Teradyne (TER) Risk Factors

Our business is international in nature, with our sales, service and administrative personnel and our customers and suppliers located in numerous countries throughout the world. Our operations, and those of our customers and suppliers, are subject to disruption for a variety of reasons, including work stoppages, acts of war, terrorism, health epidemics, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, energy shortages, telecommunication failures, tsunamis, flooding or other natural disasters. Such disruption could materially increase our costs and expenses as well as cause delays in, among other things, shipments of products to our customers, our ability to perform services requested by our customers, or the installation and acceptance of our products at customer sites. Any of these conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Global climate change can result in natural disasters occurring more frequently, with greater intensity and with less predictability. For example, in December 2021, our operations in Cebu, Philippines experienced a devastating typhoon. Our employees in Cebu succeeded in restoring most of our operations within days despite the severity of the damage in the region. The long-term effects of climate change on the global economy and the semiconductor industry in particular are unclear but could be severe.

We believe that our technological position depends primarily on the technical competence and creative ability of our engineers. In a rapidly evolving market, such as ours, the development or acquisition of new technologies, commercialization of those technologies into products and market acceptance and customer demand for those products are critical to our success. Successful product development or acquisition, introduction and acceptance depend upon a number of factors, including: - new product selection;- ability to meet customer requirements including with respect to safety and cyber security;- development of competitive products by competitors;- timely and efficient completion of product design;- timely and efficient implementation of manufacturing and manufacturing processes;- timely remediation of product performance issues, if any, identified during testing;- assembly processes and product performance at customer locations;- differentiation of our products from our competitors' products;- management of customer expectations concerning product capabilities and product life cycles;- transition of customers to new product platforms;- compliance with product safety regulations;- ability to protect products from cyber attacks when used by our customers;- ability to attract and retain technical talent; and - innovation that does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties.

We invest significant resources in the design, manufacturing and testing of our products. However, from time to time, we discover design or manufacturing defects in our products after they have been shipped and, as a result, we have incurred development and remediation costs and settled warranty and product liability claims. In addition, when our products contain defects or have reliability, quality or safety issues, we have conducted a product recall which resulted in significant repair or replacement costs and substantial delays in product shipments and may damage our reputation which could make it more difficult to sell our products. We could continue to have warranty and product liability claims or product recalls in the future. Any of these results could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Competition for employees with skills we require is intense in the high technology industry. We expect intense competition for employees to continue in 2024. Our success will depend on our ability to attract and retain key technical employees. The loss of one or more key or other employees, a decrease in our ability to attract additional qualified employees, or the delay in hiring key personnel could each have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

We are subject to U.S. laws and regulations that limit and restrict the export of some of our products and services and may restrict our transactions with certain customers, business partners and other persons. In certain circumstances, export control and economic sanctions regulations prohibit the export of certain products, services and technologies, and in other circumstances are required to obtain an export license before exporting the controlled item. We must also comply with export restrictions and laws imposed by other countries affecting trade and investments. We maintain an export compliance program but there are risks that the compliance controls could be circumvented, exposing us to legal liabilities. Compliance with these laws has not significantly limited our sales but could significantly limit them in the future. Changes in, and responses to, U.S. trade policy could reduce the competitiveness of our products and cause our sales to drop, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. The U.S. government from time to time has issued export restrictions that prohibit U.S. companies from exporting U.S. manufactured products, foreign manufactured products with more than 25% controlled U.S. content, as well as U.S. origin technology. For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce has restricted the access of U.S. origin technologies to certain Chinese semiconductor companies by adding those companies to the Entity List under U.S. Export Administration Regulations ("EAR"). The addition of certain of these companies to the entity list has had and will continue to have an adverse impact on our business with these customers. We will take appropriate actions, including filing for licenses with the U.S. Department of Commerce to attempt to minimize the impact of the restrictions on our business. On May 16, 2019, Huawei and 68 of its affiliates, including HiSilicon, were added to the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List under the EAR. This action by the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed new export licensing requirements on exports, re-exports, and in-country transfers of all U.S. regulated products, software and technology to the designated Huawei entities. On August 17, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce published final regulations expanding the scope of the U.S. EAR to include additional products that would become subject to export restrictions relating to Huawei entities including HiSilicon. These new regulations restrict the sale to Huawei and the designated Huawei entities of certain non-U.S. made items, such as semiconductor devices, manufactured for or sold to Huawei entities including HiSilicon under specific, detailed conditions set forth in the new regulations. These new regulations have impacted our sales to Huawei, HiSilicon and their suppliers. We are taking appropriate actions, including filing license applications and obtaining licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce. However, we do not expect these actions will mitigate the impact of the regulations on our sales to Huawei, HiSilicon and other suppliers. As a result, the regulations will continue to have an adverse impact on our business and financial results. It is uncertain the extent these new regulations and any additional regulations that may be implemented by the U.S. Department of Commerce or other government agency may have on our business with other customers or potential customers. Also, our controls related to Entity List compliance could be circumvented, exposing us to legal liabilities. On April 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce published new export control regulations for certain U.S. products and technology sold to military end users or for military end-use in China, Russia and Venezuela. The definition of military end user is broad. The regulations went into effect on June 29, 2020. In December 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a list of companies in China and other countries that it considered to be military end users. Compliance with the new export controls has impacted our ability to sell products to certain customers in China. In addition, while we maintain an export compliance program, our compliance controls could be circumvented, exposing us to legal liabilities. We will continue to assess the impact of these export controls on our business and operations and take appropriate actions, including filing for licenses with the U.S. Department of Commerce, to minimize any disruption. However, we cannot be certain that the actions we take will mitigate all the risks associated with the export controls that may impact our business. On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce published regulations restricting the export to China of advanced semiconductors, supercomputer technology, equipment for the manufacturing of advanced semiconductors and components and technology for the manufacturing in China of certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The restrictions impacted our sales to certain companies in China and our manufacturing and development operations in China. We mitigated the impact of these restrictions on our business by obtaining licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce. On October 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce released new rules updating the export controls issued on October 7, 2022. The new rules, which took effect on November 17, 2023, significantly limit the impact of the October 7, 2022 restrictions on our business. However, the regulations may continue to have an adverse impact on certain actual or potential customers and on the global semiconductor industry. To the extent the regulations impact actual and potential customers or disrupt the global semiconductor industry, our business and revenues will be adversely impacted. In response to the regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Chinese government has passed new laws, including blocking legislation, which may impact our business activities in China. The Company is assessing the potential impact of these new Chinese laws and monitoring relevant laws and regulations issued by the Chinese government. The impact of these new Chinese laws on our business activities in China remains uncertain at this time.

From time to time, we may be subject to litigation or other administrative, regulatory or governmental proceedings, including tax audits and resulting claims that could require significant management time and resources and cause us to incur expenses and, in the event of an adverse decision, pay damages or incur costs in an amount that could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations.

We are subject to paying income taxes in the United States and other countries where we operate. Our effective tax rate is dependent on where our earnings are generated and the tax regulations and the interpretation and judgment of administrative tax or revenue authorities in the United States and other countries. We have pursued a global tax strategy that could be adversely affected by the mix of earnings and tax rates in the countries where we operate, changes to tax laws, tax regulations or an adverse tax ruling by administrative authorities. We are also subject to tax audits in the countries where we operate. Any material change in our tax liability resulting from changes in tax laws, tax regulations, administrative rulings or audits from an administrative tax or revenue authority could negatively affect our financial results. As a multinational corporation, we are subject to income taxes as well as non-income-based taxes, in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. In certain foreign jurisdictions, we qualify for tax incentives and tax holidays based on our ability to meet, on a continuing basis, various tests relating to our employment levels, research and development expenditures and other qualification requirements in a particular foreign jurisdiction. While we intend to operate in such a manner to maintain and maximize our tax incentives and tax holidays, no assurance can be given that we have so qualified or that we will so qualify for any particular year or jurisdiction. If we fail to qualify or fail to remain qualified for certain foreign tax incentives and tax holidays, we may be subject to further taxation or an increase in our effective tax rate which would adversely impact our financial results. In November 2020, we entered into an agreement with the Singapore Economic Development Board which extended our Singapore tax holiday under substantially similar terms to the agreement which expired on December 31, 2020. The new tax holiday is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2025. The tax savings attributable to the Singapore tax holiday for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021 were $1.4 million or $0.01 per diluted share, $16.0 million or $0.09 per diluted share, and $33.3 million or $0.18 per diluted share, respectively. These tax savings may not be achievable in subsequent years due to changes in Singapore's tax laws, issuance of new global minimum tax laws, or the expiration of the tax holiday. In addition, we may incur additional costs, including headcount expenses, in order to maintain or obtain a foreign tax incentive or tax holiday in a particular foreign jurisdiction.

We are subject to both domestic and international environmental regulations and statutory strict liability relating to the use, storage, discharge, site cleanup and disposal of hazardous chemicals used in our manufacturing processes. In addition, future regulations in response to global climate change may affect us, our suppliers, and our customers. Such regulations could cause us to incur additional direct costs for compliance, as well as increased indirect costs resulting from our customers, suppliers, or both incurring additional compliance costs that are passed on to us. Future climate change regulations could result in decreased demand for our products. If we fail to comply with present and future regulations, or are required to perform site remediation, we could be subject to future liabilities or cost, including penalties or the suspension of production. Present and future regulations may also: - restrict our ability to expand facilities;- restrict our ability to ship certain products;- require us to modify our operations logistics;- require us to acquire costly equipment; or - require us to incur other significant costs and expenses. Pursuant to present regulations and agreements, we are conducting groundwater and subsurface assessment and monitoring and are implementing remediation and corrective action plans for facilities located in Massachusetts and New Hampshire which are no longer conducting manufacturing operations. As of December 31, 2023, we have not incurred material costs as a result of the monitoring and remediation steps taken at the Massachusetts and New Hampshire sites. The directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (the "RoHS Directive") and the directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (the "WEEE Directive") altered the form and manner in which electronic equipment is imported, sold and handled in the European Union. Other jurisdictions, such as China, have followed the European Union's lead in enacting legislation with respect to hazardous substances and waste removal. Ensuring compliance with the RoHS Directive, the WEEE Directive and similar legislation in other jurisdictions, and integrating compliance activities with our suppliers and customers could result in additional costs and disruption to operations and logistics and thus, could have a negative impact on our business, operations or financial condition.

We face significant competition throughout the world in each of our reportable segments. Some of our competitors have substantial financial and other resources to pursue engineering, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of their products. In addition, we are subject to trade regulations imposed by the United States government, which may not impact some of our competitors. We also face competition from emerging Asian companies and internal development at several of our customers. Some of our competitors have introduced or announced new products with certain performance characteristics that may be considered equal or superior to those we currently offer. We expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their current products and to introduce new products or new technologies that provide improved cost of ownership and performance characteristics. New product introductions by competitors could cause a decline in revenues or loss of market acceptance of our products.