Item 1A. Risk Factors

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before investing in our securities, you should consider carefully the information contained in this report and in our 2023 Annual Report, including the information under “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I thereof. This report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations” above. Our actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Any of the risks discussed in our 2023 Annual Report, in this report, in other reports we file with the SEC, and other risks we have not anticipated or discussed, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Except as set forth below, there has been no material change to the material factors that make an investment in our securities speculative or risky from those presented in our 2023 Annual Report.

If we are unable to secure order growth, our revenue may not reach the levels we anticipate.

As a result of unprecedented order volumes placed by customers to address supply chain constraints and longer delivery lead times, our backlog grew from $1.2 billion at the end of fiscal 2020 to $4.2 billion at the end of fiscal 2022. Our revenue grew by 21% during fiscal 2023 as we consumed a significant portion of this backlog. Customer order volumes rapidly decreased and, throughout much of fiscal 2023 and into the first half of fiscal 2024, we experienced orders that were below our revenue. As a result, our backlog decreased to $1.9 billion as of the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2024. As backlog consumption reduces and represents a relatively smaller portion of our quarterly revenue, we expect to increasingly rely upon securing orders growth, particularly orders that we are able to convert into revenue during the same quarter in which they are received (which we refer to as "book to revenue"). Our future revenue growth will depend on securing increased orders, particularly from our communications service provider customers. Our failure to reach increased order levels, including a more typical composition of our quarterly revenue comprised of book to revenue orders, would adversely affect our revenue and results of operations.

The international scale of our sales and operations exposes us to additional risk and expense that could adversely affect our results of operations.

We market, sell and service our products globally, maintain personnel in numerous countries, and rely on a global supply chain for sourcing important components and manufacturing our products. Our international sales and operations are subject to inherent risks, including:

• adverse social, political and economic conditions, such as continued inflation and rising interest rates;

• effects of adverse changes in currency exchange rates;

• greater difficulty in collecting accounts receivable and longer collection periods;

• difficulty and cost of staffing and managing foreign operations;

• higher incidence and risk of corruption or unethical business practices;

• less protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;

• tax and customs changes that adversely impact our global sourcing strategy, manufacturing practices, transfer-pricing, or competitiveness of our products for global sales;

• compliance with certain testing, homologation or customization of products to conform to local standards;

• significant changes to free trade agreements, trade protection measures, tariffs and other import measures, export compliance, economic sanctions measures, domestic preference procurement requirements, qualification to transact business and additional regulatory requirements;

• natural disasters (including as a result of climate change), acts of war or terrorism, and public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic; and

• uncertain economic, legal and political conditions in Europe, Asia and other regions where we do business, including, for example, as a result of continued impacts of Brexit on the relationship between the United Kingdom and Europe, the ongoing military conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas, including related maritime impacts in the Red Sea, and changes in China-Taiwan and U.S.-China relations.

We utilize a sourcing strategy that emphasizes global procurement of materials that has direct or indirect dependencies upon a number of vendors with operations in the Asia-Pacific region. We also rely upon third-party contract manufacturers, including those with facilities in Canada, Mexico, Thailand and the United States, to manufacture, support and ship our products. Physical, regulatory, technological, market, reputational, and legal risks related to climate change in these regions and globally are increasing in impact and diversity and the magnitude of any short-term or long-term adverse impact on our business or results of operations remains unknown. The physical impacts of climate change, including as a result of certain types of natural disasters occurring more frequently or with more intensity or changing weather patterns, could disrupt our supply chain, result in damage to or closures of our facilities, and could otherwise have an adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our international operations are subject to complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations, including anti-bribery and corruption laws, antitrust or competition laws, data privacy laws, such as the GDPR, and environmental regulations, among others. In particular, recent years have seen a substantial increase in anti-bribery law enforcement activity by U.S. regulators, and we currently operate and seek to operate in many parts of the world that are recognized or perceived as having greater potential for corruption. Violations of any of these laws and regulations could result in fines and penalties, criminal sanctions against us or our employees, prohibitions on the conduct of our business and on our ability to offer our products and services in certain geographies, and significant harm to our business reputation. Our policies and procedures to promote compliance with these laws and regulations and to mitigate these risks may not protect us from all acts committed by our employees or third-party vendors, including contractors, agents and services partners or from the misinterpretation or changing application of such laws. Additionally, the costs of complying with these laws (including the costs of investigations, auditing and monitoring) could adversely affect our current or future business.

Our business, operations and financial results could also be adversely impacted by instability, disruption or destruction in a significant geographic region, including as a result of war, terrorism, riot, civil insurrection or social unrest; natural or man-made disasters; public health emergencies; or economic instability or weakness. For example, in February 2022, armed conflict escalated between Russia and Ukraine. The United States and certain other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia and could impose further sanctions, which could damage or disrupt international commerce and the global economy. We are complying with a broad range of U.S. and international sanctions and export control requirements imposed on Russia and, in March 2022, we announced our decision to suspend our business operations in Russia immediately. Although this decision did not materially impact our results of operations for fiscal 2022 or 2023 due to the limited amount of business that we conducted in Russia historically, it is not possible to predict the broader or longer-term consequences of this conflict, which could include further sanctions, export control and import restrictions, embargoes, regional instability, geopolitical shifts and adverse effects on macroeconomic conditions, security conditions, currency exchange rates and financial markets. In addition, the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and related regional impacts have recently resulted in damage to submarine cables in the Red Sea and disruption of networks using those cables, which could impact future projects by our customers in this region. Such geopolitical instability and uncertainty could have a negative impact on our ability to sell to, ship products to, collect payments from, and support customers in certain countries and regions based on trade restrictions, sanctions, embargoes and export control law restrictions, and logistics restrictions including closures of air space, and could increase the costs, risks and adverse impacts from supply chain and logistics challenges.

The success of our international sales and operations will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and manage these risks effectively. Our failure to manage any of these risks could harm our international operations, reduce our international sales, and could give rise to liabilities, costs or other business difficulties that could adversely affect our operations and financial results.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following table provides a summary of repurchases of our common stock during the second quarter of fiscal 2024:

(1) On December 9, 2021, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $1.0 billion

of our common stock, which replaced in its entirety our previous stock repurchase program. The program may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time. During the second quarter of fiscal 2024, we repurchased $57.0 million of our common stock under the stock repurchase program, and we had $161.0 million remaining under the current repurchase authorization as of April 27, 2024. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations– Liquidity and Capital Resources – Stock Repurchase Authorization” in Item 2 of Part I of this report and Note 16 to our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 1 of Part I of this report for information regarding the stock repurchase programs authorized by our Board of Directors.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

Not applicable.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.