Corsair Gaming (CRSR) Risk Factors

The products we sell, which include gamer and creator peripherals and gaming components and systems, are characterized by short product life cycles, frequent new product introductions, rapidly changing technology and evolving industry standards. In addition, average selling prices of some of our products tend to decline as the products mature, and we expect this trend to continue. As a result, we must continually anticipate and respond to changing gamer requirements, innovate in our current and emerging categories of products, introduce new products and enhance existing products in a timely and efficient manner in order to remain competitive and execute our growth strategy. We believe that the success of our products depends to a significant degree on our ability to identify new features or category opportunities, anticipate technological developments and market trends and distinguish our products from those of our competitors. In order to further grow our business, we also will need to quickly develop, manufacture and ship innovative and reliable new products and enhancements to our existing products in a cost-effective and timely manner to take advantage of developments in enabling technologies and the introduction of new computer hardware, such as new generations of GPUs and CPUs, and computer games, all of which drive demand for our products. In recent years, we have entered into several new markets, for example the cameras market for content creators and the gaming monitors market for both gamers and content creators, and in the future, we intend to introduce other products designed to appeal to these markets. To the extent we do so, we will likely encounter competition from large, well-known consumer electronics and peripherals companies. Some of these companies have significantly greater financial, manufacturing, marketing and other resources than we do and may be able to devote greater resources to the design, development, manufacture, distribution, promotion, sale and support of their products. We cannot predict whether we will be successful in developing or marketing new products and categories of products and, if we fail to do so, our business may be seriously harmed. If we do not continue to distinguish our products through distinctive, technologically advanced features and designs, our business may be seriously harmed.

We consider the Corsair brand to be one of our most valuable assets. We also consider the Elgato, Origin, SCUF brands and iCUE proprietary technology brands. Our future success depends to a large degree upon our ability to defend the Corsair brand, proprietary technology brands and product family brands from infringement and to protect our other intellectual property. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent and other intellectual property laws and confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions such as nondisclosure terms to protect our intellectual property. We hold a limited number of patents and pending patent applications. It is possible that any patent owned by us will be invalidated, deemed unenforceable, circumvented or challenged and that our pending or any future patent applications will not be granted. In addition, other intellectual property laws or our confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions may not adequately protect our intellectual property and others may independently develop similar technology, duplicate our products, or design around any intellectual property rights we may have. Any of these events may seriously harm our business. Certain of the licenses pursuant to which we are permitted to use the intellectual property of third parties can be terminated at any time by us or the other party. If we are unable to negotiate and maintain licenses on acceptable terms, we will be required to develop alternative technology internally or license it from other third parties, which may be difficult and costly or impossible. The expansion of our business will require us to protect our trademarks, domain names, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and sometimes requires litigation. If we are unable to protect and enforce our trademarks, domain names, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights, or prevent third parties from infringing upon them, our business may be seriously harmed. We have taken steps in the past to enforce our intellectual property rights and expect to continue to do so in the future. However, it may not be practical or cost-effective for us to enforce our rights with respect to certain items of intellectual property fully, or at all, particularly in developing countries where the enforcement of intellectual property rights may be more difficult than in the United States. It is also possible that, given the costs of obtaining patent protection, we may choose not to seek patent protection for certain items of intellectual property that may later turn out to be important.

Because most of the products we sell are linked through either our iCUE software or our Elgato streaming software suite, "bugs" or other glitches in the software may cause it to not perform reliably, meet our quality standards or meet performance specifications. Further, even if we detect any bugs or other glitches in the iCUE software or our Elgato streaming software suite we may be unable to update the affected software effectively to remediate these problems. In addition, in order for us to stay competitive, we need to update the iCUE software, Elgato streaming software suite and any other software utilized by our products, to incorporate innovations and other changes to address gamers and content creators' changing needs. If we are unable to update the iCUE software or our Elgato streaming software suite to include such updates or address any bugs or glitches, its use to gamers and content creators may be substantially diminished, which could seriously harm our business.

Products that do not meet specifications or that contain, or are perceived by our customers or gamers to contain, defects could impose significant costs on us or seriously harm our business. Our products may suffer from design flaws, quality control problems in the manufacturing process or components that are defective or do not meet our quality standards. Moreover, the markets we serve are characterized by rapidly changing technology and intense competition and the pressure to continuously develop new products and improvements and bring such products and improvements to market quickly heightens the risks that our products will be subject to both quality control and design problems. Because we largely rely on third parties to manufacture our products and the components that are used in our products, our ability to control the quality of the manufacturing process and the components that are used to manufacture our products is limited. Product quality issues, whether as a result of design or manufacturing flaws or the use of components that are not of the requisite quality or do not meet our specifications, could result in product recalls, product redesign efforts, lost revenue, loss of reputation, and significant warranty and other expenses. In that regard, we have previously voluntarily recalled the SF-series PSUs. Recalls of products and warranty-related issues can be costly, cause damage to our reputation and result in increased expenses, lost revenue and production delays. We may also be required to compensate customers for costs incurred or damages caused by defective products. If we incur warranty or product redesign costs, institute recalls of products or suffer damage to our reputation as a result of defective products, our business could be seriously harmed.

Our performance depends to a significant degree upon the contributions of our management team, particularly Andrew J. Paul, our co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director. If we lose the services of one or more of our key executives, we may not be able to successfully manage our business, meet competitive challenges or achieve our growth objectives. To the extent that our business grows, we will need to attract and retain additional qualified management personnel in a timely manner, and we may not be able to do so.

We depend upon our product forecasts to make decisions regarding investments of our resources and production levels of our products. Because of the lead time necessary to manufacture our products and the fact that we usually have little or no advance notice of customer orders, we must order our products from third-party manufacturers, committing to substantial purchases prior to obtaining orders for those products from our customers. This makes it difficult for us to adjust our inventory levels if orders fall below our expectations. Our failure to predict low demand for our products could result in excess inventory, as well as lower cash flows and lower margins if we were unable to sell a product or if we were required to lower product prices in order to reduce inventories, and may also result in inventory write-downs such as the $22.5 million inventory impairment and related charges recognized during the second quarter of 2022. In addition, the cancellation or reduction of orders by our customers may also result in excess inventory. On the other hand, if actual orders exceed our expectations, we may need to incur additional costs, such as higher shipping costs for air freight or other expedited delivery or higher product costs for expedited manufacturing, in order to deliver sufficient quantities of products to meet customer orders on a timely basis or we may be unable to fulfill some orders altogether. In addition, many of the types of products we sell have short product life cycles, so a failure to accurately predict and meet demand for products can result in lost sales that we may be unable to recover in subsequent periods. These short life cycles also make it more likely that slow moving or excess inventory may become obsolete, requiring us to sell our products at significant discounts or write off entirely excess or obsolete inventory. Any failure to deliver products in quantities sufficient to satisfy demand can also seriously harm our reputation with both our retailer customers and end-consumers. Over the past few years, we have expanded, and we will continue to expand our product portfolio and sales reach. The growth of our product portfolio and the markets in which we sell our products has increased the difficulty of accurately forecasting product demand. We have in the past experienced significant differences between our forecasts and actual demand for our products and expect similar differences in the future. If we do not accurately predict product demand, our business may be seriously harmed.

DRAM integrated circuits, or ICs, account for most of the cost of producing our DRAM modules. The market for these ICs is highly competitive and cyclical. Prices of DRAM ICs have historically been subject to volatility over relatively short periods of time due to a number of factors, including imbalances in supply and demand. We expect these fluctuations will recur in the future, which could seriously harm our business. For example, changes in the selling prices of our DRAM modules can have a substantial impact on our net revenue as our performance memory products represents a significant portion of our overall net revenue. In addition, declines in the market price of ICs enable our competitors to lower prices and we will likely be forced to lower our product prices in order to compete effectively which could have an adverse effect on our net revenue. Further, because we carry inventory of DRAM ICs and DRAM modules at our facility in Taiwan, fluctuations in the market price of these ICs can have an effect on our gross margin. For example, declines in the prices of these ICs and their related products have tended to have a negative short-term impact on gross margin of our DRAM modules. In addition, selling prices of our DRAM modules, on the one hand, and market prices of DRAM ICs, on the other hand, may rise or fall at different rates, which may also affect our gross margin. Any of these circumstances could materially adversely affect our net revenue and gross margins. We use DRAM ICs produced by Samsung, Micron and Hynix in our DRAM modules. We purchase those DRAM ICs, pursuant to purchase orders and not long-term supply contracts, largely from third-party distributors and, to a lesser extent, directly from those manufacturers. According to the most recent external market share data for the trailing twelve months average, ended September 30, 2023, Samsung, a manufacturer of DRAM ICs, had an approximately 41.6% share of the worldwide DRAM IC market, compared to approximately 29.4% for Hynix and approximately 24.7% for Micron in each case for the same period. However, should supply from any of these vendors be limited, there can be no assurance that we would be able to meet our needs by purchasing DRAM ICs produced by other manufacturers or from agents and distributors. Further, there are a limited number of companies capable of producing the high-speed DRAM ICs required for our high-performance DRAM modules, and any inability to procure the requisite quantities and quality of DRAM ICs could reduce our production of DRAM modules and could seriously harm our business.

Our industry is characterized by rapidly evolving technology and standards. These technological developments require us to integrate new technology and standards into our products, create new and relevant categories of products and adapt to changing business models in a timely manner. Our competitors may develop or acquire alternative and competing technologies and standards that could allow them to create new and disruptive products or produce similar competitive products at lower costs of production. Advances in the development of gaming, computing and audiovisual technology could render our products less competitive or obsolete. For example, the emergence of augmented reality and virtual reality headsets could render certain of our gamer and creator peripherals such as keyboards and mice less relevant, similar to how cloud computing could drastically reduce the need for gaming components and systems. If we are unable to provide new products for augmented or virtual reality devices or to address other technological trends, our business may be seriously harmed. In addition, government authorities and industry organizations may adopt new standards that apply to our products. As a result, we may need to invest significant resources in research and development to maintain our market position, keep pace with technological changes and compete effectively. Our product development expenses were $65.3 million and $66.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, representing 4.5% and 4.8% of our net revenue for these periods, respectively. Our failure to improve our products, create new and relevant categories of products and adapt to changing business models in a timely manner may seriously harm our business. In addition, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, poor relations between the United States and Russia, and sanctions by the United States and the European Union against Russia could have an adverse impact on our research and development efforts as we outsource significant research and development activities to companies in Ukraine.

In 2023 and 2022, sales to Amazon accounted for 30.7% and 26.0% of our net revenue, respectively. Sales to our ten largest customers accounted for 55.4% and 52.3% of our net revenue in 2023 and 2022, respectively. Our customers, including Amazon, typically do not enter into long-term agreements to purchase our products but instead enter into purchase orders with us from time to time. These purchase orders may generally be cancelled and orders can be reduced or postponed by the customer. In addition, our customers are under no obligation to continue purchasing from us and may purchase similar products from our competitors, and some of our customer agreements contain "most favored nation" clauses. Further, while we maintain accounts receivables insurance for many of our customers, we do not maintain such coverage for Amazon and others. As a result, if either Amazon or others were to default on their payment to us, and if we were to have substantial accounts receivables balances with such customers outstanding, we would not be covered by insurance, and our business may be seriously harmed. If the financial condition of a key customer weakens, if a key customer stops purchasing our products, or if uncertainty regarding demand for our products causes a key customer to reduce their orders and marketing of our products, our business could be seriously harmed. A decision by one or more of our key customers to reduce, delay or cancel its orders from us, either as a result of industry conditions or specific events relating to a particular customer or failure or inability to pay amounts owed to us in a timely manner, or at all, may seriously harm our business. In addition, because of our reliance on key customers, the loss of one or more key customers as a result of bankruptcy or liquidation or otherwise, and the resulting loss of sales, may seriously harm our business.

Retailers and distributors of consumer electronics products have, from time to time, experienced significant fluctuations in their businesses and some of them have become insolvent. A retailer or distributor experiencing such difficulties will generally not purchase and sell as many of our products as it would under normal circumstances and may cancel orders. In addition, a retailer or distributor experiencing financial difficulties generally increases our exposure to uncollectible receivables. Moreover, if one of our distributors or retailer customers experiences financial distress or bankruptcy, they may be required to liquidate their inventory of our products, or similar products that compete with our products, at reduced prices, which can result in substantial over-supply and reduced demand for our products over the short term. If any of these circumstances were to occur, it could seriously harm our business. Likewise, our competitors may from time to time experience similar financial difficulties or may elect to terminate their sales of certain products. If any of our competitors experience financial distress or bankruptcy and are forced to liquidate inventory or exit a product line and disposes of inventory at reduced prices, this may also result in over-supply of and reduced demand for our products and could have a short-term adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

In connection with certain of our products, we collect information related to our gamers and creators. This information is increasingly subject to an ever-evolving patchwork of legislation, regulations and industry standards in numerous jurisdictions around the world. Government actions are typically intended to protect the privacy and security of personal information and its collection, storage, transmission, use and distribution in or from the governing jurisdiction and other processing. The U.S. and foreign governments and agencies may in the future enact new legislation and promulgate new regulations governing collection, use, disclosure, storage, transmission, destruction or other processing of personal data and other information. As such, and because various jurisdictions have different laws and regulations concerning the use, storage, transmission and other processing of such information, we may face requirements that pose compliance challenges in existing markets as well as new international markets that we seek to enter, potentially requiring additional investment in resources for compliance programs, and impacting business operations and availability of previously useful data. For example, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and state regulators enforce a variety of data privacy issues, such as promises made in privacy policies or failures to appropriately protect information about individuals, as unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act or similar state laws. In addition, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (the "CCPA") creates individual privacy rights for California consumers and increases the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain information about individuals. For example, the CCPA gives California residents rights to access, delete or correct their personal information and opt out of certain processing of personal information. Failure to comply with the CCPA creates additional risks including enforcement by the California Attorney General or the California Privacy Protection Agency, limited private rights of actions for certain data breaches and damage to reputation. Since the CCPA went into effect, comprehensive privacy statutes that share similarities with the CCPA have been enacted in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and other states. Many other states are currently reviewing or proposing the need for greater regulation of the collection, sharing, use and other processing of information related to individuals for marketing purposes or otherwise and there remains increased interest at the federal level as well, reflecting a trend towards more stringent data privacy legislation. We are also subject to legislation in Europe and the U.K., such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the "EU GDPR"), and to the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 (the "UK GDPR," and together with the EU GDPR, the "GDPR"). The GDPR imposes comprehensive data privacy compliance obligations in relation to our collection, processing, sharing, disclosure, transfer and other use of personal information, including a principal of accountability and the obligation to demonstrate compliance through policies, procedures, training and audit. The GDPR has also imposed more stringent operational requirements for companies that are subject to the GDPR, including: requiring detailed disclosures about how personal information is to be collected, used and processed; demonstrating that appropriate legal bases are in place to justify data processing activities; complying with rights for data subjects with regard to their personal information (including access, erasure (the right to be "forgotten") and portability); limitations on retention of personal information; and mandatory data breach notification requirements to regulators (and in certain cases, individuals). The EU GDPR and UK GDPR also regulate cross-border transfers of personal information out of the EEA and the U.K. Recent legal developments in Europe have created uncertainty regarding transfers of data from the EEA and the U.K. to the U.S. and other jurisdictions. For example, in 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") invalidated Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (the "Privacy Shield"), under which personal information could be transferred from the EEA (and the U.K.) to relevant self-certified U.S. entities. The CJEU further noted that reliance on the standard contractual clauses (a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism and potential alternative to the Privacy Shield) alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances and that transfers must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. In 2022, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to implement the new EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which have been effective transfer mechanisms to self-certified US entities under the framework (and the U.K. extension) since July 2023 and October 2023, respectively ("EU-US Data Privacy Protection Framework"). We rely on the newest standard contractual clauses of June 4, 2021, for our intragroup, customer and vendor agreements. Notwithstanding the above, we expect the existing legal complexity and uncertainty regarding international personal data transfers to continue. As the enforcement landscape further develops, and supervisory authorities issue further guidance on personal information export mechanisms, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines; we may have to stop using certain tools and vendors and make other operational changes; we may have to implement revised standard contractual clauses for existing intragroup, customer and vendor arrangements within required time frames; and/or if we are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could adversely affect our business, operations or financial results. We are also subject to evolving privacy laws on cookies, tracking technologies and e-marketing. For example, in the EU and the U.K. under national laws derived from the ePrivacy Directive, informed consent is required for the placement of a cookie or similar technologies on a user's device and for direct electronic marketing. The GDPR also imposes conditions on obtaining valid consent for cookies, such as a prohibition on pre-checked consents and a requirement to ensure separate consents are sought for each type of cookie or similar technology. Recent U.S. and European court and regulator decisions are driving increased attention to cookies and tracking technologies. If the trend of increasing proceedings by litigants and enforcement by regulators of the strict approach in recent guidance and decisions continues, this could lead to substantial costs, require significant systems changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, divert the attention of our technology personnel, adversely affect our margins, increase costs and subject us to additional liabilities. In light of the complex and evolving nature of privacy laws on cookies and tracking technologies, it may lead to broader restrictions and impairments on our marketing and personalization activities and may negatively impact our efforts to understand users. Compliance with existing and emerging privacy and cybersecurity laws, regulations and industry standards could result in increased compliance costs and/or lead to changes in business practices and policies. While we have taken various measures to help ensure that our policies, processes and systems are in compliance with our obligations, we cannot guarantee that regulators or consumers will agree with our approach to compliance and any failure to protect the confidentiality of client information could adversely affect our reputation, lead to private litigation against us, and require additional investment in resources, impact strategies and availability of previously useful data, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. We may also face civil claims including representative actions and other class action type litigation (where individuals have suffered harm), potentially amounting to significant compensation or damages liabilities, as well as associated costs, diversion of internal resources, and reputational harm.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the DGCL, our amended and restated bylaws and our indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers provide that: - we will indemnify our directors and officers for serving us in those capacities or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person's conduct was unlawful;- we may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law;- we are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification;- we will not be obligated pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors or brought to enforce a right to indemnification;- the rights conferred in our amended and restated bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons; and - we may not retroactively amend our amended and restated bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents.

Our operations, properties and the products we sell are subject to a variety of U.S. and foreign environmental laws and regulations governing, among other things, air emissions, wastewater discharges, management and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous materials and waste, and remediation of releases of hazardous materials. Our failure to comply with present and future requirements under these laws and regulations, or environmental contamination or releases of hazardous materials on our leased premises, as well as through disposal of our products, could cause us to incur substantial costs, including clean-up costs, personal injury and property damage claims, fines and penalties, costs to redesign our products or upgrade our facilities and legal costs, or require us to curtail our operations. Environmental contamination or releases of hazardous materials may also subject us to claims of property damage or personal injury, which could result in litigation and require us to make substantial payments to satisfy adverse judgments or pay settlements. Liability under environmental laws can be joint and several and without regard to comparative fault. We also expect that our operations will be affected by new environmental laws and regulations on an ongoing basis, which will likely result in additional costs. Environmental laws and regulations could also require that we redesign our products or change how our products are made, any of which could seriously harm our business. The costs of complying with environmental laws and regulations or the effect of any claims or liability concerning or resulting from noncompliance or environmental contamination could also seriously harm our business. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC adopted disclosure and reporting requirements for companies that use "conflict" minerals originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo or adjoining countries. We continue to incur costs associated with complying with these requirements, such as costs related to developing internal controls for the due diligence process, determining the source of any conflict minerals used in our products, auditing the process and reporting to our customers and the SEC. In addition to the SEC regulation, the European Union, China and other jurisdictions are developing new policies focused on conflict minerals that may impact and increase the cost of our compliance program. Also, since our supply chain is complex, we may face reputational challenges if we are unable to sufficiently verify the origins of the subject minerals. Moreover, we are likely to encounter challenges to satisfy those customers who require that all of the components of our products are certified as "conflict free." If we cannot satisfy these customers, they may choose a competitor's products. The U.S. federal government has issued new policies for federal procurement focused on eradicating the practice of forced labor and human trafficking. In addition, the U.K. and the State of California have issued laws that require us to disclose our policy and practices for identifying and eliminating forced labor and human trafficking in our supply chain. While we have a policy and management systems to identify and avoid these practices in our supply chain, we cannot guarantee that our suppliers will always be in conformance to these laws and expectations. We may face enforcement liability and reputational challenges if we are unable to sufficiently meet these expectations.