Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Interest Rate Risk. With our outstanding debt, we are exposed to various forms of market risk, including the potential losses arising from adverse changes in interest rates on our outstanding Term Loan, including changes that may result from implementation of new benchmark rates that replace LIBOR. See “Note 8 - Debt” for further information. A hypothetical increase or decrease in the interest rate by 1% would result in an increase or decrease in annual interest expense by approximately $15.7 million.

We currently carry debt that relies on one-month LIBOR as the benchmark rate. The one-month LIBOR is expected to cease publication after June 30, 2023. To the extent the one-month LIBOR ceases to exist, the 2020 Term Loans and 2020 Revolving Credit Facility agreements contemplate an alternative benchmark rate without the need for any amendment thereto.

We maintain an investment policy that requires minimum credit ratings, diversification of credit risk and limits the long-term interest rate risk by requiring effective maturities of generally less than five years. We invest our excess cash primarily in highly liquid debt instruments of the U.S. government and its agencies, money market mutual funds, corporate debt securities and municipal debt securities that are classified as available-for-sale and time deposits. These investments are recorded on our consolidated balance sheets at fair market value with their related unrealized gain or loss reflected as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in the consolidated statement of stockholders’ equity. Investments in both fixed rate and floating rate interest earning securities carry a degree of interest rate risk. Fixed rate securities may have their fair market value adversely impacted due to a rise in interest rates, while floating rate securities may produce less income than predicted if interest rates fall. There were no such investments on hand at January 29, 2022, aside from cash and cash equivalents.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk. All of our sales and the majority of our expenses are denominated in U.S. dollars. Since we operate in many countries, a percentage of our international operational expenses are denominated in foreign currencies and exchange volatility could positively or negatively impact those operating costs. Increases in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies could make our products more expensive, which could negatively impact our ability to compete. Conversely, decreases in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies could result in our suppliers raising their prices to continue doing business with us. Additionally, we may hold certain assets and liabilities, including potential tax liabilities, in local currency on our consolidated balance sheet. These tax liabilities would be settled in local currency. Therefore, foreign exchange gains and losses from remeasuring the tax liabilities are recorded to interest and other income, net. We do not believe that foreign exchange volatility has a material impact on our current business or results of operations. However, fluctuations in currency exchange rates could have a greater effect on our business or results of operations in the future to the extent our expenses increasingly become denominated in foreign currencies.

We may enter into foreign currency forward and option contracts with financial institutions to protect against foreign exchange risks associated with certain existing assets and liabilities, certain firmly committed transactions, forecasted future cash flows and net investments in foreign subsidiaries. However, we may choose not to hedge certain foreign exchange exposures for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, accounting considerations and the prohibitive economic cost of hedging particular exposures.

To provide an assessment of the foreign currency exchange risk associated with our foreign currency exposures within operating expense, we performed a sensitivity analysis to determine the impact that an adverse change in exchange rates would have on our financial statements. If the U.S. dollar weakened by 10%, our operating expense could increase by approximately 2%.