Guarantees
U.S. GAAP requires that upon issuance of a guarantee, the guarantor must recognize a liability for the fair value of the obligation it assumes under that guarantee. In addition, U.S. GAAP requires disclosures about the guarantees that an entity has issued, including a tabular reconciliation of the changes of the entity’s product warranty liabilities.
Product Defect
Our products are complex and may contain defects or experience failures due to any number of issues in design, fabrication, packaging, materials and/or use within a system. If any of our products or technologies contains a defect, compatibility issue or other error, we may have to invest additional research and development efforts to find and correct the issue. Such efforts could divert our management’s and engineers’ attention from the development of new products and technologies and could increase our operating costs and reduce our gross margin. In addition, an error or defect in new products or releases or related software drivers after commencement of commercial shipments could result in failure to achieve market acceptance or loss of design wins. Also, we may be required to reimburse customers, including for customers’ costs to repair or replace the products in the field, which could cause our revenue to decline. A product recall or a significant number of product returns could be expensive, damage our reputation and could result in the shifting of business to our competitors. Costs associated with correcting defects, errors, bugs or other issues could be significant and could materially harm our financial results.
During the three year period ended January 30, 2011, we recorded a cumulative net charge of $475.9 million, most of which was charged against cost of revenue, to cover customer warranty, repair, return, replacement and other costs arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of our previous generation MCP and GPU products used in notebook configurations.
The previous generation MCP and GPU products that are impacted were included in a number of notebook products that were shipped and sold in significant quantities. Certain notebook configurations of these products are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. Testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination, system thermal management designs, and customer use patterns are contributing factors for these failures. We have worked with our customers to develop and have made available for download a software driver to cause the system fan to begin operation at the powering up of the system and reduce the thermal stress on these chips. We have also recommended to our customers that they consider changing the thermal management of the products in their notebook system designs. We intend to fully support our customers in their repair and replacement of these impacted products that fail, and their other efforts to mitigate the consequences of these failures. The weak die/packaging material combination is not used in any of our products that are currently in production.
Accrual for estimated product returns and product warranty liabilities
We record a reduction to revenue for estimated product returns at the time revenue is recognized primarily based on historical return rates. Cost of revenue includes the estimated cost of product warranties that are calculated at the point of revenue recognition. Under limited circumstances, we may offer an extended limited warranty to customers for certain products. Additionally, we accrue for known warranty and indemnification issues if a loss is probable and can be reasonably estimated. The estimated product returns and estimated product warranty liabilities for fiscal years 2013, 2012 and 2011 are as follows:
|
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| January 27,
2013 | | January 29,
2012 | | January 30,
2011 |
| (In thousands) |
Balance at beginning of period | $ | 18,406 |
| | $ | 107,896 |
| | $ | 92,655 |
|
Additions (1) | 5,738 |
| | 7,329 |
| | 194,108 |
|
Deductions (2) | (9,270 | ) | | (96,819 | ) | | (178,867 | ) |
Balance at end of period | $ | 14,874 |
| | $ | 18,406 |
| | $ | 107,896 |
|
(1) Includes $186.2 million for fiscal year 2011 for incremental repair and replacement costs from a weak die/packaging material set.
(2) Includes $3.0 million, $73.3 million and $149.8 million for fiscal years 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively, in payments related to the warranty accrual associated with incremental repair and replacement costs from a weak die/packaging material set.
In connection with certain agreements that we have executed in the past, we have at times provided indemnities to cover the indemnified party for matters such as tax, product and employee liabilities. We have also on occasion included intellectual property indemnification provisions in our technology related agreements with third parties. Maximum potential future payments cannot be estimated because many of these agreements do not have a maximum stated liability. As such, we have not recorded any liability in our Consolidated Financial Statements for such indemnifications.
