SEC Info  
  Home     Search     My Interests     Help     Sign In     Please Sign In  

Mellanox Technologies/LTD · S-1/A · On 2/1/07

Filed On 2/1/07 5:32pm ET   ·   SEC File 333-137659   ·   Accession Number 891618-7-48

  in   Show  and 
  As Of               Filer                 Filing     As/For/On Docs:Pgs              Issuer               Agent

 2/01/07  Mellanox Technologies/LTD         S-1/A                  6:303                                    Bowne of Palo Alto/FA

Pre-Effective Amendment to Registration Statement (General Form)   ·   Form S-1
Filing Table of Contents

Document/Exhibit                   Description                      Pages   Size 

 1: S-1/A       Amendment to Form S-1                               HTML  1,460K 
 2: EX-1.1      Underwriting Agreement                              HTML    122K 
 3: EX-3.1      Articles of Incorporation/Organization or By-Laws   HTML    149K 
 4: EX-5.1      Opinion re: Legality                                HTML     12K 
 5: EX-23.3     Consent of Experts or Counsel                       HTML      4K 
 6: EX-23.4     Consent of Experts or Counsel                       HTML      5K 


S-1/A   ·   Amendment to Form S-1
Document Table of Contents

Page (sequential) | (alphabetic) Top
 
11st Page
"Table of Contents
"Prospectus Summary
"Risk Factors
"Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
"Use of Proceeds
"Dividend Policy
"Capitalization
"Dilution
"Conversion of Series D Preferred Shares
"Selected Consolidated Financial Data
"Management S Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
"Business
"Management
"Compensation Discussion and Analysis
"Certain Relationships and Related Transactions
"Principal Shareholders
"Description of Authorized Share Capital
"Israeli Tax Considerations and Government Programs
"U.S. Federal Income Taxation Considerations
"Shares Eligible for Future Sale
"Underwriting
"International Selling Restrictions
"Legal Matters
"Experts
"Enforceability of Civil Liabilities
"Where You Can Find More Information
"Index to Consolidated Financial Statements
"Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
"Consolidated Balance Sheets
"Consolidated Statements of Operations
"Consolidated Statements of Convertible Preferred Shares and Shareholders Deficit
"Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
"Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

This is an EDGAR HTML document rendered as filed.  [ Alternative Formats ]


Sponsored Ads...
  sv1za  

Table of Contents

As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1, 2007
Registration No. 333-137659
 
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
 
 
 
Amendment No. 5
to
Form S-1
 
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
 
 
 
 
MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES, LTD.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 
         
Israel   3674   98-0233400
(State or other jurisdiction of   (Primary Standard Industrial   (I.R.S. Employer
incorporation or organization)   Classification Code Number)   Identification Number)
 
 
 
 
Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.
Hermon Building, Yokneam, Israel 20692
+972-4-909-7200
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number,
including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)
 
 
 
 
Michael Gray
Chief Financial Officer
Mellanox Technologies, Inc.
2900 Stender Way
Santa Clara, California 95054
(408) 970-3400
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number,
including area code, of agent for service)
 
 
 
 
Copies To:
 
             
Alan C. Mendelson, Esq.
Mark V. Roeder, Esq.
Latham & Watkins LLP
140 Scott Drive
Menlo Park, California 94025
(650) 328-4600
  Barry P. Levenfeld, Adv.
Yigal Arnon & Co.
22 Rivlin Street
Jerusalem, Israel 94240
+972-2-623-9220
  Bruce A. Mann, Esq.
William W. Yeung, Esq.
Andrew D. Thorpe, Esq.
Theresa Ng, Esq.
Morrison & Foerster LLP
425 Market Street
San Francisco, California 94105
(415) 268-7000
  David S. Glatt, Adv.
Michael J. Rimon, Adv.
Meitar Liquornik Geva &
Leshem Brandwein
16 Abba Hillel Rd.
Ramat Gan, Israel 52506
+972-3-610-3100
 
 
 
 
Approximate date of commencement of the proposed sale to the public:  As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.
 
If any of the securities being registered on this form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.  o
 
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  o
 
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  o
 
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  o
 
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
 



Table of Contents

The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
 
SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED FEBRUARY 1, 2007
 
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS
 
6,000,000 Shares
 
Image -- MELLANOX LOGO
 
Ordinary Shares
 
 
 
 
This is the initial public offering of our ordinary shares. We are selling all of the ordinary shares being sold in this offering. Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our ordinary shares. The initial public offering price of our ordinary shares is expected to be between $12.00 and $14.00 per share. Our ordinary shares have been approved for quotation on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “MLNX,” subject to official notice of issuance.
 
We have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 900,000 additional ordinary shares from us to cover the over-allotment of shares.
 
Investing in our ordinary shares involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” on page 7 of this prospectus.
 
             
        Underwriting
  Proceeds, Before
    Price to
  Discounts and
  Expenses, to
    Public   Commissions   Mellanox
 
Per Share
  $   $   $
Total
  $   $   $
 
The underwriters expect to deliver the ordinary shares on or about          , 2007.
 
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
 
Credit Suisse JPMorgan
 
Thomas Weisel Partners LLC Jefferies & Company, Inc.
 
 
 
 
 
The date of this prospectus is          , 2007.



Table of Contents

Image -- (TECHNOLOGIES GRAPHIC)
Mellanox Technologies is a fabless semiconductor company. We are a leading supplier of semiconductor-based interconnect products that facilitate high-performance data transmission. Our customers include leading server, storage, communications infrastructure equipment, and embedded systems vendors. InfiniBand Adapters InfiniBand Switches Blade COMMUNICATIONS Rack Optimized Servers INFRASTRUCTURE EMBEDDED SERVERS STORAGE EQUIPMENT SYSTEMS

 



 

 
You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus or contained in any free writing prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither we, nor the underwriters, have authorized anyone to provide you with additional information or information different from that contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, our ordinary shares only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our ordinary shares.
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
         
    Page
 
  1
  7
  23
  24
  24
  25
  27
  29
  30
  32
  44
  62
  69
  88
  92
  96
  101
  106
  110
  112
  116
  120
  120
  120
  121
  F-1
 EXHIBIT 1.1
 EXHIBIT 3.1
 EXHIBIT 5.1
 EXHIBIT 23.3
 EXHIBIT 23.4
 
Unless the context requires otherwise, the words “Mellanox,” “we,” “company,” “us” and “our” refer to Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. and our wholly-owned subsidiary, Mellanox Technologies, Inc. For purposes of this prospectus, the term “shareholders” shall refer to the holders of our ordinary shares.


i



Table of Contents

 
 
PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
 
This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our ordinary shares, you should carefully read this entire prospectus, including our financial statements and the related notes included in this prospectus and the information set forth under the headings “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
 
MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES, LTD.
 
We are a leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products that facilitate data transmission between servers and storage systems through communications infrastructure equipment. Our products are an integral part of a total solution focused on computing, storage and communication applications used in enterprise data centers, high-performance computing and embedded systems. We are one of the pioneers of InfiniBand, an industry standard architecture that provides specifications for high-performance interconnects. We believe that we are the leading merchant supplier of field-proven InfiniBand-compliant semiconductor products that deliver industry-leading performance and capabilities, which we believe is demonstrated by the performance, efficiency and scalability of clustered computing and storage systems that incorporate our products. In addition to supporting InfiniBand, our next generation of products also support the industry standard Ethernet interconnect specification, which we believe will expand our total addressable market.
 
We are a fabless semiconductor company that provides high-performance interconnect solutions based on semiconductor integrated circuits, or ICs. We design, develop and market adapter and switch ICs, both of which are silicon devices that provide high performance connectivity. We also offer adapter cards that incorporate our ICs. These ICs are added to servers, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems by either integrating them directly on circuit boards or inserting adapter cards into slots on the circuit board. We have established significant expertise with high-performance interconnect solutions from successfully developing and implementing multiple generations of our products. Our expertise enables us to develop and deliver products that serve as building blocks for creating reliable and scalable InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions with leading performance at significantly lower cost than products based on alternative interconnect solutions. We compete with other providers of semiconductor-based high performance interconnect products based on InfiniBand, Ethernet, Fibre Channel and proprietary technologies.
 
Our products are incorporated into servers produced by the five largest server vendors: IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu-Siemens. These server vendors collectively shipped the majority of servers in 2005, according to the industry research firm IDC. We also supply leading storage and communications infrastructure equipment vendors such as Cisco Systems, LSI Logic, Network Appliance, SilverStorm Technologies, which was recently acquired by QLogic Corporation, and Voltaire. Additionally, our products are used by GE Fanuc, Mercury Computers, SeaChange International and other vendors of embedded systems. Since we introduced our first product in 2001, we have shipped products containing approximately 1.7 million InfiniBand ports, which we believe demonstrates an established customer and end-user base for our products.
 
The increasing reliance of enterprises on information technology, or IT, for their everyday operations is fueling the demand for computing, storage and communications infrastructure systems that can process, store and transmit large volumes of data. High-performance interconnect solutions play a key role in enabling high-speed transmission of data and sharing of resources among systems. There are several trends and technological advances driving demand for high-performance interconnect solutions, including:
 
  •  Transition to clustered computing and storage using connections among multiple standard components;
  •  Transition to multiple and multi-core processors in servers;
  •  Enterprise data center infrastructure consolidation; and
  •  Increasing deployments of mission critical, latency (response time) sensitive applications.
 
As a result of these trends and advances in computing, storage and communications infrastructure technology, the requirements on high-performance interconnect solutions have become more demanding. High-performance interconnect solutions are challenged to provide high bandwidth, low latency, reduced complexity, increased interconnect efficiency, reliability, stability and improved price/performance economics.


1



Table of Contents

InfiniBand was developed to address these challenges. We believe that InfiniBand has significant advantages compared to alternative interconnect technologies. The InfiniBand standard was developed under the auspices of the InfiniBand Trade Association, or IBTA, which was founded in 1999 and is composed of leading IT vendors and hardware and software solution providers including Mellanox, Brocade, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, NEC, Network Appliance, QLogic Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Voltaire. While InfiniBand currently represents a small portion of the total interconnect market relative to established solutions such as Fibre Channel and Ethernet, InfiniBand products have achieved increasing market adoption, particularly in high-performance computing applications, and are expanding into mainstream financial, retail and other commercial enterprise data centers.
 
We apply our strengths to enhance our position as a leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products. We consider our key strengths to include the following:
 
  •  We have expertise in developing high-performance interconnect solutions;
  •  We believe we are the leading merchant supplier of InfiniBand ICs with a multi-year competitive advantage;
  •  We have a comprehensive set of technical capabilities to deliver innovative and reliable products; and
  •  We have extensive relationships with our key OEM customers and many end users.
 
We have used these strengths, along with our knowledge of InfiniBand, to design our innovative, next generation, high-performance solutions that also support the Ethernet interconnect standard.
 
Our goal is to be the leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products for computing, storage and communications applications. To accomplish this goal, we intend to:
 
  •  Continue to develop leading, high-performance interconnect solutions;
  •  Facilitate and increase the continued adoption of InfiniBand;
  •  Expand our presence with existing server OEM customers;
  •  Broaden our customer base with storage, communications infrastructure and embedded systems OEMs; and
  •  Leverage our fabless business model to deliver strong financial performance.
 
We also face several risks as we grow our business, including the need to generate and sustain higher revenues while maintaining reasonable cost and expense levels, the rate and extent of InfiniBand adoption, our reliance on a small number of customers for a significant portion of our sales and the cyclicality of the semiconductor industry in general. Our success in growing our business also depends on our ability to effectively compete, develop new products, enhance our existing products and protect our intellectual property. We also face risks associated with the outsourcing of our manufacturing and with our Israeli operations. If we are unable to adequately address these risks, our ability to grow our business will be negatively impacted.
 
As of September 30, 2006, we had 148 full-time and 23 part-time employees located in the United States and Israel, including 94 in research and development, 25 in sales and marketing, 15 in general and administrative, 6 in operations and 8 in other administrative functions. The majority of our employees, four of our executive officers and one of our directors, who is also an executive officer, are located in Israel.
 
We were incorporated under the laws of Israel in March 1999. Our principal executive offices in the United States are located at 2900 Stender Way, Santa Clara, California 95054, and our principal executive offices in Israel are located at Hermon Building, Yokneam, Israel 20692. Substantially all of our assets are located in Israel. Our telephone number in Santa Clara, California is (408) 970-3400, and our telephone number in Yokneam, Israel is +972-4-909-7200. Michael Gray is our agent for service of process in the United States, and is located at our principal executive offices in the United States. Our website address is www.mellanox.com. Information contained on our website is not a part of this prospectus and the inclusion of our website address in this prospectus is an inactive textual reference only.
 
Mellanox®, InfiniBridge®, InfiniHost®, InfiniPCI®, InfiniRISC® and InfiniScale® are our registered trademarks. We have a trademark application pending to register ConnectX®. Trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this prospectus are the property of the respective holders.


2



Table of Contents

 
THE OFFERING
 
Ordinary shares offered by us 6,000,000 shares.
 
Over-allotment option 900,000 shares.
 
Ordinary shares outstanding after this offering 31,433,262 shares.
 
Use of proceeds We expect the net proceeds to us from this offering, after expenses, to be approximately $70 million. We intend to use the net proceeds of this offering to fund development of our products and for general corporate purposes, including working capital, sales and marketing activities, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary technologies, products or businesses or to obtain rights to such complementary technologies, products or businesses. There are no such transactions under consideration at this time.
 
Nasdaq Global Market symbol MLNX.
 
Risk factors See “Risk Factors,” beginning on page 7 and the other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in our ordinary shares.
 
The number of our ordinary shares outstanding after this offering is based on 25,433,262 shares outstanding as of December 31, 2006, and excludes:
 
  •  an aggregate of 5,114,239 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options to purchase our ordinary shares granted pursuant to our 1999 United States Equity Incentive Plan, 1999 Israeli Share Option Plan and 2003 Israeli Share Option Plan as of December 31, 2006, at a weighted average exercise price of $4.22 per share;
 
  •  an aggregate of 38,240 additional ordinary shares reserved for future issuance under our 1999 United States Equity Incentive Plan and our 2003 Israeli Share Option Plan;
 
  •  3,428,571 additional ordinary shares reserved for issuance under our 2006 Global Share Incentive Plan, which we adopted in connection with this offering;
 
  •  additional ordinary shares to be automatically reserved for issuance on an annual basis on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2008, under our 2006 Global Share Incentive Plan, such annual increase to be equal to the least of 2% of ordinary shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date of the increase, 685,714 ordinary shares or a smaller number determined by our board of directors, provided that the aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved for issuance under such plan may not exceed 15,474,018;
 
  •  571,428 additional ordinary shares reserved for issuance pursuant to purchase rights under our Employee Share Purchase Plan, which we adopted in connection with this offering;
 
  •  additional ordinary shares to be automatically reserved for issuance on an annual basis on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2008, under our Employee Share Purchase Plan, such annual increase to be equal to the least of 0.5% of ordinary shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date of the increase, 171,428 ordinary shares or a smaller number determined by our board of directors, provided that the aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved for issuance under such plan may not exceed 2,114,285; and
 
  •  an aggregate of 52,569 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options granted outside of our equity incentive plans as of December 31, 2006, at a weighted average exercise price of $1.20 per share.
 
Except as otherwise indicated, information in this prospectus reflects or assumes the following:
 
  •  that our amended and restated articles of association, which we will file in connection with the completion of this offering, are in effect;
 
  •  a 1.75-to-1 reverse split of our ordinary shares effected prior to the completion of this offering;
 
  •  a 1.75-to-1 reverse split of our preferred shares;


3



Table of Contents

 
  •  the conversion of all of our outstanding convertible preferred shares into an aggregate of 17,571,520 ordinary shares immediately prior to the completion of this offering and following the reverse split of our ordinary shares, assuming the conversion of our Series A and B preferred shares into ordinary shares at a rate of 1 to 1 (without giving effect to the 1.75-to-1 reverse share split), the conversion of our Series C preferred shares into ordinary shares at a rate of 1 to 1.0249 (without giving effect to the 1.75-to-1 reverse share split) and the conversion of our Series D preferred shares into ordinary shares at a rate of 1 to 2.2245 (without giving effect to the 1.75-to-1 reverse share split, and based on an assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share); and
 
  •  no exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option to purchase up to 900,000 additional shares of our ordinary shares.


4



Table of Contents

Summary Consolidated Financial Data
 
The summary consolidated statements of operations data for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2005 and the nine months ended September 30, 2006 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary consolidated statements of operations data for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 have been derived from our unaudited consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The following tables provide summary consolidated financial data which you should read together with our financial statements and related notes and the sections of this prospectus entitled “Selected Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in any future period.
 
                                         
    Year Ended December 31,     Nine Months Ended September 30,  
    2003     2004     2005     2005     2006  
    (in thousands, except per share data)  
                      (unaudited)        
 
Consolidated Statement of Operations Data:
                                       
Total revenues
  $ 10,151     $ 20,254     $ 42,068     $ 29,874     $ 32,741  
Cost of revenues
    (4,535 )     (8,736 )     (15,203 )     (11,253 )     (9,601 )
                                         
Gross profit
    5,616       11,518       26,865       18,621       23,140  
                                         
Operating expenses:
                                       
Research and development
    14,457       12,864       13,081       9,307       11,064  
Sales and marketing
    5,298       5,640       7,395       5,291       6,080  
General and administrative
    1,720       1,719       3,094       2,118       2,544  
                                         
Total operating expenses
    21,475       20,223       23,570       16,716       19,688  
                                         
Income (loss) from operations
    (15,859 )     (8,705 )     3,295       1,905       3,452  
Other income, net
    308       123       326       281       232  
                                         
Income (loss) before taxes on income
    (15,551 )     (8,582 )     3,621       2,186       3,684  
Provision for taxes on income
    (12 )     (306 )     (462 )     (329 )     (271 )
                                         
Net income (loss)
  $ (15,563 )   $ (8,888 )   $ 3,159     $ 1,857     $ 3,413  
                                         
Accretion of Series D mandatorily redeemable convertible preferred shares
    (144 )     (155 )     (166 )     (125 )     (132 )
Income allocable to preferred shareholders
                (2,993 )     (1,732 )     (3,281 )
Net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders
    (15,707 )     (9,043 )     0       0       0  
                                         
Net income (loss) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders — basic and diluted
  $ (2.32 )   $ (1.27 )   $ 0.00     $ 0.00     $ 0.00  
                                         
Shares used in computing net income (loss) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders:
                                       
Basic
    6,764       7,117       7,520       7,492       7,673  
Diluted
    6,764       7,117       9,091       9,040       9,623  
Pro forma net income per share — basic and diluted (unaudited)(1):
                                       
Basic
                0.13             0.14  
Diluted
                0.11             0.12  
Pro forma weighted average ordinary shares outstanding (unaudited)(1):
                                       
Basic
                25,092             25,245  
Diluted
                27,575             27,939  


5



Table of Contents

 
(1) For information regarding the computation of per share amounts, refer to Note 1 of our consolidated financial statements. Pro forma basic and diluted net income per share is presented for the year ended December 31, 2005 and the nine months ended September 30, 2006 to reflect per share data assuming (a) the conversion of all of our preferred shares into ordinary shares immediately prior to the completion of this offering, as if the conversion had taken place at the beginning of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005 and (b) the exercise of warrants and options exercisable at the respective date.
                 
    Nine Months Ended
 
    September 30, 2006  
          Pro Forma
 
    Actual     as Adjusted  
    (in thousands of dollars)  
          (unaudited)  
 
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
               
Cash and cash equivalents
  $ 15,800     $ 85,840  
Working capital
    19,930       89,970  
Total assets
    37,145       107,185  
Convertible preferred shares
    92,053        
Total shareholders’ (deficit)/equity
  $ (70,117 )   $ 91,976  
 
The preceding table presents a summary of our consolidated balance sheet data as of September 30, 2006:
 
  •  on an actual basis; and
 
  •  on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give effect to the conversion of all of our outstanding convertible preferred shares into 17,571,848 shares of ordinary shares immediately prior to the completion of this offering, assuming our initial public offering price of $13.00 per share, as adjusted to reflect the 1.75-to-1 reverse split of our ordinary shares and to give effect to the sale by us of 6,000,000 shares of ordinary shares in this offering at an initial public offering price of $13.00 per share, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
 
Recent Developments
 
Although our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2006 are not yet complete, the following information reflects our results based on currently available information.
 
Fourth quarter 2006 revenues were $15.8 million for the period ended December 31, 2006, compared to $13.4 million for the prior quarter ended September 30, 2006. This 18% increase in sequential revenues resulted primarily from increased unit sales of 7%, and an increase in average selling prices of 10% due primarily to a shift in product mix.
 
Gross profit was $11.9 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, compared to $9.8 million for the prior quarter ended September 30, 2006. As a percentage of revenues, fourth quarter gross margin increased sequentially to 75% compared to 73% in the prior quarter ended September 30, 2006. This increase was primarily attributable to a decrease in production costs associated with outsourced labor, raw materials and volume discounts and a shift in product mix.
 
The Company currently anticipates that its pre-tax net income as a percentage of revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 will be comparable to its pre-tax net income as a percentage of revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, which was 22.4%.
 
For the year ended December 31, 2006, the Company had four customers who individually accounted for more than 10% of total revenues, and no one customer accounted for more than 20% of total revenues. For the year ended December 31, 2005, the Company had two customers who individually accounted for more than 10% of total revenues, including one customer (Cisco) who accounted for 44% of total revenues.
 
Our estimates for operating expenses and net income are not yet final and are subject to further review. We are currently performing our annual review procedures for the year ended December 31, 2006.


6



Table of Contents

 
 
RISK FACTORS
 
Investing in our ordinary shares involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, in addition to the other information set forth in this prospectus, before purchasing our ordinary shares. Each of these risk factors could harm our business, financial condition or operating results, as well as decrease the value of an investment in our ordinary shares.
 
Risks Related to Our Business
 
We have a history of losses, have only recently become profitable and may not sustain or increase profitability in the future.
 
We have only recently become profitable, and we first recorded a profit in the year ended December 31, 2005. We incurred net losses prior to the quarter ended June 30, 2005 and incurred a net loss during the quarter ended March 31, 2006. As of September 30, 2006, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $73.1 million. In addition, we recorded net losses of $15.6 million and $8.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2004, respectively. We may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or an annual basis. This may, in turn, cause the price of our ordinary shares to decline. To sustain or increase our profitability, we will need to generate and sustain substantially higher revenues while maintaining reasonable cost and expense levels. We expect to increase expense levels in each of the next several quarters to support increased research and development, sales and marketing and general and administrative efforts. These expenditures may not result in increased revenues or customer growth, and we may not remain profitable.
 
We do not expect to sustain our recent revenue growth rate, which may reduce our share price.
 
Our revenues have grown rapidly over the last four years, approximately doubling in size from each of 2003 to 2004 and 2005, and increasing by 15% in 2006. Our revenues increased from $10.2 million to $20.3 million, $42.1 million and $48.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively. We do not expect to sustain our recent growth rate in future periods. You should not rely on the revenue growth of any prior quarterly or annual periods as an indication of our future performance. If we are unable to maintain adequate revenue growth, we may not have adequate resources to execute our business objectives and our share price may decline.
 
InfiniBand may not be adopted at the rate or extent that we anticipate, and adoption of InfiniBand is largely dependent on third-party vendors and end users.
 
While the usage of InfiniBand has increased since its first specifications were completed in October 2000, continued adoption of InfiniBand is dependent on continued collaboration and cooperation among information technology, or IT, vendors. In addition, the end users that purchase IT products and services from vendors must find InfiniBand to be a compelling solution to their IT system requirements. We cannot control third-party participation in the development of InfiniBand as an industry standard technology. We rely on server, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems vendors to incorporate and deploy InfiniBand integrated circuits, or ICs, in their systems. InfiniBand may fail to effectively compete with other technologies, which may be adopted by vendors and their customers in place of InfiniBand. The adoption of InfiniBand is also impacted by the general replacement cycle of IT equipment by end users, which is dependent on factors unrelated to InfiniBand. These factors may reduce the rate at which InfiniBand is incorporated by our current server vendor customers and impede its adoption in the storage, communications infrastructure and embedded systems markets, which in turn would harm our ability to sell our InfiniBand products.
 
We have limited visibility into end-user demand for our products, which introduces uncertainty into our production forecasts and business planning and could negatively impact our financial results.
 
Our sales are made on the basis of purchase orders rather than long-term purchase commitments. In addition, our customers may defer purchase orders. We place orders with the manufacturers of our products according to our estimates of customer demand. This process requires us to make multiple demand forecast assumptions with respect to both our customers’ and end users’ demands. It is more difficult for us to accurately forecast end-user demand


7



Table of Contents

because we do not sell our products directly to end users. In addition, the majority of our adapter card business is conducted on a short order fulfillment basis, introducing more uncertainty into our forecasts. Because of the lead time associated with fabrication of our semiconductors, forecasts of demand for our products must be made in advance of customer orders. In addition, we base business decisions regarding our growth on our forecasts for customer demands. As we grow, anticipating customer demand may become increasingly difficult. If we overestimate customer demand, we may purchase products from our manufacturers that we may not be able to sell and may over-budget company operations. Conversely, if we underestimate customer demand or if sufficient manufacturing capacity were unavailable, we would forego revenue opportunities and could lose market share or damage our customer relationships.
 
We depend on a small number of customers for a significant portion of our sales, and the loss of any of these customers will adversely affect our revenues.
 
A small number of customers accounts for a significant portion of our revenues. In the year ended December 31, 2005, sales to Cisco Systems and Topspin Communications (which was acquired by Cisco Systems in May 2005) accounted for 44% of our total revenues, and sales to Voltaire accounted for 12% of our total revenues. In the year ended December 31, 2004, sales to Cisco Systems accounted for 34% of our total revenues, and sales to Voltaire accounted for 18% of our total revenues. Because the majority of servers, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems is sold by a relatively small number of vendors, we expect that we will continue to depend on a small number of customers to account for a significant percentage of our revenues for the foreseeable future. Our customers, including our most significant customers, are not obligated by long-term contracts to purchase our products and may cancel orders with limited potential penalties. If any of our large customers reduces or cancels its purchases from us for any reason, it could have an adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations. For example, one of our largest customers — Cisco Systems — has ordered fewer products from us in the nine months ended September 30, 2006 as compared to its order history for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, which resulted in a decrease to revenues from that customer by $9.8 million. A portion of this percentage decline was attributable to an accumulation of inventory in 2005 by Cisco following its acquisition of Topspin Communications, which we believe has been substantially sold in 2005 and 2006. In addition, our sales are dependent on our customers’ sales, and the loss of end-user customers by any of our OEM customers could have an adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations.
 
We face intense competition and may not be able to compete effectively, which could reduce our market share, net revenues and profit margin.
 
The markets in which we operate are extremely competitive and are characterized by rapid technological change, continuously evolving customer requirements and declining average selling prices. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or potential competitors. With respect to InfiniBand products, we compete with QLogic Corporation, which recently acquired SilverStorm Technologies. We also compete with providers of alternative technologies, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel and proprietary interconnects. The companies that provide IC products for these alternative technologies include Marvell Technology Group, Broadcom Corporation, Emulex Corporation, QLogic Corporation and Myricom. Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater resources, greater economies of scale, stronger name recognition and larger customer bases than we have. This may allow them to respond more quickly than we are able to respond to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. In addition, these competitors may have greater credibility with our existing and potential customers. If we do not compete successfully, our market share, revenues and profit margin may decline, and, as a result, our business may be adversely affected.
 
If we fail to develop new products or enhance our existing products to react to rapid technological change and market demands in a timely and cost-effective manner, our business will suffer.
 
We must develop new products or enhance our existing products with improved technologies to meet rapidly evolving customer requirements. We are currently engaged in the development process for next generation products, and we need to successfully design our next generation and other products successfully for customers who continually require higher performance and functionality at lower costs. The development


8



Table of Contents

process for these advancements is lengthy and will require us to anticipate accurately technological innovations and market trends. Developing and enhancing these products can be time-consuming, costly and complex. Our ability to fund product development and enhancements partially depends on our ability to generate revenues from our existing products. For example, we recently introduced our next generation of products that also support the industry standard Ethernet interconnect specification.
 
There is a risk that these developments or enhancements, such as migrating our next generation products from 130nm to 90nm silicon process technology, will be late, fail to meet customer or market specifications and will not be competitive with other products using alternative technologies that offer comparable performance and functionality. We may be unable to successfully develop additional next generation products, new products or product enhancements. Our next generation products that include Ethernet support or any new products or product enhancements may not be accepted in new or existing markets. Our business will suffer if we fail to continue to develop and introduce new products or product enhancements in a timely manner or on a cost-effective basis.
 
We rely on a limited number of subcontractors to manufacture, assemble, package and production test our products, and the failure of any of these third-party subcontractors to deliver products or otherwise perform as requested could damage our relationships with our customers, decrease our sales and limit our growth.
 
While we design and market our products and conduct test development in-house, we do not manufacture, assemble, package and production test our products, and we must rely on third-party subcontractors to perform these services. We currently rely on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, to produce our silicon wafers, and Flextronics International Ltd. to manufacture and production test our adapter cards. We also rely on Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, or ASE, to assemble, package and production test our ICs. We are currently arranging an additional manufacturing line with one of our subcontractors, but we may not be able to finalize this arrangement. If these subcontractors do not provide us with high-quality products, services and production and production test capacity in a timely manner, or if one or more of these subcontractors terminates its relationship with us, we may be unable to obtain satisfactory replacements to fulfill customer orders on a timely basis, our relationships with our customers could suffer, our sales could decrease and our growth could be limited. In particular, there are significant challenges associated with moving our IC production from our existing manufacturer to another manufacturer with whom we do not have a pre-existing relationship.
 
We currently do not have long-term supply contracts with any of our third-party subcontractors. Therefore, they are not obligated to perform services or supply products to us for any specific period, in any specific quantities or at any specific price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order. None of our third-party subcontractors has provided contractual assurances to us that adequate capacity will be available to us to meet future demand for our products. Our subcontractors may allocate capacity to the production of other companies’ products while reducing deliveries to us on short notice. Other customers that are larger and better financed than we are or that have long-term agreements with these subcontractors may cause these subcontractors to reallocate capacity to those customers, decreasing the capacity available to us.
 
Other significant risks associated with relying on these third-party subcontractors include:
 
  •  reduced control over product cost, delivery schedules and product quality;
 
  •  potential price increases;
 
  •  inability to achieve sufficient production, increase production or test capacity and achieve acceptable yields on a timely basis;
 
  •  increased exposure to potential misappropriation of our intellectual property;
 
  •  shortages of materials used to manufacture products;
 
  •  capacity shortages;
 
  •  labor shortages or labor strikes;
 
  •  political instability in the regions where these subcontractors are located; and


9



Table of Contents

 
  •  natural disasters impacting these subcontractors.
 
Our sales cycle can be lengthy, which could result in uncertainty and delays in generating revenues.
 
We have occasionally experienced a lengthy sales cycle for some of our products, due in part to the constantly evolving nature of the technologies on which our products are based. Some of our products must be custom designed to operate in our customers’ products, resulting in a lengthy process between the initial design stage and the ultimate sale. We also compete for design wins prior to selling products, which may increase the length of the sales process. We may experience a delay between the time we increase expenditures for research and development, sales and marketing efforts and inventory and the time we generate revenues, if any, from these expenditures. In addition, because we do not have long-term supply contracts with our customers and the majority of our sales are on a purchase order basis, we must repeat our sales process on a continual basis, including sales of new products to existing customers. As a result, our business could be harmed if a customer reduces or delays its orders.
 
The average selling prices of our products have decreased in the past and may do so in the future, which could harm our financial results.
 
The products we develop and sell are subject to declines in average selling prices. We have had to reduce our prices in the past to meet market demand, and we may be required to reduce prices in the future. Reductions in our average selling prices to one customer could impact our average selling prices to other customers. This would cause our gross margin to decline. Our financial results will suffer if we are unable to offset any reductions in our average selling prices by increasing our sales volumes, reducing our costs or developing new or enhanced products with higher selling prices or gross margin.
 
Fluctuations in our revenues and operating results on a quarterly and annual basis could cause the market price of our ordinary shares to decline.
 
Our quarterly and annual revenues and operating results are difficult to predict and have fluctuated in the past, and may fluctuate in the future, from quarter to quarter and year to year. It is possible that our operating results in some quarters and years will be below market expectations. This would likely cause the market price of our ordinary shares to decline. Our quarterly and annual operating results are affected by a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including:
 
  •  unpredictable volume and timing of customer orders, which are not fixed by contract but vary on a purchase order basis;
 
  •  the loss of one or more of our customers, or a significant reduction or postponement of orders from our customers;
 
  •  our customers’ sales outlooks, purchasing patterns and inventory levels based on end-user demands and general economic conditions;
 
  •  seasonal buying trends;
 
  •  the timing of new product announcements or introductions by us or by our competitors;
 
  •  our ability to successfully develop, introduce and sell new or enhanced products in a timely manner;
 
  •  product obsolescence and our ability to manage product transitions;
 
  •  changes in the relative sales mix of our products;
 
  •  decreases in the overall average selling prices of our products;
 
  •  changes in our cost of finished goods; and
 
  •  the availability, pricing and timeliness of delivery of other components used in our customers’ products.
 
We base our planned operating expenses in part on our expectations of future revenues, and a significant portion of our expenses is relatively fixed in the short-term. We have limited visibility into customer demand from


10



Table of Contents

which to predict future sales of our products. As a result, it is difficult for us to forecast our future revenues and budget our operating expenses accordingly. Our operating results would be adversely affected to the extent customer orders are cancelled or rescheduled. If revenues for a particular quarter are lower than we expect, we likely would not proportionately be able to reduce our operating expenses.
 
We rely primarily upon trade secret, patent and copyright laws and contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights, and, if these rights are not sufficiently protected, our ability to compete and generate revenues could suffer.
 
We seek to protect our proprietary manufacturing specifications, documentation and other written materials primarily under trade secret, patent and copyright laws. We also typically require employees and consultants with access to our proprietary information to execute confidentiality agreements. The steps taken by us to protect our proprietary information may not be adequate to prevent misappropriation of our technology. In addition, our proprietary rights may not be adequately protected because:
 
  •  people may not be deterred from misappropriating our technologies despite the existence of laws or contracts prohibiting it;
 
  •  policing unauthorized use of our intellectual property may be difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and we may be unable to determine the extent of any unauthorized use; and
 
  •  the laws of other countries in which we market our products, such as some countries in the Asia/Pacific region, may offer little or no protection for our proprietary technologies.
 
Reverse engineering, unauthorized copying or other misappropriation of our proprietary technologies could enable third parties to benefit from our technologies without paying us for doing so. Any inability to adequately protect our proprietary rights could harm our ability to compete, generate revenues and grow our business.
 
We may not obtain sufficient patent protection on the technology embodied in our products, which could harm our competitive position and increase our expenses.
 
Our success and ability to compete in the future may depend to a significant degree upon obtaining sufficient patent protection for our proprietary technology. As of September 30, 2006, we had 10 issued patents and 27 patent applications pending in the United States, 5 issued patents in Taiwan and 6 applications pending in Israel, each of which covers aspects of the technology in our products. Patents that we currently own do not cover all of the products that we presently sell. Our patent applications may not result in issued patents, and even if they result in issued patents, the patents may not have claims of the scope we seek. Even in the event that these patents are not issued, the applications may become publicly available and proprietary information disclosed in the applications will become available to others. In addition, any issued patents may be challenged, invalidated or declared unenforceable. The term of any issued patent in the United States would be 20 years from its filing date, and if our applications are pending for a long time period, we may have a correspondingly shorter term for any patent that may be issued. Our present and future patents may provide only limited protection for our technology and may not be sufficient to provide competitive advantages to us. For example, competitors could be successful in challenging any issued patents or, alternatively, could develop similar or more advantageous technologies on their own or design around our patents. Also, patent protection in certain foreign countries may not be available or may be limited in scope and any patents obtained may not be as readily enforceable as in the United States and Israel, making it difficult for us to effectively protect our intellectual property from misuse or infringement by other companies in these countries. Our inability to obtain and enforce our intellectual property rights in some countries may harm our business. In addition, given the costs of obtaining patent protection, we may choose not to protect certain innovations that later turn out to be important.
 
Intellectual property litigation, which is common in our industry, could be costly, harm our reputation, limit our ability to sell our products and divert the attention of management and technical personnel.
 
The semiconductor industry is characterized by frequent litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We have indemnification obligations to most of our customers with respect to infringement of third-


11



Table of Contents

party patents and intellectual property rights by our products. If litigation were to be filed against these customers in connection with our technology, we may be required to defend and indemnify such customers.
 
Questions of infringement in the markets we serve involve highly technical and subjective analyses. Although we have not been involved in intellectual property litigation to date, litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce any patents we may receive and other intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others or to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity, and we may not prevail in any such future litigation. Litigation, whether or not determined in our favor or settled, could be costly, could harm our reputation and could divert the efforts and attention of our management and technical personnel from normal business operations. In addition, adverse determinations in litigation could result in the loss of our proprietary rights, subject us to significant liabilities, require us to seek licenses from third parties or prevent us from licensing our technology or selling our products, any of which could seriously harm our business.
 
We depend on key and highly skilled personnel to operate our business, and if we are unable to retain our current personnel and hire additional personnel, our ability to develop and successfully market our products could be harmed.
 
Our business is particularly dependent on the interdisciplinary expertise of our personnel, and we believe our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, engineering, finance and sales and marketing personnel. The loss of any key employees or the inability to attract or retain qualified personnel could delay the development and introduction of, and harm our ability to sell, our products and harm the market’s perception of us. Competition for qualified engineers in the markets in which we operate, primarily in Israel where our engineering operations are based, is intense and, accordingly, we may not be able to retain or hire all of the engineers required to meet our ongoing and future business needs. If we are unable to attract and retain the highly skilled professionals we need, we may have to forego projects for lack of resources or be unable to staff projects optimally. We believe that our future success is highly dependent on the contributions of Eyal Waldman, our president and chief executive officer. We do not have long-term employment contracts with Mr. Waldman or any other key personnel, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace.
 
We may not be able to manage our future growth effectively, and we may need to incur significant expenditures to address the additional operational and control requirements of our growth.
 
We are experiencing a period of growth and expansion. This expansion has placed, and any future expansion will continue to place, a significant strain on our management, personnel, systems and financial resources. We plan to hire additional employees to support an increase in research and development as well as increases in our sales and marketing and general and administrative efforts. To successfully manage our growth and handle the responsibilities of being a public company, we believe we must effectively:
 
  •  continue to enhance our customer relationship and supply chain management and supporting systems;
 
  •  implement additional and improve existing administrative, financial and operations systems, procedures and controls;
 
  •  expand and upgrade our technological capabilities;
 
  •  manage multiple relationships with our customers, distributors, suppliers, end users and other third parties;
 
  •  manage the mix of our U.S., Israeli and other foreign operations; and
 
  •  hire, train, integrate and manage additional qualified engineers for research and development activities, sales and marketing personnel and financial and IT personnel.
 
Our efforts may require substantial managerial and financial resources and may increase our operating costs even though these efforts may not be successful. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities, develop new products, satisfy customer requirements, execute our business plan or respond to competitive pressures.


12



Table of Contents

We may experience defects in our products, unforeseen delays, higher than expected expenses or lower than expected manufacturing yields of our products, which could result in increased customer warranty claims, delay our product shipments and prevent us from recognizing the benefits of new technologies we develop.
 
Although we test our products, they are complex and may contain defects and errors. In the past we have encountered defects and errors in our products. Delivery of products with defects or reliability, quality or compatibility problems may damage our reputation and our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers. In addition, product defects and errors could result in additional development costs, diversion of technical resources, delayed product shipments, increased product returns, warranty expenses and product liability claims against us which may not be fully covered by insurance. Any of these could harm our business.
 
In addition, our production of existing and development of new products can involve multiple iterations and unforeseen manufacturing difficulties, resulting in reduced manufacturing yields, delays and increased expenses. The evolving nature of our products requires us to modify our manufacturing specifications, which may result in delays in manufacturing output and product deliveries. We rely on third parties to manufacture our products and currently rely on one manufacturer for our ICs and one manufacturer for our cards. Our ability to offer new products depends on our manufacturers’ ability to implement our revised product specifications, which is costly, time-consuming and complex.
 
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to report accurately our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, current and potential shareholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could harm our business and the trading price of our ordinary shares.
 
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. We have in the past discovered, and may in the future discover, areas of our internal controls that need improvement. In addition, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes-Oxley, requires us to evaluate and report on our internal control over financial reporting and have our independent registered public accounting firm annually attest to our evaluation, as well as issue its own opinion on our internal control over financial reporting. The Section 404 internal control reporting requirements will be implemented according to the regulatory phase-in schedule of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC recently adopted rules to delay the implementation of Section 404 compliance for new public companies. Under the SEC’s new rules, we will be required to provide a management report on internal control over financial reporting for the first time in connection with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2007. We will be required to provide both a management report and an independent registered public accounting firm attestation report on internal controls in connection with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2008. We are preparing for compliance with Section 404 by strengthening, assessing and testing our system of internal controls to provide the basis for our report. However, the continuous process of strengthening our internal controls and complying with Section 404 is expensive and time-consuming and requires significant management attention. We cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we will maintain adequate control over our financial processes and reporting. Furthermore, as we grow our business, our internal controls will become more complex and will require significantly more resources to ensure our internal controls remain effective overall. Failure to implement new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. If we or our independent registered public accounting firm discover a material weakness, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remedied, could reduce the market’s confidence in our financial statements and harm our share price. In addition, future non-compliance with Section 404 could subject us to a variety of administrative sanctions, including the suspension or delisting of our ordinary shares from The Nasdaq Global Market, which could reduce our share price.
 
We may pursue acquisitions or investments in complementary products, technologies and businesses, which could harm our operating results and may disrupt our business.
 
In the future, we may pursue acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary products, technologies and businesses. Acquisitions present a number of potential risks and challenges that could, if not met, disrupt our


13



Table of Contents

business operations, increase our operating costs and reduce the value to us of the acquisition. For example, if we identify an acquisition candidate, we may not be able to successfully negotiate or finance the acquisition on favorable terms. Even if we are successful, we may not be able to integrate the acquired businesses, products or technologies into our existing business and products. Furthermore, potential acquisitions and investments, whether or not consummated, may divert our management’s attention and require considerable cash outlays at the expense of our existing operations. In addition, to complete future acquisitions, we may issue equity securities, incur debt, assume contingent liabilities or have amortization expenses and write-downs of acquired assets, which could adversely affect our profitability.
 
Changes to financial accounting standards may affect our results of operations and cause us to change our business practices.
 
We prepare our financial statements to conform with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, in the United States. These accounting principles are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting policies. A change in those policies can have a significant effect on our reported results and may affect our reporting of transactions completed before a change is announced. Changes to those rules or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business. For example, accounting policies affecting many aspects of our business, including rules relating to employee share option grants, have recently been revised. The FASB and other agencies have made changes to GAAP that required us, as of our first quarter of 2006, to record a charge to earnings for the estimated fair value of employee share option grants and other equity incentives, whereas under previous accounting rules charges were required only for the intrinsic value, if any, of such awards to employees. We may have significant and ongoing accounting charges under the new rules resulting from option grants and other equity incentive expensing that could reduce our net income. In addition, since historically we have used equity-related compensation as a component of our total employee compensation program, the accounting change could make the use of equity-related compensation less attractive to us and therefore make it more difficult for us to attract and retain employees.
 
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fires, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by manmade problems such as computer viruses or terrorism.
 
Our U.S. corporate offices are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or flood, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, our servers are vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems. In addition, acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our or our customers’ businesses or the economy as a whole. To the extent that such disruptions result in delays or cancellations of customer orders, or the deployment of our products, our business, operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected.
 
Risks Related to Our Industry
 
Due to the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which could adversely affect the market price of our ordinary shares.
 
The semiconductor industry is highly cyclical and subject to rapid change and evolving industry standards and, from time to time, has experienced significant downturns. These downturns are characterized by decreases in product demand, excess customer inventories and accelerated erosion of prices. These factors could cause substantial fluctuations in our net revenues and in our operating results. Any downturns in the semiconductor industry may be severe and prolonged, and any failure of this industry to fully recover from downturns could harm our business. The semiconductor industry also periodically experiences increased demand and production capacity constraints, which may affect our ability to ship products. Accordingly, our operating results may vary significantly as a result of the general conditions in the industry, which could cause our share price to decline.


14



Table of Contents

The demand for semiconductors is affected by general economic conditions, which could impact our business.
 
The semiconductor industry is affected by general economic conditions, and a downturn may result in decreased demand for our products and adversely affect our operating results. Our business has been adversely affected by previous economic downturns. For example, during the global economic downturn in 2002 to 2003, demand for many computer and consumer electronics products suffered as consumers delayed purchasing decisions or changed or reduced their discretionary spending. As a result, demand for our products suffered and we had to implement restructuring initiatives to align our corporate spending with a slower than anticipated revenue growth during that timeframe.
 
The semiconductor industry is highly competitive, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against our competitors.
 
The semiconductor industry is highly competitive. Increased competition may result in price pressure, reduced profitability and loss of market share, any of which could seriously harm our revenues and results of operations. Competition principally occurs at the design stage, where a customer evaluates alternative design solutions. We continually face intense competition from semiconductor interconnect solutions companies. Some of our competitors have greater financial and other resources than we have with which to pursue engineering, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of their products. As a result, they may be able to respond more quickly to changing customer demands or devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sales of their products than we can. We cannot assure you that we will be able to increase or maintain our revenues and market share, or compete successfully against our current or future competitors in the semiconductor industry.
 
Risks Related to Operations in Israel and Other Foreign Countries
 
Regional instability in Israel may adversely affect business conditions and may disrupt our operations and negatively affect our revenues and profitability.
 
We have engineering facilities and corporate and sales support operations and, as of September 30, 2006, 119 full-time and 22 part-time employees located in Israel. Substantially all of our assets are located in Israel. Accordingly, political, economic and military conditions in Israel may directly affect our business. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a number of armed conflicts have taken place between Israel and its Arab neighbors, as well as incidents of civil unrest. During the summer of 2006, Israel was engaged in an armed conflict with Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist Shiite militia group and political party. This conflict involved missile strikes against civilian targets in northern Israel, and negatively affected business conditions in Israel. In addition, Israel and companies doing business with Israel have, in the past, been the subject of an economic boycott. Although Israel has entered into various agreements with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, Israel has been and is subject to civil unrest and terrorist activity, with varying levels of severity, since September 2000. The election in early 2006 of representatives of the Hamas movement to a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council and the tension among the different Palestinian factions may create additional unrest and uncertainty. Any future armed conflicts or political instability in the region may negatively affect business conditions and adversely affect our results of operations. Parties with whom we do business have sometimes declined to travel to Israel during periods of heightened unrest or tension, forcing us to make alternative arrangements when necessary. In addition, the political and security situation in Israel may result in parties with whom we have agreements involving performance in Israel claiming that they are not obligated to perform their commitments under those agreements pursuant to force majeure provisions in the agreements.
 
We can give no assurance that security and political conditions will have no impact on our business in the future. Hostilities involving Israel or the interruption or curtailment of trade between Israel and its present trading partners could adversely affect our operations and could make it more difficult for us to raise capital. While we did not sustain damages from the recent conflict with Hezbollah referred to above, our Israeli operations, which are located in northern Israel, are within range of Hezbollah missiles and we or our immediate surroundings may sustain damages in a missile attack, which could adversely affect our operations.


15



Table of Contents

In addition, our business insurance does not cover losses that may occur as a result of events associated with the security situation in the Middle East. Although the Israeli government currently covers the reinstatement value of direct damages that are caused by terrorist attacks or acts of war, we cannot assure you that this government coverage will be maintained. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business.
 
Our operations may be negatively affected by the obligations of our personnel to perform military service.
 
Generally, all non-exempt male adult citizens and permanent residents of Israel under the age of 45 (or older, for citizens with certain occupations), including some of our officers, directors and employees, are obligated to perform military reserve duty annually, and are subject to being called to active duty at any time under emergency circumstances. In the event of severe unrest or other conflict, individuals could be required to serve in the military for extended periods of time. In response to increases in terrorist activity, there have been periods of significant call-ups of military reservists, and recently some of our employees, including those in key positions, have been called up in connection with armed conflicts. It is possible that there will be additional call-ups in the future. Our operations could be disrupted by the absence for a significant period of one or more of our officers, directors or key employees due to military service. Any such disruption could adversely affect our operations.
 
Our operations may be affected by negative economic conditions or labor unrest in Israel.
 
Due to significant economic measures adopted by the Israeli government, there were several general strikes and work stoppages in Israel in 2003 and 2004, affecting all banks, airports and ports. These strikes have had an adverse effect on the Israeli economy and on business, including our ability to deliver products to our customers and to receive raw materials from our suppliers in a timely manner. From time to time, the Israeli trade unions threaten strikes or work stoppages, which, if carried out, may have a material adverse effect on the Israeli economy and our business.
 
We are susceptible to additional risks from our international operations.
 
We derived 24% and 28% of our revenues in the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2005, respectively, from sales outside North America. As a result, we face additional risks from doing business internationally, including:
 
  •  reduced protection of intellectual property rights in some countries;
 
  •  licenses, tariffs and other trade barriers;
 
  •  difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;
 
  •  longer sales and payment cycles;
 
  •  greater difficulties in collecting accounts receivable;
 
  •  seasonal reductions in business activity;
 
  •  potentially adverse tax consequences;
 
  •  laws and business practices favoring local competition;
 
  •  costs and difficulties of customizing products for foreign countries;
 
  •  compliance with a wide variety of complex foreign laws and treaties;
 
  •  tariffs, trade barriers, transit restrictions and other regulatory or contractual limitations on our ability to sell or develop our products in certain foreign markets;
 
  •  fluctuations in freight rates and transportation disruptions;
 
  •  political and economic instability; and
 
  •  variance and unexpected changes in local laws and regulations.


16



Table of Contents

 
Our principal research and development facilities are located in Israel, and our directors, executive officers and other key employees are located primarily in Israel and the United States. In addition, we engage sales representatives in various countries throughout the world to market and sell our products in those countries and surrounding regions. If we encounter these challenges in our international operations, we could experience slower than expected revenue growth and our business could be harmed.
 
It may be difficult to enforce a U.S. judgment against us, our officers and directors and some of the experts named in this prospectus or to assert U.S. securities law claims in Israel.
 
We are incorporated in Israel. Four of our executive officers and one of our directors, who is also an executive officer, and some of our accountants and attorneys are non-residents of the United States and are located in Israel, and substantially all of our assets and the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. Three of our executive officers and five of our directors are located in the United States. Therefore, it may be difficult to enforce a judgment obtained in the United States against us or any of these persons in U.S. or Israeli courts based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. Additionally, it may be difficult for a shareholder to enforce civil liabilities under U.S. federal securities laws in original actions instituted in Israel. Please see “Enforceability of Civil Liabilities” for a further discussion of this risk factor.
 
Provisions of Israeli law may delay, prevent or make difficult an acquisition of us, which could prevent a change of control and therefore depress the price of our shares.
 
Israeli corporate law regulates mergers, requires tender offers for acquisitions of shares above specified thresholds, requires special approvals for transactions involving directors, officers or significant shareholders and regulates other matters that may be relevant to these types of transactions. For example, a merger may not be completed unless at least 50 days have passed from the date that a merger proposal was filed by each merging company with the Israel Registrar of Companies and at least 30 days from the date that the shareholders of both merging companies approved the merger. In addition, the approval of a majority of each class of securities of the target company is required to approve a merger.
 
These provisions could delay, prevent or impede an acquisition of us, even if such an acquisition would be considered beneficial by some of our shareholders. See “Risk Factors — Provisions of our charter documents or Israeli law could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, even if the acquisition would be beneficial to our shareholders, and could make it more difficult for shareholders to change management,” “Management — Approval of Specified Related Party Transactions under Israeli Law,” “Description of Ordinary Shares — Acquisitions under Israeli Law” and “Description of Ordinary Shares — Anti-Takeover Measures under Israeli Law” for a further discussion of this risk factor.
 
Exchange rate fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and the NIS may negatively affect our earnings.
 
Although most of our revenues and a majority of our expenses are denominated in U.S. dollars, a significant portion of our research and development expenses are incurred in new Israeli shekels, or NIS. As a result, we are exposed to risk to the extent that the inflation rate in Israel exceeds the rate of devaluation of the NIS in relation to the U.S. dollar or if the timing of these devaluations lags behind inflation in Israel. In that event, the U.S. dollar cost of our research and development operations in Israel will increase and our U.S. dollar-measured results of operations will be adversely affected. To the extent that the value of the NIS increases against the U.S. dollar, our expenses on a U.S. dollar cost basis increase. We cannot predict any future trends in the rate of inflation in Israel or the rate of devaluation of the NIS against the U.S. dollar. The Israeli rate of inflation (deflation) amounted to (1.9)%, 1.2% and 2.4% for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively, and 0.8% for the first nine months of 2006. If the U.S. dollar cost of our research and development operations in Israel increases, our dollar-measured results of operations will be adversely affected. Our operations also could be adversely affected if we are unable to guard against currency fluctuations in the future. The NIS revaluation (devaluation) in relation to the U.S. dollar amounted to (7.6)%, (1.6)% and 6.8% for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005. Further, because most of our international revenues are denominated in U.S. dollars, a strengthening of the dollar versus other currencies could make our products less competitive in foreign markets and collection of receivables more difficult. We do not currently engage in currency hedging activities but we may choose to do so in the future. These


17



Table of Contents

measures, however, may not adequately protect us from material adverse effects due to the impact of inflation in Israel.
 
The government tax benefits that we currently receive require us to meet several conditions and may be terminated or reduced in the future, which would increase our costs.
 
Some of our operations in Israel have been granted “Approved Enterprise” status by the Investment Center in the Israeli Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor, which makes us eligible for tax benefits under the Israeli Law for Encouragement of Capital Investments, 1959. The availability of these tax benefits is subject to certain requirements, including, among other things, making specified investments in fixed assets and equipment, financing a percentage of those investments with our capital contributions, complying with our marketing program which was submitted to the Investment Center, filing of certain reports with the Investment Center and complying with Israeli intellectual property laws. If we do not meet these requirements in the future, these tax benefits may be cancelled and we could be required to refund any tax benefits that we have already received plus interest and penalties thereon. The tax benefits that our current “Approved Enterprise” program receives may not be continued in the future at their current levels or at all. If these tax benefits were reduced or eliminated, the amount of taxes that we pay would likely increase, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, if we increase our activities outside of Israel, for example, by acquisitions, our increased activities may not be eligible for inclusion in Israeli tax benefit programs. See “Israeli Tax Considerations and Government Programs — Taxation of Companies” for additional information concerning these tax benefits.
 
The Israeli government grants that we currently receive require us to meet several conditions and may be reduced or eliminated due to government budget cuts, and these grants restrict our ability to manufacture and engineer products and transfer know-how outside of Israel and require us to satisfy specified conditions.
 
We have received, and may receive in the future, grants from the government of Israel through the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, or the OCS, for the financing of a portion of our research and development expenditures in Israel. When know-how or products are developed using OCS grants, the terms of these grants restrict the transfer of the know-how out of Israel. Transfer of know-how abroad is subject to various conditions, including payment of a percentage of the consideration paid to us or our shareholders in the transaction in which the technology is transferred. In addition, any decrease of the percentage of manufacturing performed locally, as originally declared in the application to the OCS, may require us to notify, or to obtain the approval of the OCS, and may result in increased royalty payments to the OCS. These restrictions may impair our ability to enter into agreements for those products or technologies without the approval of the OCS. We cannot be certain that any approval of the OCS will be obtained on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. Furthermore, in the event that we undertake a transaction involving the transfer to a non-Israeli entity of technology developed with OCS funding pursuant to a merger or similar transaction, the consideration available to our shareholders may be reduced by the amounts we are required to pay to the OCS. Any approval, if given, will generally be subject to additional financial obligations. If we fail to comply with the conditions imposed by the OCS, including the payment of royalties with respect to grants received, we may be required to refund any payments previously received, together with interest and penalties. In the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005 the OCS approved grants totaling $1.4 million, $1.3 million and $43,000, respectively, of funding in support of some of our research and development programs.
 
We may be classified as a passive foreign investment company, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. holders of our ordinary shares.
 
We do not expect to be considered a “passive foreign investment company,” or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes for our current taxable year ending December 31, 2007. However, the application of the PFIC rules is subject to ambiguity in several respects, and, in addition, we must make a separate determination each taxable year as to whether we are a PFIC (after the close of each taxable year). Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we will not be a PFIC for our current taxable year or any future taxable year. A non-U.S. corporation will be considered a PFIC for any taxable year if either (i) at least 75% of its gross income is passive income or (ii) at least 50% of the


18



Table of Contents

value of its assets is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income. The market value of our assets generally will be determined based on the market price of our ordinary shares, which is likely to fluctuate after this offering. In addition, the composition of our income and assets will be affected by how, and how quickly, we spend the cash we raise in this offering. If we were treated as a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. person held an ordinary share, certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences could apply to such U.S. person, including:
 
  •  having gains realized on the sale of our ordinary shares treated as ordinary income, rather than capital gain;
 
  •  the loss of the preferential rate applicable to dividends received on our ordinary shares by individuals who are U.S. holders; and
 
  •  having interest charges apply to the proceeds of share sales.
 
See “U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations — Passive Foreign Investment Company.”
 
Your rights and responsibilities as a shareholder will be governed by Israeli law and differ in some respects from the rights and responsibilities of shareholders under U.S. law.
 
We are incorporated under Israeli law. The rights and responsibilities of holders of our ordinary shares are governed by our amended and restated articles of association and by Israeli law. These rights and responsibilities differ in some respects from the rights and responsibilities of shareholders in typical U.S. corporations. In particular, a shareholder of an Israeli company has a duty to act in good faith toward the company and other shareholders and to refrain from abusing his, her or its power in the company, including, among other things, in voting at the general meeting of shareholders on certain matters. Please see “Description of Authorized Share Capital” for a further discussion of shareholder rights and responsibilities under Israeli law.
 
Risks Related to This Offering
 
The price of our ordinary shares may be volatile, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price.
 
Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our ordinary shares. An active and liquid trading market for our ordinary shares may not develop or be sustained after this offering. You may be unable to resell your ordinary shares at or above the initial public offering price due to fluctuations in the market price of our ordinary shares resulting from changes in our operating performance or prospects. Factors that could cause volatility in the market price of our ordinary shares include, but are not limited to:
 
  •  quarterly variations in our results of operations or those of our competitors;
 
  •  announcements by us or our customers of acquisitions, new products, significant contracts, commercial relationships or capital commitments;
 
  •  our ability to develop and market new and enhanced products on a timely basis;
 
  •  disruption to our operations;
 
  •  geopolitical instability;
 
  •  the emergence of new sales channels in which we are unable to compete effectively;
 
  •  any major change in our board of directors or management;
 
  •  changes in financial estimates, including our ability to meet our future revenue and operating profit or loss projections;
 
  •  changes in governmental regulations or in the status of our regulatory approvals;
 
  •  general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of related markets;
 
  •  commencement of, or our involvement in, litigation; and


19



Table of Contents

 
  •  changes in earnings estimates or recommendations by securities analysts.
 
In addition, the stock markets in general, and the markets for semiconductor stocks in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of the issuer. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price or liquidity of our ordinary shares. In the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile and declined, holders of that stock have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against the issuer. If any of our shareholders were to bring such a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit and the attention of our management would be diverted from the operation of our business.
 
The ownership of our ordinary shares will continue to be highly concentrated, and your interests may conflict with the interests of our existing shareholders.
 
Our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, together with our current significant shareholders, will beneficially own approximately 30.91% of our outstanding ordinary shares upon completion of this offering (excluding any shares that may be purchased by our existing shareholders in this offering). Moreover, four of our shareholders, Sequoia Capital Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, Intel Atlantic, Inc. and Bessemer Venture Partners, will beneficially own approximately 27.45% of our outstanding ordinary shares upon completion of this offering. In addition, individual partners of U.S. Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners serve on our board of directors. Accordingly, these shareholders, acting as a group, will continue to have significant influence over the outcome of corporate actions requiring shareholder approval, including the election of directors, any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or any other significant corporate transaction. These shareholders could delay or prevent a change of control of our company, even if such a change of control would benefit our other shareholders. The significant concentration of share ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our ordinary shares due to investors’ perception that conflicts of interest may exist or arise.
 
A significant portion of our outstanding ordinary shares may be sold into the market in the near future. Substantial sales of our shares, or the perception such sales are likely to occur, could cause the price of our ordinary shares to decline.
 
If our existing shareholders sell a large number of our ordinary shares or the public market perceives that existing shareholders might sell our ordinary shares, the market price of our ordinary shares could decline significantly. All of the shares offered under this prospectus will be freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the U.S. federal securities laws, unless purchased by our “affiliates” as that term is defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. An aggregate of 25,329,854 of the remaining 25,433,262 shares outstanding upon the closing of this offering may be sold pursuant to Rule 144, 144(k) and 701 upon the expiration of 180-day lock-up agreements.
 
Existing shareholders holding an aggregate of 17,670,071 ordinary shares have rights with respect to the registration of these ordinary shares with the SEC. If we register their ordinary shares following the expiration of the lock-up agreements, they can sell those shares in the public market.
 
Promptly following this offering, we intend to register with the SEC 8,633,619 ordinary shares that are authorized for issuance under our share option plans and options granted outside our share option plans. As of December 31, 2006, 5,166,808 shares were subject to outstanding options, of which 3,480,127 shares were vested. Once we register these shares, they can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to the lock-up agreements referred to above and the restrictions imposed on our affiliates under Rule 144.
 
Investors in this offering will suffer immediate and substantial dilution of their investment.
 
If you purchase ordinary shares in this offering, you will pay more for your shares than our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share. You will incur immediate and substantial dilution of $10.07 per share, representing the difference between our initial public offering price and our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share. In the past, we issued options to acquire ordinary shares at prices significantly below the initial public offering price. To the extent these outstanding options are exercised, you will incur further dilution.


20



Table of Contents

If we sell our ordinary shares in future financings, ordinary shareholders will experience immediate dilution and, as a result, our share price may go down.
 
We may from time to time issue additional ordinary shares at a discount from the current trading price of our ordinary shares. As a result, our ordinary shareholders would experience immediate dilution upon the purchase of any ordinary shares sold at such discount. In addition, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into equity financings or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt securities, preferred shares or ordinary shares. If we issue ordinary shares or securities convertible into ordinary shares, our ordinary shareholders could experience dilution.
 
Provisions of our charter documents or Israeli law could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, even if the acquisition would be beneficial to our shareholders, and could make it more difficult for shareholders to change management.
 
Provisions of our amended and restated articles of association may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control that shareholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which shareholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempt by our shareholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult to replace or remove our board of directors. These provisions include:
 
  •  no cumulative voting; and
 
  •  an advance notice requirement for shareholder proposals and nominations.
 
Furthermore, Israeli tax law treats some acquisitions, particularly stock-for-stock swaps between an Israeli company and a foreign company, less favorably than U.S. tax law. Israeli tax law generally provides that a shareholder who exchanges our shares for shares in a foreign corporation is treated as if the shareholder has sold the shares. In such a case, the shareholder will generally be subject to Israeli taxation on any capital gains from the sale of shares (after two years, with respect to one half of the shares, and after four years, with respect to the balance of the shares, in each case unless the shareholder sells such shares at an earlier date), unless a relevant tax treaty between Israel and the country of the shareholder’s residence exempts the shareholder from Israeli tax. Please see “Risk Factors — Provisions of Israeli law may delay, prevent or make difficult an acquisition of us, which could prevent a change of control and therefore depress the price of our shares” for a further discussion of Israeli laws relating to mergers and acquisitions. Please also see “Description of Authorized Share Capital” for a further discussion of restrictions contained in our amended and restated articles of association. These provisions in our amended and restated articles of association and other provisions of Israeli law could limit the price that investors are willing to pay in the future for our ordinary shares.
 
We have never paid cash dividends on our share capital, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
 
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our share capital, nor do we anticipate paying any cash dividends on our share capital in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our ordinary shares will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.
 
We may apply the proceeds of this offering to uses that do not improve our operating results or increase the value of shareholders’ investment.
 
We intend to use a portion of the net proceeds from the ordinary shares sold by us in this offering to fund development of our products. We expect to use the remaining amount of the net proceeds of this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, sales and marketing activities, research and development activities, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary technologies, products or businesses or to obtain rights to such complementary technologies, products or businesses. However, we do not have more specific plans for the net proceeds from this


21



Table of Contents

offering and will have broad discretion in how we use the net proceeds of this offering. These proceeds could be applied in ways that do not improve our operating results or increase the value of shareholders’ investment.
 
We will incur increased costs as a result of being a public company, and may incur increased costs as a result of changes in laws and regulations relating to corporate governance matters.
 
As a public company, we will incur significant accounting, legal and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. We will incur costs associated with our public company reporting requirements. We also anticipate that we will incur costs associated with corporate governance requirements, including requirements under Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as rules implemented by the SEC and The Nasdaq Stock Market. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules, and we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.
 
Changes in the laws and regulations affecting public companies, including the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley and rules adopted by the SEC and by The Nasdaq Stock Market, will result in increased costs to us as we respond to their requirements. These laws and regulations could make it more difficult or more costly for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we may be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements.


22



Table of Contents

 
 
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
 
This prospectus includes forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the financial condition of our business. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management’s good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to:
 
  •  levels of capital spending in the semiconductor industry, in general, and of the market for high-performance interconnect products, specifically;
 
  •  our ability to achieve new design wins;
 
  •  our ability to successfully introduce new products;
 
  •  competition and competitive factors;
 
  •  our dependence on a relatively small number of customers;
 
  •  our ability to expand our presence with existing customers;
 
  •  our ability to protect our intellectual property;
 
  •  future costs and expenses; and
 
  •  other risk factors included under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus.
 
In addition, in this prospectus, the words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “predict,” “potential” and similar expressions, as they relate to Mellanox, our business and our management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this prospectus may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.
 
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this prospectus. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable laws. If we update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.


23



Table of Contents

 
 
USE OF PROCEEDS
 
We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the sale of the ordinary shares offered by us will be approximately $70 million, or approximately $80.9 million if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.
 
A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $5.6 million, or approximately $6.4 million if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.
 
We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering primarily to fund the development of our products and for general corporate purposes, including working capital, sales and marketing activities, research and development activities, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures. We intend to increase our research and development and sales and marketing staff to develop and introduce new products, and we intend to increase our general and administrative staff to manage our expanding operations as a public company. We may use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, companies, technologies or products that complement our business. We have no present understandings, commitments or agreements to enter into any acquisitions or investments. Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds in this offering. Pending these uses, we intend to invest the net proceeds of this offering in short-term, investment-grade interest-bearing securities or guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government.
 
By establishing a public market for our ordinary shares, this offering is also intended to facilitate our future access to public markets.
 
 
DIVIDEND POLICY
 
We have never declared or paid, and do not anticipate declaring or paying, any cash dividends on our ordinary shares. Any future determination as to the declaration and payment of dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects and other factors our board of directors may deem relevant.
 
The Israel Companies Law, 1999, or the Companies Law, also restricts our ability to declare dividends. We can only distribute dividends from profits (as defined in the Companies Law), or if we do not meet the profit test, with court approval, provided in each case that there is no reasonable concern that the dividend distribution will prevent us from meeting our existing and foreseeable obligations as they come due.


24



Table of Contents

 
 
CAPITALIZATION
 
The following table shows:
 
  •  our capitalization as of September 30, 2006;
 
  •  our capitalization as of September 30, 2006, on a pro forma basis, giving effect to the assumed conversion of all outstanding preferred shares into an aggregate of 17,571,848 ordinary shares, as adjusted to reflect the 1.75-to-1 reverse split of our ordinary shares and assuming an initial public offering price of $13.00 per share, as if such conversions had occurred on September 30, 2006; and
 
  •  our capitalization as of September 30, 2006, on a pro forma as adjusted basis, giving effect to the sale by us of 6,000,000 ordinary shares in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $13.00 per share or greater, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses and adjusting for antidilution.
 
                         
    As of September 30, 2006  
                Pro Forma,
 
    Actual     Pro Forma     As Adjusted  
    (in thousands of dollars, except share data)  
 
Mandatorily redeemable convertible preferred shares
  $ 55,715              
Convertible preferred shares
    36,338              
Shareholders’ (deficit)/equity
                       
Ordinary shares
    31       104       129  
Additional paid-in capital
    2,958       94,938       164,953  
Accumulated deficit
    (73,106 )     (73,106 )     (73,106 )
                         
Total shareholders’ (deficit)/equity
    (70,117 )     21,936       91,976  
                         
Total capitalization
  $ 21,936     $ 21,936     $ 91,976  
                         
 
The outstanding share information set forth above is as of September 30, 2006, and excludes:
 
  •  an aggregate of 4,263,057 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options to purchase our ordinary shares granted pursuant to our 1999 United States Equity Incentive Plan, 1999 Israeli Share Option Plan and 2003 Israeli Share Option Plan as of September 30, 2006, at a weighted average exercise price of $3.10 per share;
 
  •  an aggregate of 597,175 additional ordinary shares reserved for future issuance under our 1999 United States Equity Incentive Plan and our 2003 Israeli Share Option Plan;
 
  •  3,428,571 additional ordinary shares reserved for issuance under our 2006 Global Share Incentive Plan, which we adopted in connection with this offering; 
 
  •  additional ordinary shares to be automatically reserved for issuance on an annual basis on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2008, under our 2006 Global Share Incentive Plan, such annual increase to be equal to the least of 2% of ordinary shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date of the increase, 685,714 ordinary shares or a smaller number determined by our board of directors, provided that the aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved for issuance under such plan may not exceed 15,474,018;
 
  •  571,428 additional ordinary shares reserved for issuance pursuant to purchase rights under our Employee Share Purchase Plan, which we adopted in connection with this offering;
 
  •  additional ordinary shares to be automatically reserved for issuance on an annual basis on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2008, under our Employee Share Purchase Plan, such annual increase to be equal to the least of 0.5% of ordinary shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date of the increase, 171,428 ordinary shares or a smaller number determined by our board of directors, provided that the aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved for issuance under such plan may not exceed 2,114,285;
 
  •  an aggregate of 58,283 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options granted outside of our equity incentive plans as of September 30, 2006, at a weighted average exercise price of $1.22 per share; and


25



Table of Contents

 
  •  699,866 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of warrants outstanding as of September 30, 2006, with an exercise price of $11.57 per share. 72,690 ordinary shares were issued subsequent to September 30, 2006 pursuant to the exercise of warrants that expired on October 9, 2006 and November 19, 2006; all warrants that were not exercised have expired.
 
A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share would increase (decrease) each of total shareholders’ equity and total capitalization by $5.6 million, or $6.4 million if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and our estimated offering expenses.


26



Table of Contents

 
 
DILUTION
 
If you invest in our ordinary shares, your interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the public offering price per share of our ordinary shares and the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our ordinary shares immediately after the offering.
 
Investors participating in the offering will incur immediate, substantial dilution. On September 30, 2006, our pro forma net tangible book value was $21.6 million, or $0.85 per ordinary share, after giving effect to (1) the assumed conversion of all outstanding convertible preferred shares as of September 30, 2006 into 11,643,764 ordinary shares; (2) the issuance of 5,928,084 additional ordinary shares to our Series D preferred shareholders pursuant to an existing antidilution provision effective upon a qualifying initial public offering and the issuance of such shares upon the closing of the offering. Assuming the sale of 6,000,000 ordinary shares in the offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share, which is the mid-point of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of September 30, 2006 would have been $91.6 million, or $2.93 per ordinary share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $2.08 per ordinary share to our existing shareholders and an immediate dilution of $10.07 per share to the new investors purchasing shares in the offering.
 
The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis to new investors:
 
                 
Assumed IPO price
          $ 13.00  
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of September 30, 2006
  $ 0.85          
Increase per share attributable to this offering
  $ 2.08          
Pro forma net tangible book values, as adjusted to give effect to this offering
          $ 2.93  
                 
Dilution to new investors
          $ 10.07  
                 
 
If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, the pro forma net tangible book value per share after giving effect to this offering would be $3.18 per ordinary share, the increase in net tangible book value per share to our existing shareholders after giving effect to this offering would be $2.33 per ordinary share, and the dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to investors in this offering would be $9.82 per ordinary share.
 
The table below summarizes as of September 30, 2006, on a pro forma as adjusted basis described above, the number of our ordinary shares, the total consideration and the average price per share (i) paid to us by existing shareholders and (ii) to be paid by new investors purchasing our ordinary shares in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $13.00.
 
                                         
    Shares purchased     Total consideration     Average price
 
    Number     Percent     Amount     Percent     per share  
 
Existing shareholders
    25,304,587       81 %   $ 96,953,026       55 %   $ 3.83  
New investors
    6,000,000       19 %     78,000,000       45 %   $ 13.00  
                                         
Total
    31,304,587       100 %   $ 174,953,026       100 %        
                                         
 
The above discussion and tables are based on 25,304,587 ordinary shares outstanding as of September 30, 2006, and exclude:
 
  •  an aggregate of 4,263,057 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options to purchase our ordinary shares granted pursuant to our 1999 United States Equity Incentive Plan, 1999 Israeli Share Option Plan and 2003 Israeli Share Option Plan as of September 30, 2006, at a weighted average exercise price of $3.10 per share;


27



Table of Contents

 
  •  an aggregate of 597,175 additional ordinary shares reserved for future issuance under our 1999 United States Equity Incentive Plan and our 2003 Israeli Share Option Plan;
 
  •  3,428,571 additional ordinary shares reserved for issuance under our 2006 Global Share Incentive Plan, which we adopted in connection with this offering;
 
  •  additional ordinary shares to be automatically reserved for issuance on an annual basis on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2008, under our 2006 Global Share Incentive Plan, such annual increase to be equal to the least of 2% of ordinary shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date of the increase, 685,714 ordinary shares or a smaller number determined by our board of directors, provided that the aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved for issuance under such plan may not exceed 15,474,018;
 
  •  an aggregate of 58,283 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options granted outside of our equity incentive plans as of September 30, 2006, at a weighted average exercise price of $1.22 per share;
 
  •  571,428 additional ordinary shares reserved for issuance pursuant to purchase rights under our Employee Share Purchase Plan, which we adopted in connection with this offering; and
 
  •  additional ordinary shares to be automatically reserved for issuance on an annual basis on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2008, under our Employee Share Purchase Plan, such annual increase to be equal to the least of 0.5% of ordinary shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date of the increase, 171,428 ordinary shares or a smaller number determined by our board of directors, provided that the aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved for issuance under such plan may not exceed 2,114,285.
 
To the extent that any outstanding options or warrants are exercised, new investors will experience further dilution. The table below assumes the exercise of all options and warrants to purchase our ordinary shares outstanding as of September 30, 2006 and the conversion of our Series A and B preferred shares into ordinary shares at a rate of 1 to 1 (without giving effect to the 1.75-to-1 reverse share split), the conversion of our Series C preferred shares into ordinary shares at a rate of 1 to 1.0249 (without giving effect to the 1.75-to-1 reverse share split) and the conversion of our Series D preferred shares into ordinary shares at a rate of 1 to 2.2245 (without giving effect to the 1.75-to-1 reverse share split and based on an assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share), as adjusted to reflect the 1.75-to-1 reverse split of our ordinary shares and assuming an initial public offering price of $13.00 per share.
 
                                         
    Shares purchased     Total consideration     Average price
 
    Number     Percent     Amount     Percent     per share  
 
Existing shareholders
    25,304,587       70 %   $ 96,953,026       51 %   $ 3.83  
Shares subject to options
    4,321,340       12       13,309,727       7       3.08  
Shares subject to warrants
    699,866       2       4,626,114       2       6.61  
                                         
Subtotal
    30,325,793             114,888,867              
                                         
New investors
    6,000,000       16       78,000,000       40       13.00  
                                         
Total
    36,325,793       100.0 %   $ 192,888,867       100.0 %      
                                         
 
A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share would increase (decrease) the dilution to new investors by $0.74 per share, or $0.72 per share if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and our estimated offering expenses.


28



Table of Contents

 
 
CONVERSION OF SERIES D PREFERRED SHARES
 
In connection with the closing of this offering, all of our outstanding preferred shares will convert into ordinary shares. Due to the antidilution provisions of our amended and restated articles of association, the conversion ratio of our Series D preferred shares may be adjusted in connection with the conversion of our outstanding preferred shares into ordinary shares. The per share conversion rate of our Series D preferred shares will be determined by multiplying $6.61, as adjusted for splits of our ordinary shares, by 2.5, and dividing by the price per share paid in this offering. Therefore, depending on the price of the shares sold in this offering, the holders of the Series D preferred shares may receive more than one ordinary share for each share of Series D preferred shares converted in connection with this offering. Under the provisions of our amended and restated articles of association, we will not know the conversion rate of our Series D preferred shares until the public offering price is determined.
 
In this prospectus, we have estimated the number of ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of the Series D preferred shares assuming an initial public offering price of $13.00 per share (as adjusted for any share dividends, combinations, splits, recapitalizations and the like with respect to such shares). Assuming an initial public offering price of $13.00, 10,766,566 ordinary shares would be issued upon conversion of the Series D preferred shares as further described in “Note 9 — Redeemable Convertible Preferred Shares and Redeemable Convertible Preferred Shares — Anti-dilution adjustments,” of the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements.
 
A $1.00 increase in the assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share would decrease the number of ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of the Series D preferred shares by 769,039 ordinary shares, which would result in 30,664,223 total shares outstanding upon completion of this offering. Conversely, a $1.00 decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $13.00 per share would increase the number of ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of the Series D preferred shares by 897,228 ordinary shares, which would result in 32,330,490 total shares outstanding upon completion of this offering.
 
Upon completion of this offering, our existing shareholders will continue to have significant influence over the outcome of corporate actions requiring shareholder approval, including the election of directors, any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or any other significant corporate transaction. As only some of our shareholders own Series D preferred shares, changes in our valuation in connection with this offering will impact the conversion ratio of our Series D preferred shares and thus the relative ownership of our ordinary shares upon completion of this offering among our existing shareholders.


29



Table of Contents

 
 
SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
 
The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated balance sheet data for the years ended December 31, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and our consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2001 and 2002, from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated statements of operations data for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2005 and the nine months ended September 30, 2006, as well the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2004 and 2005, from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated statements of operations data for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 from our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the annual consolidated financial statements and, in the opinion of our management, reflect all adjustments, which include only normal recurring adjustments necessary to state fairly our consolidated financial position as of September 30, 2005 and the results of our operations and our cash flows for the periods presented. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in any future period.
 
                                                         
    December 31,     September 30,  
    2001     2002     2003     2004     2005     2005     2006  
    (in thousands except per share data)  
                                  (unaudited)        
 
Consolidated Statement of Operations Data:
                                                       
Total revenues
  $ 1,741     $ 4,002     $ 10,151     $ 20,254     $ 42,068     $ 29,874     $ 32,741  
Cost of revenues
    (700 )     (1,514 )     (4,535 )     (8,736 )     (15,203 )     (11,253 )     (9,601 )
                                                         
Gross profits
    1,041       2,488       5,616       11,518       26,865       18,621       23,140  
Operating expenses:
                                                       
Research and development
    16,743       17,297       14,457       12,864       13,081       9,307       11,064  
Sales and marketing
    4,474       4,749       5,298       5,640       7,395       5,291       6,080  
General and administrative
    2,033       2,141       1,720       1,719       3,094       2,118       2,544  
Restructuring
    0       2,327       0       0       0       0       0  
                                                         
Total operating expenses
    23,250       26,514       21,475       20,223       23,570       16,716       19,688  
Income (loss) from operations
    (22,209 )     (24,026 )     (15,859 )     (8,705 )     3,295       1,905       3,452  
Other income, net
    750       993       308       123       326       281       232  
                                                         
Income (loss) before taxes on income
    (21,459 )     (23,033 )     (15,551 )     (8,582 )     3,621       2,186       3,684  
Provision for taxes on income
                (12 )     (306 )     (462 )     (329 )     (271 )
                                                         
Net income (loss)
  $ (21,459 )   $ (23,033 )   $ (15,563 )   $ (8,888 )   $ 3,159     $ 1,857     $ 3,413  
                                                         
Net income (loss) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders — basic and diluted
    (3.23 )     (3.42 )     (2.32 )     (1.27 )     0.00       0.00       0.00  
Shares used to compute net income (loss) per share
    6,650       6,729       6,764       7,117       7,520       7,492       7,673  
Shares used to compute diluted net income (loss) per share
    6,650       6,729       6,764       7,117       9,091       9,040       9,623  
 
See Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements for a description of the method used to compute shares used in computing basic and diluted net loss per share and shares used in computing pro forma basic and diluted net loss per share.
 


30



Table of Contents

                                                 
    December 31,     September 30,
 
    2001     2002     2003     2004     2005     2006  
    (In thousands of dollars)  
 
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
                                               
Cash and cash equivalents
  $ 15,933     $ 4,945     $ 12,883     $ 10,944     $ 12,350     $ 15,800  
Working capital
    29,742       29,980       19,978       13,391       17,240       19,930  
Total assets
    50,187       44,362       32,239       25,822       31,154       37,145  
Total liabilities
    5,531       7,574       10,439       11,473       13,270       15,209  
Mandatorily redeemable convertible preferred shares
    39,922       55,118       55,262       55,417       55,583       55,715  
Convertible preferred shares
    36,338       36,338       36,338       36,338       36,338       36,338  
Total shareholders’ deficit
  $ (31,604 )   $ (54,668 )   $ (69,800 )   $ (77,406 )   $ (74,037 )   $ (70,117 )
                                                 

31



Table of Contents

 
 
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF
FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
 
You should read the following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this prospectus. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this prospectus, particularly in the “Risk Factors.”
 
Overview
 
General
 
We are a leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products that facilitate data transmission between servers and storage systems through communications infrastructure equipment. Our products are an integral part of a total solution focused on computing, storage and communication applications used in enterprise data center, high-performance computing and embedded systems.
 
We are a fabless semiconductor company that provides high-performance interconnect solutions based on semiconductor integrated circuits, or ICs. We design, develop and market adapter and switch ICs, both of which are silicon devices that provide high performance connectivity. We also offer adapter cards that incorporate our ICs. Since we introduced our first product in 2001, we have shipped products containing approximately 1.7 million InfiniBand ports, which we believe demonstrates an established customer and end-user base for our products. Growth in our target markets is being driven by the need to improve the efficiency and performance of clustered systems, as well as the need to significantly reduce the total cost of ownership. In addition, we believe that demand for our products will largely depend upon the magnitude and timing of capital spending by end users.
 
We outsource our manufacturing, assembly, packaging and production test functions, which enables us to focus on the design, development, sales and marketing of our products. As a result, our business has relatively low capital requirements. However, our ability to bring new products to market, fulfill customer orders and achieve long-term growth depends on our ability to maintain sufficient technical personnel and obtain sufficient external subcontractor capacity.
 
We have experienced rapid growth in our total revenues in each of the last two years. Our revenues increased from $10.2 million to $20.3 million to $42.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. In order to continue to increase our revenues, we must continue to achieve design wins over other InfiniBand providers and providers of competing interconnect technologies. We consider a design win to occur when an OEM or contract manufacturer notifies us that it has selected our products to be incorporated into a product or system under development. Because the life cycles for our customers’ products can last for several years if these products have successful commercial introductions, we expect to continue to generate revenues over an extended period of time for each successful design win.
 
It is difficult for us to forecast the demand for our products, in part because of the highly complex supply chain between us and the end-user markets that incorporate our products. Demand for new features changes rapidly. Due to our lengthy product development cycle, it is critical for us to anticipate changes in demand for our various product features and the applications they serve to allow sufficient time for product design. Our failure to accurately forecast demand can lead to product shortages that can impede production by our customers and harm our relationship with these customers. Conversely, our failure to forecast declining demand or shifts in product mix can result in excess or obsolete inventory.
 
Revenues.  We derive revenues from sales of our ICs and cards. To date, we have derived a substantial portion of our revenues from a relatively small number of customers. Total sales to customers representing more than 10% of revenues accounted for 54%, 52% and 56% of our total revenues for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. The loss of one or more of our principal customers or the reduction or deferral of purchases of our products by one of these customers could cause our revenues to decline materially if we are unable to increase our revenues from other customers. We expect sales to customers representing more than 10% of revenues to account for a decreasing but significant portion of our revenues for at least the remainder of 2006.


32



Table of Contents

Cost of revenues and gross profit.  The cost of revenues consists primarily of the cost of silicon wafers purchased from our foundry supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, costs associated with the assembly, packaging and production testing of our products by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, or ASE, outside processing costs associated with the manufacture of our HCA cards by Flextronics, royalties due to third parties, including the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, or the OCS, the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation and a third-party licensor, warranty costs, excess and obsolete inventory costs and costs of personnel associated with production management and quality assurance. In addition, after we purchase wafers from our foundries, we also have the yield risk related to manufacturing these wafers into semiconductor devices. Manufacturing yield is the percentage of acceptable product resulting from the manufacturing process, as identified when the product is tested as a finished IC. If our manufacturing yields decrease, our cost per unit increases, which could have a significant adverse impact on our cost of revenues. We do not have long-term pricing agreements with TSMC and ASE. Accordingly, our costs are subject to price fluctuations based on the cyclical demand for semiconductors.
 
We purchase our inventory pursuant to standard purchase orders. We estimate that lead times for delivery of our finished semiconductors from our foundry supplier and assembly, packaging and production testing subcontractor are approximately three to four months and that lead times for delivery from our HCA card manufacturing subcontractors are approximately eight to ten weeks. We build inventory based on forecasts of customer orders rather than the actual orders themselves. In addition, as customers are increasingly seeking opportunities to reduce their lead times, we may be required to increase our inventory to meet customer demand.
 
We expect our cost of revenues to increase over time as a result of the expected increase in our sales volume. Generally, our cost of revenues as a percentage of sales revenues has decreased over time, primarily due to manufacturing cost reductions, economies of scale related to higher unit volumes and our decision to discontinue sales of our lower margin switch systems products in 2005. This trend may not continue in the future, and will depend on overall customer demand for our products, our product mix, competitive product offerings and related pricing and our ability to reduce manufacturing costs.
 
Operational expenses
 
Research and development expenses.  Our research and development expenses consist primarily of salaries and associated costs for employees engaged in research and development, costs associated with computer aided design software tools, depreciation expense and tape out costs. Tape out costs are expenses related to the manufacture of new products, including charges for mask sets, prototype wafers, mask set revisions and testing incurred before releasing new products. We anticipate these expenses will increase in future periods based on an increase in personnel to support our product development activities and the introduction of new products. We anticipate that our research and development expenses may fluctuate over the course of a year based on the timing of our product tape outs.
 
We received grants from the OCS for several projects. Under the terms of these grants, if products developed from an OCS-funded project generate revenue we are required to pay a royalty of 4% of the net sales as soon as we begin to sell such products until 120% of the dollar value of the grant plus interest at LIBOR is repaid. All of the grants we have received from the OCS have resulted in IC products sold by us. In 2003, 2004 and 2005, we received an aggregate of $1.4 million, $1.3 million and $43,000, respectively, of approved grants in support of some of our research and development programs. As of September 30, 2006, our contingent obligation in respect of royalties payable to the OCS totaled approximately $2.5 million, payable out of future net sales, if any, of products that were developed under projects funded by the OCS. The continued repayment of OCS grants is contingent on future sales of products developed with the support of such grants, and we have no obligation to refund these grants if future sales are not generated. All reported research and development expenses are net of OCS and other government grants.
 
The terms of OCS grants generally prohibit the manufacture of products developed with OCS funding outside of Israel without the prior consent of the OCS. The OCS has approved the manufacture outside of Israel of our IC products, subject to an undertaking by us to pay the OCS royalties on the sales of our OCS-supported products until such time as the total royalties paid equal 120% of the amount of OCS grants.


33



Table of Contents

Under applicable Israeli law, OCS consent is also required to transfer technologies developed with OCS funding to third parties in Israel. Transfer of OCS-funded technologies outside of Israel is permitted with the approval of the OCS and in accordance with the restrictions and payment obligations set forth under Israeli law. Israeli law further specifies that both the transfer of know-how as well as the transfer of intellectual property rights in such know-how are subject to the same restrictions. These restrictions do not apply to exports of products from Israel or the sale of products developed with these technologies. We do not anticipate the need to transfer any of our intellectual property rights outside of Israel at this time.
 
Sales and marketing expenses.  Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of salaries and associated costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing and customer support, commission payments to external, third party sales representatives and charges for trade shows, promotions and travel. We expect these expenses will increase in absolute dollars in future periods based on an increase in sales and marketing personnel and increased commission payments on higher sales volumes.
 
General and administrative expenses.  General and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and associated costs for employees engaged in finance, human resources and administrative activities and charges for accounting and legal fees. We expect these expenses will increase in absolute dollars in future periods based on an increase in personnel to meet the requirements associated with our anticipated growth and being a public company.
 
Taxes on Income
 
Our operations in Israel have been granted “Approved Enterprise” status by the Investment Center of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which makes us eligible for tax benefits under the Israeli Law for Encouragement of Capital Investments, 1959. Under the terms of the Approved Enterprise program, income that is attributable to our operations in Yokneam, Israel will be exempt from income tax for a period of ten years commencing when we first generate taxable income (after setting off our losses from prior years). Income that is attributable to our operations in Tel Aviv, Israel will be exempt from income tax for a period of two years commencing when we first generate taxable income (after setting off our losses from prior years), and will be subject to a reduced income tax rate (generally 10-25%, depending on the percentage of foreign investment in our company) for the following five to eight years. See “Israeli Tax Considerations and Government Programs — Taxation of Companies” for a more detailed discussion.
 
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
 
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and related disclosures. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our estimates are based on historical experience and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ from these estimates.
 
We believe that the assumptions and estimates associated with revenue recognition, allowance for doubtful accounts, inventory valuation, warranty provision, income taxes and share-based compensation have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. Therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting policies and estimates. For further information on all of our significant accounting policies, please see Note 1 of the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements.
 
Revenue recognition
 
We account for our revenue under the provisions of Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 104, “Revenue Recognition in Financial Statements” (SAB 104). Under SAB 104, revenues from sales of products are recognized when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the price is fixed or determinable and collection is reasonably assured. Our standard arrangement with our customers typically includes freight-on-board shipping point, 30-day payment terms, no right of return and no customer acceptance provisions. We generally rely upon a purchase order as persuasive evidence of an arrangement.


34



Table of Contents

We determine whether collectibility is probable on a customer-by-customer basis. When assessing the probability of collection, we consider the number of years the customer has been in business and the history of our collections. Customers are subject to a credit review process that evaluates the customers’ financial positions and ultimately their ability to pay. If it is determined at the outset of an arrangement that collection is not probable, no product is shipped and no revenue is recognized unless cash is received in advance.
 
Allowance for doubtful accounts
 
We estimate the allowance for doubtful accounts based on an assessment of the collectibility of specific customer accounts. If we determine that a specific customer is unable to meet its financial obligations, we provide a specific allowance for credit losses to reduce the net recognized receivable to the amount we reasonably believe will be collected. Probability of collection is assessed on a customer-by-customer basis and our historical experience with each customer. Customers are subject to an ongoing credit review process that evaluates the customers’ financial positions. We review and update our estimates for allowance for doubtful accounts on a quarterly basis. Our allowance for doubtful accounts totaled approximately $0, $50,000 and $95,000 at December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. Our bad debt expense totaled approximately $47,000, $72,000 and $70,000 for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively.
 
Inventory valuation
 
We value our inventory at the lower of cost or market. Market is determined based on net realizable value. Cost is determined for raw materials on a “first-in, first-out” basis, for work in process based on actual costs and for finished goods based on standard cost, which approximates actual cost on a first-in, first-out basis. We reserve for excess and obsolete inventory based on forecasted demand generally over a nine-month period and market conditions. Inventory reserves are not reversed and permanently reduce the cost basis of the affected inventory until it is either sold or scrapped.
 
Warranty provision
 
We provide a standard 12-month warranty from the date of delivery against defects in materials and workmanship. If a customer has a defective product, we will either repair the goods or provide replacement products at no charge. We record estimated warranty expenses at the time we recognize the associated product revenues based on our historical rates of return and costs of repair over the preceding 12-month period. In addition, we recognize estimated warranty expenses for specific defects at the time those defects are identified.
 
Share-based compensation
 
Through December 31, 2005, we elected to account for share-based compensation in accordance with the intrinsic value method described in Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25, “Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees” (APB 25) and related interpretations rather than adopting the fair value method provided under SFAS No. 123, “Accounting for Stock Based Compensation” (SFAS 123). We have generally not recognized any compensation expense for share options we granted to our employees where the exercise price equals the fair market value of the shares on the date of grant and the exercise price, number of shares eligible for issuance under the options and vesting period are fixed.
 
Effective January 1, 2006, we adopted SFAS No. 123 (revised 2004), “Share-Based Payment” (SFAS 123(R)), which requires that we measure compensation expense for all share-based payment awards made to employees and directors, including employee share options, based on estimated fair values and recognize that expense over the required service period.
 
We adopted SFAS 123(R) using the prospective transition method. Under this method, SFAS 123(R) is applied to new awards and to awards modified, repurchased or cancelled after January 1, 2006. Compensation cost previously recorded under APB 25 for unvested options will continue to be recognized as the required services are rendered. Accordingly, for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2006, share-based compensation expense includes compensation costs related to estimated fair values of awards granted after the date of adoption of


35



Table of Contents

SFAS 123(R) and compensation costs related to unvested awards at the date of adoption based on the intrinsic values as previously recorded under APB 25.
 
For options granted after January 1, 2006, and valued in accordance with SFAS 123(R), we use the straight-line method for expense attribution. For options granted prior to January 1, 2006, we use the multiple grant approach for expense attribution, which results in substantially higher amounts of amortization in earlier years as opposed to the straight-line method, which results in equal amortization over the vesting period of the options.
 
Upon adoption of SFAS 123(R), we were required to estimate the number of outstanding options that are not expected to vest. In subsequent periods, if actual forfeitures differ from these estimates, we will revise our estimates. No compensation cost is recognized for options that do not vest. Under the multiple grant approach, forfeitures of unvested options resulting from employee terminations result in the reversal during the period in which the termination occurred of previously expensed share compensation associated with the unvested options with maturities similar to the expected terms of the respective options. Share compensation from vested options, whether forfeited or not, is not reversed.
 
We estimated the fair value of options granted after January 1, 2006 using the Black-Scholes option valuation model. This valuation model requires us to make assumptions and judgments about the variables used in the calculation. These variables and assumptions include the weighted average period of time that the options granted are expected to be outstanding, the volatility of our ordinary shares, the risk-free interest rate and the estimated rate of forfeitures of unvested share options. If actual results differ from our estimates, we will record the difference as a cumulative adjustment in the period we revise our estimates. Since our ordinary shares have not been actively traded in the past, we used the simplified calculation of expected life described in the SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 107 and we estimated our ordinary shares’ volatility based on an average of the historical volatilities of the company’s peer group in the industry in which it does business. The risk-free rate is based on U.S. Treasury securities with maturities similar to the expected terms of the respective options. We estimated expected forfeitures based on our historical experience.
 
Significant factors, assumptions and methodologies used in determining fair value
 
The estimated fair value of our ordinary shares was determined by our board of directors using a model based on a fixed multiple of net income for a trailing 12-month period. If a valuation model using different input variables had been used, our ordinary share valuation may have been different. During the third quarter of 2005, we obtained a contemporaneous valuation from an unrelated third-party valuation specialist. An update to this original valuation was obtained in October 2006. A number of objective and subjective factors were considered in determining the fair value of our ordinary shares, including important operational events, such as the release of new products, the risk and non-liquid nature of the ordinary shares and underlying market conditions. The estimated fair values determined by the valuation specialist were not significantly different from our estimated fair values. Therefore, we have not adjusted our consolidated financial statements based upon the valuations.
 
During the 12-month period ended December 31, 2006, we granted share options with the following exercise prices:
 
                         
          Weighted Average
       
    Number of Options
    Exercise Price per
    Weighted Average
 
Date of Grant   Granted     Share     Fair Value Per Share  
 
 
    26,399     $ 9.19     $ 9.19  
    930,272       9.19       9.19  
    47,998       9.19       9.19  
    26,285       8.93       8.93  
    51,712       8.58       8.58  
    6,857       7.44       7.44  
    16,570       7.44       7.44  


36



Table of Contents

Accounting for income taxes
 
Income taxes are accounted for using an asset and liability approach, which requires the recognition of taxes payable or refundable for the current year and deferred tax liabilities and assets for the future tax consequences of events that have been recognized in our financial statements or tax returns. The measurement of current and deferred tax liabilities and assets are based on the provisions of enacted tax law; the effects of future changes in tax laws or rates are not anticipated. The measurement of deferred tax assets is reduced, if necessary, by the amount of any tax benefits that, based on available evidence, are not expected to be realized.
 
Deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on the difference between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to affect taxable income. Valuation allowances are provided if, based on the weight of available evidence, it is considered more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.
 
Results of Operations
 
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations as a percentage of revenues for the periods indicated:
 
                                         
          Nine months ended
 
    Years ended December 31,     September 30,  
        2004     2005     2005     2006  
 
Total Revenues
    100 %     100 %     100 %     100 %     100 %
Cost of revenues
    45       43       36       38       29  
                                         
Gross profit
    55       57       64       62       71  
                                         
Operating expenses:
                                       
Research and development
    142       64       31       31       34  
Sales and marketing
    52       28       18       18       19  
General and administrative
    17       8       7       7       8  
                                         
Total operating expenses
    211       100       56       56       61  
                                         
Income (loss) from operations
    (156 )     (43 )     8       6       10  
Other income, net
    3       1       1       1       1  
Provision for taxes on income
    0       (2 )     (1 )     (1 )     (1 )
                                         
Net income (loss)
    (153 )     (44 )     8       6       10  
                                         
 
Comparison of Nine Months Ended September 30, 2006 to Nine Months Ended September 30, 2005
 
Revenues.  Revenues were approximately $32.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximately $29.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing an increase of approximately 9%. This increase in revenues resulted primarily from increased unit sales of approximately 28%, driven by broader adoption of InfiniBand and our products, offset by a decrease in average sales prices of 14%. A portion of the decrease in average sales prices was due to the decline from 9% to 2% in the percentage of revenues attributable to switch systems, which have significantly higher sales prices. In addition, Cisco, one of our largest customers that represented approximately 15% of our revenues in the nine months ended September 30, 2006, represented approximately 49% of our revenues in the nine months ended September 30, 2005. A portion of this percentage decline was attributable to an accumulation of inventory in 2005 by Cisco following its acquisition of Topspin Communications, which we believe has been substantially sold in 2005 and 2006. We expect Cisco to remain one of our largest customers for the year ended December 31, 2006.
 
Gross Profit and Gross Margin.  Gross profit was approximately $23.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximate $18.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing an increase of 24%. As a percentage of revenues, gross margin increased to 71% in the nine months


37



Table of Contents

ended September 30, 2006 from approximately 62% in the nine months ended September 30, 2005. This increase in gross margin was primarily due to a reduction in production costs associated with outsourced labor, raw materials and volume discounts and reduced warranty expenses related to selected product introductions. In addition, part of the gross margin improvement was due to increased sales of next generation products for which we receive higher margins.
 
Research and Development.  Research and development expenses were approximately $11.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximately $9.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing an increase of approximately 19%. The increase was attributable to higher salary related expenses associated with increased headcount of approximately $1.3 million, increased depreciation and amortization of equipment, software and intellectual property of approximately $197,000, and increases in non-recurring engineering and product qualification (outside testing and validation) expenses of approximately $262,000.
 
Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $6.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximately $5.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing an increase of approximately 15%. The increase was primarily attributable to higher salary related expenses associated with increased headcount of approximately $647,000, and an increase in tradeshow and advertising expenses of approximately $168,000.
 
General and Administrative.  General and administrative expenses were approximately $2.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximately $2.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing an increase of approximately 19%. The increase was primarily due to higher salary related expenses associated with increased headcount of approximately $322,000 and an increase in legal and accounting fees of approximately $222,000, offset by a decrease in travel related expenses of $69,000.
 
Other Income, net.  Other income, net consists of interest earned on cash equivalents and marketable securities and foreign currency exchange gains and losses. Other income, net was approximately $232,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximately $281,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing a decrease of approximately 17%. The decrease was primarily due to higher foreign exchange losses of $341,000 offset by higher net interest income of $291,000.
 
Provision for Taxes on Income.  Provision for taxes on income was approximately $271,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2006 compared to approximately $329,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2005, representing a decrease of approximately 18%. The decrease was related to lower taxes attributable to Mellanox Technologies, Inc., our wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary.
 
Comparison of the Year Ended December 31, 2005 to the Year Ended December 31, 2004
 
Revenues.  Revenues were approximately $42.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $20.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of 107%. This significant increase in revenues resulted primarily from increased unit sales of approximately 103%, driven by broader adoption of InfiniBand and our products, and an increase in average sales prices of 2%.
 
Gross Profit and Margin.  Gross profit was approximately $26.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $11.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of approximately 133%. As a percentage of revenues, gross profit increased to approximately 64% in 2005 from 57% in 2004. This increase in gross profit margin was primarily due to an approximate 5% reduction in production costs coupled with an approximate 2% increase in average sales prices. Part of the gross margin improvement was also due to a decline in the percentage of revenues attributable to switch systems, historically a lower margin business, which declined to approximately 6% from approximately 14% of total revenues during the year.
 
Research and Development.  Research and development expenses were approximately $13.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $12.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of approximately 2%. The change in spending consisted of a reduction in tape out costs in 2005 of approximately $1.2 million offset by $43,000 in OCS funding in 2005, compared to $1.3 million of OCS funding received in 2004, which was recorded as a reduction to research and development.


38



Table of Contents

Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $7.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $5.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of approximately 32%. The increase was primarily attributable to approximately $1.1 million of higher external sales representative commissions associated with increased revenues, higher salary and travel related expenses due to staff additions of approximately $828,000, higher marketing related expenses and enterprise resource planning, or ERP, related expenses of approximately $291,000 and $121,000, respectively, offset by approximately $488,000 of lower share-based compensation expense.
 
General and Administrative.  General and administrative expenses were approximately $3.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $1.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of approximately 82%. The increase in 2005 was due to higher salary related expenses associated with headcount additions of approximately $788,000, increased facilities related expenses of approximately $326,000, increased legal and accounting costs of approximately $251,000 and ERP system implementation related consulting expenses of approximately $149,000, partially offset by approximately $176,000 of lower share-based compensation expense.
 
Other Income, net.   Other income, net was approximately $326,000 for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $123,000 for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of approximately 165%. The increase was primarily attributable to gains of $217,000 from foreign currency exchange fluctuations.
 
Provision for Taxes on Income.  Provision for taxes on income was approximately $462,000 for the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to approximately $306,000 for the year ended December 31, 2004, representing an increase of approximately 51%. The increase was related to higher income attributable to Mellanox Technologies, Inc.
 
Comparison of the Year Ended December 31, 2004 to the Year Ended December 31, 2003
 
Revenues.  Revenues were approximately $20.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to approximately $10.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2003, representing an increase of 99%. This increase in revenues resulted primarily from an increase in unit sales of approximately 130%, offset by a decrease in average sales prices of approximately 13%.
 
Gross Profit and Margin.  Gross profit was approximately $11.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to approximately $5.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2003, representing an increase of approximately 105%. As a percentage of revenues, gross profit increased to approximately 57% in 2004 from approximately 55% in 2003. This increase in gross margin was primarily due to a reduction in production costs coupled with a decline in the percentage of revenues attributable to switch systems, historically a lower margin business, which declined to approximately 14% in 2004 from approximately 30% in 2003 of total revenues during the year.
 
Research and Development.  Research and development expenses were approximately $12.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to approximately $14.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2003, representing a decrease of approximately 11%. The decrease was primarily due to a decline of approximately $902,000 in salary related expenses associated with lower headcount as part of restructuring activities in May 2004, approximately $1.7 million of lower depreciation and amortization expenses on technology equipment and software and approximately $459,000 of lower software maintenance fees. This was partially offset by an increase of approximately $494,000 in tape out costs, $329,000 of share-based compensation expense and approximately $664,000 of third-party license rights.
 
Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $5.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to approximately $5.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2003, representing an increase of approximately 6%. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in outside sales representative commissions of approximately $216,000 associated with higher revenues and an increase in salary and travel related expenses of approximately $367,000 associated with staffing additions, offset by approximately $209,000 of lower marketing related expenses.


39



Table of Contents

General and Administrative.  General and administrative expenses were approximately $1.7 million for each of the years ended December 31, 2004 and December 31, 2003. Lower salary related and travel expenses of approximately $280,000 in 2004 were offset by approximately $158,000 of share-based compensation expense and approximately $128,000 of recruiting fees.
 
Other Income, net.  Other income, net was approximately $123,000 for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to approximately $308,000 for the year ended December 31, 2003, representing a decrease of approximately 60%. The decrease was attributable primarily to a decline in interest income of approximately $308,000 associated with lower levels of marketable securities and net interest earning instruments, offset by approximately $92,000 of gains from foreign currency exchange fluctuations and other interest expense.
 
Provision for Taxes on Income.  Provision for taxes on income was approximately $306,000 for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to approximately $12,000 for the year ended December 31, 2003, representing an increase of approximately $294,000. The increase was associated with tax expenses on income from Mellanox Technologies, Inc.
 
Liquidity and Capital Resources
 
Since our inception, we have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our convertible preferred shares totaling approximately $89.3 million. We incurred net losses from operations since inception until the second quarter of 2005 and had an accumulated deficit of approximately $73.1 million as of September 30, 2006. As of September 30, 2006, our principal source of liquidity consisted of cash and cash equivalents of approximately $15.8 million. In August 2005, we entered into an agreement with a financial institution to provide us with a line of credit of up to approximately $5.0 million for general working capital requirements. As of September 30, 2006, we have not drawn down on this line of credit.
 
Over the next 12 months, we expect cash flows from operating activities, along with net proceeds from this offering, and our existing cash and cash equivalents to be sufficient to fund our operations, taking into account expected increases in research and development expenses, including tape out costs, sales and marketing expenses, general and administrative expenses, primarily for increased headcount, and capital expenditures to support our infrastructure and growth. In addition, as of September 30, 2006, we are required to make total remaining payments of approximately $1.3 million to Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation pursuant to a license agreement dated December 16, 2002. This agreement terminated on December 31, 2006, and provides that the $1.3 million payment shall occur on or before January 31, 2007.
 
Operating Activities
 
Net cash generated by our operating activities amounted to approximately $4.3 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2006. Net cash generated by operating activities was primarily attributable to net income of approximately $3.4 million, a decrease in inventory of approximately $0.9 million, and a decrease in accounts payable of approximately $0.8 million, offset by an increase in accounts receivable of approximately $1.8 million.
 
Net cash used in operating activities amounted to approximately $12.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 and approximately $5.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2004 and generated net cash of approximately $770,000 for the year ended December 31, 2005.
 
Net cash used in operating activities in 2003 was approximately $12.3 million. Our net losses of approximately $15.6 million were offset by non-cash charges of approximately $3.3 million for depreciation and amortization and approximately $545,000 for share-based compensation expense. Cash used for operating activities in 2003 included an increase in inventories of approximately $1.1 million resulting from increased projected product demand and an increase in accounts receivable of $957,000 resulting from increased product sales partially offset by increases in accounts payable of approximately $1.7 million.
 
Net cash used in operating activities in 2004 was approximately $5.7 million. Our net losses of approximately $8.9 million were offset by non-cash charges of approximately $2.5 million for depreciation and amortization and approximately $1.0 million for share-based compensation expense. Cash used for operating activities in 2004


40



Table of Contents

included increases in accounts receivable of approximately $2.9 million, partially offset by a decrease in prepaid expenses of approximately $1.3 million and an increase in accounts payable of approximately $1.4 million.
 
Net cash generated by operating activities in 2005 was approximately $770,000. Our net income of approximately $3.2 million was impacted by a non-cash charge of approximately $1.7 million for depreciation and amortization. Cash generated by operating activities in 2005 included increases in accounts receivable resulting from increased product sales and inventories resulting from increased projected product demand of approximately $3.2 million and $2.3 million, respectively, and an increase in accrued liabilities and other payables of approximately $1.0 million.
 
In the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005, we received from the OCS an aggregate of $1.4 million, $1.3 million and $43,000, respectively, of approved grants in support of some of our research and development programs.
 
Investing Activities
 
Net cash used in investing activities was approximately $951,000 in the nine months ended September 30, 2006. Cash used in investment activities was attributable to purchases of property and equipment and severance-related insurance policies.
 
Net cash generated by investment activities was approximately $21.0 million in the year ended December 31, 2003, approximately $3.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2004 and approximately $462,000 in the year ended December 31, 2005 and was primarily attributable to net sales and maturities of marketable securities (net of purchases) offset by purchases of property and equipment and severance-related insurance policies.
 
Financing Activities
 
Net cash provided by financing activities was approximately $92,000 in the nine months ended September 30, 2006. Cash generated by financing activities was attributable to proceeds from the exercise of share options, offset by principal payments on capital lease obligations and payments on deferred public offering costs.
 
Our financing activities used approximately $800,000 and $65,000 in the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2004, respectively, and were primarily attributable to principal payments on capital lease obligations partially offset by proceeds from share option exercises. Our financing activities generated approximately $174,000 in 2005 and were attributable to proceeds from the exercise of share options, partially offset by principal payments on capital lease obligations.
 
Contractual Obligations
 
The following table summarizes our contractual obligations at September 30, 2006 and the effect those obligations are expected to have on our liquidity and cash flow in future periods:
 
                                 
          Payments Due by Period  
          Less Than
          Beyond
 
Contractual Obligations:
  Total     1 Year     1-3 Years     3 Years  
 
Commitments under capital lease
  $ 1,278,385     $ 535,715     $ 742,670     $  
Non-cancelable operating lease commitments
    6,332,139       1,798,632       2,832,507       1,701,000  
Purchase commitments
    4,142,854       4,142,854              
Obligation on purchase of intangible assets
    1,306,000       1,306,000              
                                 
Total
  $ 13,059,378     $ 7,783,201     $ 3,575,177     $ 1,701,000  
                                 
 
For purposes of this table, purchase obligations for the purchase of goods or services are defined as agreements that are enforceable and legally binding and that specify all significant terms, including: fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased; fixed, minimum or variable price provisions; and the approximate timing of the transaction. Our purchase orders are based on our current manufacturing needs and are fulfilled by our vendors


41



Table of Contents

within short time horizons. In addition, we have purchase orders that represent authorizations to purchase rather than binding agreements. We do not have significant agreements for the purchase of raw materials or other goods specifying minimum quantities or set prices that exceed our expected requirements.
 
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
 
In May 2005, the FASB issued SFAS No. 154, “Accounting Changes and Error Corrections” (SFAS 154), which replaces Accounting Principles Board Opinions No. 20, “Accounting Changes” and SFAS No. 3, “Reporting Accounting Changes in Interim Financial Statements — An Amendment of APB Opinion No. 28.” SFAS 154 provides guidance on the accounting for and reporting of accounting changes and error corrections. It establishes retrospective application, or the latest practicable date, as the required method for reporting a change in accounting principle and the reporting of a correction of an error. SFAS 154 is effective for accounting changes and corrections of errors made in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2005 and is required to be adopted by us in the first quarter of 2006. The adoption of SFAS 154 did not have an impact on our consolidated results of operations or financial condition.
 
In September 2005, the Emerging Issues Task Force, or EITF, issued Statement 05-6, “Determining the Amortization Period for Leasehold Improvements Purchased after Lease Inception or Acquired in a Business Combination,” or EITF 05-6. EITF reached a consensus that leasehold improvements acquired in a business combination or that are placed in service significantly after, and not contemplated at or near the beginning of the lease term should be amortized over the shorter of the useful life of the assets or a term that includes required lease periods and renewal periods that are deemed to be reasonably assured at the date the leasehold improvements are purchased. EITF 05-6 applies to leasehold improvements that are purchased or acquired in reporting periods beginning after June 29, 2005. The adoption of the provisions of EITF 05-6 did not have a material impact on our financial position and results of operations.
 
In June 2006, the FASB ratified Emerging Issues Task Force, or EITF, issued Issue 06-3, “How Sales Taxes Collected From Customers and Remitted to Governmental Authorities Should be Presented in the Income Statement.” EITF 06-3 requires a company to disclose its accounting policy (i.e., gross or net presentation) regarding the presentation of taxes within the scope of EITF 06-3. If taxes are significant, a company should disclose the amount of such taxes for each period for which an income statement is presented. The guidance is effective for periods beginning after December 15, 2006. We are currently evaluating the effect that the adoption of EITF 06-3 will have on our financial position and results of operations.
 
In July 2006, the FASB issued Financial Accounting Standards Interpretation No. 48, “Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes” (FIN 48). FIN 48 clarifies the accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in an enterprise’s financial statements in accordance with SFAS 109. FIN 48 prescribes a recognition and measurement method of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. FIN 48 also provides guidance on derecognition, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim periods, disclosures and transitions. FIN 48 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2006. We are currently analyzing the effects of FIN 48 on our consolidated financial position and results of operations.
 
In September 2006, the SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108, “Considering the Effects of Prior Year Misstatements when Quantifying Current Year Misstatements,” or SAB No. 108. SAB No. 108 requires analysis of misstatements using both an income statement, or ‘rollover,’ approach and a balance sheet, or ‘iron curtain,’ approach in assessing materiality and provides for a one-time cumulative effect transition adjustment. SAB No. 108 is effective commencing with our fiscal year 2007 annual financial statements. We are currently assessing the potential impact that the adoption of SAB No. 108 will have on our financial statements.
 
In September 2006, the FASB issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, “Fair Value Measurements,” or SFAS No. 157, which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value under generally accepted accounting principles, and expands disclosures about fair value measurements. SFAS No. 157 does not require any new fair value measurements, but provides guidance on how to measure fair value by providing a fair value hierarchy used to classify the source of the information. SFAS No. 157 is effective for the company as of January 1, 2008. We are currently assessing the potential impact that the adoption of SFAS No. 157 will have on our financial statements.


42



Table of Contents

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
 
Market risk is the risk of loss related to changes in market prices of financial instruments that may adversely impact our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
 
Interest rate fluctuation risk
 
We do not have any long-term borrowings. Our investments consist of cash and cash equivalents, short-term deposits and interest bearing investments in marketable securities with maturities of one year or less, consisting of commercial paper, government and non-government debt securities. The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal while maximizing income without significantly increasing risk. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. Our investments are exposed to market risk due to a fluctuation in interest rates, which may affect our interest income and the fair market value of our investments. Due to the short-term nature of our investment portfolio, we do not believe an immediate 10% increase in interest rates would have a material effect on the fair market value of our portfolio, and therefore we do not expect our operating results or cash flows to be materially affected to any degree by a sudden change in market interest rates.
 
Foreign currency exchange risk
 
We derive all of our revenues in U.S. dollars. The U.S. dollar is our functional and reporting currency. However, a significant portion of our headcount related expenses, consisting principally of salaries and related personnel expenses, are denominated in new Israeli shekels, or NIS. This foreign currency exposure gives rise to market risk associated with exchange rate movements of the U.S. dollar against the NIS. Furthermore, we anticipate that a material portion of our expenses will continue to be denominated in NIS. To the extent the U.S. dollar weakens against the NIS, we will experience a negative impact on our profit margins. To manage this risk, we have on occasion converted U.S. dollars into NIS within two to three weeks of monthly pay dates in Israel to lock in the related salary expense given the different currencies. We do not currently engage in currency hedging activities but we may choose to do so in the future. These measures, however, may not adequately protect us from material adverse effects due to the impact of inflation in Israel.
 
Inflation related risk
 
We believe that the rate of inflation in Israel has not had a material impact on our business to date. However, our cost in Israel in U.S. dollar terms will increase if inflation in Israel exceeds the devaluation of the NIS against the U.S. dollar or if the timing of such devaluation lags behind inflation in Israel.
 
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
 
As of September 30, 2006, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements.


43



Table of Contents

 
 
BUSINESS
 
Overview
 
We are a leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products that facilitate data transmission between servers and storage systems through communications infrastructure equipment. Our products are an integral part of a total solution focused on computing, storage and communication applications used in enterprise data centers, high-performance computing and embedded systems. We are one of the pioneers of InfiniBand, an industry standard architecture that provides specifications for high-performance interconnects. We believe that we are the leading merchant supplier of field-proven InfiniBand-compliant semiconductor products that deliver industry-leading performance and capabilities, which we believe is demonstrated by the performance, efficiency and scalability of clustered computing and storage systems that incorporate our products. In addition to supporting InfiniBand, our next generation of products also supports the industry standard Ethernet interconnect specification, which we believe will expand our total addressable market.
 
We are a fabless semiconductor company that provides high-performance interconnect solutions based on semiconductor integrated circuits, or ICs. We design, develop and market adapter and switch ICs, both of which are silicon devices that provide high performance connectivity. We also offer adapter cards that incorporate our ICs. These ICs are added to servers, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems by either integrating them directly on circuit boards or inserting adapter cards into slots on the circuit board. Since we introduced our first product in 2001, we have shipped products containing approximately 1.7 million InfiniBand ports, which we believe demonstrates an established customer and end-user base for our products. We have established significant expertise with high-performance interconnect solutions from successfully developing and implementing multiple generations of our products. Our expertise enables us to develop and deliver products that serve as building blocks for creating reliable and scalable InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions with leading performance at significantly lower cost than products based on alternative interconnect solutions.
 
As the leading merchant supplier of InfiniBand ICs, we play a significant role in enabling the providers of computing, storage and communications applications to deliver high-performance interconnect solutions. We have developed strong relationships with our customers, many of which are leaders in their respective markets. Our products are included in servers from the five largest vendors, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu-Siemens, which collectively shipped the majority of servers in 2005, according to the industry research firm IDC. We also supply leading storage and communications infrastructure equipment vendors such as Cisco Systems, LSI Logic, Network Appliance, SilverStorm Technologies, which was recently acquired by QLogic Corporation, and Voltaire. Additionally, our products are used by GE Fanuc, Mercury Computers, SeaChange International and other vendors of embedded systems.
 
In order to accelerate adoption of our high-performance interconnect solutions and our products, we work with leading vendors across related industries, including:
 
  •  processor vendors such as Intel, AMD, IBM and Sun Microsystems;
 
  •  operating system vendors such as Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat; and
 
  •  software applications vendors such as Oracle, IBM and VMWare, an EMC company.
 
We are a Steering Committee member of the InfiniBand Trade Association, or IBTA, and the OpenFabrics Alliance, or OFA, both of which are industry trade organizations that maintain and promote InfiniBand technology. Additionally, OFA recently expanded its charter to support and promote high-performance Ethernet solutions.
 
Our business headquarters are in Santa Clara, California, and our engineering headquarters are in Yokneam, Israel. During the year ended December 31, 2005 and nine months ended September 30, 2006, we generated approximately $42.1 million and $32.7 million in revenues, respectively, and approximately $3.2 million and $3.4 million in net income, respectively.


44



Table of Contents

Industry Background
 
High-Performance Interconnect Market Overview
 
Computing and storage systems such as servers, supercomputers and storage arrays handling large volumes of data require high-performance interconnect solutions which enable fast transfer of data and efficient sharing of resources. Interconnect solutions are based on ICs that handle data transfer and associated processing which are added to server, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems by either integrating the ICs on circuit boards or by inserting adapter cards that contain these ICs into slots on the circuit board.
 
Interconnect solution requirements, such as high bandwidth, low latency (response time), reliability, scalability and price/performance, generally depend on the systems and the applications they support. High-performance interconnect solutions are used in the following markets:
 
  •  Enterprise Data Center, or EDC.  EDCs are facilities that house servers, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems that enable deployment of commercial applications such as customer relationship management, financial trading and risk management applications, enterprise resource planning and E-commerce and web service applications. EDCs typically provide multiple data processing and storage resources to one or many organizations and are capable of supporting several applications at the same time.
 
  •  High-Performance Computing, or HPC.  HPC encompasses applications that utilize the computing power of advanced parallel processing over multiple servers, commonly called a supercomputer. The expanding list of HPC applications includes financial modeling, government research, computer automated engineering, geoscience and bioscience research and digital content creation. HPC systems typically focus data processing and storage resources on one application at a time.
 
  •  Embedded.  Embedded applications encompass computing, storage and communication functions that use interconnect solutions contained in a chassis which has been optimized for a particular environment. Examples of embedded applications include storage and data acquisition equipment, military operations, industrial and medical equipment and telecommunications and data communications infrastructure equipment.
 
A number of semiconductor-based interconnect solutions have been developed to address different applications. These solutions include Myrinet, Fibre Channel, Ethernet and most recently InfiniBand, which was specifically created for high-performance computing, storage and embedded applications.
 
Trends Affecting High-Performance Interconnect
 
Demand for computing power and data storage capacity is rising at a high rate, fueled by the increasing reliance of enterprises on information technology, or IT, for everyday operations. Because enterprises rely on compute- and data-intensive applications that create greater amounts of information to be processed, stored and retrieved, they need high-performance computing and high-capacity storage systems that optimize price/performance, minimize total cost of ownership and simplify management. We believe that several IT trends impact the demand for interconnect solutions and the performance required from these solutions. These trends include:
 
  •  Transition to clustered computing and storage using connections among multiple standard components.  Historically, enterprises addressed the requirements for high-end computing and storage using monolithic systems, which are based on proprietary components. These systems typically require significant upfront capital expenditures as well as high ongoing operating and maintenance expense. More recently, enterprises have deployed systems with multiple off-the-shelf standardized servers and storage systems linked by high-speed interconnects, also known as clusters. Clustering enables significant improvements in performance, reliability, scalability and cost.
 
  •  Transition to multiple and multi-core processors in servers.  In order to increase processing capabilities, processor vendors have integrated multiple computing cores into a single processor device. In addition, server OEMs are incorporating several multi-core processors into a single server. While this significantly


45



Table of Contents

  increases the computing capabilities of an individual server, the total performance of a cluster of these servers is impacted by the total input/output, or I/O, bandwidth. Inadequate cluster I/O bandwidth results in processor underutilization, thereby reducing the overall capability and performance of the cluster.
 
  •  Enterprise data center infrastructure consolidation.  IT managers are increasingly faced with the need to optimize total cost of ownership associated with the EDCs they manage. They are focused on reducing the costs associated with running multiple networks, such as power consumption and cabling, increasing flexibility and scalability, and improving the utilization of existing resources in the EDC. This has led to a widespread trend of consolidating the EDC infrastructure to reduce costs and generate a higher return on IT investments. The need for better utilization of floor space has helped drive the adoption of compact form factor (size and shape) blade servers. Additionally, enterprises are turning to virtualization software, which allows multiple applications to run on a single server, thereby improving resource utilization and requiring increased I/O bandwidth in the EDC.
 
  •  Increasing deployments of mission-critical, latency sensitive applications.  There is an increasing number of applications that require extremely fast response times in order to deliver an optimal result or user experience. Reducing latency, the absolute time it takes for information to be sent from one resource to another over a high-performance interconnect, is critical to enhancing application performance in clustered environments. Some examples of applications that benefit from low-latency interconnect include financial trading, clustered databases and parallel processing solutions used in HPC.
 
Challenges Faced by High-Performance Interconnect
 
The trends described above indicate that high-performance interconnect solutions will play an increasingly important role in IT infrastructures and will drive strong growth in unit demand. However, performance requirements for interconnect solutions continue to evolve and lead to high demand for solutions that are capable of resolving the following challenges to facilitate broad adoption:
 
  •  Performance limitations.  In clustered computing and storage environments, high bandwidth and low latency are key requirements to capture the full performance capabilities of a cluster. With the usage of multiple multi-core processors in server, storage and embedded systems, I/O bandwidth has not been able to keep pace with processor advances, creating performance bottlenecks. Fast data access has become a critical requirement to accommodate microprocessors’ increased compute power. In addition, interconnect latency has become a limiting factor in a cluster’s overall performance.
 
  •  Increasing complexity.  The increasing usage of clustered servers and storage systems as a critical IT tool has led to an increase in complexity of interconnect configurations. The number of configurations and connections have also proliferated in EDCs, making them increasingly complicated to manage and expensive to operate. Additionally, managing multiple software applications utilizing disparate interconnect infrastructures has become increasingly complex.
 
  •  Interconnect inefficiency.  The deployment of clustered computing and storage has created additional interconnect implementation challenges. As additional computing and storage systems, or nodes, are added to a cluster, the interconnect must be able to scale in order to provide the expected increase in cluster performance. Additionally, recent government attention on data center energy efficiency is causing IT managers to look for ways to adopt more energy-efficient implementations.
 
  •  Limited reliability and stability of connections.  Most interconnect solutions are not designed to provide reliable connections when utilized in a large clustered environment, which can cause data transmission interruption. As more applications in EDCs share the same interconnect, advanced traffic management and application partitioning become necessary to maintain stability and reduce system down time. Such capabilities are not offered by most interconnect solutions.
 
  •  Poor price/performance economics.  In order to provide the required system bandwidth and efficiency, most high-performance interconnects are implemented with complex, multi-chip semiconductor solutions. These implementations have traditionally been extremely expensive.


46



Table of Contents

 
In addition to InfiniBand, proprietary and other standards-based, high-performance interconnect solutions, including Myrinet, Fibre Channel and Ethernet, are currently used in EDC, HPC and embedded markets. However, performance and usage requirements continue to evolve and are now challenging the capabilities of these interconnect solutions:
 
  •  Myrinet is a proprietary interconnect solution that has been designed for use in supercomputer applications by supporting low latency and increased reliability. The majority of Myrinet deployments support 2 gigabits per second, or Gb/s (a unit of data transfer rate), while recently announced solutions support 10Gb/s in addition to providing connectivity to 10Gb/s Ethernet switch equipment, although still requiring proprietary software solutions. The number of supercomputers that use Myrinet has been declining largely due to the availability of industry standards-based interconnects that offer superior price/performance, a lack of compatible storage systems, and the required use of proprietary software solutions.
 
  •  Fibre Channel is an industry standard interconnect solution limited to storage applications. The majority of Fibre Channel deployments support 2Gb/s while recently announced solutions support 4Gb/s. Fibre Channel lacks a standard software interface, does not provide server cluster capabilities and remains more expensive relative to other standards-based interconnects.
 
  •  Ethernet is an industry-standard interconnect solution that was initially designed to enable basic connectivity between a local area network of computers or over a wide area network, where latency, connection reliability and performance limitations due to communication processing are non-critical. While Ethernet has a broad installed base at 1 Gb/s and lower data rates, its overall efficiency, scalability and reliability have been less optimal than certain alternative interconnect solutions in high-performance computing, storage and communication applications. A recent increase to 10Gb/s, a significant reduction in application latency and more efficient software solutions have improved Ethernet’s capabilities to address specific high-performance applications that do not demand the highest scalability.
 
In the HPC, EDC and embedded markets, the predominant interconnects are 1Gb/s Ethernet and 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s Fibre Channel. Based on our knowledge of the industry, we believe there is significant demand for interconnect products that provide higher bandwidth in these markets.
 
Overview of the InfiniBand Standard and OpenFabrics
 
InfiniBand is an industry standard, high-performance interconnect architecture that effectively addresses the challenges faced by the IT industry by enabling cost-effective, high-speed data communications. We believe that InfiniBand has significant advantages compared to alternative interconnect technologies. InfiniBand defines specifications for designing host channel adapters, or HCAs, that fit into standard, off-the-shelf servers and storage systems, and switch solutions that connect all the systems together. The physical connection of multiple HCAs and switches is commonly known as an InfiniBand fabric.
 
The InfiniBand standard was developed under the auspices of InfiniBand Trade Association, or IBTA, which was founded in 1999 and is composed of leading IT vendors and hardware and software solution providers including Mellanox, Brocade, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, NEC, Network Appliance, QLogic Corporation, SilverStorm Technologies, Sun Microsystems and Voltaire. The IBTA tests and certifies vendor products and solutions for interoperability and compliance. Our products meet the specifications of the InfiniBand standard and have been tested and certified by the IBTA.
 
The OpenFabrics Alliance, or OFA, is an organization responsible for the development and distribution of open-source, industry-standard software solutions that are compatible with InfiniBand hardware solutions. Founded in June 2004 as the OpenIB Alliance and a partner organization to IBTA, OFA’s initial sole charter was to develop InfiniBand software solutions that are interoperable among multiple vendors. As a result of its success at developing standard InfiniBand software solutions, the organization expanded its charter in March 2006 to leverage its software development capabilities over other interconnect solutions including Ethernet, and changed its name from OpenIB to OpenFabrics. OFA’s members include leading enterprise IT vendors, hardware and software solution providers including Mellanox, AMD, Cisco Systems, Dell, IBM, Intel, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems in addition to end users such as Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.


47



Table of Contents

InfiniBand solutions may be perceived to have disadvantages to products based on other existing interconnect standards that have been available for longer periods of time with larger installed bases. These perceived disadvantages include the requirement for additional software support, new cabling and equipment infrastructure, and a limited number of enterprise-class storage solutions, which impacted early adoption rates of InfiniBand. In addition, a continuing challenge is educating the IT community about the advantages of InfiniBand and increasing familiarity with InfiniBand relative to other interconnect standards. With the solutions now offered by OFA in addition to key industry software providers, InfiniBand software support has recently become widely available and is included in leading server operating systems, contributing to increased adoption rates. In addition, we believe superior price performance of InfiniBand has justified the costs of new cabling and equipment infrastructure. Last, InfiniBand-based enterprise-class storage solutions have recently been introduced and deployed.
 
As a result, InfiniBand has gained significant share of the HPC market, including clustered computing deployments for government, academic, scientific and research oriented applications. According to IDC, InfiniBand’s share of the HPC cluster interconnect revenue has grown from 1.7% in 2003 to 17.2% in 2005, while Ethernet’s share of the HPC cluster interconnect revenue has declined from 64.1% in 2003 to 55.3% in 2005.
 
In addition to growth within the HPC market, InfiniBand usage is expanding in the EDC market. This growth is facilitated by the availability of production released software solutions for mainstream financial, retail and other commercial applications.
 
We believe the primary driver of InfiniBand product shipments in the near future is the increasing usage of InfiniBand in servers. Based on data provided to us by IDC in a report that we sponsored, we believe that of the 7.7 million servers that will ship to the entire server market in 2006, approximately 4% will integrate InfiniBand products. Further, based on the same IDC data, we estimate that from 2006 to 2010, usage of InfiniBand in servers will increase at a 40% compound annual growth rate, resulting in over 1.1 million InfiniBand servers in 2010, or approximately 10% of the projected total number of servers that are expected to ship in that year. Because there currently is significant capacity for growth of InfiniBand products in servers regardless of the growth of the overall server market, we believe that fluctuations in volumes of the overall server market will not impact InfiniBand’s rate of adoption in the near future. Ethernet at 1Gb/s has significant market share in the server market, and Ethernet at 10Gb/s targets this market but is not widely deployed.
 
In addition to servers, storage systems represent another significant opportunity for InfiniBand products. According to IDC, total port shipments of Fibre Channel adapters is expected to increase from 1.8 million in 2005 to 4.7 million in 2010, and we believe that this is representative of the market opportunity for InfiniBand in storage applications assuming sales of Fibre Channel adapters are converted to products based on the InfiniBand standard. Fibre Channel-based storage systems represented 72% of the total networked storage system revenues in 2005 according to IDC. Ethernet at both 1Gb/s and 10Gb/s also target the storage system market in addition to InfiniBand and Fibre Channel.
 
Advantages of InfiniBand
 
We believe that InfiniBand-based solutions have significant advantages compared to solutions based on alternative interconnect architectures. InfiniBand addresses the significant challenges within IT infrastructures created by more demanding requirements of the high-performance interconnect market. More specifically, we believe that InfiniBand has the following advantages:
 
  •  Superior performance.  In comparison to other interconnect technologies that were architected to have a heavy reliance on communication processing, InfiniBand was designed for implementation in an IC that relieves the central processing unit, or CPU, of communication processing functions. InfiniBand is able to provide superior bandwidth and latency relative to other existing interconnect technologies and has maintained this advantage with each successive generation of products. For example, our current InfiniBand adapters provide bandwidth up to 20Gb/s, and our current switch ICs support bandwidth up to 60Gb/s, which is significantly higher than the 10Gb/s or less supported by competing technologies. InfiniBand specification supports the design of interconnect products with up to 120Gb/s bandwidth, which


48



Table of Contents

  is the highest performance industry-standard interconnect specification. In addition, InfiniBand fully leverages the I/O capabilities of PCI Express, a high-speed bus interface standard.
 
The following table provides a bandwidth comparison of the various high performance interconnect solutions.
 
                 
    Myrinet   Fibre Channel   Ethernet   InfiniBand
 
Supported bandwidth of available solutions
  2Gb/s—10Gb/s   2Gb/s—4Gb/s   1Gb/s—10Gb/s   10Gb/s — 20Gb/s server-to-server
30Gb/s — 60Gb/s switch-to-switch
Highest bandwidth supported by specification
  10Gb/s

  8Gb/s

  10Gb/s

  120Gb/s


 
Performance in terms of latency varies depending on system configurations and applications. According to recent independent benchmark reports, latency of InfiniBand solutions was approximately half of that of tested 10Gb/s Ethernet solutions and comparable to the latency of tested Myrinet solutions. Fibre Channel, which is used only as a storage interconnect, is typically not benchmarked on latency performance. HPC typically demands low latency interconnect solutions. In addition, there is an increasing number of latency-sensitive applications in the EDC and embedded markets, and, therefore, there is a trend towards using industry-standard InfiniBand and 10Gb/s Ethernet solutions that deliver lower latency than Gigabit Ethernet, which is predominantly used today.
 
  •  Reduced complexity.  While other interconnects require use of individual cables to connect servers, storage and communications infrastructure equipment, InfiniBand allows for the consolidation of multiple I/Os on a single cable or backplane interconnect, which is critical for blade servers and embedded systems. InfiniBand also consolidates the transmission of clustering, communications, storage and management data types over a single connection. Competing interconnect technologies are not well suited to be unified fabrics because their fundamental architectures are not designed to support multiple traffic types. Additionally, InfiniBand was designed to enable distributed, clustered systems to be centrally managed and controlled for more efficient and simplified overall system management.
 
  •  Highest interconnect efficiency.  InfiniBand was developed to provide efficient scalability of multiple systems. InfiniBand provides communication processing functions in hardware, relieving the CPU of this task, and enables the full resource utilization of each node added to the cluster. In addition, InfiniBand incorporates Remote Direct Memory Access which is an optimized data transfer protocol that further enables the server processor to focus on application processing. This contributes to optimal application processing performance.
 
  •  Reliable and stable connections.  InfiniBand is the only industry standard high-performance interconnect solution which provides reliable end-to-end data connections. In addition, InfiniBand facilitates the deployment of virtualization solutions, which allow multiple applications to run on the same interconnect with dedicated application partitions. As a result, multiple applications run concurrently over stable connections, thereby minimizing down time.
 
  •  Superior price/performance economics.  In addition to providing superior performance and capabilities, standards-based InfiniBand solutions are generally available at a lower cost than other high-performance interconnects. By facilitating clustering and reducing complexity, InfiniBand offers further opportunity for cost reduction.
 
Our Solution
 
We provide comprehensive solutions based on InfiniBand, including HCA and switch ICs, adapter cards and software. InfiniBand enables us to provide products that we believe offer superior performance and meet the needs of the most demanding applications, while also offering significant improvements in total cost of ownership compared to alternative interconnect technologies. For example, our current InfiniBand HCAs provide bandwidth up to 20Gb/s and our switch ICs provide bandwidth up to 60Gb/s per interface, which is significantly higher than the 10Gb/s or less supported by competing technologies. As part of our comprehensive solution, we perform validation


49



Table of Contents

and interoperability testing from the physical interface to the applications software. Our expertise in performing validation and testing reduces time to market for our customers and improves the reliability of the fabric solution.
 
Data provided in the most recent list of the World’s Fastest Supercomputers published by TOP500.org in November 2006 illustrates the benefits of our solution. TOP500.org is an independent organization that was founded in 1993 to provide a reliable basis for reporting trends in high-performance computing by publishing a list of the most powerful computers twice a year. The number of listed InfiniBand-based supercomputers has grown from 30 as of November 2005 to 40 in June 2006, and most recently to 82 as of November 2006, which represents a 105% increase in six months and a 173% increase in one year. The November 2006 TOP500 list also illustrates that InfiniBand interconnects have continued to replace interconnects in supercomputers based on proprietary Myrinet, which had a 10% decline since the June 2006 list, and lower-performing Gigabit Ethernet, which had a 16% decline since the June 2006 list. We believe that the majority of these InfiniBand-based supercomputers incorporate our HCA products and that all of them use our switch silicon products. Additionally, we believe the current cluster implementations that incorporate both our HCA and switch silicon products in the November 2006 TOP500 list of the World’s Fastest Supercomputers compare favorably to clusters based on other high-performance interconnect technologies.
 
Specifically, clusters that incorporate our products compare as follows:
 
  •  Performance.  Performance of clusters is measured in GFLOPS, where one GFLOPS represents one billion mathematical calculations per second. Clusters that utilize our products average approximately 8,900 GFLOPS, while clusters based on Myrinet technology average 5,400 GFLOPS and clusters based on Gigabit Ethernet technology average 3,600 GFLOPS. According to the November 2006 TOP500 list of World’s Fastest Supercomputers, there were no clusters reported using 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology.
 
  •  Efficiency.  Efficiency is measured by the actual performance achieved divided by the theoretical maximum performance. Clusters that utilize our products average 69% efficiency, compared to 66% and 51% for clusters that utilize Myrinet and Gigabit Ethernet, respectively.
 
  •  Scalability.  Clusters that utilize our products average approximately 1,800 CPUs per cluster, compared to approximately 1,400 and 1,150 average CPUs per cluster for clusters that utilize Myrinet and Gigabit Ethernet, respectively. There is a strong dependency on the reliability and fault tolerance capabilities of a high performance interconnect when determining the scalability of a cluster.
 
In addition to supporting InfiniBand, our next generation adapter products also support the industry standard Ethernet interconnect specification at both 1Gb/s and 10Gb/s. These products extend certain InfiniBand advantages to Ethernet fabrics, such as reduced complexity and superior price/performance, by utilizing existing, field-proven InfiniBand software solutions. These software solutions include applications, operating systems and virtualization and management packages used in EDC, HPC and embedded markets. Integrating InfiniBand and Ethernet in the same product provides our OEM customers and partners the ability to support both interconnect standards with a single development effort and provides end-users the flexibility to choose between fabrics or simultaneously connect to both depending on the environment and performance requirements.
 
We believe that InfiniBand solutions will continue to deliver superior price/performance when compared to any other high performance interconnect technology because of its base architecture, proven scalability, reliability and feature set. At the same time, as Ethernet is a widely deployed interconnect technology, we expect there will be an increasing number of high-performance deployments at 10Gb/s in EDCs. The ability of our next generation adapter product to support high-performance connectivity to both InfiniBand and Ethernet allows us to provide products to an expanding number of high-performance applications and environments.
 
Our Strengths
 
We apply our strengths to enhance our position as a leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products. We consider our key strengths to include the following:
 
  •  We have expertise in developing high-performance interconnect solutions.  Mellanox was founded by a team with an extensive background in designing and marketing semiconductor solutions. Since our


50



Table of Contents

  founding, we have been focused on high-performance interconnect and have successfully launched several generations of InfiniBand products. We believe we have developed strong competencies in integrating mixed-signal design, including industry-leading data transmission technology such as Serializer/Deserializer, or SerDes, and developing complex ICs. We have used these competencies along with our knowledge of InfiniBand to design our innovative, next generation, high-performance solutions that also support the Ethernet interconnect standard. We also consider our software development capability as a key strength, and we believe that our software allows us to offer complete solutions. We have developed a significant portfolio of intellectual property, or IP, and have 15 approved patents. We believe our experience, competencies and IP will enable us to remain a leading supplier of high-performance interconnect solutions.
 
  •  We believe we are the leading merchant supplier of InfiniBand ICs with a multi-year competitive advantage.  We have developed in-depth knowledge of the InfiniBand standard through active participation in its development. We were first to market with InfiniBand products in 2001 and InfiniBand products that support the standard PCI Express interface in 2004. We have sustained our leadership position through the introduction of several generations of products. Because of our market leadership, vendors have developed and continue to optimize their software products based on our semiconductor solutions. We believe that this places us in an advantageous position to benefit from continuing market adoption of InfiniBand interconnect products.
 
  •  We have a comprehensive set of technical capabilities to deliver innovative and reliable products.  In addition to designing our ICs, we design standard adapter card products and custom adapter card and switch products, providing us a deep understanding of the associated circuitry and component characteristics. We believe this knowledge enables us to develop solutions that are innovative and can be efficiently implemented in target applications. We have devoted significant resources to develop our in-house test development capabilities, which enables us to rapidly finalize our mass production test programs, thus reducing time to market. We have synchronized our test platform with our outsourced testing provider and are able to conduct quality control tests with minimal disruption. We believe that because our capabilities extend from product definition, through IC design, and ultimately management of our high-volume manufacturing partners, we have better control over our production cycle and are able to improve the quality, availability and reliability of our products.
 
  •  We have extensive relationships with our key OEM customers and many end users.  Since our inception we have worked closely with major OEMs, including leading server, storage, communications infrastructure equipment and embedded systems vendors, to develop products that accelerate market adoption of InfiniBand. During this process we have obtained valuable insight into the challenges and objectives of our customers, and gained visibility into their product development plans. We also have established end-user relationships with influential IT executives which allow us access to firsthand information about evolving EDC, HPC and embedded market trends. We believe that our OEM customer and end-user relationships allow us to stay at the forefront of developments and improve our ability to provide compelling solutions to address their needs.
 
Our Strategy
 
Our goal is to be the leading supplier of semiconductor-based, high-performance interconnect products for computing, storage and communications applications. To accomplish this goal, we intend to:
 
  •  Continue to develop leading, high-performance interconnect products.  We will continue to expand our technical expertise and customer relationships to develop leading interconnect products. We are focused on extending our leadership position in high-performance interconnect technology and pursuing a product development plan that addresses emerging customer and end-user demands and industry standards. In order to expand our market opportunity, we are adding products that are compatible with the Ethernet interconnect standard in addition to InfiniBand. These products will allow our customers to capture certain advantages of InfiniBand while providing connectivity to Ethernet-based infrastructure equipment.
 
  •  Facilitate and increase the continued adoption of InfiniBand.  We will facilitate and increase the continued adoption of InfiniBand in the high-performance interconnect marketplace by expanding our partnerships


51



Table of Contents

  with key vendors that drive high-performance interconnect adoption, such as suppliers of processors, operating systems and other associated software. In conjunction with our OEM customers, we will continue to promote the benefits of InfiniBand directly to end users to increase demand for InfiniBand-based solutions.
 
  •  Expand our presence with existing server OEM customers.  We believe the leading server vendors are influential drivers of high-performance interconnect technologies to end users. We plan to continue working with and building our relationships with server OEMs to increase our presence in their current and future product platforms.
 
  •  Broaden our customer base with storage, communications infrastructure and embedded systems OEMs.  We believe there is a significant opportunity to expand our global customer base with storage, communications infrastructure and embedded systems OEMs. In storage solutions specifically, we believe our products are well suited to replace existing technologies such as Fibre Channel. We believe our products are the basis of superior interconnect fabrics for unifying disparate storage interconnects, including back-end, clustering and front-end connections, primarily due to its ability to be a unified fabric and superior price/performance economics.
 
  •  Leverage our fabless business model to deliver strong financial performance.  We intend to continue operating as a fabless semiconductor company and consider outsourced manufacturing of our ICs and adapter cards to be a key element of our strategy. Our fabless business model offers flexibility to meet market demand and allows us to focus on delivering innovative solutions to our customers. We plan to continue to leverage the flexibility and efficiency offered by our business model to deliver strong financial results.
 
Our Products
 
We provide complete solutions which are based on and meet the specifications of the InfiniBand standard, including HCA and switch ICs, adapter cards and software. Our next generation adapter IC and card products also support the Ethernet interconnect standard in addition to InfiniBand. Our available product families include:
 
  •  InfiniHosttm InfiniBand HCA ICs and standard cards.  We provide InfiniBand HCAs to server, storage, communications infrastructure and embedded systems OEMs as ICs or standard card form factors with PCI-X or PCI Express interfaces. HCAs are incorporated into OEM server and storage systems to provide InfiniBand connectivity. We are currently in production with our third generation of HCA products. Our HCAs interoperate with standard programming interfaces and are compatible with previous generations, providing broad industry support. We also support server operating systems including Linux, Windows, AIX, HPUX, OSX, Solaris and VxWorks.
 
  •  InfiniScaletm InfiniBand switch ICs.  Our InfiniBand switch ICs are used by server, storage, communications infrastructure and embedded systems OEMs to create switching equipment that is at the core of InfiniBand fabrics. To deploy an InfiniBand fabric, any number of server or storage systems that contain an HCA can be connected to an InfiniBand-based communications infrastructure system such as an InfiniBand switch. We are currently in production with our third generation of switch ICs.


52



Table of Contents

 
The figure below illustrates the components of servers and storage equipment clustered with a high-performance interconnect and how our products are incorporated into the total solution.
 
Image -- SERVERS AND STORAGE


53



Table of Contents

Our products generally vary by the number and performance of InfiniBand ports supported. The tables below summarize the available HCA and switch ICs that Mellanox provides.
 
                             
              Uni-directional InfiniBand
       
HCA ICs and Cards
  Interface   # InfiniBand Ports     Bandwidth per Port     Total Bandwidth(3)  
 
InfiniBridge(1)
  PCI(2)     8       2.5Gb/s       40Gb/s  
          2       10Gb/s       40Gb/s  
InfiniHost
  PCI-X(2)     2       10Gb/s       40Gb/s  
InfiniHost III Lx
  PCI Express     1       20Gb/s       40Gb/s  
InfiniHost III Ex
  PCI Express     2       20Gb/s       80Gb/s  
 
                         
          Uni-directional InfiniBand
       
Switch ICs
  # InfiniBand Ports     Bandwidth per Port     Total Bandwidth(3)  
 
                         
InfiniBridge(1)
    8       2.5Gb/s       40Gb/s  
      2       10Gb/s       40Gb/s  
InfiniScale
    8       10Gb/s       160Gb/s  
                         
InfiniScale III
    24       20Gb/s       960Gb/s  
      8       60Gb/s       960Gb/s  
 
 
(1) InfiniBridgetm functions as both a HCA and switch and is our first generation device.
 
(2) PCI and PCI-X are the predecessor interface standards to PCI Express.
 
(3) Total bandwidth is the aggregate bandwidth of all input and output ports operating simultaneously.
 
We also offer custom products that incorporate our ICs to select server and storage OEMs that meet their special system requirements. Through these custom product engagements we gain insight into the OEMs’ technologies and product strategies.
 
We also provide our OEM customers software and tools that facilitate the use and management of our products. Developed in conjunction with the OFA, our Linux- and Windows-based software enables applications to utilize the features of the interconnect efficiently. We have expertise in optimizing the performance of software that spans the entire range of upper layer protocols down through the lower level drivers that interface to our products. We also provide basic software tools for managing, testing and verifying the operation of InfiniBand fabrics.
 
Technology
 
We have technological core competencies in the design of high-performance interconnect ICs that enable us to provide a high level of integration, efficiency, flexibility and performance for our adapter and switch ICs. Our products integrate multiple complex components onto a single IC, including high-performance mixed-signal design, specialized communication processing functions and advanced interfaces.
 
High-performance mixed-signal design
 
One of the key technology differentiators of our ICs is our mixed-signal SerDes technology. SerDes I/O directly drives the interconnect interface, which provides signaling and transmission of data over copper connects and cables, or fiber optic interfaces for longer distance connections. We are the only company that has shipped field-proven ICs that operate with a 5Gb/s SerDes over a ten meter InfiniBand copper cable (up to 60Gb/s connections with 12 SerDes working in parallel on our switch IC). Additionally, we are able to integrate several of these high-performance SerDes onto a single, low-power IC, enabling us to provide the highest bandwidth, merchant switch ICs based on an industry-standard specification. We are currently developing a 10Gb/s SerDes I/O that is intended for use in future generation InfiniBand and Ethernet devices. This SerDes capability will enable up to 120Gb/s bandwidth on InfiniBand devices.


54



Table of Contents

Specialized communication processing and switching functions
 
We also specialize in high-performance, low-latency design architectures that incorporate significant memory and logic areas requiring proficient synthesis and verification. Our adapter ICs are specifically designed to perform communication processing, effectively offloading this very intensive task from server and storage processors in a cost-effective manner. Our switch ICs are specifically designed to switch cluster interconnect data transmissions from one port to another with high bandwidth and low latency, and we have developed a packet switching engine and non-blocking crossbar switch fabric to address this.
 
We have developed a custom embedded Reduced Instruction Set Computer processor called InfiniRISCtm that specializes in offloading network processing from the host server or storage system and adds flexibility, product differentiation and customization. We integrate a different number of these processors in a device depending on the application and feature targets of the particular product. Integration of these processors also shortens development cycles as additional features can be added by providing new programming packages after the ICs are manufactured, and even after they are deployed in the field.
 
Advanced interfaces
 
In addition to InfiniBand interfaces (and Ethernet interfaces in our next generation adapter products), we also provide other industry-standard, high-performance advanced interfaces such as PCI Express which also utilize our mixed-signal SerDes I/O technology. PCI Express is a high-speed chip-to-chip interface which provides a high-performance interface between the adapter and processor in server and storage systems. PCI Express and our high-performance interconnect interfaces are complementary technologies that facilitate optimal bandwidth for data transmissions along the entire connection starting from a processor of one system in the cluster to another processor in a different system. We were among the first to market with an IC solution that integrates the PCI Express interface in 2004, and we believe this demonstrates an example of the technical proficiency of our development team.
 
Not only has PCI Express increased the performance of our products, but it has lowered cost, reduced power consumption, minimized board area requirements and increased the overall reliability of card and system products using our adapter ICs by enabling a technology we call MemFree. Typically, memory is designed onto high-performance adapter cards in addition to the controller in order to store fabric connection information that is required for cluster data transmission. With the introduction of the high bandwidth PCI Express interface, the server’s or storage system’s main memory can be used for this purpose instead, and we have designed MemFree adapter card solutions that are completely free of additional memory components. We believe that we are the only company that provides high-performance interconnect products with MemFree or equivalent technology.


55



Table of Contents

The below diagrams depict our adapter and switch IC architecture.
 
Image -- MELLANOX HCA IC ARCHITECTURE
 
Customers
 
EDC, HPC and embedded end-user markets for systems utilizing our products are mainly served by leading server, storage and communications infrastructure OEMs. In addition, our customer base includes leading embedded systems OEMs that integrate computing, storage and communication functions that use high-performance interconnect solutions contained in a chassis which has been optimized for a particular environment.
 
Representative OEM customers in these areas include:
 
             
        Communications
   
Server   Storage   Infrastructure Equipment   Embedded Systems
 
Dell
  Isilon Systems   Cisco Systems   GE Fanuc
Hewlett-Packard
  LSI Logic   SilverStorm Technologies   Mercury Computer Systems
IBM
  Network Appliance   Voltaire   SeaChange International
Sun Microsystems
           
 
We sold products to more than 100 customers worldwide in the year ended December 31, 2005, many of whom are at the evaluation stage of their product development. We currently anticipate that several of these evaluations will result in increased orders for our products as they move into the production stage.
 
For the year ended December 31, 2005, Cisco Systems (including its acquisition of Topspin Communications) accounted for approximately 44%, Voltaire accounted for approximately 12%, SilverStorm Technologies, which was recently acquired by QLogic Corporation, accounted for approximately 9% and Network Appliance accounted


56



Table of Contents

for approximately 7% of our net revenues. In the nine months ended September 30, 2006, Voltaire accounted for approximately 16%, Cisco accounted for approximately 15%, SilverStorm Technologies accounted for approximately 11% and Hewlett-Packard accounted for approximately 10% of our net revenues.
 
Sales and Marketing
 
We sell our products worldwide through multiple channels, including our direct sales force and our network of domestic and international sales representatives. We have strategically located our direct sales personnel in the United States, Europe, China and Taiwan. Our sales directors focus their efforts on leading OEMs and target key decision makers. We are also in frequent communication with our customers’ and partners’ sales organizations to jointly promote our products and partner solutions into end-user markets. We have dedicated specific resources to promote the benefits of our products to end users, which we believe creates additional demand for our customers’ products that incorporate our products.
 
Our sales support organization is responsible for supporting our sales channels and managing the logistics from order entry to delivery of products to our customers. In addition, our sales support organization is responsible for customer and revenue forecasts, customer agreements and program management for our large, multi-national customers. Customers within the United States are supported by our sales staff in California and customers outside of the United States are supported by our sales staff in Israel.
 
To accelerate design and qualification of our products into our OEM customers’ systems, and ultimately the deployment of our technology by our customers to end users, we have a field applications engineering, or FAE, team and an internal support engineering team that provide direct technical support. In certain situations, our OEM customers will also utilize our expertise to support their end-user customers jointly. Our technical support personnel have expertise in hardware and software, and have access to our development team to ensure proper service and support for our OEM customers. Our FAE team provides OEM customers with design and review capabilities of their systems in addition to technical training on the technology we have implemented in our products.
 
Our marketing team is responsible for product strategy and management, future product plans and positioning, pricing, product introductions and transitions, competitive analysis, marketing communications and raising the overall visibility of our company. The marketing team works closely with both the sales and research and development organizations to properly align development programs and product launches with market demands.
 
Our marketing team leads our efforts to promote InfiniBand technology and our products to the entire industry by:
 
  •  assuming leadership roles within IBTA, OFA and other industry trade organizations;
 
  •  participating in trade shows, press and analyst briefings, conference presentations and seminars for end-user education; and
 
  •  building and maintaining active partnerships with industry leaders whose products are important in driving InfiniBand adoption, including vendors of processors, operating systems and software applications.
 
Research and Development
 
Our research and development team is composed of experienced semiconductor designers, software developers and system designers. Our semiconductor design team has extensive experience in all phases of complex, high-volume design, including product definition and architecture specification, hardware code development and mixed-signal design and verification. Our software team has extensive experience in development, verification, interoperability testing and performance optimization of software for use in computing and storage applications. Their efforts are focused on standard, open-source software stacks, drivers, management software and tools that work together with our IC and card products. Our systems design team has extensive experience is all phases of high-volume adapter card and custom switch designs including product definition and architectural specification, product design and design verification.
 
We design our products with careful attention to quality, reliability, cost and performance requirements. We utilize a methodology called Customer Owned Tooling, or COT, where we control and manage a significant portion of timing


57



Table of Contents

and layout design and verification in-house, before sending the semiconductor design to our third-party manufacturer. Although COT requires a significant up-front investment in tools and personnel, it provides us with greater control over the quality and reliability of our IC products as opposed to relying on third-party verification services.
 
We choose first tier technology vendors for our state-of-the-art design tools and continue to maintain long-term relationships with our vendors to ensure timely support and updates. We also select a mainstream silicon manufacturing process only after it has proven its production worthiness for at least one year. We verify that actual silicon characterization and performance measurements strongly correlate to models that were used to simulate the device while in design, and that our products meet frequency, power and thermal targets with good margins. Furthermore, we insert Design-for-Test circuitry into our IC products which increases product quality, provides expanded debugging capabilities and ultimately enhances system-level testing and characterization capabilities once the device is integrated into our customers’ products. In addition, we use an internally developed tool that examines IC designs before sending them for manufacturing that is proven to increase the yield (and consequently reduce device cost) by increasing the performance margin on critical design areas.
 
Frequent interaction between our silicon, software and systems design teams gives us a comprehensive view of the requirements necessary to deliver quality, high-performance products to our OEM customers. For the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2005, our research and development expenses were approximately $12.9 million and $13.1 million, respectively. For the nine months ended September 30, 2006, our research and development expenses were approximately $11.1 million.
 
Manufacturing
 
We depend on third-party vendors to manufacture, package and production test our products as we do not own or operate a semiconductor fabrication, packaging or production testing facility. By outsourcing manufacturing, we are able to avoid the high cost associated with owning and operating our own facilities. This allows us to focus our efforts on the design and marketing of our products.
 
Manufacturing and Testing.  We use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, to manufacture and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, or ASE, to assemble, package and production test our IC products. We use Flextronics to manufacture our standard adapter card products and custom adapter cards and switch systems. We maintain close relationships with our suppliers, which improves the efficiency of our supply chain. We focus on mainstream processes, materials, packaging and testing platforms, and have a continuous technology assessment program in place to choose the appropriate technologies to use for future products. We provide all of our suppliers a 12-month rolling forecast, and receive their confirmation that they are able to accommodate our needs on a monthly basis. We have access to on-line production reports that provide up-to-date status information of our products as they flow through the manufacturing process. On a quarterly basis, we review lead-time, yield enhancements and pricing with all of our suppliers to obtain the optimal cost for our products.
 
Quality Assurance.  We maintain an ongoing review of product manufacturing and testing processes. Our IC products are subjected to extensive testing to assess whether their performance exceeds the design specifications. We own an in-house Teradyne Tiger IC tester which provides us with immediate test data and generation of characterization reports that we make available to our customers. Our adapter cards and custom switch system products are subject to similar levels of testing and characterization, and are additionally tested for regulatory agency certifications such as Safety and EMC (radiation test) which are made available to our customers. We only use components on these products that are qualified to be on our approved vendor list.
 
Requirements Associated with OCS.  Israeli law requires that we manufacture our products developed with government grants in Israel unless we otherwise obtain approval from the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor, or the OCS. This approval, if provided, is generally conditioned on an increase in the total amount to be repaid to the OCS, ranging from 120% to 300% of the amount of funds granted. The specific increase would depend on the extent of the manufacturing to be conducted outside of Israel. The restriction on manufacturing outside of Israel does not apply to the extent that we disclosed our plans to manufacture outside of Israel when we filed the application for funding (and provided the application was approved based on the information disclosed in the application). We have indicated our intent to manufacture outside of Israel on some of our grant applications, and the OCS has approved the manufacture of our IC products outside of Israel, subject to our


58



Table of Contents

undertaking to pay the OCS royalties from the sales of these products up to 120% of the amount of OCS funds granted. The manufacturing of our IC products outside of Israel, including those products manufactured by TSMC and ASE, is in compliance with the terms of our grant applications and applicable provisions of Israeli law. Under applicable Israeli law, Israeli government consent is required to transfer to Israeli third parties technologies developed under projects funded by the government. Transfer of OCS-funded technologies outside of Israel is permitted with the approval of the OCS and in accordance with the restrictions and payment obligations set forth under Israeli law. Israeli law further specifies that both the transfer of know-how as well as the transfer of IP rights in such know-how are subject to the same restrictions. These restrictions do not apply to exports from Israel or the sale of products developed with these technologies.
 
Employees
 
As of September 30, 2006, we had 148 full-time employees and 23 part time employees located in the United States and Israel, including 94 in research and development, 25 in sales and marketing, 15 in general and administrative, 6 in operations and 8 in other administrative functions. Of our 148 full-time employees, 119 are located in Israel.
 
Certain provisions of the collective bargaining agreements between the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) and the Coordination Bureau of Economic Organizations (including the Industrialists’ Associations) are applicable to our employees in Israel by order of the Israeli Ministry of Labor. These provisions primarily concern the length of the workday, minimum daily wages for professional workers, pension fund benefits for all employees, insurance for work-related accidents, procedures for dismissing employees, determination of severance pay and other conditions of employment. We generally provide our employees with benefits and working conditions beyond the required minimums. Further, in addition to salary and other benefits, certain of our sales personnel are paid commissions based on our performance in certain territories worldwide.
 
Israeli law generally requires severance pay equal to one month’s salary for each year of employment upon the retirement, death or termination without cause (as defined in the Israel Severance Pay Law) of an employee. To satisfy this requirement, we make contributions on behalf of most of our employees to a fund known as Managers’ Insurance. This fund provides a combination of retirement plan, insurance and severance pay benefits to the employee, giving the employee or his or her estate payments upon retirement or death and securing the severance pay, if legally entitled, upon termination of employment. Each full-time employee is entitled to participate in the plan, and each employee who participates contributes an amount equal to 5% of his or her salary to the retirement plan and we contribute between 13.33% and 15.83% of his or her salary (consisting of 5% to the retirement plan, 8.33% for severance payments and up to 2.5% for insurance).
 
Furthermore, Israeli employees and employers are required to pay predetermined sums to the National Insurance Institute, which is similar to the U.S. Social Security Administration. Such amounts also include payments by the employee for national health insurance. The total payments to the National Insurance Institute are equal to approximately 14.5% of the wages (up to a specified amount), of which the employee contributes approximately 66% and the employer contributes approximately 34%.
 
We have never experienced any employment-related work stoppages and believe our relationship with our employees is good.
 
Intellectual Property
 
One of the key values and drivers for future growth of our high-performance interconnect IC products is the IP we develop and use to improve them. We believe that the main value proposition of our high-performance interconnect products and success of our future growth will depend on our ability to protect our IP. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, mask work, trade secret and other IP laws, both in the United States and internationally, as well as confidentiality, non-disclosure and inventions assignment agreements with our employees, customers, partners, suppliers and consultants to protect and otherwise seek to control access to, and distribution of, our proprietary information and processes. In addition, we have developed technical knowledge, which, although not patented, we consider to be significant in enabling us to compete. The proprietary nature of


59



Table of Contents

such knowledge, however, may be difficult to protect and we may be exposed to competitors who independently develop the same or similar technology or gain access to our knowledge.
 
The semiconductor industry is characterized by frequent claims of infringement and litigation regarding patent and other IP rights. We, like other companies in the semiconductor industry, believe it is important to aggressively protect and pursue our IP rights. Accordingly, to protect our rights, we may file suit against parties whom we believe are infringing or misappropriating our IP rights. These measures may not be adequate to protect our technology from third party infringement or misappropriation, and may be costly and may divert management’s attention away from day-to-day operations. We may not prevail in these lawsuits. If any party infringes or misappropriates our IP rights, this infringement or misappropriation could materially adversely affect our business and competitive position.
 
As of September 30, 2006, we had 10 issued patents and 27 patent applications pending in the U.S., 5 issued patents in Taiwan and 6 applications pending in Israel, each of which covers aspects of the technology in our products. The term of any issued patent in the United States is 20 years from its filing date and if our applications are pending for a long time period, we may have a correspondingly shorter term for any patent that may issue. Our present and future patents may provide only limited protection for our technology and may not be sufficient to provide competitive advantages to us. Furthermore, we cannot assure you that any patents will be issued to us as a result of our patent applications.
 
In addition to our own IP, we also rely on third-party technologies for the development of our interconnect IC products. Pursuant to a license agreement dated September 10, 2001, Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation, or Vitesse, a provider of high-speed physical layer semiconductor products for the communications market, has granted us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual right and license to use and incorporate into our Infiniband products Vitesse’s 2.5Gb/s SerDes macro cell implemented in TSMC’s 0.18 micron Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor, or CMOS, processes. We have agreed only to use Vitesse’s technology licensed under the agreement for integrated SerDes applications. In exchange for this license, we have agreed to pay a royalty to Vitesse based on the total number of devices sold by us that use Vitesse’s technology.
 
Pursuant to a separate license agreement dated December 16, 2002, Vitesse has also granted us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual right and license to use and incorporate into our Infiniband products Vitesse’s 3.1Gb/s SerDes macro cell implemented in TSMC’s 0.13 micron CMOS processes. In exchange for this license, we have agreed to make interim payments to Vitesse based on the total number of devices sold by us that use Vitesse’s technology, subject to certain caps and limitations. We have guaranteed a $2 million payment pursuant to this agreement, $1.3 million of which remained to be paid as of September 30, 2006. We are obligated to pay this remaining amount on or before January 31, 2007.
 
We have registered “Mellanox,” “InfiniBridge,” “InfiniHost,” “InfiniPCI,” “InfiniRISC” and “InfiniScale” as trademarks in the United States. We have a trademark application pending to register “ConnectX.”
 
Competition
 
The markets in which we compete are highly competitive and are characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards and new demands on features and performance of interconnect solutions. We compete primarily on the basis of:
 
  •  price/performance;
 
  •  time to market;
 
  •  features and capabilities;
 
  •  wide availability of complementary software solutions;
 
  •  reliability;
 
  •  power consumption;


60



Table of Contents

 
  •  customer support; and
 
  •  product roadmap.
 
We believe that we compete favorably with respect to each of these criteria. Many of our current and potential competitors, however, have longer operating histories, significantly greater resources, greater economies of scale, stronger name recognition and a larger base of customers than we do. This may allow them to respond more quickly than we are able to respond to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. In addition, these competitors may have greater credibility with our existing and potential customers. They may be able to introduce new technologies, respond more quickly to changing customer requirements or devote greater resources to the development, marketing and sales of their products than we can. Furthermore, in the event of a manufacturing capacity shortage, these competitors may be able to manufacture products when we are unable to do so.
 
We compete with other providers of semiconductor-based high performance interconnect products based on InfiniBand, Ethernet, Fibre Channel and proprietary technologies. With respect to InfiniBand products, we compete with QLogic Corporation. In EDCs, products based on the InfiniBand standard primarily compete with two different industry-standard interconnect technologies, namely Ethernet and Fibre Channel. For Ethernet technology, the leading IC vendors include Marvell Technology Group and Broadcom Corporation. The leading IC vendors that provide Ethernet and Fibre Channel products to the market include Emulex Corporation and QLogic Corporation. In HPC, products based on the InfiniBand standard primarily compete with the industry-standard interconnect technologies used in EDCs mentioned above, in addition to proprietary technologies including Myrinet, while ICs are developed only by Myricom. In embedded markets, we typically compete with interconnect technologies that are developed in-house by system OEM vendors and created for specific applications.
 
Facilities
 
We currently lease office space in Yokneam and Tel Aviv, Israel and in Santa Clara, California pursuant to leases that expire on December 31, 2011, December 31, 2008 and March 31, 2009, respectively. We believe that our space is adequate for our current needs and that suitable additional or substitute space will be available on acceptable terms to accommodate our foreseeable needs.
 
Legal Proceedings
 
From time to time, we may be involved in litigation relations to claims arising out of our operations. We are not currently involved in any material legal proceedings.


61



Table of Contents

 
 
MANAGEMENT
 
The following table provides information regarding our executive officers, significant employees and directors as of December 31, 2006:
 
             
Name
 
Age
 
Position(s)
 
Eyal Waldman
  46   Chief Executive Officer, President, Chairman of the Board and Director
Roni Ashuri
  46   Vice President of Engineering
Shai Cohen
  43   Vice President of Operations and Engineering
Michael Gray
  50   Chief Financial Officer
Michael Kagan
  49   Vice President of Architecture
Thad Omura
  32   Vice President of Product Marketing
David Sheffler
  51   Vice President of Worldwide Sales
Rob S. Chandra(1)
  40   Director
Irwin Federman(1)(2)
  71   Director
Amal M. Johnson(2)(3)
  53   Director
S. Atiq Raza
  57   Director
C. Thomas Weatherford(2)(3)
  60   Director
 
 
(1) Member of the compensation committee
 
(2) Member of the audit committee
 
(3) Member of the nominating and corporate governance committee
 
Executive Officers and Significant Employees
 
Eyal Waldman is a co-founder of Mellanox, and has served as our chief executive officer, president and chairman of our board of directors since March 1999. From March 1993 to February 1999, Mr. Waldman served as vice president of engineering and was a co-founder of Galileo Technology Ltd., or Galileo, a semiconductor company, which was acquired by Marvell Technology Group Ltd. in January 2001. From August 1989 to March 1993, Mr. Waldman held a number of design and architecture related positions at Intel Corporation, a semiconductor chip maker. Mr. Waldman holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. Mr. Waldman is located in Israel.
 
Roni Ashuri is a co-founder of Mellanox and has served as our vice president of engineering since June 1999. From March 1998 to May 1999, Mr. Ashuri served as product line director of system controllers at Galileo. From May 1987 to February 1998, Mr. Ashuri worked at Intel Corporation, where he was a senior staff member in the Pentium processors department and a cache controller group staff member. Mr. Ashuri holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. Mr. Ashuri is located in Israel.
 
Shai Cohen is a co-founder of Mellanox and has served as our vice president of operations and engineering since June 1999. From September 1989 to May 1999, Mr. Cohen worked at Intel Corporation, where he was a senior staff member in the Pentium processors department and a circuit design manager at the cache controllers group. Mr. Cohen holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. Mr. Cohen is located in Israel.
 
Michael Gray has served as our chief financial officer since December 2004. Prior to joining Mellanox, from March 1995 until July 2004, Mr. Gray served in various capacities at SanDisk Corporation, a data storage company, including director of finance from March 1995 to July 1999, vice president of finance from August 1999 to February 2002 and as senior vice president of finance and administration and chief finance officer from March 2002 to July 2004. From July 1990 to February 1995, Mr. Gray served as controller of Consilium, Inc., a systems software development company which was acquired by Applied Materials, Inc. in December 1998. From October 1981 to June 1990, Mr. Gray served in various capacities at ASK Computer Systems, Inc., an enterprise resource planning


62



Table of Contents

solutions provider, including as treasury manager. Mr. Gray holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from Santa Clara University, and is an alumnus of the Stanford/AEA Executive Institute Program. Mr. Gray is located in the United States.
 
Michael Kagan is a co-founder of Mellanox and has served as our vice president of architecture since May 1999. From August 1983 to April 1999, Mr. Kagan held a number of architecture and design positions at Intel Corporation. While at Intel Corporation, between March 1993 and June 1996, Mr. Kagan managed Pentium MMX design, and from July 1996 to April 1999, he managed the architecture team of the Basic PC product group. Mr. Kagan holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. Mr. Kagan is located in Israel.
 
Thad Omura has served as our vice president of product marketing since October 2005, and served as director of product marketing from May 2004 to October 2005. Prior to joining Mellanox, from January 2003 to April 2004, Mr. Omura served as a market development manager in the semiconductor product sector (now