices 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, and technologies 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 capacity to leverage a substantial intellectual property and technology base to accelerate product design and manufacturing when needed.
 
•  
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 that have the ability to provide system-level solutions, highly integrated products and 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 an increasing regulatory focus on reducing energy consumption of consumer electronic products. As a result of a 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 electronics devices are 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.
Our long operating history, large patent portfolio, extensive engineering and manufacturing process expertise and analog and mixed-signal intellectual property allow us to leverage our technology and develop new products across multiple end markets. Our product development efforts are supported by a team of over 200 engineers as of the date of this Annual Report. Our platform allows us to develop and introduce new products quickly and integrate numerous functions into a single product. For example, we were one of the first companies to introduce a commercial OLED 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
 
4
Table of Contents
 
knowledge and key insights into our customers’ needs. As a result, we are able to continuously strengthen our technology in areas of strategic interest for our customers and focus on those products that our customers and end consumers demand the most.
 
•  
Longstanding Presence in Asia and Proximity to Global Electronics Devices Supply Chain.
Our presence in Asia facilitates close contact with our customers and fast response to their needs, and enhances our visibility into new product opportunities, markets and technology trends. Our design center and substantial manufacturing operations in Korea place us close to many of our largest customers and to the core of the global electronics devices 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 Offerings Targeting Large, High-Growth Markets.
We continue to develop a wide variety of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for multiple high-growth electronics device end markets. We believe our expanding product offerings allow us to provide additional products to new and existing customers and to cross-sell our products to our established customers. For example, we have leveraged our technology expertise and customer relationships to develop and grow power management solutions to customers. Our power management solutions enable our customers to increase system stability and improve heat dissipation and energy use, resulting in improved system efficiency and system 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.
 
•  
Highly Efficient Manufacturing Capabilities.
Our manufacturing strategy is focused on optimizing our asset utilization across our display driver and power management products, which enables us to maintain the price competitiveness of our products 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 the relatively low need for ongoing capital expenditures provide us with a number of cost advantages.
Our Strategy
Our objective is to grow our business, cash flow and profitability and to continue strengthening our position in the semiconductor industry as a leading provider of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high-volume markets. Our business strategy emphasizes the following key elements:
 
•  
Increase Business with Existing Customers.
We have a global customer base consisting of leading consumer electronics OEMs that sell into multiple end markets. We intend to continue to strengthen our relationships with our customers by collaborating on critical design and product development in order to improve our
design-win
rates. We seek to increase our customer penetration by more closely aligning our product roadmap with those of our key customers and take advantage of our broad product portfolio, our deep knowledge of customer needs and existing relationships to sell more existing and new products.
 
•  
Broaden Our Customer Base.
We expect to continue to expand our global customer base, particularly in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which we collectively refer to as 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 improved base of distributors, with a particular focus on the growth of our power management business.
 
•  
Drive Execution Excellence.
 We intend to improve our execution through a number of management initiatives, new processes for product development, customer service and personnel development. We expect these ongoing initiatives will contribute to improvement of our new product development and
 
5
Table of Contents
 
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 improving our manufacturing efficiency during the past several years.
 
•  
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. By utilizing our manufacturing facilities for our Display Solutions and Power Solutions products, we seek to maximize return on our capital investments and our cash flow generation.
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 electronics devices through brighter, thinner displays, enhanced image quality, smaller form factor and longer battery life. 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
(COG),
chip-on-film
(COF) and
chip-on-plastic
(COP) for rigid, flexible
bezel-less,
edge type, and trench type OLED displays. Our advanced display drivers incorporate LTPS TFT and OLED panel technologies that enable the highest resolution displays. Furthermore, we are developing a broad intellectual property portfolio to improve the quality and the power efficiency of displays, including the development of our contents-based automatic brightness control (CABC), automatic current limit (ACL), image enhancement and optical compensation technology for OLED displays.
Expertise in ultra-high voltage (UHV), 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, LED drivers, linear regulators and analog switches, power MOSFETs and IGBTs. We believe our system-level understanding of applications such as LCD televisions, smartphones, computing, and servers will allow us to more quickly develop and customize power management solutions for our customers in these markets.
Products by Business Line
Our broad portfolio of products addresses multiple high-growth, consumer-focused end markets. A key component of our product strategy is to supply multiple related product 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 VGA (640 x 480) to UHD (3840 x 2160).
 
6
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
source drivers.
 
•  
Operational Voltage.
Display drivers are characterized by input and output voltages. Source drivers typically operate at input voltages from 1.62 to 3.6 volts and output voltages between 9 and 18 volts. Gate drivers typically operate at input voltages from 1.62 to 3.6 volts and output voltages from 30 to 45 volts. Lower input voltage results in lower power consumption and electromagnetic interference (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 embedded clock point to point interface (EPI), advanced intra panel interface (AIPI),
mini-low
voltage differential signaling
(m-LVDS),
unified standard interface for notebook and monitor
(USI-GF),
unified standard interface (USI), unified standard interface for TV
(USI-T)
and mobile industry processor interface (MIPI).
 
•  
Package Type.
The assembly of display drivers typically uses COF, COG and COP package types.
 
•  
Large Display Solutions.
We provide display solutions for a wide range of flat panel display sizes used in LCD TVs, OLED TVs, Micro LED TVs as well as IT applications such as monitors, notebook PCs, tablet PCs, automobiles and public information displays.
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 1,542 channels. 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.
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 1,542 output channels
•  6-bit
(262 thousand colors),
8-bit
(16 million colors),
10-bit
(1 billion colors)
•  Output voltage ranging from 9V to 18V
•  Low power consumption and low EMI
•  COF package types
•  EPI,
m-LVDS,
AIPI, USI interface technologies
  
•  LCD/LED TVs
•  Notebooks
•  LCD/LED monitors
•  Automotive
 
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Product
  
Key Features
  
Applications
TFT-LCD
Gate Drivers
  
•  272 to 960 output channels
•  Output voltage ranging from 30V to 45V
•  COF and COG package types
  
•  Tablet PCs
•  LCD/LED TVs
•  Notebooks
•  Automotive
Timing Controllers
  
•  Wide range of resolutions
•  EPI,
m-LVDS,
MIPI,
USI-T
interface technologies
•  Input voltage ranging from 1.6V to 3.6V
  
•  Tablet PCs
•  Public information display
OLED Source Drivers
  
•  960 output channels
•  10 bit (1 billion colors)
•  Output voltage: 18V
•  COF package type
•  EPI interface technology
  
•  OLED TVs
Micro LED Drivers*
  
•  480 output channels (3 Mux)
•  10 bit (1 billion colors)
•  Output voltage: max 18V
•  COF package type
•  USI-M
interface technology
  
•  Micro LED TVs
 
*
In customer qualification stage
Mobile Display Solutions.
Our mobile display solutions incorporate the industry’s most advanced display technologies, such as OLED and LTPS, as well as high-volume technologies such as
a-Si
TFT. Our mobile display products offer specialized capabilities, including high speed serial interfaces, such as mobile display digital interface (MDDI), MIPI, reduced swing differential signaling interface (RSDS) 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. 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 CABC and ACL. This intellectual property portfolio will also support our power management product development initiatives, as we leverage our system level understanding of power efficiency. Our OLED driver ICs can support various configurations such as high resolution from FHD+(2,240x1,080) to QHD+(3,120x1,440), wide aspect ratio from 16:9 to 21:9 and flexible
bezel-less,
edge type, and trench type OLED displays. In the transition to, and adoption of, 5G, fast responses and high frame rates such as 90Hz and 120Hz are becoming essential product offerings. To meet this new and evolving demand, we have developed and mass produced our OLED display driver IC, which supports 90Hz/120Hz/144Hz high frame rates.
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
OLED
   
•  Resolutions of HD720, WXGA, FHD, FHD+, QHD and QHD+
•  Aspect ratio from 16:9 to 21:9
•  Color depth of 1 billion
•  MIPI, eRVDS interface
•  Logic-based OTP
•  ABC, ACL
   
•  Smartphones
•  Game consoles
•  Digital still cameras
•  Tablet PCs
•  Virtual reality headsets
•  Automotive
 
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Product
   
Key Features
   
Applications
LTPS
   
•  Resolutions of VGA, WSVGA, WVGA and DVGA
•  Color depth of 16 million
•  MDDI, MIPI interface
•  Logic-based OTP
•  Separated gamma control
   
•  Smartphones
•  Digital still cameras
a-Si
TFT
   
•  Resolutions of WQVGA and HVGA
•  Color depth of 16 million
•  RSDS, MDDI, MIPI interface
•  CABC
•  Separated gamma control
   
•  Mobile phones
•  Digital still cameras
•  Automotive
 
Power Solutions
We develop, manufacture and market power management solutions for a wide range of
end-market
customers. The products include MOSFETs, IGBTs,
AC-DC
converters,
DC-DC
converters, LED drivers, regulators, for a range of devices, including LCD, LED, and UHD televisions, digital signage, smartphones, mobile phones, wearable devices, desktop PCs, notebooks, tablet PCs, other consumer electronics, consumer appliances and industrial applications such as power suppliers,
e-bikes,
photovoltaic inverters, LED lighting and motor drives.
 
•  
MOSFETs.
Our MOSFETs include
low-voltage
to
mid-voltage,
Trench MOSFETs, 12V to 200V, high-voltage Planar MOSFETs, 200V through 650V, and super junction MOSFETs, 500V through 900V.
MOSFETs are used in applications to switch, shape or transfer electricity under varying power requirements. The key application segments are smartphones, mobile phones, wearable devices, LCD, LED, and UHD televisions, desktop PCs, notebooks, tablet PCs, servers, lighting 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.
 
•  
IGBTs.
Our IGBTs include 650V to 1200V field stop trench IGBTs. IGBTs are used in high power industrial applications, such as UPSs, power supplies, motor drives, solar inverters, welding machines and consumer appliances.
 
•  
AC-DC
Converters and
DC-DC
Converters.
We offer
AC-DC
and
DC-DC
converters targeting mobile applications and high power applications like LCD, LED, and UHD televisions, notebooks, smartphones, mobile phones,
set-top
boxes and display modules. We expect our
AC-DC
and
DC-DC
converters will meet customer’s green power requirements by featuring wide input voltage ranges, high efficiency and small size.
 
•  
LED Drivers.
LED backlighting drivers serve the fast-growing LCD and LED panel backlighting market for LCD and LED televisions, LCD monitors, digital signage, notebooks, smartphones and tablet PCs. Our products are designed to provide high efficiency and wide input voltage range, as well as pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming for accurate white LED dimming control. LED lighting drivers have a wide input voltage range applicable to incandescent bulb and fluorescent lamp replacement.
 
•  
Regulators.
We also provide analog regulators for mobile, computing and consumer applications. Our products are designed for high efficiency and low power consumption in mobile applications.
 
•  
SSD PMICs.
We also provide solid state drive power management integrated circuits (SSD PMICs) for the computing segment. Our product is designed for high frequency switching, high efficiency and pulse frequency modulation (PFM) function to reduce power consumption in low load converters.
 
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•  
Logic PMICs.
We also provide logic power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel. Our PMICs provide optimized power to source driver, gate driver and timing controller
(T-CON)
of OLED display panel with multi-channel power block (boost converter, buck converter,
Op-Amps
and positive/negative LDOs.)
Our power management solutions enable customers to increase system stability and improve 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-Mid
Voltage MOSFET
  
•  Voltage options of
12V-200V*
•  Advanced Trench MOSFET Process
•  High cell density
•  Advanced packages to enable reduction of PCB mounting area
  
•  Smartphones, mobile phones, and wearable devices
•  Tablet PCs, Notebooks
•  Desktop PCs, Servers
•  LCD/LED TVs
•  Industrial applications
•  Cryptocurrency miner
High Voltage MOSFET
  
•  Voltage options of 200V-650V
•  R2FET (rapid recovery) option to shorten reverse diode recovery time
•  Zener diode option for MOSFET protection for abnormal input
•  Advanced Planar MOSFET Process
•  Advanced packages to enable reduction of PCB mounting area
  
•  Adaptors for tablet PC/mobile phone/smartphone
•  Power supplies
•  Lighting (ballast, HID, LED)
•  Industrial applications
•  LCD/LEDTVs
Super Junction MOSFET
  
•  Voltage options of 500V-900V
•  Low R
DS(ON)
•  Epi stack process
•  Zener diode option for MOSFET protection for abnormal input
•  Advanced SJ MOSFET process
•  Advanced packages to enable reduction of PCB mounting area
  
•  LCD/LED/UHD TVs
•  Lightings applications (ballast, HID, LED)
•  Smartphones
•  Power supplies
•  Servers
•  Industrial applications
IGBTs
  
•  Voltage options of 650V/1200V
•  Field Stop Trench IGBT
•  Current options from 15A to 100A
  
•  Industrial applications
•  Consumer appliances
AC-DC
Converter
  
•  Wide control range for high power application (>150W)
•  Advanced BCDMOS process
•  High Precision Voltage Reference
•  Very low startup current consumption
  
•  LCD/LED/UHD TVs
•  Power supplies
 
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Product
  
Key Features
  
Applications
DC-DC
Converters
  
•  High efficiency, wide input
voltage range
•  Advanced BCDMOS process
•  Fast load and line regulation
•  Accurate output voltage
•  OCP, SCP and thermal protections
  
•  LCD/LED/UHD TVs
•  Smartphones
•  Mobile phones
•  Notebooks
•  Set-top
boxes
LED Backlighting Drivers
  
•  High efficiency, wide input
voltage range
•  Advanced BCDMOS process
•  OCP, SCP, OVP and UVLO protections
•  Accurate LED current control and multi-channel matching
•  Programmable current limit, boost up frequency
  
•  Tablet PCs
•  Notebooks
•  Smartphones
•  LED/UHD TVs
•  LED monitors
Digital Controlled LED Driver
  
•  Multi-channel constant current control
•  12Bit gray scale with SPI
  
•  Digital signage
LED Lighting Drivers
  
•  High efficiency, wide input
voltage range
•  Simple solutions with external components fully integrated
•  Advanced high voltage BCDMOS process
•  Accurate LED current control and high power factor and low THB
  
•  AC and DC LED lighting
Regulators
  
•  Single and multi-regulators
•  Low Noise Output regulators
•  Wide range of input voltage and various output current
•  CMOS and BCDMOS processes
•  LDO (Low Drop Out — Linear Regulator)
  
•  Smartphones and Mobile phones
•  Notebooks
•  Computing
SSD PMIC
  
•  High current buck
•  PFM function
•  High frequency switching
•  High efficiency
•  High integration technology
•  Small QFN package
  
•  Computing
Logic PMIC
  
•  High current boost
•  Integrated pass transistor
•  LDO
•  3channel high current buck
•  Negative Charge Pump
•  2channel buffer
Op-Amp.
•  Tiny Wafer Level CSP
  
•  Notebooks
•  Tablet PCs
 
 
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Sales and Marketing
We focus our sales and marketing strategy on continuing to grow and leverage our existing relationships with leading consumer electronics OEMs, while expanding into industrial and automotive end markets. We believe our close collaboration with customers allows us to align our product and 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.
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 center in Korea, as well as our local sales and support offices and sales liaisons in Japan, Greater China, Taiwan and Europe. We have a network of agents and distributors in Korea, Japan, Greater China, Taiwan and Europe. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we derived 75%, 75% and 71% of net sales from our standard products business through our direct sales force, respectively, and 25%, 25% and 29% of net sales from our standard products business through our network of authorized agents and distributors, respectively.
Customers
We sell our Display Solutions and Power Solutions products to consumer, computing and industrial electronics OEMs, original design manufacturers and electronics manufacturing services companies, as well as subsystem designers. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, our ten largest customers accounted for 87.6%, 89.5% and 84.9% of net sales from our standard products business, respectively. Our arrangements with and reliance on key customers, particularly customers for our display products, may make it less practicable to pursue certain opportunities with other potential new and existing customers For the year ended December 31, 2020, sales to Samsung Display represented 56.2% of net sales from our standard products business and 87.5% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales. For the year ended December 31, 2019, sales to Samsung Display represented 53.8% of net sales from our standard products business and 84.5% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales. For the year ended December 31, 2018, sales to Samsung Display represented 34.1% of net sales from our standard products business and 56.6% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales, and LG Display represented 23.4% of net sales from our standard products business and 38.9% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we recorded revenues of $5.1 million from customers in the US and $460.4 million from all foreign countries, of which 61.9% was from Greater China, 23.1% from Korea and 10.8% from Vietnam. For the year ended December 31, 2019, we recorded revenues of $2.4 million from customers in the US and $482.4 million from all foreign countries, of which 68.2% was from Greater China and 27.5% from Korea. For the year ended December 31, 2018, we recorded revenues of $2.0 million from customers in the US and $423.5 million from all foreign countries, of which 51.2% was from Greater China and 41.6% from Korea. All information pertaining to the geographic source of revenues is with respect to the geographic location to which our products are billed.
Intellectual Property
As of December 31, 2020, our portfolio of intellectual property assets included approximately 1,044 registered patents and 158 pending patent applications. Approximately 548 and 54 of our patents and pending applications, respectively, 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 496 registered patents and 104 pending applications that relate to identical technical claims in our base patent portfolio. Our patents expire at various times approximately over the next 19 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.
 
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See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—Our ability to compete successfully and achieve future growth will depend, in part, on our ability to protect our intellectual property, proprietary technology and
know-how,
as well as our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others.”
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.
We compete based on design experience, manufacturing capabilities, the ability to satisfy 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.
Human Capital
Our worldwide workforce consisted of 880 employees (full- and part-time) as of December 31, 2020, of which 194 were involved in sales, marketing, general and administrative, 222 in research and development (including 90 with advanced degrees), 42 in quality, reliability and assurance, and 422 in manufacturing (comprised of 44 in engineering and 378 in operations, maintenance and others). As of December 31, 2020, 395 employees, or approximately 45% of our workforce, were represented by the Magnachip Semiconductor Labor Union. Our employees leverage their extensive expertise in engineering, design and process to accelerate the advancement of technology and be leaders in our industry. We pride our company on being a great workplace where employees from diverse backgrounds can reach their full potential.
Values and Culture
Our core values represent a commitment to building an environment of trust with our employees, customers, investors and the communities in which we operate. Through our values and culture, we strive to shape a better future not only for ourselves and our customers, but for humanity as a whole. At Magnachip, we strive to foster effective collaboration by respecting different perspectives, giving and receiving constructive feedback, and supporting one another.
Inclusion and Diversity
We support all employees, regardless of gender, gender identity or expression, age, veteran status, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion or disability. We place great importance on inclusion and diversity within the workplace. An inclusive and diverse culture creates a happier, more relaxed work environment.
Labor and Ethics
Magnachip strives to provide and maintain a working environment where management and employees are happy and treated with dignity and respect. Magnachip adheres to human rights and labor standards of international labor organizations, such as the United Nations and the International Labor Organization. Magnachip prohibits all forms of discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, religion and age to ensure all employees work in a safe and fair environment.
 
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Empowering Great Talent
We offer a variety of offline training programs, including courses in the areas of design, engineering and technology, as well as courses at different job levels and leadership education. We also offer a number of online training programs, including in the areas of management/leadership and business skills such as presentation, negotiation, reporting, Information Technology and foreign language, which allow employees to improve their capabilities without time and space constraints. Every year, a majority of our employees are required to complete certain educational programs in the areas of information security, industrial safety and health, and sexual harassment prevention.
We believe the foundation of Magnachip is our research and development (“R&D”) talent. To ensure R&D technical professionals continue to advance their skills and knowledge, we have technology committees that attend regular seminars and conduct periodic research. We have a reward program for exemplary research.
We also offer a Vision Seminar, which is led by our CEO and is designed to share our company’s vision, strategy and the management’s key messages to employees. Additionally, the CEO and management regularly communicate with employees through CEO letters and town hall meetings.
Compensation and Benefits
We strive to reward employees with competitive compensation based on contribution and performance. We periodically evaluate market practices for compensation and benefits, including with respect to job function, role and responsibility, job level and region, and regularly review whether our compensation levels and distribution methods are fair and equitable. Additionally, we have long- and
mid-term
retention programs to attract and retain high-performing key talent.
We offer various employee benefits under the company philosophy that ensuring employees enjoy a happier life with their families is as critical as promoting their own health and well-being. All employees and their family members have access to annual medical checkup programs. Employees also have access to other benefits such as personal pensions, housing assistance, medical reimbursement plans and educational assistance programs.
Safety and Wellness
During and after the
COVID-19
pandemic, our top priority is ensuring health and safety of our employees and their families. We built a companywide control tower to provide appropriate response guidance as the pandemic has evolved, and have secured internal/external capabilities to respond to emergencies systematically. In response to the
COVID-19
pandemic, we quickly instituted infrastructure to support remote working, so that our employees could work from home in a safe and stable environment. In addition, we have installed safety facilities within our business sites.
Environmental
We 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, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. Since 2015, our Korean subsidiary has been subject to a new set of greenhouse gas emissions regulation, the Korean Emissions Trading Scheme, or
K-ETS,
under the Act on Allocation and Trading of Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowances. Under
K-ETS,
our Korean subsidiary was allocated a certain amount of emissions allowance in accordance with the National Allocation Plan prepared by the Korean government and is required to meet its allocated target by either reducing the emission or purchasing the allowances from other participants in the emission trading market.
 
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Another example is the newly reinforced regulations on chemicals under Chemicals Control Act and
K-REACH,
which came into effect on January 1, 2015. Under these laws, our Korean subsidiary is required to comply with various requirements to report, evaluate, manage and ensure the safe usage of the chemicals used in its facilities. There can be no assurance that we have been or will be in compliance with all of 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 and 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.
Raw Materials
We use processes that require specialized raw materials that are generally available from a limited number of suppliers. We continue to attempt to qualify additional suppliers for our raw materials. The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, adopted new disclosure regulations for public companies that manufacture products containing certain minerals that are mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. These “conflict minerals” are commonly found in metals used in the manufacture of semiconductors. The implementation of these new requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of metals used in the manufacture of our products. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—Compliance with new regulations regarding the use of “conflict minerals” could limit the supply and increase the cost of certain raw materials used in manufacturing our products.”
Available Information
Our principal executive office is located at: c/o MagnaChip Semiconductor S.A., 1, Allée Scheffer,
L-2520
Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 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 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, Clawback Policy, Audit Committee Charter, Compensation Committee Charter, Nominating and Governance Committee Charter and Risk 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. In addition, the SEC maintains an internet site, www.sec.gov, from which you can access our annual, quarterly and current reports on Form
10-K,
10-Q
and
8-K,
respectively, and all amendments to these materials after such reports and amendments are filed with the SEC. You may also request a copy of these filings, at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at the following address or phone number: c/o Magnachip Semiconductor, Ltd., 15F 501
Teheran-ro,
Gangnam-gu,
Seoul 06168, Korea Attention: General Counsel and Secretary; the telephone number at that address is
82-2-6903-7877.
Information About Our Executive Officers
The following table sets forth certain information regarding our current executive officers:
 
Name
   
Age
     
Position
Young-Joon (YJ) Kim
      56      Director and Chief Executive Officer
Young Soo Woo
      56      Chief Financial Officer
Theodore Kim
      51      Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel and Secretary
Woung Moo Lee
      58      General Manager of Worldwide Sales
Chan Ho Park
      57      General Manager of Power Solutions
 
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Young-Joon (YJ) Kim, Director, Member of the Risk Committee and Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. YJ Kim became our Chief Executive Officer in May 2015 and has also served as a director on our Board since that time. In February 2020, Mr. Kim assumed the additional role of General Manager of the Display business to capitalize on attractive growth opportunities in OLED display and other relevant emerging markets. He also served as the acting General Manager of Foundry Services Group from January 2019 until the completion of the sale of the Foundry Services Group and the factory in Cheongju (“Fab 4”) on September 1, 2020. Mr. Kim joined our company in May 2013 and served as our Executive Vice President and General Manager, Display Solutions Division. He was promoted to Interim Chief Executive Officer in May 2014. Prior to joining our company, Mr. Kim held a variety of senior management roles at several global semiconductor firms in a career spanning about 33 years. His past roles include marketing, engineering, product development and strategic planning, and his product expertise includes microprocessors, network processors, FLASH, EPROM, analog, mixed-signal, sensors, wireless base station, workstations and servers. Immediately before joining our company, Mr. Kim served as Vice President, Infrastructure Processor Division, and General Manager of the OCTEON Multi-Core Processor Group of Cavium, Inc., where he worked from 2006 to 2013. Prior to Cavium, Mr. Kim served as Core Team Lead and General Manager of the Tolapai Program at Intel Corporation from 2004 to 2006. In 1998, Mr. Kim
co-founded
API Networks, a joint venture between Samsung and Compaq, where he served as the head of product management, worldwide sales and business development for Alpha processors. Prior to API Networks, Mr. Kim served as Director of Marketing at Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. from 1996 to 1998. Mr. Kim began his career as a product engineer at Intel Corporation. Mr. Kim holds B.S. and M. Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. Our Board has concluded that Mr. YJ Kim is a valuable member of the Board based on his understanding of our company’s products and technology as our Chief Executive Officer and his deep knowledge of the semiconductor industry.
Young Soo Woo, Chief Financial Officer
.
Mr. Young Soo Woo was appointed Chief Financial Officer of our company in May 2020. Prior to joining our company, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of CoreeGroup, which owns and manages companies engaged in infant care service, pharmaceuticals and related research and technology businesses, from January 2020 to May 2020. Before CoreeGroup, from April 2017 to August 2019, Mr. Woo served as the Group Chief Financial Officer of Chong Kun Dang Holdings Corporation (“CKDH”), a public company and leading Korean pharmaceutical conglomerate, and also served as its Chief Executive Officer from March 2018 to August 2019. Before joining CKDH, Mr. Woo served as the General Secretary of the Kochon Foundation, a
non-profit
organization founded by the founder of CKDH, from March 2016 to April 2017. Prior to the Kochon Foundation, Mr. Woo served as the acting President of
Dong-A
One from June 2015 to October 2015, having been appointed to implement an internal restructuring plan. Prior to
Dong-A
One, from 2012 to 2014 Mr. Woo served in various positions at KT Corporation, one of the largest telecom companies in Korea, including as Head of Strategic Planning Office and Deputy Head of Finance Office. From 1997 to 2012, Mr. Woo served various management positions at technology and manufacturing companies, including as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Hankook Tire, and as Managing Director, Corporate Strategy of Hanaro Telecom. While at Hanaro Telecom, Mr. Woo played a key role in its initial listing on NASDAQ in 2000. Mr. Woo has extensive experience in financial planning and analysis, cost control, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and risk management. Mr. Woo earned a B.A. degree in Economics from Seoul National University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Cornell University.
Theodore Kim, Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel and Secretary.
Mr. Theodore Kim (T. Kim) became our Chief Compliance Officer in May 2015, and became our General Counsel and Secretary in November 2013. Mr. T. Kim previously served as our Senior Vice President from November 2013 to May 2015. Prior to joining Magnachip, Mr. T. Kim served as Head Lawyer, Global Business Development at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance from October 2012 to October 2013. Mr. T. Kim was employed by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a law firm, from October 2005 to July 2012, serving most recently as Of Counsel. Prior to that, he served as Foreign Legal Consultant at Kim & Chang, a law firm in Korea, from 2001 to 2005, and prior to that, he worked as an associate attorney at Morrison & Foerster LLP, a law firm, from 1997 to 2001. Mr. Kim holds a
 
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B.A. degree in Economics and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, and a J.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law.
Woung Moo Lee, General Manager of Worldwide Sales.
Mr. Woung Moo Lee was named as General Manager of Worldwide Sales since June of 2020. Prior to that, Mr. Lee served as General Manager of Worldwide Sales and Power Solutions from February 2020. Mr. Lee had been appointed as General Manager of the Standard Products Group in 2015 and prior to that served as our Senior Vice President, Korea Sales from 2013. Before joining our company, he was one of the founding executives and served as Vice President of Global Strategy and Marketing, Samsung LED Co., Ltd. from 2009 to 2011. In 1984, Mr. Lee began his career as a memory semiconductor design engineer and served as Vice President of Memory Strategy & Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. until 2009. Mr. Lee received the prestigious “Proud Samsung Employee Award” in 2005 and holds a B.S. degree in Electron.
Chan Ho Park
,
General Manager of Power Solutions.
Dr. Chan Ho Park became our General Manager of Power Solutions in June 2020 with over 30 years of
hands-on
experience in the development of discrete power devices and market insights throughout the power semiconductor industry. Prior to joining our company, he was a senior staff at Vishay Intertechnology Inc. since March, 2014. He developed cutting-edge technology platforms for low voltages MOSFETs having 1.5 giga-cell density and provided high and low side MOSFETs for DrMOS to various power stage solutions. Dr. Park started his professional career in 1986 as a design engineer in the field of BJT,
J-FET,
and Schottky Diode at Samsung Electronics, located in Bucheon, Korea. Afterwards, he worked for Fairchild Semiconductor in West Jordan, Utah and for Vishay Siliconix in San Jose, California. He rejoined Samsung Electronics, System LSI Business in 2011 as the Vice President of Discrete Development Team, where he led R&D, PE, FAE and high voltage power IC technologies for IGBTs, super-junction MOSFETs, split gate MOSFETs and driver ICs. He received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) and a B.S. in Physics from Seoul National University. He is a member of IEEE and a peer reviewer for IEEE transactions on Electron Devices and Electron Device Letters.
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.
Risk Factors Summary
The following is a summary of the risk factors included herein.
 
•  
We manufacture our products based on our estimates of customer demand, and if our estimates are incorrect, our financial results could be negatively impacted.
 
•  
A significant portion of our sales comes from a relatively limited number of customers, the loss of which could adversely affect our financial results.
 
•  
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.
 
•  
We are subject to risks associated with currency fluctuations, and changes in the exchange rates of applicable currencies could impact our results of operations.
 
•  
Global shortages in manufacturing capacities could interrupt or negatively affect our operations, increase cost to manufacture and negatively impact our results of operations.
 
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•  
Expanded trade restrictions imposed by the United States may limit our ability to sell to certain customers.
 
•  
Recent changes in international trade policy and the imposition and threats of international tariffs, including tariffs applied to goods traded between the United States and China, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of 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.
 
•  
Our compliance with the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (the “SAPA”) could require significant expenditures and management time and expose us to liability for violations.
 
•  
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 have not historically paid dividends and do not currently have any dividend or distribution policy, and therefore, investors may need to rely on sales of their common stock as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
Risks Related to Our Business
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 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. Recently, the semiconductor industry has experienced a period of upturn, which has resulted in shortages in manufacturing capacity. To the extent there are shortages, we may experience difficulties in sourcing sufficient manufacturing capacity or could be forced to pay increased prices for such services, either of which could negatively impact our results of operations.
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.
Our restructuring activities and dispositions of assets and businesses could result in lost business and other costs that could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
From time to time, we may choose to sell assets, restructure business operations, shut down manufacturing lines or otherwise dispose of assets and businesses as part of management’s strategies to better align our product offerings with market demands and our customers’ needs. In connection with these activities, we face risks that we will disrupt service to our customers, lose business and incur significant costs related to such activities. These risks include potential damage to our reputation and customer relationships if we are unable to effectively transition such customer relationships to other production lines or products or if we cannot effectively manage our supplier and vendor relationships during such activities. In addition, we may also face claims or costs
 
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associated with transitioning or eliminating certain employee positions and modifying or terminating vendor relationships in connection with those exit activities.
If we fail to develop new products and technologies or enhance our existing products 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 enhance our existing products to meet rapidly evolving customer requirements. We design products for customers that 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.
Customer and market requirements can change during the development of a product. 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 from our competitors that offer comparable or superior performance and functionality. Any new products, such as our expanding line of power management solutions, or product enhancements, may not be accepted in new or existing markets. Our business will suffer if we fail to develop and introduce new products or product 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 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
 
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underestimate our costs when determining pricing, our margins and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our fab manufacturing depends 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 facility. 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, the inability to source sufficient materials necessary for manufacturing, low levels of customer orders, operating inefficiencies, strategic evaluations and decisions by our Board related our overall business, divisions and business lines, 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 factors and circumstances 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 could 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, particularly our display products, our financial results could be adversely affected. In addition, our arrangements with and reliance on key customers may make it less practicable to pursue certain opportunities with other potential new and existing customers. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, our ten largest customers accounted for 87.6%, 89.5% and 84.9% of net sales from our standard products business, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2020, sales to Samsung Display represented 56.2% of net sales from our standard products business and 87.5% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales. For the year ended December 31, 2019, sales to Samsung Display represented 53.8% of net sales from our standard products business and 84.5% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales. For the year ended December 31, 2018, sales to Samsung Display represented 34.1% of net sales from our standard products business and 56.6% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales, and LG Display represented 23.4% of net sales from our standard products business and 38.9% of our Display Solutions division’s net sales. 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 within a short period of time could 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 within both our product categories and end markets. Current and prospective customers for our products and services evaluate our capabilities against the merits of our
 
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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 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; and
 
•  
our ability to enter the highly competitive power management market.
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 initial design-wins 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.
 
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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.
Research and development investments may not yield profitable and commercially viable products, 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 profitable or commercially viable products. During each stage of research and development, there is a substantial risk that we will have to abandon a potential product that is no longer marketable and in which we have invested significant resources. In the event we are able to develop viable new products, 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, increase business with existing customers, broaden our customer base, aggressively grow our power business, and drive execution excellence. 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 US dollars, changes in the exchange rate between the Korean won and the US 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 US dollars relative to Korean won, a depreciation in the US 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 to appear to decline materially, particularly relative to prior periods. The converse is true if the US dollar were to appreciate relative to the Korean won. For example, foreign currency fluctuations had a favorable impact on our reported profit margins and operating income from operations for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 due to a relatively weaker Korean won during the period. Moreover, our foreign currency gain or loss would be affected by changes in the exchange rate between the Korean won and the US dollar as a substantial portion of
non-cash
translation gain or loss is associated with the intercompany long-term loans to our Korean subsidiary, which is denominated in US dollars. As of December 31, 2020, the outstanding
 
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intercompany loan balance including accrued interests between our Korean subsidiary and our Dutch subsidiary was $378.9 million. Our Dutch subsidiary uses the US dollar as their functional currency. 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 common stock 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. Our Korean subsidiary enters into foreign currency forward and zero cost collar contracts in order to mitigate a portion of the impact of US dollar-Korean won exchange rate fluctuations on our operating results. These foreign currency forward and zero cost collar contracts typically require us to sell specified notional amounts in US dollars and provide us the option to sell specified notional amounts in US dollars during successive months to our counterparty in exchange for Korean won at specified exchange rates. Obligations under these foreign currency forward and zero cost collar contracts must be cash collateralized if our exposure exceeds certain specified thresholds. These 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 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 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. 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 would adversely affect our revenues and profitability.
As of December 31, 2020, 395 employees, or approximately 45% of our employees, were represented by the Magnachip Semiconductor Labor Union. We can offer no assurance that any 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
 
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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 manufacturing 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 manufacturing of our products, 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.
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 skills and specialized equipment. For the portion of packaging and testing that we outsource, we use subcontractors located in Korea, China, Taiwan and Thailand. We rely on these subcontractors to package and test our devices with acceptable quality and yield levels, and, while we specify quality standards, we are not able to directly oversee their
day-to-day
operations and the packaging and testing of our devices. Onboarding of a new subcontractor, including as a result of switching from one subcontractor to another, takes approximately three to six months to verify the subcontractor’s capabilities and an additional six to twelve months to receive approval from our customers to use such subcontractor. We could be adversely affected by political disorders, labor disruptions, public health issues (including viral outbreaks such as
COVID-19)
and natural disasters where our subcontractors are located due to the time it would take to onboard a new subcontractor. If our semiconductor packagers and test service subcontractors experience problems in packaging and testing our semiconductor devices, experience prolonged quality or yield problems, experience shutdowns or delays associated with public health issues (such as those associated with
COVID-19),
or decrease the capacity of their operations available to us, our operating results could be adversely affected.
We cooperate with independent foundries to produce certain advanced technology Display Solutions products, and the failure of such independent foundries to satisfy our demand could materially disrupt our business.
We use independent foundry services for certain of our OLED Display Solutions products and Power Solutions products. Silicon wafer production at these facilities is allocated solely by our vendors and beyond our direct control. Therefore, any disruption in wafer supply form these vendors could have a material impact on our revenue and results of operations.
Global shortages in manufacturing capacities could interrupt or negatively affect our operations, increase cost to manufacture and negatively impact our results of operations.
Recent sharp increases in demand for semiconductor products have resulted in a global shortage of manufacturing capacities. As a result, we may experience increases in the costs to manufacture our products and may not be able to manufacture and deliver all of the orders placed by our customers. We are not able to foresee when the current shortage of manufacturing capacity will subside. If we are unable secure manufacturing capacities from our current subcontractors, our ability to deliver our products to our customers may be negatively impacted. Also, our subcontractors may their fees, which would result in an increase in our manufacturing costs,
 
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which we may not be fully able to pass to our customers. These factors could cause a negative impact on our results of operations.
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. If demand increases or supply decreases for any reason, 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. We from time to time may enter into multi-year agreements, which specify future quantities and pricing of materials to be supplied by the vendors of these materials; however, this option may not be available to us and we cannot assure that 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.
Compliance with regulations regarding the use of “conflict minerals” could limit the supply and increase the cost of certain raw materials used in manufacturing our products.
The SEC, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, adopted disclosure regulations for public companies that manufacture products containing certain minerals that are mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries and procedures pertaining to a manufacturer’s efforts regarding the source of such minerals. These “conflict minerals” are commonly found in metals used in the manufacture of semiconductors. Manufacturers are also required to disclose their efforts to prevent the sourcing of such minerals and metals produced from them. The implementation of these requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of metals used in the manufacture of our products. We may also incur additional costs to comply with the disclosure requirements, including costs related to determining the source of any of the relevant minerals used in our products. We may also face difficulties in satisfying customers who may require that our products be certified as free of “conflict materials,” which could harm our relationships with these customers and lead to a loss of revenue.
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.
 
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We could suffer adverse tax and other financial consequences as a result of changes in, or differences in the interpretation of, applicable tax laws, including the recently enacted tax reform legislation in the United States.
Our company’s 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 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 company’s organizational structure and other tax positions are subject to review by tax authorities in the local and other jurisdictions where we operate our business.
In December 2017, H.R. 1, originally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was enacted in the US (the “Tax Reform”). The Tax Reform reduces the US federal statutory rate to 21.0% from 35.0% effective January 1, 2018. The Tax Reform contains several key provisions that affect our assessment of deferred taxes, which include the remeasurement of deferred taxes, recognition of liabilities for taxes on mandatory deemed repatriation and certain other foreign income, and reassessment of the realizability of deferred tax assets. For further information regarding the impact of the Tax Reform, see “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 17. Income Taxes” included elsewhere in this Report.
Additional changes in the U.S. tax regime or in how U.S. multinational corporations are taxed on foreign income, including changes in how existing tax laws are interpreted or enforced, could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. For example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recommended changes to numerous long-standing international tax principles through its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. These changes, to the extent adopted, may increase tax uncertainty, result in higher compliance costs and adversely affect our provision for income taxes, results of operations and/or cash flow.
We are also subject to regular reviews, examinations and audits by the IRS and other taxing authorities, including the Korean National Tax Service, with respect to income and
non-income
based taxes both within and outside the U.S. In connection with the OECD’s BEPS project, companies are required to disclose more information to tax authorities on operations around the world, which may lead to greater audit scrutiny of income earned in various countries. Economic and political pressures to increase tax revenues in jurisdictions in which we operate, or the adoption of new or reformed tax legislation or regulation, may make resolving tax disputes more difficult and the final resolution of tax audits and any related litigation could differ from our historical provisions and accruals, resulting in an adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Expanded trade restrictions imposed by the United States may limit our ability to sell to certain customers.
On August 17, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce expanded the scope of export restrictions as applied to products directed to Huawei and its affiliates listed on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List (collectively, “Huawei”). While prior restrictions had minimal effect on our ability to supply to customers, the newly expanded restrictions would limit our ability to supply to a variety of customers who we believe incorporate our products to those customers’ products directly or indirectly sold to Huawei. As of the date of this Annual Report, we are uncertain on the seriousness of the restrictions’ impact or duration and the future trajectory of our business from customers who directly or indirectly supply Huawei with products that incorporate our products. For export of some of our products, we have successfully obtained the necessary export licenses, and if exports of other products require export licenses due to the restrictions, we will consider applying for the necessary export licenses to continue to sell to the affected customers. Although we have thus far
 
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successfully obtained the necessary export licenses for exporting some of our products, we are unsure whether our other applications will be successful. There is also a possibility that export restrictions may be further expanded to target companies in addition to Huawei, which may have an additional impact on our ability to sell to our customers. Export restrictions may also affect our contractors, suppliers or customers, and we cannot assure that they will not violate the restrictions, and any such violations may result in fines or criminal sanctions against us and damage our reputation.
Recent changes in international trade policy and the imposition and threats of international tariffs, including tariffs applied to goods traded between the United States and China, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Since the beginning of 2018, there have been increasing public threats and, in some cases, legislative or executive action, from U.S. and foreign leaders regarding instituting tariffs against foreign imports of certain materials. More specifically, since March of 2018, the U.S. and China have applied tariffs to certain of each other’s exports. The institution of trade tariffs globally, and between the U.S. and China specifically, may negatively impact the affected countries’ economic conditions, which could negatively affect demand for our products in those countries and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations of our customers serving the affected markets. Additionally, it is currently unclear how the recent change in presidential administration in the U.S. may further impact international trade tariffs going forward. Imposition of tariffs could increase costs of the
end-user
products we supply that we may not be able to pass on to our customers, which could in turn cause a decrease in the sales of our products and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Our ability to compete successfully and achieve future growth will depend, in part, on our ability to protect our intellectual property, proprietary technology and
know-how,
as well as our ability to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others.
We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights, both in the US and in foreign countries, through a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, mask works and trade secret laws, as well as licensing agreements and third-party nondisclosure and assignment agreements. Because of the differences in foreign trademark, patent and other laws concerning proprietary rights, our intellectual property rights may not receive the same degree of protection in foreign countries as they would in the US. 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 US. Our failure to obtain or maintain adequate protection of our intellectual property rights for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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. Many of our patents are subject to cross licenses, several of which are with our competitors. 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. Further, it is possible that others will independently develop the same or similar technologies, even without access to our proprietary technologies.
We rely on our trademarks, trade names, and brand names to distinguish our products from the products of our competitors, and have registered or applied to register many of these trademarks. We cannot assure you that our trademark applications will be approved. Third parties may also oppose our trademark applications, or
 
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otherwise challenge our use of the trademarks. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our products, which could result in loss of brand recognition, and could require us to devote resources advertising and marketing new brands. Further, we cannot assure you that competitors will not infringe our trademarks, or that we will have adequate resources to enforce our trademarks.
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 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, and we cannot assure you that we will prevail. Any claims of intellectual property infringement or misappropriation against use, even those without merit, could require us 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 the accused products;
 
•  
redesign, reengineer or rebrand our products, if feasible;
 
•  
expend significant resources to develop or acquire
non-infringing
technologies;
 
•  
discontinue processes; or
 
•  
obtain licenses to a third party’s intellectual property.
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.
We license certain intellectual property from third parties. 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.
We are subject to many environmental laws and regulations that could affect our operations or result in significant expenses.
We 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 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. Among them is the Act on Remediation and Compensation for Damages arising from Environmental Contamination which came into effect in Korea on January 1, 2016 and provides for strict liability of business entities in violation of the act and alleviates the burden of proof for the damaged party. Further, under the amendment to the Act on the Control and Aggravated Punishment of Environmental Offenses that becomes effective on November 27, 2020, certain environmental offenses such as illegally emitting specified hazardous air pollutants or emitting air pollutants without necessary permits will be subject to penalties of up to 5% of the sales amount generated from the relevant business. As a result, we have increased potential exposure to liability for environmental contaminations that might have existed in the past or would arise in the future. 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.
 
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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.
Since 2015, our Korean subsidiary has been subject to
K-ETS,
a new set of greenhouse gas emissions regulation, under the Act on Allocation and Trading of Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowances. Under
K-ETS,
our Korean subsidiary was allocated a certain amount of emissions allowance in accordance with the National Allocation Plan prepared by the Korean government, and is required to meet its allocated target by either reducing emissions or purchasing allowances from other participants or the government in the emission trading market. Reduction of our emissions or energy consumption may result in 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, as well as cost of procuring emission allowances to cover the excess emissions, which could adversely affect our financial position and results of operations. During the first implementation period from 2015 to 2017 and second implementation period from 2018 to 2020, we did not exceed the allocated emission amount. Our Korean subsidiary has been allocated emissions allowance in the third implementation period from 2021 to 2025, and we do not expect to exceed the allocated emission amount during the third implementation period. However, we will continue to monitor our compliance with the emissions allowance on a yearly basis. In addition, from time to time, if we assess that we have excess allowances, we may sell such excess allowances to manufacturers in the emission market in Korea.
Our compliance with the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (the “SAPA”) could require significant expenditures and management time and expose us to liability for violations.
On January 26, 2021, the SAPA was enacted in Korea, which will impose enhanced liability exposure for workplace accidents. The legislative goal of the SAPA is to prevent serious accidents by prescribing punishments and punitive damages liability for business owners or responsible management personnel who have violated safety and health measures in the event of such serious accidents (serious industrial accidents and serious civil accidents). Since the law applies to businesses in Korea with 50 or more full-time employees starting from January 27, 2022, our Korean subsidiary is expected to be subject to the law after the effective date. According to the SAPA, if a serious occupational accident occurs that results in at least one deceased person, at least two persons wounded for six months or more, or at least three persons suffering from occupational diseases within a one year period, if the “business owners or responsible management personnel” of the relevant business place is found to have failed to perform its “obligation to secure safety and health,” that person may be subject to imprisonment for up to 7 year or a fine of up to KRW 100 million (in case of death, imprisonment for not less than 1 year or a fine of not less than KRW 1 billion). Relevant responsible management personnel will also be required to spend more time, effort and cost to comply with the SAPA and perform the necessary additional duties imposed by the law to ensure compliance.
We may 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 may 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. There can be no assurance that any additional equity or debt financing would be available to us, or if available, that such financing would be on favorable terms to us. Accordingly, if we are unable to obtain additional capital or our business does not generate sufficient cash flows from operating activities to fund our working capital needs and planned capital expenditures, and our cash reserves are depleted, we may need to take various actions, such as
down-sizing
and/or eliminating certain operations, which could include additional exit costs, reducing or delaying capital expenditures, selling assets, or other restructuring actions. There can be no assurance that we would be successful in taking such actions and, in
 
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any event, such actions may result in a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, our indebtedness limits our ability to incur additional indebtedness under certain circumstances.
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, public health issues (including viral outbreaks such as
COVID-19),
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.
Our business, results of operations and financial condition and prospects may be materially and adversely affected by the recent
COVID-19
pandemic.
COVID-19,
a virus causing potentially deadly respiratory tract infections, which has spread rapidly and enveloped most of the world, is a global public health crisis. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the
COVID-19
outbreak as a pandemic. Governments in affected countries have imposed travel bans, quarantines and other emergency public health measures. In response to the virus, national and local governments in numerous countries around the world have implemented substantial business restrictions and lockdown measures and may continue to impose similar policies in the future from time to time in response to further outbreaks of the virus.. Private sector companies have also taken precautionary measures, such as requiring employees to work remotely, imposing travel restrictions and temporarily closing businesses and facilities. These restrictions, and future prevention and mitigation measures, may have had an adverse impact on global economic conditions, which could materially adversely affect our future operations. Uncertainties regarding the economic impact of the
COVID-19
outbreak have resulted in sustained market turmoil, which have also negatively impacted our business in various ways.
These measures have impacted and may further impact our workforce and operations, the operations of our customers, and those of our respective vendors, suppliers, and partners. The disruptions to our operations caused by the
COVID-19
outbreak may result in inefficiencies, delays and additional costs in our research and development, sales and marketing, and customer service efforts that we cannot fully mitigate through remote or other alternative work arrangements. Also, some suppliers of materials used in the production of our products may have been or will be more severely impacted by
COVID-19,
which could limit our ability to obtain sufficient materials for our products. In addition, the severe global economic disruption caused by
COVID-19
may cause our customers and
end-users
of our products to suffer significant economic hardship, which could result in decreased demand for our products in the future and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition (including liquidity) and prospects.
The impact of the
COVID-19
pandemic continues to evolve and its duration and ultimate disruption on our customers,
end-users,
overall demand for our products, supply chain, and the related financial impact to us, cannot be estimated at this time. Should such disruption continue for an extended period of time, the impact could have a more severe adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition (including liquidity). Additionally, weaker economic conditions generally could result in impairment in value of our tangible or intangible assets, or our ability to raise additional capital, if needed.
Tensions with North Korea could have an adverse effect on us and the market value of our shares.
Relations between South Korea and North Korea have been tense throughout Korea’s modern history. The level of tension between the two Koreas has fluctuated and may increase abruptly as a result of current and future
 
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events. In particular, in recent years, there have been heightened security concerns stemming from North Korea’s nuclear weapon and long-range missile programs and increased uncertainty regarding North Korea’s actions and possible responses from the international community.
North Korea’s economy also faces severe challenges, and any adverse economic developments may further aggravate social and political tensions within North Korea.
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, for example, if North Korea experiences a leadership crisis, high-level contacts between South Korea and North Korea break down, or military hostilities occur, could have a material adverse effect on the South Korean economy and on our business, financial condition, results of operations and the market value of our common stock.
We may be subject to disruptions, breaches or cyber-attacks of our secured networks and information technology systems that could damage our reputation, harm our business, expose us to liability and materially adversely affect our results of operations.
In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and store sensitive data, including IP and other proprietary information about our business and that of our customers, suppliers and business partners. Secure maintenance, processing and transmission of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. We may be subject to disruptions, breaches or cyber-attacks of our secured networks and information technology systems caused by illegal hacking, criminal fraud or impersonation, computer viruses, acts of vandalism or terrorism or employee error, and our security measures or those of any third party service providers we use may not detect or prevent such security breaches. We may incur significant costs to eliminate or alleviate cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities, which could be significant, and our efforts to protect against such breaches or vulnerabilities may not be successful and could result in system interruptions that may materially impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution, finance or other critical functions. Any such compromise of our information security could also result in the unauthorized publication of our confidential business or proprietary information or that of other parties with which we do business, an interruption in our operations, the unauthorized transfer of cash or other assets, the unauthorized release of customer or employee data or a violation of privacy or other laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Any of the foregoing could irreparably damage our reputation and business and/or expose us to material monetary liability, which could have a material adverse effect on our 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 US and some of our directors and executive officers as well as our independent auditors are organized or reside outside of the US. Most of our and our subsidiaries’ assets are located outside of the US and in particular, in Korea. Accordingly, any judgment obtained in the US against us or our subsidiaries may not be collectible in the US. As a result, it may not be possible for you to effect service of process within the US upon these persons or to enforce against them or us court judgments obtained in the US that are predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the US or of the securities laws of any state of the US. In particular, there is doubt as to the enforceability in Korea or any other jurisdictions outside the US, either in original actions or in actions for enforcement of judgments of US courts, of civil liabilities predicated on the federal securities laws of the US or the securities laws of any state of the US.
We are a holding company and depend on the business of our subsidiaries to make payments to us.
We are a holding company with no independent operations of our own. Our subsidiaries conduct substantially all of the operations necessary to fund our obligations. Our ability to pay dividends or to make
 
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payments on any future 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 any debt agreements to which we may then be subject, including any 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.
We cannot assure that the operating results of our subsidiaries at any given time will be sufficient to make distributions or other payments to us.
We may at times need to incur impairment, restructuring and other restructuring related charges, which could materially affect our results of operations and financial condition.
During industry downturns and for other reasons, we may need to record impairment, restructuring or other restructuring related 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.
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 common stock may be volatile and you may lose all or a part of your investment.
The trading price of our common stock might be subject to wide fluctuations. Factors, some of which are beyond our control, that could affect the trading price of our 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;
 
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•  
subsequent sales of stock and other financings; and
 
•  
litigation, legislation, regulation or technological developments that adversely affect our business.
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.
Significant ownership of our common stock by certain stockholders could adversely affect our other stockholders.
The concentration of ownership of our common stock by certain stockholders may limit the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our public 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.
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;
 
•  
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 (the “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 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;
 
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•  
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, DGCL 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, DGCL 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.
We have not historically paid dividends and do not currently have any dividend or distribution policy, and therefore, investors may need to rely on sales of their common stock as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
We have not historically paid cash dividends and do not currently have any dividend or distribution policy.. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors. Accordingly, unless the Board implements a future dividend or distribution policy, 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 take place in a single fabrication facility located in Korea in Gumi. Our facility has a capacity of approximately 31,000 eight-inch equivalent wafers per month. We manufacture wafers utilizing geometries ranging from 0.35 to 0.50 microns. The Gumi facility has one main building with 41,022 square meters devoted to manufacturing, testing and packaging.
In addition to our fabrication facility in Gumi, we lease facilities in Cheongju and Seoul, Korea. Each of these facilities includes administration, sales and marketing and research and development functions. We lease sales and marketing offices through our subsidiaries in several other countries.
 
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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.
The independent providers of these outsourced services are located in Korea, China, Taiwan 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.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
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. 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 that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
See also “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 19” in this Report for additional information.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
 
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PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MX.”
Stock Performance Graph
The graph and table below compare the cumulative total stockholder return of our common shares with the cumulative total return of the S&P 500 Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (PHLX) from December 31, 2015 (the last trading day before the beginning of our fifth preceding fiscal year) through December 31, 2020. The graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2015 in our common shares and in each index and that any dividends were reinvested. No cash dividends have been declared on our common shares during the five-year period ended December 31, 2020.
Comparison of Cumulative Total Return*
Among Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation, the S&P 500 Index and the PHLX
 
 
 
*
The stock performance included in this graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock performance.
Total Return to Stockholders (Including Reinvestment of Dividends)
Indexed Returns
 
Company/Index
   Base Period
12/31/2015		     12/30/2016     12/29/2017     12/31/2018     12/31/2019     12/31/2020  
Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation
     100       117.20       188.09       117.39       219.47       255.58  
S&P 500 Index
     100       109.54       130.81       122.65       159.39       183.77  
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
     100       136.62       188.86       174.11       278.78       421.34  
 
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Holders
The approximate number of record holders of our outstanding common stock as of February 15, 2021 was 70. This number does not include beneficial owners for whom shares are held by nominees in street name.
Stock-Based Compensation
For information on securities authorized for issuance under our equity compensation plans, see Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.
Dividends
We have not historically paid any cash dividends on our common stock. Our Board of Directors continuously evaluates our capital allocation strategy and liquidity targets, but has not currently implemented any dividend or distribution policy. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
 
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Item 6. Selected Financial Data
[Removed and Reserved].
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, together in each case with 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. We have reclassified certain prior year amounts in connection with discontinued operations to conform to the current year’s presentation to reflect the divestiture of our Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4. Unless otherwise stated, information in this section relates to our continuing operations. The consolidated statements of cash flows have not been adjusted to separately disclose cash flows related to discontinued operations.
Overview
We are a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions for communications, IoT applications, consumer, computing, industrial and automotive applications. We provide technology platforms for analog, mixed-signal, power, high voltage,
non-volatile
memory, and radio frequency applications. We have a proven record with more than 40 years of operating history, a portfolio of approximately 1,200 registered patents and pending applications and extensive engineering and manufacturing process expertise.
Our standard products business includes our Display Solutions and Power Solutions business lines.
Our Display Solutions products provides flat panel display solutions to major suppliers of large and small flat panel displays. These products include source and gate drivers and timing controllers that cover a wide range of flat panel displays used in mobile communications, automotives, entertainment devices, notebook PCs, monitors and liquid crystal display (LCD), organic light emitting diodes (OLED), Micro light emitting diode (LED) televisions. Our Display Solutions products support the industry’s most advanced display technologies, such as OLEDs, and low temperature polysilicons thin film transistor (LTPS TFT), as well as high-volume display technologies such as amorphous silicon thin film transistors
(a-Si
TFTs). Since 2007, we have designed and manufactured OLED display driver IC products. Our current portfolio of OLED solutions address a wide range of resolutions ranging from HD to Wide Quad High Definition (WQHD) for applications including smartphones, TVs, and other mobile devices. We believe we have a unique intellectual property portfolio and mixed-signal design and manufacturing expertise in the OLED industry.
Our Power Solutions business line produces power management semiconductor products including discrete and integrated circuit solutions for power management in consumer, communications, computing, industrial and automotive applications. These products include metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs),
AC-DC
converters,
DC-DC
converters, LED drivers, switching regulators, linear regulators, interface ICs and power management ICs (PMICs) for a range of devices, including televisions, smartphones, desktop PCs, notebooks, tablets, servers, telecommunication power, home appliances, industrial applications such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), LED lighting, personal mobility, motor drives, battery management systems (BMS) and automotive electronics.
Our wide variety of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products combined with our mature technology platform allow us to address multiple high-growth end markets and rapidly develop and introduce new products and services in response to market demands. Our design center and substantial manufacturing operations in
 
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Korea place us at the core of the global electronics device supply chain. We believe this enables us to quickly and efficiently respond to our customers’ needs, and allows us to better serve and capture additional demand from existing and new customers.
To maintain and increase our profitability, we must accurately forecast trends in demand for electronics devices 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 also invest in relevant research and development activities 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 by overall demand for communications, IoT, consumer, industrial and automotive products and can be adversely affected by periods of weak consumer and enterprise spending or by market share losses by our customers. In order to mitigate the impact of market volatility on our business, we are diversifying our portfolio of products, customers, and target applications. We also expect that new competitors will emerge in these markets that may place increased pressure on the pricing for our products and services. While we believe we are well positioned competitively to compete in these markets and against these new competitors as a result of our long operating history, existing manufacturing capacity and our worldwide customer base, if we are not effective in competing in these markets, our operating results may be adversely affected.
Net sales for our standard products business are driven by design wins in which we are selected by an electronics original equipment manufacturer (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 we have design wins and the products enter into mass production, 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.
In contrast to completely fabless semiconductor companies, our internal manufacturing capacity provides us with greater control over manufacturing costs and the ability to implement process and production improvements for our internally manufactured products, 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 on these products. However, having internal manufacturing capacity exposes us to the risk of under-utilization of manufacturing capacity that results in lower gross profit margins, particularly during downturns in the semiconductor industry.
Our standard products business requires 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. Many of 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 do not require substantial investment in leading edge process equipment for those products, allowing us to utilize our facilities and
 
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equipment over an extended period of time with moderate required capital investments. In addition, we are less likely to experience significant industry overcapacity, which can cause product prices to decline significantly. In general, we seek to invest in manufacturing capacity that can be used for multiple high-value applications over an extended period of time. In addition, we outsource manufacturing of those products which do require advanced technology and
12-inch
wafer capacity, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLED). We believe this balanced capital investment strategy enables us to optimize our capital investments and facilitates more diversified product and service offerings.
Since 2007, we have designed and manufactured OLED display driver ICs in our internal manufacturing facilities. As we expanded our design capabilities to products that require lower geometries unavailable at our existing manufacturing facilities, we began outsourcing manufacturing of certain OLED display driver ICs to an external
12-inch
foundry starting in the second half of 2015. This additional source of manufacturing is an increasingly important part of our supply chain management. By outsourcing manufacturing of advanced OLED products to external
12-inch
foundries, we are able to dynamically adapt to the changing customer requirements and address growing markets without substantial capital investments by us. Both at the internal
8-inch
manufacturing facilities and external
12-inch
foundries, we apply our unique OLED process patents as well as other intellectual property, proprietary process design kits and custom design-flow methodologies.
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 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 awareness of new product opportunities, market and technology trends and improve our ability to adapt and grow successfully.
Recent Developments
Conversion of 5.0% Exchangeable Senior Notes due 2021 (the “Exchangeable Notes”)
Prior to the March 1, 2021 maturity of our Exchangeable Notes, holders elected to exchange for an aggregate of 10,144,131 shares of our common stock in satisfaction in full of the outstanding obligations under the Exchangeable Notes. On March 1, 2021, we paid the final interest payment on the Exchangeable Notes of $2.1 million and no longer have any Exchangeable Notes obligations outstanding as of such date.
Voluntary Resignation Program
On October 16, 2020, we commenced a voluntary resignation program (the “Program”), which was available for all employees. In connection with the Program, we recorded in our consolidated statement of operations $4.4 million of termination related charges within “early termination and other charges” for the year ended December 31, 2020.
Redemption of 6.625% Senior Notes due 2021 (the “2021 Notes”)
We completed the redemption of all of our outstanding 2021 Notes on October 2, 2020. We paid approximately $227.4 million to fully redeem all of the outstanding $224.25 million aggregate principal amount of the 2021 Notes at a redemption price equal to the sum of 100% of the principal amount of the 2021 Notes, plus accrued and unpaid interest through but excluding the redemption date. The redemption of the 2021 Notes was funded by our Korean subsidiary’s repayment of intercompany loans using the cash proceeds that it received from the sale of the Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4. On October 12, 2020, we paid a withholding tax of approximately $20.6 million, attributable to the repaid accrued interests on the related intercompany loans.
Completion of Sale of the Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4
On September 1, 2020 (the “Closing Date”), we completed the sale of our Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4 to Key Foundry Co., Ltd. (the “Buyer”) in exchange for a purchase price equal to approximately
 
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$350.6 million in cash. The purchase price was paid in a combination of U.S. Dollars in the amount of $46.5 million and Korean Won in the amount of approximately KRW 360.6 billion. In addition to the purchase price, the Buyer assumed all severance liabilities relating to the transferred employees, which had a value of approximately $100 million.
The divestiture of the Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4 was to strategically shift our operational focus to the standard products business. As a result, the results of the Foundry Services Group business were classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated statements of operations and excluded from both continuing operations and segment results for all periods presented. Accordingly, we have one reportable segment: our standard products business, together with transitional foundry services associated with our fabrication facility located in Gumi, Korea, known as Fab 3, which we expect to perform for the Buyer up to September 1, 2023 (the “Transitional Fab 3 Foundry Services”).
Power Outage
On July 20, 2020, our Fab 3 facility in Gumi, South Korea experienced a temporary power outage for approximately 9 hours and 15 minutes. The recovery from this power outage took longer than expected, which limited our ability to produce products in Fab 3 at full capacity, resulting in a lower factory utilization primarily during the third quarter of 2020. The accident caused certain damage to our work in process wafers and we incurred charges for facility recovery, resulting in an incremental cost of approximately $1.2 million.
COVID-19
Pandemic
In December 2019, a strain of coronavirus causing a disease known as
COVID-19
surfaced in Wuhan, China, resulting in significant disruptions among Chinese manufacturing and other facilities and travel throughout China. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the
COVID-19
outbreak a pandemic. Governmental authorities throughout the world have implemented numerous containment measures, including travel bans and restrictions, quarantines,
shelter-in-place
orders, and business restrictions and shutdowns, resulting in rapidly changing market and economic conditions.
We experienced some minor disruption in our Power Solutions business from assembly and test subcontractors located in China in the first quarter of 2020 as a result of the
COVID-19
pandemic. To date, our external Display Solutions business contractors and
sub-contractors
have not been materially impacted by the
COVID-19
pandemic. Nevertheless, while the future impact on our business from the
COVID-19
pandemic is currently difficult to assess, we believe that significant global macro-economic disruption will adversely affect customer demand for some of our products in the near term. We are, however, unable to accurately predict the full impact that the
COVID-19
pandemic will have on our future results of operations due to numerous uncertainties, including the severity of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, a potential future recurrence of the outbreak, further containment actions that may be taken by governmental authorities, the impact to the businesses of our customers and suppliers, and other factors.
We continue to closely monitor and evaluate the nature and scope of the impact of the
COVID-19
pandemic to our business, consolidated results of operations, and financial condition, and may take further actions altering our business operations and managing our costs and liquidity that we deem necessary or appropriate to respond to this fast moving and uncertain global health crisis and the resulting global economic consequences.
Explanation and Reconciliation of
Non-U.S. GAAP
Measures
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Net Income
We use the terms Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) in this Report. Adjusted EBITDA, as we define it, is a
non-U.S.
GAAP measure. We define
 
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Adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated as EBITDA (as defined below), adjusted to exclude (i) equity-based compensation expense, (ii) early termination and other charges, (iii) foreign currency loss, net, (iv) derivative valuation loss (gain), net, (v) loss on early extinguishment of borrowings, net, (vi) inventory reserve related to Huawei impact of downstream trade restrictions, (vii) expenses related to Fab 3 power outage, (viii) restatement related expenses (gain) and (ix) others. EBITDA for the periods indicated is defined as income (loss) from continuing operations before interest expense, net, income tax expense (benefit), and depreciation and amortization.
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:
 
•  
we believe that Adjusted EBITDA, by eliminating the impact of a number of items that we do not consider to be indicative of our core ongoing operating performance, provides a more comparable measure of our operating performance from
period-to-period
and may be a better indicator of future performance;
 
•  
we believe that Adjusted EBITDA is commonly requested and used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of the Company as an enterprise level performance measure that eliminates the effects of financing, income taxes and the accounting effects of capital spending, as well as other one time or recurring items described above; and
 
•  
we believe that Adjusted EBITDA is useful for investors, among other reasons, to assess the Company’s
period-to-period
core operating performance and to understand and assess the manner in which management analyzes operating performance.
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.
 
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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 U.S. GAAP and should not be construed as an alternative to income from continuing operations, cash flows from operating activities or net income, as determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of income (loss) from continuing operations to Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations is as follows:
 
    
Year Ended
December 31,
2020
     
Year Ended
December 31,
2019
     
Year Ended
December 31,
2018
  
    
(In millions)
  
Income (loss) from continuing operations
    $ 57.1      $ (20.4 )     $ (25.8 ) 
Interest expense, net
      15.4        19.5        20.1  
Income tax expense (benefit)
      (46.2 )       2.2        (1.1 ) 
Depreciation and amortization
      11.1        10.3        8.8  
EBITDA
    $ 37.4      $ 11.6      $ 2.1  
Adjustments:
         
Equity-based compensation expense(a)
      6.3        6.1        3.8  
Early termination and other charges(b)
      5.6        0.1        —    
Foreign currency loss, net(c)
      0.4        22.3        26.3  
Derivative valuation loss (gain), net(d)
      (0.1 )       0.3        2.4  
Loss on early extinguishment of borrowings, net(e)
      0.8        0.0        0.2  
Inventory reserve related to Huawei impact of downstream trade restrictions (f)
      1.5        —          —    
Expenses related to Fab 3 power outage(g)
      1.2        —          —    
Restatement related expenses (gain)(h)
      —          —          (0.8 ) 
Others(i)
      —          0.6        0.4  
  
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
  
Adjusted EBITDA
    $ 52.9      $ 40.9      $ 34.4  
  
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
  
 
(a)
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, these expenses do not generally require cash settlement, and, therefore, are not used by us to assess the profitability of our operations. 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.
(b)
For the year ended December 31, 2020, this adjustment eliminates $5.6 million, of which $4.4 million related to the reduction of workforce under the Program and
non-recurring
professional service fees and expenses incurred in connection with certain treasury and finance initiatives. As these expenses meaningfully impacted our operating results and are not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense to us, we believe our operating performance results are more usefully compared if these expenses are excluded.
(c)
This adjustment mainly 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, which we cannot control. Additionally, we believe the isolation of this adjustment provides investors with enhanced comparability to prior and future periods of our operating performance results.
(d)
This adjustment eliminates the impact of gain or loss recognized in income on derivatives, which represents 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
 
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  expected cash flows denominated in U.S. dollars, 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.
(e)
For the year ended December 31, 2020, this adjustment eliminates $0.8 million in expenses related to the full redemption of our outstanding 2021 Notes in the fourth quarter of 2020. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, this adjustment eliminates expenses related to the repurchase of a portion of the 2021 Notes and the Exchangeable Notes in the first quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2018.
(f)
This adjustment eliminates a $1.5 million excess and obsolete inventory charge that we recorded in the third quarter of 2020 in relation to the U.S. Government’s export restrictions on Huawei, which is a downstream customer of some of our direct customers. As this charge meaningfully impacted our operational results and is not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense subject to our ability to foresee and control, we believe our operating performance results are more meaningfully compared if this charge is excluded.
(g)
This adjustment eliminates $1.2 million in expenses related to the
write-off
of the damaged work in process wafers and charges for facility recovery. These charges are inconsistent in amount and frequency, and we do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operation performance and have been excluded for comparative purposes.
(h)
This adjustment eliminates the reversal of a $0.8 million accrual related to certain legal fees incurred in prior periods and reimbursed by insurers in the first quarter of 2018. As these expenses meaningfully impacted our operating results and are not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense to us, we believe our operating performance results are more usefully compared if these expenses are excluded.
(i)
For the year ended December 31, 2019, this adjustment primarily eliminates a $0.5 million legal settlement charge related to dispute with a prior customer and a legal expense related to the indemnification of a former employee during the three months ended March 31, 2019. For the year ended December 31, 2018, this adjustment eliminates a $0.4 million legal expense related to the indemnification of a former employee, which is borne by us under a negotiated separation agreement. We do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operating performance and have been excluded for comparative purposes.
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 U.S. 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 need 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 U.S. GAAP results and using Adjusted EBITDA only supplementally.
We present Adjusted Operating Income as supplemental measures of our performance. We prepare Adjusted Operating Income by adjusting operating income to eliminate the impact of equity-based compensation expenses
 
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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 Operating Income is useful to investors to provide a supplemental way to understand our underlying operating performance and allows investors to monitor and understand changes in our ability to generate income from ongoing business operations.
Adjusted Operating Income is not a measure defined in accordance with U.S. GAAP and should not be construed as an alternative to operating income, income from continuing operations, cash flows from operating activities or net income, as determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. We encourage you to evaluate each adjustment and the reasons we consider them appropriate. Other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted Operating Income differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. In addition, in evaluating Adjusted Operating Income, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. We define Adjusted Operating Income for the periods indicated as operating income adjusted to exclude (i) equity-based compensation expense, (ii) early termination and other charges, (iii) inventory reserve related to Huawei impact of downstream trade restrictions, (iv) expenses related to Fab 3 power outage, (v) restatement related expenses (gain) and (vi) others.
The following table summarizes the adjustments to operating income that we make in order to calculate Adjusted Operating Income from continuing operations for the periods indicated:
 
    
Year Ended
December 31,
2020
     
Year Ended
December 31,
2019
     
Year Ended
December 31,
2018
  
    
(In millions)
  
Operating income
    $ 27.0      $ 23.7      $ 21.9  
Adjustments:
         
Equity-based compensation expense(a)
      6.3        6.1        3.8  
Early termination and other charges(b)
      5.6        0.1        —    
Inventory reserve related to Huawei impact of downstream trade restrictions(c)
      1.5        —          —    
Expenses related to Fab 3 power outage(d)
      1.2        —          —    
Restatement related expenses (gain)(e)
      —          —          (0.8 ) 
Others(f)
      —          0.6        0.4  
  
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
  
Adjusted Operating Income
    $ 41.6      $ 30.4      $ 25.3  
  
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
  
 
(a)
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, these expenses do not generally require cash settlement, and, therefore, are not used by us to assess the profitability of our operations. 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.
(b)
For the year ended December 31, 2020, this adjustment primarily eliminates $5.6 million, of which $4.4 million related to the reduction of workforce under the Program and
non-recurring
professional service fees and expenses incurred in connection with certain treasury and finance initiatives. As these expenses meaningfully impacted our operating results and are not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense to us, we believe our operating performance results are more usefully compared if these expenses are excluded.
(c)
This adjustment eliminates a $1.5 million excess and obsolete inventory charge that we recorded in the third quarter of 2020 in relation to the U.S. Government’s export restrictions on Huawei, which is a downstream customer of some of our direct customers. As this charge meaningfully impacted our operational results and is not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense subject to our ability to foresee and control, we believe our operating performance results are more meaningfully compared if this charge is excluded.
(d)
This adjustment eliminates $1.2 million in expenses related to the
write-off
of the damaged work in process wafers and charges for facility recovery. These charges are inconsistent in amount and frequency, and we do
 
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  not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operation performance and have been excluded for comparative purposes.
(e)
This adjustment eliminates the reversal of a $0.8 million accrual related to certain legal fees incurred in prior periods and reimbursed by insurers in the first quarter of 2018. As these expenses meaningfully impacted our operating results and are not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense to us, we believe our operating performance results are more usefully compared if these expenses are excluded.
(f)
For the year ended December 31, 2019, this adjustment primarily eliminates a $0.5 million legal settlement charge related to dispute with a prior customer and a legal expense related to the indemnification of a former employee during the three months ended March 31, 2019. For the year ended December 31, 2018, this adjustment eliminates a $0.4 million legal expense related to the indemnification of a former employee, which is borne by us under a negotiated separation agreement. We do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operating performance and have been excluded for comparative purposes.
We present Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) as a further supplemental measure of our performance. We prepare Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) by adjusting income (loss) from continuing operations 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 (including on a per share basis) is particularly useful because it reflects the impact of our asset base and capital structure on our operating performance. We present Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) for a number of reasons, including:
 
  •  
we use Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) in communications with our Board of Directors concerning our consolidated financial performance without the impact of
non-cash
expenses and the other items as we discussed below since we believe that it is a more consistent measure of our core operating results from period to period; and
 
  •  
we believe that reporting Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) is useful to readers in evaluating our core operating results because it eliminates the effects of
non-cash
expenses as well as the other items we discuss below, such as foreign currency gains and losses, which are out of our control and can vary significantly from period to period.
Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) is not a measure defined in accordance with U.S. GAAP and should not be construed as an alternative to income from continuing operations, cash flows from operating activities or net income, as determined in accordance with U.S. 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 (including on a per share basis) differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. In addition, in evaluating Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis), you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. We define Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis); for the periods indicated as income (loss) from continuing operations, adjusted to exclude (i) equity-based compensation expense, (ii) early termination and other charges, (iii) foreign currency loss, net, (iv) derivative valuation loss (gain), net, (v) loss on early extinguishment of borrowings, net, (vi) inventory reserve related to Huawei impact of downstream trade restrictions, (vii) expenses related to Fab 3 power outage, (viii) restatement related expenses (gain), (ix) valuation allowance release on deferred income tax assets and (x) others.
 
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The following table summarizes the adjustments to income (loss) from continuing operations that we make in order to calculate Adjusted Net Income (including on a per share basis) from continuing operations for the periods indicated:
 
    
Year Ended
December 31,
2020
     
Year Ended
December 31,
2019
     
Year Ended
December 31,
2018
  
    
(In millions, except per share data)
  
Income (loss) from continuing operations
    $ 57.1      $ (20.4 )     $ (25.8 ) 
Adjustments:
         
Equity-based compensation expense(a)
      6.3        6.1        3.8  
Early termination and other charges(b)
      5.6        0.1        —    
Foreign currency loss, net(c)
      0.4        22.3        26.3  
Derivative valuation loss (gain), net(d)
      (0.1 )       0.3        2.4  
Loss on early extinguishment of borrowings, net(e)
      0.8        0.0        0.2  
Inventory reserve related to Huawei impact of downstream trade restrictions(f)
      1.5        —          —    
Expenses related to Fab 3 power outage(g)
      1.2        —          —    
Restatement related expenses (gain)(h)
      —          —          (0.8 ) 
GAAP and cash tax expense difference (i)
      (43.9 )       —          —    
Others(j)
      —          0.6        0.4  
Income tax effect on
non-GAAP
adjustments(k)
      0.5        —          —    
  
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
  
Adjusted Net Income
    $ 28.3      $ 9.0      $ 6.5  
  
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
  
Reported earnings (loss) per share—basic
    $ 1.62      $ (0.59 )     $ (0.75 ) 
Reported earnings (loss) per share—diluted
    $ 1.35      $ (0.59 )     $ (0.75 ) 
Weighted average number of shares—basic
      35,213,525        34,321,888        34,469,921  
Weighted average number of shares—diluted
      46,503,586        34,321,888        34,469,921  
Adjusted earnings per share—basic
    $ 0.80      $ 0.26      $ 0.19  
Adjusted earnings per share—diluted
    $ 0.73      $ 0.25      $ 0.18  
Weighted average number of shares—basic
      35,213,525        34,321,888        34,469,921  
Weighted average number of shares—diluted
      46,503,586        35,405,077        35,503,667  
 
(a)
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, these expenses do not generally require cash settlement, and, therefore, are not used by us to assess the profitability of our operations. 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.
(b)
For the year ended December 31, 2020, this adjustment primarily eliminates $5.6 million of which $4.4 million related to the reduction of workforce under the Program and
non-recurring
professional service fees and expenses incurred in connection with certain treasury and finance initiatives. As these expenses meaningfully impacted our operating results and are not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense to us, we believe our operating performance results are more usefully compared if these expenses are excluded.
(c)
This adjustment mainly 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, which we cannot control. Additionally, we believe the isolation of this adjustment provides investors with enhanced comparability to prior and future periods of our operating performance results.
 
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(d)
This adjustment eliminates the impact of gain or loss recognized in income on derivatives, which represents 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 U.S. dollars, 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.
(e)
For the year ended December 31, 2020, this adjustment eliminates $0.8 million in expenses related to the full redemption of our outstanding 2021 Notes in the fourth quarter of 2020. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, this adjustment eliminates expenses related to the repurchase of a portion of the 2021 Notes and the Exchangeable Notes in the first quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2018.
(f)
This adjustment eliminates a $1.5 million excess and obsolete inventory charge that we recorded in the third quarter of 2020 in relation to the U.S. Government’s export restrictions on Huawei, which is a downstream customer of some of our direct customers. As this charge meaningfully impacted our operational results and is not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense subject to our ability to foresee and control, we believe our operating performance results are more meaningfully compared if this charge is excluded.
(g)
This adjustment eliminates $1.2 million in expenses related to the
write-off
of the damaged work in process wafers and charges for facility recovery. These charges are inconsistent in amount and frequency, and we do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operation performance and have been excluded for comparative purposes.
(h)
This adjustment eliminates the reversal of a $0.8 million accrual related to certain legal fees incurred in prior periods and reimbursed by insurers in the first quarter of 2018. As these expenses meaningfully impacted our operating results and are not expected to represent an ongoing operating expense to us, we believe our operating performance results are more usefully compared if these expenses are excluded.
(i)
This adjustment eliminates the impact of difference between GAAP and cash tax expense.
(j)
For the year ended December 31, 2019, this adjustment primarily eliminates a $0.5 million legal settlement charge related to dispute with a prior customer and a legal expense related to the indemnification of a former employee during the three months ended March 31, 2019. For the year ended December 31, 2018, this adjustment eliminates a $0.4 million legal expense related to the indemnification of a former employee, which is borne by us under a negotiated separation agreement. We do not believe that these charges are indicative of our core operating performance and have been excluded for comparative purposes.
(k)
For the year ended December 31, 2020, income tax effect on
non-GAAP
adjustments was calculated using an effective income tax rate in Korea of 7.3%. There was no tax impact from the adjustments to net income to calculate our Adjusted Net Income for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 due to net operating loss carry-forwards available to offset taxable income and full allowance for deferred tax assets.
We believe that all adjustments to income (loss) from continuing operations used to calculate Adjusted Net Income was applied consistently to the periods presented.
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 US GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
 
  •  
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 profitability of our business. We compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our U.S. GAAP results and using Adjusted Net Income only as a supplement.
 
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Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations
Net
Sales.
We derive substantially all of our sales (net of sales returns and allowances) from our standard products business. We outsource manufacturing of advanced OLED products to external
12-inch
foundries. 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 Korea, Japan and Greater China. Our network of authorized agents and distributors is in the United States, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
We recognize revenue when a customer obtains control of the product, which is generally upon product shipment, delivery at the customer’s location or upon customer acceptance, depending on the terms of the arrangement. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we sold products to 178, 180 and 192 customers, respectively, and our net sales to our ten largest customers represented 88%, 90% and 85% of our net sales—standard products business, respectively.
We will provide the Transitional Fab 3 Foundry Services up to September 1, 2023 at an agreed upon cost plus a
mark-up.
For the periods prior to the closing of the sale of the Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4 (which are accounted for as discontinued operations beginning in the first quarter of 2020), revenue derived from the Transitional Fab 3 Foundry Services is recorded at cost in both our continuing and discontinued operations.
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 facility and the yields achieved by our manufacturing operations, changes in material, labor and other manufacturing costs including outsourced manufacturing expenses, and variation in depreciation expense.
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 material consists of costs of raw materials, such as silicon wafers, chemicals, gases and tape and packaging supplies. 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 increase significantly.
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, 2020, approximately 98% of our employees were eligible for severance benefits.
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. 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 5 to 12 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.
 
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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.
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 expenses primarily consist of payroll-related expenses, consulting and other professional fees and office facility-related expenses.
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 of our display business are material and design-related costs for OLED display driver IC product development involving
40-nanometer
or finer processes. The majority of research and development expenses of our power business are certain equipment, material and design-related costs for power discrete products and material and design-related costs for power IC products. Power IC uses standard BCD process technologies which can be sourced from multiple foundries, including Fab 4.
Interest Expense.
Our interest expense was incurred primarily under our 2021 Notes and 5.0% Exchangeable Senior Notes due March 1, 2021. We redeemed all outstanding 2021 Notes on October 2, 2020. Our Exchangeable Notes were exchanged for common stock prior to their maturity date of March 1, 2021. From and after October 2, 2020 and March 1, 2021, we have not and will not incur interest expense associated with the 2021 Notes and Exchangeable Notes, respectively.
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 converted from our
non-U.S.
revenues and expenses based on monthly average exchange rates, 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 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. Moreover, our foreign currency gain or loss would be affected by changes in the exchange rate between the Korean won and the U.S. dollar as a substantial portion of
non-cash
translation gain or loss is associated with the intercompany long-term loans to our Korean subsidiary, which is denominated in U.S. dollars. As of December 31, 2020, the outstanding intercompany loan balance including accrued interest between our Korean subsidiary and our Dutch subsidiary was $378.9 million. 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.
From time to time, we may engage in exchange rate hedging activities in an effort to mitigate the impact of exchange rate fluctuations. Our Korean subsidiary enters into foreign currency forward and zero cost collar contracts in order to mitigate a portion of the impact of U.S. dollar-Korean won exchange rate fluctuations on our
 
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operating results. Obligations under these foreign currency forward and zero cost collar contracts must be cash collateralized if our exposure exceeds certain specified thresholds. These forward and zero cost collar contracts may be terminated by a 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 $30.0 million at the end of a fiscal quarter unless a waiver is obtained from the counterparty. We cannot assure 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 “Note 10. Derivative Financial Instruments” to our consolidated financial statements under “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional information regarding our foreign exchange hedging activities.
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 foreign currency gain (loss), net in our statements of operations. 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 balances 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 basis of our assets and liabilities. We exercise significant management judgment in determining our provision for income taxes, deferred tax assets and liabilities. We assess whether it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets existing at the
period-end
will be realized in future periods. In such assessment, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including scheduled reversals of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, tax planning strategies and recent results of operations. In the event we were to determine that we would be able to realize the deferred income tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, we would adjust the valuation allowance, which would reduce the provision for income taxes.
We are subject to income- or
non-income-based
tax examinations by tax authorities of the U.S., Korea and multiple other foreign jurisdictions for all open tax years. Significant estimates and judgments are required in determining our worldwide provision for income- or
non-income
based 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. See “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 17. Income Taxes” included elsewhere in this Report.
Discontinued Operations.
On March 30, 2020, we entered into the Business Transfer Agreement for the sale of our Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4 to the Buyer. As a result, the results of the Foundry Services Group business were classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated statements of operations and excluded from both continuing operations and segment results for all periods presented. On September 1, 2020, we completed the sale for a purchase price equal to approximately $350.6 million in cash.
Capital
Expenditures.
We primarily invest in manufacturing equipment, software design tools and other tangible assets mainly for fabrication facility maintenance, capacity expansion and technology improvement. Capacity expansions and technology improvements typically occur in anticipation of increases in demand. We typically pay for capital expenditures in partial installments with portions due on order, delivery and final acceptance. Our capital expenditures mainly include our payments for the purchase of property, plant and equipment.
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.
 
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Results of Operations
We have reclassified certain prior year amounts in connection with discontinued operations to conform to the current year’s presentation to reflect the divestiture of our Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4. For the periods prior to the closing of the sale of the Foundry Services Group business and Fab 4, revenue derived from the Transitional Fab 3 Foundry Services is recorded at cost in both our continuing and discontinued operations. Following the consummation of the sale, revenue derived from the Transitional Fab 3 Foundry Services is recorded at an agreed upon cost plus a
mark-up.
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 total revenues:
 
   
Year Ended
December 31,
2020
    
Year Ended
December 31,
2019
    
Year Ended
December 31,
2018
  
   
Amount
    
% of
Total
revenues
    
Amount
    
% of
Total
revenues
    
Amount
    
% of
Total
revenues
  
   
(In millions)
  
Consolidated statements of operations data:
            
Revenues
            
Net sales—standard products business
   $ 465.5       91.8 %    $ 484.8       93.1 %    $ 425.5       91.4 % 
Net sales—transitional Fab 3 foundry services
     41.5       8.2       35.8       6.9       39.9       8.6  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Total revenues
     507.1       100.0       520.7       100.0       465.4       100.0  
Cost of sales
            
Cost of sales—standard products business
     338.4       66.7       368.5       70.8       309.8       66.6  
Cost of sales—transitional Fab 3 foundry services
     40.3       8.0       35.8       6.9       39.9       8.6  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Total cost of sales
     378.7       74.7       404.3       77.6       349.8       75.2  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Gross profit
     128.3       25.3       116.4       22.4       115.6       24.8  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Selling, general and administrative expenses
     50.0       9.9       47.6       9.1       47.7       10.3  
Research and development expenses
     45.7       9.0       45.0       8.6       46.0       9.9  
Early termination and other charges
     5.6       1.1       0.1       0.0       —       —  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Operating income
     27.0       5.3       23.7       4.6       21.9       4.7  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Interest expense
     (18.1 )      (3.6 )      (22.2 )      (4.3 )      (22.0 )      (4.7 ) 
Foreign currency loss, net
     (0.4 )      (0.1 )      (22.3 )      (4.3 )      (26.3 )      (5.7 ) 
Loss on early extinguishment of borrowings, net
     (0.8 )      (0.2 )      (0.0 )      (0.0 )      (0.2 )      (0.0 ) 
Others, net
     3.1       0.6       2.6       0.5       (0.2 )      (0.0 ) 
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
    (16.2 )      (3.2 )      (41.9 )      (8.1 )      (48.7 )      (10.5 ) 
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Income (loss) from continuing operations before income tax expense
     10.8       2.1       (18.2 )      (3.5 )      (26.9 )      (5.8 ) 
Income tax expense (benefit)
     (46.2 )      (9.1 )      2.2       0.4       (1.1 )      (0.2 ) 
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Income (loss) from continuing operations
     57.1       11.3       (20.4 )      (3.9 )      (25.8 )      (5.5 ) 
Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax
     287.9       56.8       (1.4 )      (0.3 )      21.9       4.7  
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
 
 
  
Net income (loss)
   $ 345.0       68.0 %    $ (21.8 )      (4.2 )%    $ (3.9 )      (0.8 )% 
 
 
 
      
 
 
      
 
 
    
Revenues:
            
Net sales—standard products business