Advanced Energy (AEIS) Risk Factors

We are subject to federal, state, local and foreign regulations, including environmental regulations and regulations relating to the design and operation of our products and control systems and regulations governing the import, export and customs duties related to our products. We might incur significant costs as we seek to ensure that our products meet safety and emissions standards, many of which vary across the states and countries in which our products are used. In the past, we have invested significant resources to redesign our products to comply with these directives. In addition, through recent acquisitions, we expanded our presence in the medical market to include more highly regulated applications and added a medical-certified manufacturing center to our operating footprint. We may encounter increased costs to maintain compliance with the quality systems and other regulations and requirements that apply to the acquired business. Compliance with future regulations, directives, and standards could require us to modify or redesign some products, make capital expenditures, or incur substantial costs. Also, we may incur significant costs in complying with the numerous imports, exports, and customs regulations as we seek to sell our products internationally. If we do not comply with current or future regulations, directives, and standards: - we could be subject to fines and penalties;- our production or shipments could be suspended; and - we could be prohibited from offering particular products in specified markets. If we were unable to comply with current or future regulations, directives and standards, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We may be involved in legal proceedings, litigation, enforcement actions, or claims regarding product performance, product warranty, product certification, product liability, patent infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, other intellectual property rights, antitrust, environmental regulations, securities, contracts, unfair competition, employment, workplace safety, and other matters. Legal proceedings, enforcement actions and claims, whether with or without merit, and associated internal investigations, may be time-consuming and expensive to prosecute, defend or conduct; divert management's attention and other resources; inhibit our ability to sell our products or services; prevent us from using our technology; result in adverse judgments for damages, injunctive relief, penalties, and fines; and adversely affect our business. We can provide no assurance of the outcome of these legal proceedings, enforcement actions or claims or that the insurance we maintain will be adequate to cover them.

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. (federal and state) and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Tax laws, regulations, and administrative practices in various jurisdictions by their nature are complex and may be subject to significant change due to economic, political, and other conditions, and significant judgment is required in evaluating and estimating our provision and accruals for these taxes. As both domestic and foreign governments contemplate or make changes in tax law to raise more revenues, our results could be adversely affected. Further, there are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Our effective tax rates could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory rates and earnings higher than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory rates, losses incurred in jurisdictions for which we are not able to realize the related tax benefit, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, entry into new businesses and geographies and changes to our existing businesses, acquisitions (including integrations) and investments, changes in our deferred tax assets and liabilities and their valuation, and changes in the relevant tax, accounting, and other laws, regulations, administrative practices, principles, and interpretations, including fundamental changes to the tax laws applicable to corporate multinationals. The U.S., many countries in the European Union, and several other countries are actively considering changes in this regard. Furthermore, due to shifting economic and political conditions, tax policies, laws, or rates in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant changes in ways that could harm our financial condition and operating results. For example, various jurisdictions around the world have enacted or are considering revenue-based taxes such as digital services taxes and other targeted taxes, which could lead to inconsistent and potentially overlapping international tax regimes. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is coordinating negotiations among more than 140 countries with the goal of achieving consensus around substantial changes to international tax policies, including the implementation of a minimum global effective tax rate of 15%. These changes could increase our effective tax rate and cash tax payments could increase in future years, create additional compliance burdens, and/or require changes to our tax compliance processes.

Regulatory authorities around the world have implemented or are considering several legislative and regulatory proposals concerning data protection. In addition, the interpretation and application of consumer and data protection laws in the U.S., Europe, China and elsewhere are often uncertain and in flux. It is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our data practices. Violation of any of these rules could result in fines or orders requiring that we change our data practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Complying with these various laws could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business.

Our products use complex system designs and components that may contain errors or defects. The manufacture of these products often involves a highly complex and precise process and the utilization of specially qualified components. The production of many of our products also requires highly skilled labor. As a result of the technical complexity of these products, design defects, skilled labor turnover, changes in our or our suppliers' manufacturing processes or the inadvertent use of defective or nonconforming materials or components by us or our suppliers could adversely affect our manufacturing quality and product reliability. To the extent our products are defective or fail, we might be required to repair, redesign, replace, or recall those products, pay damages (including liquidated damages) or fulfill warranty claims, and we could suffer significant expenses as well as harm to our reputation. Furthermore, some of our products are used in medical device applications where malfunction of the device could result in serious injury. We accrue a warranty reserve for estimated costs to provide warranty services, including the cost of technical support, product repairs, and product replacement for units that cannot be repaired. Our estimate of costs to fulfill our warranty obligations is based on historical experience and expectation of future conditions. To the extent we experience increased warranty claim activity or increased costs associated with servicing those claims, our warranty accrual will increase, resulting in decreased gross profit.

Uncertain or adverse economic and business conditions, including uncertainties and volatility in the financial markets, rising inflation and interest rates, economic recession, national debt, and fiscal or monetary concerns, could materially adversely impact our operating results and financial condition. Disruptions in the global economy or financial markets, higher interest rates and market volatility could have an adverse impact on our access to and cost of capital. Additionally, tightening of credit markets, turmoil in the financial markets, and a weakening global economy have in the past contributed and could again contribute to slowdowns in the industries in which we operate and adversely impact the global demand for our products. Some of our key markets ultimately depend on a combination of consumer and business spending. Economic uncertainty exacerbates negative trends in consumer and business spending and may cause our customers to delay, cancel, or refrain from placing orders. Difficulties or increased costs in obtaining capital and uncertain market conditions may also lead to customer liquidity constraints, a reduction of revenue, and greater instances of nonpayment or other failures to perform their obligations. Adverse or uncertain economic conditions may similarly affect our key suppliers, which could affect their ability to deliver parts and result in delays for our products. Further, these conditions and uncertainty about future economic conditions could also make it challenging for us to forecast our operating results and evaluate the risks that may affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We place orders with many of our suppliers based on our expectations as to demand for our products and our customers' forecasts. As the quarter and the year progress, such demand can change rapidly or we may realize that our customers' expectations were overly optimistic or pessimistic, especially when industry or general economic conditions change. Our sales are primarily made on a purchase order basis, or are pulled from "just in time" bins or hubs by our customers, and we generally have no long-term purchase commitments from our customers, which is typical in the industries we serve. As a result, we are limited in our ability to predict the level of future revenue or commitments from our current customers, which may diminish our ability to allocate labor, materials, and equipment in the manufacturing process effectively. In addition, we may purchase inventory in anticipation of sales that do not materialize, resulting in excess and obsolete inventory write-offs. Customers may delay delivery of products or cancel orders prior to shipment and may not be subject to cancellation penalties. Delays in delivery schedules and/or customer changes to backlog orders during any particular period could cause a decrease in revenue and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Orders with our suppliers cannot always be amended in response to changing demand conditions. In addition, to assure availability of certain components or to obtain priority pricing, we have entered into contracts with some of our suppliers that require us to purchase a specified number of components and subassemblies each quarter, even if we are not able to use such components or subassemblies. Moreover, we have obligations to some of our customers to hold a minimum amount of finished goods in inventory to fulfill just in time orders, regardless of whether the customers expect to place such orders. We currently have firm purchase commitments and agreements with various suppliers to ensure the availability of components. If demand for our products exceeds our customers' and our forecasts, we may not be able to timely obtain enough raw materials, parts, components, or subassemblies, on favorable terms or at all, to fulfill the excess demand. Furthermore, some of our products have lengthy lifecycles and are subject to supplier parts obsolescence, and sole-sourced parts can create challenges in terms of purchasing parts on reasonable terms and lead-times. These situations may lead to customers cancelling orders prior to shipment causing a decrease in revenue, which may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In recent years, there has been a shortage of critical components caused by a variety of factors, including increased demand for electronic components used in a wide variety of industries, the pandemic-driven rise in consumer demand for technology goods, logistics-related disruptions in shipping, capacity limitations at some suppliers, and labor shortages. These supply constraints led to longer lead times in procuring materials and subcomponents and, in some cases, meaningfully higher costs for the subcomponents. Supply chain performance and lead times generally improved in 2023 and the negative impact from component shortages and higher material costs will likely subside in 2024; however, our revenues, earnings, and cash flow may be adversely impacted if these conditions continue longer than expected or once again deteriorate.