IPG Photonics (IPGP) Risk Analysis

The industries in which we operate are characterized by significant price and technological competition. We compete with makers of fiber lasers, solid-state lasers, direct diode lasers, high power CO2, YAG and disc lasers. These include public and private companies such as Coherent, Inc., Laserline GmbH, Lumentum Holdings Inc., Maxphotonics Co., Ltd., MKS Instruments, Inc., nLight, Inc., Trumpf GmbH + Co. KG, and Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies Co. Ltd., as well as other smaller competitors. Several of these are larger and have substantially greater financial, managerial and technical resources, more extensive distribution and service networks, greater sales and marketing capacity, and larger installed customer bases than we do. Many of our fiber laser competitors are increasing the output powers, improving the quality of their fiber lasers and decreasing prices to compete with our products. Our current or potential customers may determine to develop and produce products for their own use which are competitive to our products. Such vertical integration could reduce the market opportunity for our products. We also compete in the materials processing, advanced and medical applications markets with end users that produce their own solid-state and gas lasers as well as with manufacturers of non-laser methods and tools, such as traditional non-laser welding, cutting dies mechanical cutters and plasma cutters in the materials processing market and other energy-based devices in the medical market. We may not be able to successfully differentiate our current and proposed products from our competitors' products and current or prospective customers may not consider our products to be superior to competitors' products. To maintain our competitive position, we believe that we will be required to continue a high level of investment in research and development, application development, manufacturing facilities and customer service and support, and to react to market pricing conditions. As a result of the foregoing factors, competitive pressures have resulted in price reductions, reduced margins, loss of sales and loss of market share.

Our future success is substantially dependent on the continued service and performance of our executive officers. Although the board engages in executive succession planning, our inability to effectively and immediately transition knowledge or responsibilities to successors in the event of an unexpected absence or departure could harm our business and disrupt our operations. We also rely on our highly trained team of scientists, many of whom have numerous years of experience and specialized expertise in optical fibers, semiconductors and optical component technology, and other key engineering, sales, marketing, manufacturing and support personnel, any of whom may depart for a variety of reasons, which could harm our business. Competition for qualified personnel in our industry is intense, particularly for physicists, software engineers and other technical staff. If we fail to attract, integrate and retain the necessary personnel, it could delay the development or introduction of new products, negatively impact our ability to market, sell or support our products, and significantly harm our business.

We have a high fixed cost base due to our vertically integrated business model. Approximately 76% of our approximately 6,180 employees as of December 31, 2023 were employed in our manufacturing operations. We may not adjust these fixed costs quickly enough or sufficiently to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions. Our gross profit, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of net sales, is impacted by our sales volume, the corresponding absorption of fixed manufacturing overhead expenses and manufacturing yields. In addition, because we are a vertically integrated manufacturer and design and manufacture our key specialty components, insufficient demand for our products may subject us to the risks of high inventory carrying costs and increased inventory obsolescence. If our capacity and production levels are not properly sized in relation to expected demand, we may need to record write-downs for excess or obsolete inventory. Because we are vertically integrated, the rate at which we turn inventory has historically been low when compared to our cost of sales. We do not expect this to change significantly in the future and believe that we will have to maintain a relatively high level of inventory compared to our cost of sales. As a result, we expect to have a significant amount of working capital invested in inventory. Changes in our level of inventory lead to an increase in cash generated from our operations when inventory is sold or a decrease in cash generated from our operations at times when the amount of inventory increases. Decreases in inventory may decrease our overhead absorption and decrease our gross margins and profitability.

We have significant facilities in and our products are sold in numerous countries. A substantial majority of our revenues are derived from customers outside the United States. In addition, we have substantial tangible assets outside of the United States. We anticipate that foreign sales will continue to account for a significant portion of our revenues in the foreseeable future. Our operations and sales in these markets are subject to risks inherent in international business activities, including the following and others mentioned in the Risk Factors: - fluctuations in the values of foreign currencies;- changes, including recession, and other general economic uncertainties affecting the macroeconomic and local economic communities in which we and our customers operate or serve;- longer accounts receivable collection periods and less developed credit assessment and collection procedures;- compliance with domestic and foreign laws and regulations, unexpected changes in those laws and regulatory requirements, including uncertainties regarding taxes, tariffs, quotas, export controls, export licenses, trade sanctions and other trade barriers, and any corresponding retaliatory actions by affected countries, including China and Russia;- certification requirements;- less effective protection of intellectual property rights in some countries;- potentially adverse tax consequences;- different capital expenditure and budget cycles for our customers, which affect the timing of their spending;- political, legal and economic instability, foreign conflicts, labor unrest and the impact of regional and global infectious illnesses in the countries in which we and our customers, suppliers, manufacturers and subcontractors are located;- preference for locally produced products;- difficulties and costs of staffing and managing international operations across different geographic areas and cultures;- seasonal reductions in business activities;- fluctuations in freight rates and transportation disruptions;- investment restrictions or requirements;- repatriation restrictions or requirements;- export and import restrictions; and - limitations on the ability of our employees to travel without restriction to certain countries in which we operate. Political, economic and monetary instability and changes in governmental regulations or policies, including trade tariffs and protectionism, could adversely affect both our ability to effectively operate our foreign sales offices and the ability of our foreign suppliers to supply us with required materials or services. Any interruption or delay in the supply of our required components, products, materials or services, or our inability to obtain these components, materials, products or services from alternate sources at acceptable prices and within a reasonable amount of time, could impair our ability to meet scheduled product deliveries to our customers and could cause customers to cancel orders. We are subject to risks of doing business in Russia through our subsidiary, NTO-IRE Polus, which sells finished lasers to customers in Russia and supplies our Chinese subsidiary with a portion of the finished lasers they sell to customers in China. We are also subject to risks of doing business in Belarus, which provides mechanical parts to our German and Russian operations. We are also subject to risks of doing business in China, as approximately 28% of our sales in 2023 were to Chinese customers. The results of our operations, business prospects and facilities in Russia, China and Belarus are subject to the economic and political environment there and global geopolitical conditions. The future economic direction of these emerging market countries remains largely dependent upon the effectiveness of economic, financial and monetary measures undertaken by the government, together with tax, legal, regulatory and political developments. As a result of the conflict involving Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. and certain allies in Europe imposed severe economic and trade sanctions on Russia and could impose further sanctions against it. Russia has responded in kind. Sanctions imposed by any of these countries has and could disrupt our supply of critical components among our manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia or Belarus, and cause us to shift all or portions of work occurring in Russia or Belarus to other countries. In addition, sanctions targeting the banking sector have impacted the transfer of cash to and from Russia to fund operations or repatriate surplus liquidity. At December 31, 2023, we had $76.4 million of cash and cash equivalents in Russia and $5.5 million cash in Belarus. Such disruptions could negatively affect our ability to provide critical components to affiliates or produce finished goods for customers, which could increase our costs, require capital expenditures and harm our results of operations and financial condition. Further, Russia and Belarus adopted rules that impose conditions on sale of assets by U.S. and western companies and decreasing the values of assets realized, as well as payments to owners of entities there. Our failure to manage the risks associated with our operations in Russia, China and Belarus and our other existing and potential future international business operations could have a material adverse effect upon our results of operations.

As a global company, we are subject to taxation in the United States and various other countries and jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required to determine worldwide tax liabilities. Our future tax rates could be affected by changes in the composition of earnings in countries or states with differing tax rates, transfer pricing rules, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or changes in the tax laws. In addition, we are subject to regular examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and other tax authorities. From time to time the United States, foreign and state governments make substantive changes to tax rules and the application of rules to companies, including various announcements from the United States government potentially impacting our ability to defer taxes on international earnings. We regularly assess the likelihood of favorable or unfavorable outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any final determination will not be materially different than the treatment reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

Our level of sales will depend on our ability to generate sales of fiber lasers in new and developing markets including applications for lasers where they have not been used previously and in applications in which other lasers, such as CO2 and YAG lasers, have been used. To date, a significant portion of our revenue growth has been derived from sales of fiber lasers primarily for applications where CO2 and YAG lasers historically have been used. We have made significant sales into the cutting, welding and marking and engraving applications, large applications where the use of other laser technologies was well established. As fiber lasers increase penetration in core materials processing applications and there is more competition in these core material processing applications, the development of new applications, end markets and products outside our core applications becomes more important to our ability to generate sales. In order to maintain or increase market demand for our products, we will need to devote substantial resources to: - demonstrate the effectiveness of fiber lasers in new applications for materials processing, medical, communications and advanced applications;- successfully develop new product lines, such as the handheld welder, UV, visible and ultrafast fiber lasers with competitive features that extend our product line;- increase our direct and indirect sales efforts;- effectively meet growing competition and pricing pressures; and - continue to reduce our manufacturing costs and enhance our competitive position. Potential customers may have substantial investments and know-how related to their existing laser and non-laser technologies. They may perceive risks relating to the reliability, quality, usefulness and profitability of integrating fiber lasers in their systems when compared to other laser or non-laser technologies available in the market or that they manufacture themselves. Despite fiber lasers having better performance and prices compared to other lasers or tools, OEM customers may be reluctant to switch incumbent suppliers or we may miss the design cycles of our customers. Many of our target markets, such as the automotive, machine tool and other manufacturing, communications and medical industries, have historically adopted new technologies slowly. These markets often require long test and qualification periods or lengthy government approval processes before adopting new technologies. If we are unable to successfully implement our strategy to develop new applications and end markets for our products or develop new products, our revenues, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected. In addition, any newly developed or enhanced products may not achieve market acceptance or may be rendered obsolete or less competitive by the introduction of new products by other companies.

Like many multinational corporations, we maintain several information technology systems, including software products licensed from third parties. These systems vary from country to country. Any system, network or internet failures, misuse by system users, the hacking into or disruption caused by the unauthorized access by third parties or loss of license rights could disrupt our ability to timely and accurately manufacture and ship products or to report our financial information in compliance with the timelines mandated by the SEC. Any such failure, misuse, hacking, disruptions or loss would likely cause a diversion of management's attention from the underlying business and could harm our operations. In addition, a significant failure of our various information technology systems could adversely affect our ability to complete an evaluation of our internal controls and attestation activities pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 under the updated framework issued in 2013. As part of our day-to-day business, we store our data and certain data about our customers, employees and service providers in our information technology system. While our system is designed with access security, if a third party gains unauthorized access to our data or technology, including information regarding our customers, employees and service providers, such security breach could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, loss of business, litigation and possible liability. Our security measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. Additionally, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information in order to gain access to our customers' data or our data, including our intellectual property and other confidential business information, employee information or our information technology systems. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, or to sabotage systems, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate or detect these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any unauthorized access could negatively impact our customers' products, result in a loss of confidence by our customers, damage our reputation, disrupt our business, result in a misappropriation of our assets (including cash), lead to legal liability and negatively impact our future sales. Additionally, such actions could result in significant costs associated with loss of our intellectual property, impairment of our ability to conduct our operations, rebuilding our network and systems, prosecuting and defending litigation, responding to regulatory inquiries or actions, paying damages or taking other remedial steps. In addition, we may incur significant costs designed to prevent or mitigate the damage related to cybersecurity incidents. For instance, we may retain additional employees or consultants, implement new policies and procedures, and install information technology to detect and prevent identity theft, data breaches, or system disruptions. We would incur any such costs with the intent that proactively preventing a cybersecurity incident ultimately helps to mitigate potential cybersecurity liability. As previously disclosed, on September 14, 2020, the Company detected a ransomware attack impacting certain of our operational and information technology systems that we do not believe had a material impact on the Company's business, operations or financial condition. The costs to address the foregoing security problems and security vulnerabilities before or after a cyber-incident could be significant. Our remediation efforts may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays, a cessation of service, and a loss of existing or potential customers, impeding our sales, manufacturing, distribution, and other critical functions.