Airgain (AIRG) Risk Analysis

Our products are subject to export control and import laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Controls. Exports of our products must be made in compliance with these laws and regulations. If we violate these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to substantial civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export or import privileges, fines, which may be imposed on us and responsible employees or managers, and, in extreme cases, the incarceration of responsible employees or managers. In addition, if our channel partners, agents or consultants fail to obtain appropriate import, export or re-export licenses or authorizations, we may also be adversely affected through reputational harm and penalties. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular sale may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Changes in our products or changes in applicable export or import laws and regulations may also create delays in the introduction and sale of our products in international markets, prevent our end-customers with international operations from deploying our products or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our products to certain countries, governments or persons altogether. Any change in export or import laws and regulations, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing laws and regulations, or change in the countries or territories, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such laws and regulations, could also result in decreased use of our products, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our products to existing or potential end-customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products or limitation on our ability to export or sell our products would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Furthermore, U.S. export control laws and economic sanctions prohibit the provision of certain products and services to countries and territories, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions. U.S. sanctions that have been or may be imposed, including as a result of military conflicts in other countries may impact our ability to sell our products within regions covered by such sanctions or with or involving targeted persons. Despite our compliance efforts and activities, we cannot assure compliance by our employees or representatives for which we may be held responsible. If we fail to comply with export and import regulations and such economic sanctions, penalties could be imposed, including, for example, fines and/or denial of certain export privileges. These export and import controls and economic sanctions could also adversely affect our manufacturers, suppliers and customers. We are subject to risks generally associated with having a global supply chain, including certain laws and regulations related to forced labor and human rights. In June 2022, the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) went into effect, which imposes a rebuttable presumption that goods produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China or involving certain Chinese entities were produced using forced labor and prohibits importation of such goods into the United States absent clear and convincing evidence proving otherwise. UFLPA or other U.S. human rights trade restrictions could affect the sourcing and availability of products, lead to our products being held for inspection by CBP and delayed or rejected for entry into the United States, result in other supply chain disruptions, or cause us to be subject to penalties, fines or sanctions. In the future, these human rights-related trade restrictions may expand in the United States or extend beyond the United States. In September 2022, the European Union announced a similar proposal targeting goods within Europe created with forced labor, without specifying particular countries or sectors. The EU proposal, if passed and implemented, could similarly impact our supply chain. Even if we were not subject to penalties, fines or sanctions or supply chain disruption under these restrictions, if products we source are linked in any way to forced labor, our reputation could be harmed. On October 7, 2022, the Bureau of Industry and Security issued new export controls related to the Chinese semiconductor manufacturing, advanced computing, and supercomputer industries. The new export controls impose broad end-use and other restrictions on facilities in China that develop or produce semiconductor chips or manufacturing equipment, may impact our ability to license or support our products to entities in or doing business with certain advanced AI or "supercomputer" design companies, foundries and manufacturers of assemblies and components in China. We are still evaluating these complex new rules and are unable to quantitatively estimate any impacts at this time, but such restrictions, and any subsequent restrictions, may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition. Bureau of Industry and Security furthered restrictions on the export of certain advanced computing chips and manufacturing technology to China, focused on end-user with military, data center, or artificial intelligence applications. These export control changes of certain integrated circuits are now subject to export licensing and export control restrictions for export or reexport to China and certain other countries. Furthermore, increased restrictions on China exports may lead to regulatory retaliation by the Chinese government and possibly further escalate geopolitical tensions, and any such scenarios may adversely impact our business. The prospect of future export controls that are implemented in a similar manner may continue to have an ongoing impact on our business, results of operation, or financial conditions.

There have been significant changes and proposed changes to United States trade policies, treaties, tariffs and taxes, including trade policies and tariffs regarding China, Russia, eastern Europe, the middle east, and Asia. For example, the United States has imposed supplemental tariffs of up to 25% on certain imports from China, as well as tariffs on steel and aluminum products imported from various other countries. The United States may maintain or increase these tariffs or impose new ones. In response, China and other countries have imposed or proposed additional tariffs on certain exports from the United States, and it is unclear what future actions countries will or will not take with respect to trade policies, treaties, and tariffs. We do a significant amount of business in China, including dealing with Chinese suppliers and customers, for the products that use imported components that are covered under these policies. We have engaged new CMs outside of China for additional supply chain diversity as well as an option of supply of components and assemblies for our wireless solutions that can be imported to the United States without the supplemental tariff. However, these contribute to significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan as well as other countries, including with respect to the trade policies, treaties, government regulations and tariffs that could apply to trade with those countries. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global trade and, in particular, trade between these countries and the United States. Any of these factors could depress economic activity and restrict our access to suppliers or customers and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and affect our strategy in China and elsewhere around the world.

We have partnered, and expect to continue to partner, with certain companies to further advance or develop our wireless connectivity solutions and develop or expand on new and existing technologies. These arrangements involve the commitment by each company of various resources, including technology, and research and development. If these arrangements do not develop as expected, especially those that involve our proprietary technologies, or if the products and/or services produced by our partners do not meet the required quality standards, our ability to introduce new antenna products and wireless connectivity solutions successfully and on schedule may be limited. Further, we cannot provide any assurances that our existing partnerships will be maintained successfully or at all, the failure of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. If existing partnership entity has any technical difficulties, if our partnership with them does not continue to develop, or if the technology developed in partnership does not develop or the partnership entity does not perform as expected or suffers market-launch delay or project-cost overrun, our sales may decrease and our operating results could suffer.

Our ability to compete effectively is dependent in part upon our ability to protect our proprietary technology. We rely on patents, trademarks, trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures and licensing arrangements to protect our intellectual property rights. There can be no assurance these protections will be available in all cases or will be adequate to prevent our competitors from copying, reverse engineering or otherwise obtaining and using our technology, proprietary rights or products. For example, the laws of certain countries in which our products are manufactured or licensed do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. In addition, third parties may seek to challenge, invalidate or circumvent our patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, or applications for any of the foregoing. There can be no assurance that our competitors will not independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technology or design around our proprietary rights. In each case, our ability to compete could be significantly impaired. To prevent substantial unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, it may be necessary to prosecute actions for infringement and/or misappropriation of our proprietary rights against third parties. Any such action could result in significant costs and diversion of our resources and management's attention, and there can be no assurance we will be successful in such action. Furthermore, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights than we do. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property.

Antenna solutions is an established technical field with low intellectual property and technological barriers to entry. Antenna competition exists globally for all areas of our business and product lines. The markets in which we compete are rapidly evolving and intensely competitive, and we expect competition to increase in the future from established competitors and new market entrants. The markets are influenced by, among others, brand awareness and reputation, price, strength and scale of sales and marketing efforts, professional services and customer support, product features, reliability and performance, scalability of products, and breadth of product offerings. Due to the proprietary nature of some of our products, competition occurs primarily at the design stage. As a result, a design win by our competitors or by us typically limits further competition regarding that design. This competition could result in increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses and failure to increase, or the loss of, market share, any of which would likely seriously harm our business, operating results or financial condition. In addition, some of our ODM, OEM and carrier and retail-focused end-customers that drive the use of our antenna solutions have and, in the future, may build internal antenna design teams that compete with our products. From a cost and control perspective, our products generally cost more than our competitors' products. If our ability to design antenna solutions is deemed to be on par or of lesser value than competing solutions, we could lose our customers and prospects. Additionally, our movement into more system-based solutions may bring more competitors into our markets than we have traditionally faced. As our solutions begin to contain more system components and commensurate higher average selling prices, the resulting product categories may attract additional competitors or our customers may be more likely to begin to develop competing products.

We believe that establishing and maintaining successful relationships with these channel partners is, and will continue to be, important to our financial success. Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners and training them in our technology and product offerings require significant time and resources. To develop and expand our channel, we must continue to scale and improve our processes and procedures that support our channel partners, including investment in systems and training. Existing and future channel partners will only work with us if we are able to provide them with competitive products on terms that are commercially reasonable to them. If we fail to maintain the quality of our products or to update and enhance them, existing and future channel partners may elect to work instead with one or more of our competitors. If channel partners stop actively selling our products, we may experience further decline in sales. In addition, the terms of our arrangements with our channel partners must be commercially reasonable for both parties. If we are unable to reach agreements that are beneficial to both parties, then our channel partner relationships will not succeed. We have no minimum purchase commitments with any of our channel partners, and our contracts with channel partners do not prohibit them from offering products or services that compete with ours, including products they currently offer or may develop in the future and incorporate into their own systems. Some of our competitors may have stronger relationships with our channel partners than we do, and we have limited control, if any, as to whether those partners use our products, rather than our competitors' products, or whether they devote resources to market and support our competitors' products, rather than our offerings. The reduction in or loss of sales by these channel partners could materially reduce our sales. If we fail to maintain relationships with our channel partners, fail to develop new relationships with other channel partners in new markets, fail to manage, train or incentivize existing channel partners effectively, fail to provide channel partners with competitive products on terms acceptable to them, or if these channel partners are not successful in their sales efforts, our sales may decrease and our operating results could suffer.

We outsource the manufacturing, assembly and some of the testing of our products.,. We have over the past two years engaged additional CMs outside of China, including Vietnam and Mexico, to expand our capacity, and to diversify the global regions in which our products are manufactured. These CMs are relied upon to manufacture, control quality of, and ship our products. We do not have long-term contracts with these manufacturers that commit them to manufacture products for us and we have limited direct control over their activities. Furthermore, political unrest or political instability, military conflict in any country in which our CMs are located, war between Russia and Ukraine, and the conflict related to China and Taiwan, political unrest, tensions and uncertainty in the Middle East, and global and regional, terrorism or other geopolitical events may have an adverse effect on our contract manufacturer's ability to deliver quality products on time. Any significant change in our relationship with these manufacturers could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. We make substantially all of our purchases from our CMs on a purchase order basis. Our CMs are not required to manufacture our products for any specific period or in any specific quantity. We expect that it would take approximately six to nine months to transition manufacturing, quality assurance, and shipping services to new providers. Relying on CMs for manufacturing, quality assurance, and shipping also presents significant risks to us, including the inability of our CMs to: - qualify appropriate component suppliers;- manage capacity during periods of high demand;- meet delivery schedules;- assure the quality of our products;- ensure adequate supplies of materials;- protect our intellectual property; and - deliver finished products at agreed-upon prices. Any failure by us or our CMs to timely deliver products of satisfactory quality or in sufficient quantities in compliance with applicable laws could hurt our reputation, cause customers to cancel orders or refrain from placing new orders for our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our business depends on the economic health and general willingness of our current and prospective end- customers to make those capital commitments necessary to purchase our products. If the conditions in the U.S. and global economies become uncertain or volatile, or if they deteriorate, including as a result of the current or anticipated impact of military conflict, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the conflict related to China and Taiwan, political unrest, tensions and uncertainty in the Middle East, and global and regional, terrorism or other geopolitical events, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. Economic weakness, end-customer financial difficulties, inflation and increases in interest rates, limited availability of credit, liquidity shortages and constrained capital spending have at times in the past resulted, and may in the future result, in challenging and delayed sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition, and could negatively affect our ability to forecast future periods, which could result in an inability to satisfy demand for our products and a loss of market share. In addition, if interest rates rise or foreign exchange rates weaken for our international customers, overall demand for our products and services could decline and related capital spending may be reduced. Furthermore, any increase in worldwide commodity prices may result in higher component prices for us and increased shipping costs, both of which may negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, the closures in 2023 of financial institutions and their placement into receivership with the FDIC created bank-specific and broader financial institution liquidity risk and concerns. Future adverse developments with respect to specific financial institutions or the broader financial services industry may lead to market-wide liquidity shortages, impair the ability of companies to access near-term working capital needs, and create additional market and economic uncertainty. There can be no assurance that future credit and financial market instability and a deterioration in confidence in economic conditions will not occur. Our general business strategy may be adversely affected by any such economic downturn, liquidity shortages, volatile business environment or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. If the equity and credit markets deteriorate, or if adverse developments are experienced by financial institutions, it may cause short-term liquidity risk and also make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, more onerous with respect to financial and operating covenants and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy, financial performance and stock price and could require us to alter our operating plans. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our current service providers, financial institutions, manufacturers, suppliers, customers and other partners may be adversely affected by the foregoing risks, which could directly affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget.

Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of a widespread outbreak of contagious disease, including any pandemic or epidemic. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 created considerable instability and disruption in the U.S. and world economies and had a material and adverse effect on our business and operations. The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption and restrictions on our and our customers' ability to travel, temporary closures of our office buildings and the facilities of our customers or suppliers, cancellations or modification of key industry marketing events, disruptions with our CMs and suppliers located in affected regions and overall adversely affect development of and sales for our products and solutions. Future pandemics or other public health epidemics may have material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, and may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this "Risk Factors" section.