Netgear 2008 Annual Report Download - page 15

Table of Contents
As a result, period-to-
period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on them as an indication
of our future performance. In addition, our future operating results may fall below the expectations of public market analysts or investors. In that
event, our stock price could decline significantly.
Our stock price may be volatile and your investment in our common stock could suffer a decline in value.
With the continuing uncertainty about economic conditions in the United States and abroad, there has been significant volatility in the
market price and trading volume of securities of technology and other companies, which may be unrelated to the financial performance of these
companies. These broad market fluctuations may negatively affect the market price of our common stock.
Some specific factors that may have a significant effect on our common stock market price include:
13
•
changes in the terms of our contracts with customers or suppliers that cause us to incur additional expenses or assume additional
liabilities;
• slow or negative growth in the networking product, personal computer, Internet infrastructure, home electronics and related
technology markets, as well as decreased demand for Internet access;
• changes in or consolidation of our sales channels and wholesale distributor relationships or failure to manage our sales channel
inventory and warehousing requirements;
•
delay or failure to fulfill orders for our products on a timely basis;
•
disruptions or delays related to our new financial and enterprise resource planning systems;
•
our inability to accurately forecast product demand;
•
unfavorable level of inventory and turns;
•
unanticipated shift in overall product mix from higher to lower margin products that would adversely impact our margins;
•
unanticipated shift or decline in profit by geographical region that would adversely impact our tax rate;
•
delays in the introduction of new products by us or market acceptance of these products;
•
an increase in price protection claims, redemptions of marketing rebates, product warranty and stock rotation returns or allowance for
doubtful accounts;
•
challenges associated with integrating acquisitions that we make;
•
operational disruptions, such as transportation delays or failure of our order processing system, particularly if they occur at the end of
a fiscal quarter;
•
delay or failure of our service provider customers to purchase at the volumes that we forecast;
•
foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations in the jurisdictions where we transact sales and expenditures in local currency;
•
our customers
’
inability to pay for purchased goods in a timely fashion;
•
bad debt exposure with our existing customers and as we expand into new international markets; and
•
any changes in accounting rules.
•
actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results or our competitors
’
operating results;
•
actual or anticipated changes in the growth rate of the general networking sector, our growth rates or our competitors
’
growth rates;
•
conditions in the financial markets in general or changes in general economic conditions;