What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2020-12-18 compared with 2019-12-20 · 120 added, 132 removed, 241 unchanged (51% of the section changed)

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(“Broadcom”) is the successor to Broadcom Pte.

(formerly Broadcom Limited), a Singapore company (“Broadcom-Singapore”), as a result of our redomiciliation to the United States on April 4, 2018 (the “Redomiciliation Transaction”).

(formerly Broadcom Limited), a Singapore company, as a result of our redomiciliation to the United States on April 4, 2018.

We are a global technology leader that designs, develops and supplies a broad range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions.

Our over 50-year history of innovation dates back to our diverse origins from Hewlett-Packard Company, AT&T, LSI Corporation, Broadcom Corporation (“BRCM”), Brocade Communications Systems LLC (“Brocade”), CA, Inc.

(“CA”) and Symantec Corporation.

(“CA”) and Symantec Enterprise Security.

Over the years, we have assembled a large team of semiconductor and software design engineers around the world.

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Our infrastructure software solutions enable customers to plan, develop, automate, manage, and secure applications across mainframe, distributed, mobile, and cloud platforms.

Many of the largest companies in the world, including most of the Fortune 500 and many government agencies, rely on our enterprise and mainframe software to help manage and secure their on-premise and hybrid cloud environments.

Our portfolio of mainframe and enterprise software solutions enables customers to leverage the benefits of agility, automation, insights and security in managing business processes and technology investments.

Many of the largest companies in the world, including most of the Fortune 500, and many government agencies rely on our software solutions to help manage and secure their on-premise and hybrid cloud environments.

Our portfolio of mainframe and BizOps software solutions enables customers to leverage the benefits of agility, automation, insights and security in managing business processes and technology investments.

Our Symantec cyber security solutions portfolio, include endpoint, network, information and identity security solutions.

We also offer mission critical fibre channel storage area networking (“FC SAN”) products and related software in the form of modules, switches and subsystems incorporating multiple semiconductor products.

Following the acquisition of Symantec’s Enterprise Security business, we also offer a cybersecurity solutions portfolio, including data loss prevention, endpoint protection, and web, email and cloud security solutions.

Recent Developments

Acquisition of Symantec’s Enterprise Security Business

On November 4, 2019, we completed the purchase of certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of the Symantec Corporation (now known as NortonLifeLock Inc.) Enterprise Security business (the “Symantec Business”) for approximately $10.7 billion in cash, on a cash-free, debt-free basis (the “Symantec Asset Purchase”), subject to delayed closings in certain non-U.S.

jurisdictions, in accordance with the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement (as amended or supplemented) we entered into with Symantec on August 8, 2019.

The addition of the Symantec Business significantly expands our infrastructure software solutions as we continue to build one of the world’s leading infrastructure technology companies.

The Symantec Business is an established leader in cybersecurity.

We acquired the Symantec Business to expand our footprint of mission critical infrastructure software with our existing customer base.

The Symantec Business includes a deep and broad mix of products, services and solutions, unifying cloud and on-premises security to provide advanced threat protection and information protection across endpoints, network, email and cloud applications.

The key components of the Symantec Business include:

Data Loss Prevention :

Data access governance, activity monitoring, threat detection, and remediation solutions that enable security access to cloud applications.

Endpoint Protection :

A single agent architecture that delivers multi-layered security across endpoints - desktop, server, mobile and Internet of Things (“IoT”) - and enables customers to protect enterprise and mobile workforces, regardless of operating system, device or network security approaches.

Network Security :

Cloud and on-premises network security solutions, based on an advanced proxy architecture, that provide superior defense against advanced threats, enable users to protect critical business information, and help ensure secure and compliant use of cloud applications and the web.

Email Security :

Multiple layers of protection (including threat isolation and advanced analytics) against ransomware, spear phishing, and enterprise email compromise that help to identify targeted attacks and enable users to protect email against user error and data leakage.

Cloud Application Securit y:

Advanced solutions that secure cloud access, cloud infrastructure, and cloud applications, providing in-depth visibility, data security, and threat protection to safeguard users, information and workloads across public and private clouds.

Acquisition of CA, Inc.

On November 5, 2018 , we acquired CA for approximately $18.8 billion in cash and assumed $2.25 billion of outstanding unsecured bonds (the “CA Merger”).

We financed the CA Merger with $18 billion in new term loans, as well as cash on hand of the combined companies.

We also assumed all eligible unvested CA equity awards in the transaction.

Following the CA Merger, we sold Veracode, Inc., a subsidiary of CA and provider of application security testing solutions, to Thoma Bravo, LLC for an aggregate purchase price of $950 million.

On November 4, 2019, we completed the purchase of certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of the Symantec Corporation Enterprise Security business (the “Symantec Business”) for $10.7 billion in cash, on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

The addition of the Symantec Business significantly expanded our infrastructure software solutions as we continue to build one of the world’s leading infrastructure technology companies.

Segment Reporting

We updated our organizational structure for the fiscal year ended November 3, 2019 (“fiscal year 2019”), resulting in three reportable segments:

semiconductor solutions, infrastructure software and IP licensing.

Beginning with the fiscal year ending November 1, 2020, we will have two reportable segments:

We updated our organizational structure during the fiscal year ended November 1, 2020 (“fiscal year 2020”), resulting in two reportable segments:

semiconductor solutions and infrastructure software.

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The reportable segments are determined based on several factors including, but not limited to, customer base, homogeneity of products, technology, delivery channels and similar economic characteristics.

Our semiconductor solutions segment will continue to include all of our semiconductor solution product lines, as well as our IP licensing.

Our infrastructure software segment will include our mainframe and enterprise software solutions, our FC SAN business and the Symantec Business.

Our semiconductor solutions segment includes all of our semiconductor solution product lines, as well as our IP licensing.

Our infrastructure software segment includes our mainframe, BizOps and cyber security software solutions, and our FC SAN business.

See discussion in the “Results of Operations” section included in Part II, Item 7.

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Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional segment information.

For fiscal year 2019, net revenue included contributions from CA commencing on November 5, 2018, which are included in the infrastructure software segment.

For fiscal year 2020, net revenue included contributions from Symantec Business commencing on November 4, 2019, which are included in the infrastructure software segment.

For fiscal year ended November 3, 2019 (“fiscal year 2019”), net revenue included contributions from CA commencing on November 5, 2018, which are included in the infrastructure software segment.

For the fiscal year ended November 4, 2018 (“fiscal year 2018”), net revenue included contributions from Brocade commencing on November 17, 2017, which are primarily included in the infrastructure software segment.

All discussions and information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K regarding our business and financial results relate solely to our operations prior to the Symantec Asset Purchase, unless otherwise indicated.

Business Strategy

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We provide semiconductor solutions for managing the movement of data in data center, telecom, enterprise and embedded networking applications.

We provide a broad variety of RF semiconductor devices, wireless connectivity solutions and custom touch controllers for mobile applications.

We also provide semiconductor solutions for enabling the set-top box and broadband access markets and for enabling secure movement of digital data to and from host machines, such as servers, personal computers and storage systems, to the underlying storage devices, such as hard disk drives and solid state drives.

We also provide a broad variety of products for the general industrial and automotive markets.

We provide a broad variety of RF semiconductor devices, wireless connectivity solutions and custom touch controllers for the wireless market.

We also provide semiconductor solutions for enabling the set-top box and broadband access applications and for enabling secure movement of digital data to and from host machines, such as servers, personal computers and storage systems, to the underlying storage devices, such as hard disk drives and solid-state drives.

Our product portfolio ranges from discrete devices to complex sub-systems that include multiple device types and may also incorporate firmware for interfacing between analog and digital systems.

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We focus on markets that require high quality and the technology leadership and integrated performance characteristic of our products.

The table below presents our major semiconductor product families and their major applications during fiscal year 2019.

Major Applications

Major Product Families

• Set-top Box (“STB”) and Broadband Access

The table below presents our material semiconductor product families and their major end markets and applications during fiscal year 2020.

Major End Markets Major Applications Material Product Families

Broadband • Set-top Box (“STB”) and Broadband Access • STB SoCs

• Cable, digital subscriber line (“DSL”) and passive optical networking (“PON”) central office/consumer premise equipment (“CO/CPE”) SoCs

• Wireless local area network (“WLAN”) access point SoCs

• Data center, Telecom, Enterprise and Embedded Networking

• Ethernet switching and routing application specific standard product (“ASSP”)

Networking • Data center, Telecom, Enterprise and Embedded Networking • Ethernet switching and routing merchant silicon

• Embedded processors and controllers

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• Fiber optic transmitter and receiver components

• Mobile handsets

• RF front end modules (FEMs), filters, power amplifiers

Wireless • Mobile handsets • RF front end modules (“FEMs”), filters, power amplifiers

• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, global positioning system/global navigation satellite system (“GPS/GNSS”) SoCs

• Custom touch controllers

• Servers and storage systems

• Serial attached small computer system interface (“SAS”) and redundant array of independent disks (“RAID”) controllers and adapters

Storage • Servers and storage systems • Serial attached small computer system interface (“SAS”) and redundant array of independent disks (“RAID”) controllers and adapters

• Peripheral component interconnect express (“PCIe”) switches

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• Hard disk drives (“HDD”);

Solid state drives (“SSD”)

• Read channel based SoCs;

Solid-state drives (“SSD”) • Read channel based SoCs;

Custom flash controllers

• Preamplifiers

• Power isolation, power conversion and renewable energy systems

• Optocouplers

• Factory automation, in-car infotainment and renewable energy systems

• Industrial fiber optics

• Motor controls and factory automation

• Motion control encoders and subsystems

• Displays and lighting

• Light emitting diode (“LEDs”)

Industrial • Power isolation, power conversion and renewable energy systems • Optocouplers

• Factory automation, in-car infotainment and renewable energy systems • Industrial fiber optics

• Motor controls and factory automation • Motion control encoders and subsystems

• Displays and lighting • Light emitting diode (“LEDs”)

Set-Top Box Solutions:

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These solutions include combination chips that offer integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionality, which provides significant performance advantages over discrete solutions.

We also offer a family of GPS, assisted-GPS (“A-GPS”) and GNSS semiconductor products, software and data services.

We also offer a family of GPS, assisted-GPS and GNSS semiconductor products, software and data services.

These products are part of a broader location platform that leverages a broad range of communications technologies, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, to provide more accurate location and navigation capabilities.

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These are the critical chips required to read, write and protect data.

An HDD SoC is an integrated circuit (“IC”) that combines the functionality of a read channel, serial interface, memory and a hard disk controller in a small, high-performance, low-power and cost-effective package.

An HDD SoC is an integrated circuit that combines the functionality of a read channel, serial interface, memory and a hard disk controller in a small, high-performance, low-power and cost-effective package.

Read channels convert analog signals that are generated by reading the stored data on the physical media into digital signals.

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Flash controllers manage the underlying flash memory in SSDs, performing critical functions such as reading and writing data to and from the flash memory and performing error correction, wear leveling and bad block management.

Optocouplers:

We offer optical isolators, or optocouplers, which provide electrical insulation and signal isolation for signaling systems that are susceptible to electrical noise or interference.

Industrial End Markets:

We also provide a broad variety of products for the general industrial and automotive markets.

We offer optocouplers, which provide electrical insulation and signal isolation for signaling systems that are susceptible to electrical noise or interference.

Optocouplers are used in a diverse set of applications, including industrial motors, automotive systems including those used in hybrid engines, power generation and distribution systems, switching power supplies, motion sensors, telecommunications equipment, computers and office equipment, plasma displays, and military electronics.

Industrial Fiber Optics:

For industrial networking, we provide robust optical transceivers using plastic optical fiber that enable high-speed and interoperable networking and factory automation.

Motion Encoders:

For industrial motors and robotic motion control, we supply optical encoders, as well as ICs for the controller and decoder functions.

For electronic signs and signals, we supply LED assemblies that offer high brightness and stable light output over thousands of hours, enabling us to support traffic signals, large commercial signs and other displays.

We also provide industrial fiber optics, motion encoders and LED products.

Infrastructure Software

Our portfolio of mission critical software solutions enables customers to leverage the benefits of agility, automation, insights, resiliency and security in managing business processes and technology investments.

Our mainframe software solutions include solutions for the IBM Z® mainframe platform, which runs many of our largest customers’ mission critical business applications.

These software products help customers improve economics by increasing throughput and lowering cost per transaction, increasing business agility through DevOps tooling and processes, increasing reliability and availability of operations through machine intelligence and automation solutions, and protecting enterprise data with security and compliance.

Our enterprise software solutions enable large global organizations to transform into digital businesses by providing an end-to-end digital infrastructure management platform that delivers speed, agility and the ability to optimize for risk across multi-cloud hybrid environments and workloads.

More specifically, these products offer unique solutions that help with application development, testing and deployment, operations and automation, and securing users and access to information technology (“IT”) infrastructure and applications.

Broadcom mainframe software solutions, which consist of security and infrastructure management solutions, help enterprises embrace open tools and technologies, integrate their mainframe into their cloud infrastructures and speed software delivery with the next generation of cross-platform innovations.

We combine advanced technology solutions with creative, value-add programs that help foster skills development, inform strategy and planning, and provide flexibility in licensing fees.

This unique approach, rooted in a deep commitment to partnership with our customers, is designed to fuel our customers’ productivity, boost operational efficiency, advance enterprise security, and support our customers’ overall business success.

BizOps software solutions enable large global organizations to transform into digital businesses by providing an end-to-end digital infrastructure management platform that delivers speed, agility and the ability to optimize for risk across multi-cloud hybrid environments and workloads.

More specifically, these products offer unique solutions that help with application development, testing and deployment, and operations and automation.

We are able to leverage our core strengths and development efforts to create products and enterprise software solutions that bring new innovation to our mainframe software solutions and vice versa, spanning three strategic portfolios:

Agile, DevOps and Security.

ValueOps, DevOps and AIOps.

Our Symantec cyber security software solutions span endpoint, network, information and identity security, helping customers secure identities and information stored wherever the data resides, including on mobile devices, in the cloud and on-premises.

Through our Symantec Integrated Cyber Defense platform, we provide a unified approach that allows customers to protect, defend and respond to sophisticated attacks across endpoints, identities, and infrastructure, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid.

We also offer mission critical FC SAN products designed to help customers reduce the cost and complexity of managing business information within a shared data storage environment, enabling high levels of availability of mission critical applications in the form of modules, switches and subsystems incorporating multiple semiconductor products.

We deliver reliable and simplified management of these FC SAN products through our software-based management tools designed to maximize uptime, dramatically simplify storage area networking deployment and management, and provide high levels of visibility and insight into the storage network.

The table below presents our software portfolios and their major offerings during fiscal year 2019.

Major Portfolio Offerings

• Agile defines how work is planned, executed and serviced to deliver rapid value to our customers, and enables customers to plan, deliver, manage and optimize application development and project management.

• Agile Planning

• Project & Portfolio Management

• DevOps accelerates software delivery, enabling customers to simplify, automate, and make their processes and applications more robust, and provides customers the flexibility to optimize workloads across mobile, cloud, on-premise, and mainframe environments.

• Continuous Delivery

• Agile Operations

• Application Programming Interface (“API”) Management

• Security provides seamless access to the right data designed to minimize the risk of data breaches.

• Application Security

The table below presents our software portfolios and their material offerings during fiscal year 2020.

Software Portfolio Portfolio Description Major Portfolio Offerings

Mainframe Software • Solutions for DevOps, AIOps and cyber security that accelerate enterprise innovation • Operational Analytics & management

• Database & Database Management

• Application Development & Testing

• Identity & Access Management

• Payment Security

• FC SAN Management

• Fibre Channel switch

Agile Planning:

This solution helps customers to collaboratively plan, prioritize and track agile software development at scale using an iterative work cadence that decreases time-to-market, increases product quality and maintains a focus on generating rapid business value.

Project & Portfolio Management:

This offering is complementary to Agile Planning, enables customers to collect, prioritize, plan and deliver products, services and customer experiences.

Continuous Delivery:

This offering automates the deployment of applications across all stages of their lifecycles enabling the development, testing and release teams to work concurrently and continuously.

We provide end-to-end automation capabilities that cover service orchestration, workload automation and release automation capabilities, accelerating the entire application delivery process.

Agile Operations:

We provide intelligent analytics, comprehensive coverage, and an open, extensible architecture that helps customers correlate end-user, application and infrastructure data from cloud-hosted containers to mainframes.

API Management:

This solution facilitates the creation, security and management of APIs through their lifecycle, enabling customers to connect more directly with end-users via mobile apps, cloud platforms and IoT devices.

Application Security:

This solution is hosted on a unified application security testing platform and integrates into existing development toolchains.

This enables users to quickly identify and remediate security flaws earlier in the development process and supports the development of high-quality, secure code.

• Compliance & Data Protection

• Security Insights

BizOps • Connects business operations and technology functions • ValueOps

Symantec Cyber Security • Comprehensive threat protection and compliance to secure users’ identities and their information • Endpoint Security

• Network Security

• Information Security

• Identity Security

FC SAN Management • Transforms current storage networks with autonomous SAN capabilities • Fibre Channel switch

Payment Authentication • Software designed to reduce Card Not Present and prevent e-commerce fraud, while improving user experience.

• Payment Security Suite

Operational Analytics & Management :

These solutions combine big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence (“AI”) with mainframe expertise to deliver meaningful and actionable insights to augment and automate day-to-day operations and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

These solutions reduce manual effort by enabling customers to proactively optimize resources and orchestrate automation across enterprise applications and systems.

Databases & Database Management :

These high-performance databases and management tools store, organize, and manage mainframe data to ensure optimal performance, efficient administration, and reliability of critical systems.

Application Development & Testing :

These solutions enable customers to accelerate software delivery while increasing code quality through the use of our agile processes and tools, and DevOps solutions.

Our open-first strategy helps customers modernize their mainframe environment through the use of open source and open application programming technologies across people, process, tooling and applications, resulting in greater synergy and alignment with their corporate IT.

Identity & Access Management :

We provide enterprise-grade identity management and governance capabilities, including broad provisioning support for on-premises and cloud-based applications, extensibility and flexibility to integrate with other IT systems and control and monitor the access and activity of privileged users.

Payment Security:

This is a software as a service (“SaaS”)-based payment authentication service to help banks protect against fraud and ensure a hassle-free online shopping experience for their customers.

These solutions manage mainframe access and elevate it with modern practices such as multi-factor authentication, managing access for privileged users, and supporting all external security managers.

Compliance & Data Protection :

These solutions locate and protect sensitive mainframe data to ensure compliance and identify risk, identify and proactively respond to potential risks and bad actors, and reduce risk and lighten security management load with automated identification and authorization cleanup.

Security Insights Platform :

This solution helps ensure a trusted environment for customers and their employees by quickly interpreting and assessing mainframe security posture, identifying risks and developing remediation steps on an ongoing and ad hoc basis.

This data is available for use with in-house tools for security information and event management.

This solution delivers capabilities that enable customers to optimize flow of value by aligning planned investments to scheduled development work and track deliverables from planning through execution, enabling improved development cycle times, reduced bottlenecks, and faster time to value.

This solution offers capabilities that empower users of our agile processes and tools to track development progress and deploy releases confidently with assurance of feature completeness, high-quality and reduced risk.

Key stakeholders have a single view of key insights into release progress, health, quality, and defect trends, and metrics that drive focus, gauge readiness, and help to ensure successful, quality releases.

This solution combines application, infrastructure and network monitoring and correlation with intelligent recommendations and auto-remediation capabilities to help customers create more resilient production environments and improve customer experience.

Endpoint Security:

Endpoints are the critical last line of defense against cyber attackers.

Our Symantec endpoint security solutions prevent, detect and respond to emerging threats across all devices and operating systems including laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile phones, servers and cloud workloads through an intelligent AI driven security console and single agent.

Network Security:

Email and web access are the lifeblood and essential communication means for every modern organization.

We have a full array of network security solutions, as well as a shared set of advanced threat protection technologies to stop inbound and outbound threats targeting end users, information and key infrastructure.

Information Security:

Information protection and compliance is critical to managing risk.

We offer integrated information security solutions to help organizations protect users, applications and their most sensitive data everywhere it resides or moves - across endpoints, cloud services, private applications and on-premises.

Identity Security:

User identities are under attack by cyber criminals hoping to exploit their access and privileges and do harm.

We mitigate these attacks by enforcing granular security policies to stop unauthorized access to sensitive resources and data.

Fibre Channel Switch Products:

The Fibre Channel switch products we acquired in connection with our acquisition of Brocade provide interconnection, bandwidth, and high-speed switching between servers and storage devices which are in a FC SAN.

Our Brocade Fibre Channel switch products provide interconnection, bandwidth and high-speed switching between servers and storage devices which are in a FC SAN.

FC SANs are networks dedicated to mission critical storage traffic, and enable simultaneous high speed and secure connections among multiple host computers and multiple storage arrays.

Payment Security Suite:

This is a software as a service (“SaaS”)-based payment authentication service to help banks protect against fraud and ensure a hassle-free online shopping experience for their customers.

Research and Development

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Sales to distributors accounted for 42% and 46% of our net revenue for fiscal years 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Direct sales to WT Microelectronics accounted for 17% of our net revenue for the fiscal year 2019 .

We believe our aggregate sales to our top five end customers, through all channels, accounted for more than 30% and more than 40% of our net revenue for fiscal years 2019 and 2018 , respectively.

We believe aggregate sales to Apple Inc., through all channels, accounted for approximately 20% of our net revenue for fiscal year 2019 and approximately 25% for fiscal year 2018 .

We believe our aggregate sales to our top five end customers, through all channels, accounted for more than 30% of our net revenue for each of our fiscal years 2020 and 2019.

We believe aggregate sales to Apple Inc., through all channels, accounted for approximately 15% and 20% of our net revenue for fiscal years 2020 and 2019, respectively.

We expect to continue to experience significant customer concentration in future periods.

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With sales offices located in various countries, our primary warehouse in Malaysia, and dedicated regional customer support call centers, where we address customer issues and handle logistics and other order fulfillment requirements, we believe we are well-positioned to support our customers throughout the design, technology transfer and manufacturing stages across all geographies.

Our software customers are in most major industries worldwide, including banks, insurance companies, other financial services providers, government agencies, global IT service providers, telecommunication providers, transportation companies, manufacturers, technology companies, retailers, educational organizations and health care institutions.

Our software customers are in most major industries worldwide, including banks, insurance companies, other financial services providers, government agencies, global information technology (“IT”) service providers, telecommunication providers, transportation companies, manufacturers, technology companies, retailers, educational organizations and health care institutions.

Our traditional software customers generally consist of large enterprises that have computing environments from multiple vendors and are highly complex.

We remain focused on strengthening relationships and increasing penetration within our existing core, mainframe-centric customers and expanding the adoption of our enterprise software offerings with these customers.

We remain focused on strengthening relationships and increasing penetration within our existing core, mainframe-centric and Symantec endpoint customers and expanding the adoption of our enterprise software offerings with these customers.

We believe our enterprise-wide license model will continue to offer our customers reduced complexity, more flexibility and an easier renewal process that will help drive revenue growth.

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Accordingly, we outsource a majority of our manufacturing operations, utilizing third-party foundry and assembly and test capabilities, as well as some of our corporate infrastructure functions.

The majority of our front-end wafer manufacturing operations is outsourced to external foundries, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (“TSMC”), primarily, as well as United Microelectronics Corporation, GlobalFoundries, Silicon Manufacturing Partners Pte.

Ltd., Tower Semiconductor Ltd.

and WIN Semiconductors Corp.

The majority of our front-end wafer manufacturing operations is outsourced to external foundries, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (“TSMC”).

We use third-party contract manufacturers for a significant majority of our assembly and test operations, including Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc., Foxconn Technology Group, Amkor Technology, Inc.

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Our primary competitors are AppDynamics, Inc.

(acquired by Cisco), Atlassian Corporation, Plc, BMC Software Inc., BeyondTrust, Compuware Corporation, CyberArk Software, Ltd., International Business Machines Corporation, Micro Focus International Plc, Microsoft Corporation, MuleSoft, Inc.

(acquired by Salesforce.com, Inc.), New Relic, Inc., Oracle Corporation, SailPoint, Inc., ServiceNow, Inc., SolarWinds, Inc., Splunk, Inc.

and VMware, Inc.

(acquired by Cisco), Atlassian Corporation, Plc, BMC Software

Inc., BeyondTrust, Cisco Systems, Inc., Compuware Corporation, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., CyberArk Software, Ltd., International Business Machines Corporation, Micro Focus International Plc, Microsoft Corporation, MuleSoft, Inc.

(acquired by Salesforce.com, Inc.), New Relic, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Proofpoint, Inc., SailPoint, Inc., ServiceNow, Inc., SolarWinds, Inc., Splunk, Inc., VMware, Inc.

and Zscaler, Inc.

We compete based on our breadth of portfolio of enterprise management tools, breadth and synergy of offerings, our platform and hardware independence, our global reach, and our deep customer relationships and industry experience.

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and other pending patent applications.

Our research and development efforts presently result in approximately 100 new patent applications per year, relating to a wide range of ASIC, isolation, encoder, LED, RF and optoelectronic components, enterprise storage products, HDD silicon, PCIe, USB and other standard I/O devices, Ethernet and Fibre-Channel connectivity and controllers, set-top box SoCs, cable modem SoCs, broadband access SoCs, wireless connectivity SoCs, switching/routing SoCs, high performance processor SoCs, infrastructure software, and associated applications.

The expiration dates of our patents range from 2020 to 2039, with a small number of patents expiring in the near future, none of which are expected to be material to our IP portfolio.

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We and our predecessors have also entered into a variety of IP licensing and cross-licensing arrangements that have both benefited our business and enabled some of our competitors.

A portion of our revenue comes from IP licensing royalty payments and from technology claim settlements relating to such IP.

A portion of our revenue comes from IP licensing royalty payments and from litigation settlements relating to such IP.

We also license third-party technologies that are incorporated into some elements of our design activities, products and manufacturing processes.

Historically, licenses of the third-party technologies used by us have generally been available to us on acceptable terms.

The semiconductor industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets and by the vigorous pursuit, protection and enforcement of IP rights, including by patent holding companies that do not make or sell products.

Many of our customer agreements require us to indemnify our customers for third-party IP infringement claims.

The industries in which we compete are characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets and by the vigorous pursuit, protection and enforcement of IP rights, including by patent holding companies that do not make or sell products.

Many of our customer agreements require us to indemnify our customers for third-party IP infringement claims arising from our products.

Claims of this sort could harm our relationships with our customers and might deter future customers from doing business with us.

With respect to any IP rights claims against us or our customers or distributors, we may be required to cease manufacture of the infringing product, pay damages, expend resources to develop non-infringing technology, seek a license which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or relinquish patents or other IP rights.

With respect to any IP rights claims against us or our customers or distributors, we may be required to defend ourselves or our customers or distributors in litigation, cease manufacture the infringing products, pay damages, expend resources to develop non-infringing technology, seek a license which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or relinquish patents or other IP rights.

With respect to our infrastructure software, the source code for our products is protected both as a trade secret and as copyrighted work.

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Under certain contingent circumstances, some of our customers are beneficiaries of a source code escrow arrangement that enables them to obtain a limited right to access our source code.

As of November 3, 2019 , we had approximately 19,000 employees worldwide.

By geography, approximately 53% of our employees are located in North America, 35% in Asia, and 12% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In the U.S., none of our employees are represented by a labor union.

A small number of our employees in other countries are represented by workers' councils or labor unions or are party to collective bargaining agreements.

Environmental and Other Regulation

Our future success depends on our ability to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel.

As the source of our technological and product innovations, our engineering and technical personnel are a significant asset.

Competition for these employees is significant in many areas of the world in which we operate, particularly in Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia where qualified engineers are in high demand.

We track and report internally on key talent metrics including the portion of our workforce in research and development and the voluntary attrition rate.

During fiscal year 2020, our voluntary attrition rate was 7%, below the technology industry benchmark (AON, 2020 Salary Increase and Turnover Study — Second Edition, September 2020).

As of November 1, 2020, we had approximately 21,000 employees worldwide, with approximately 63% of them in research and development.

By geography, approximately 53% of our employees are located in North America, 35% in Asia, and 12% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and a significant majority of our research and development personnel are located in Czech Republic, India, Israel, Singapore and the U.S.

Governmental Regulation

Our semiconductor manufacturing operations and research and development involve the use of hazardous substances and are regulated under international, federal, state and local laws governing health, safety and the environment.

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and treatment, transport, storage and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes.

We are also subject to regulation by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration and similar health and safety laws in other jurisdictions.

We are also subject to regulation by the U.S.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration and similar health and safety laws in other jurisdictions.

We believe that our properties and operations at our facilities comply in all material respects with applicable environmental laws and worker health and safety laws.

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We are also regulated under a number of international, federal, state and local laws regarding recycling, product packaging and product content requirements, including legislation enacted in the U.S., European Union and China, among a growing number of jurisdictions, which have placed greater restrictions on the use of lead, among other chemicals, in electronic products, which affects materials composition and semiconductor packaging.

These laws are becoming more stringent and may in the future cause us to incur significant expenditures.

In addition, our business is subject to various import/export regulations, such as the U.S.

Export Administration Regulations, and applicable executive orders, and rules of industrial standards bodies, like the International Standards Organization, as well as regulation by other agencies, such as the U.S.

Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”).

These laws, regulations and orders are complex, may change frequently and with limited notice, have generally become more stringent over time, and have intensified under the current U.S.

administration, especially in light of ongoing trade tensions with China.

We may incur significant expenditures in future periods as a result.

Our semiconductor sales are generally made pursuant to short-term purchase orders.

These purchase orders are made without deposits and may be, and often are, rescheduled, cancelled or modified on relatively short notice, without substantial penalty.

In addition, our mainframe and enterprise software contracting model for the majority of our customers, which are for enterprise-wide licenses, provide for termination thereof by our customers at any time for any reason.

These purchase orders are made without deposits and may be rescheduled, cancelled or modified on relatively short notice, without substantial penalty.

In addition, our software contracting model for the majority of our customers, which are for enterprise-wide licenses, provide for termination thereof by our customers at any time for any reason.

As a result, we recognize revenue from these contracts ratably over time.

Therefore, we believe that purchase orders or backlog are not necessarily a reliable indicator of future sales.

Therefore, although we may have a large backlog from time to time, we believe that purchase orders or backlog are not necessarily a reliable indicator of future sales.

Historically, our net revenue has typically been higher in the second half of the fiscal year than in the first half, primarily due to seasonality in our wireless communications products.

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Other Information

Broadcom was incorporated in Delaware in January 2018 and our headquarters are in San Jose, California.

The address of our headquarters is 1320 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, California 95131, and our telephone number there is (408) 433-8000.

Our website is www.broadcom.com.

You may access our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other reports (and amendments thereto) filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), as well as proxy statements filed by Broadcom, free of charge at the “Investor Center - SEC Filings” section of our website at www.broadcom.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC.

You may access our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other reports (and amendments thereto) filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), as well as proxy statements filed by Broadcom, free of charge at the “Investor Center - SEC Filings” section of our website at www.broadcom.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC.

Such periodic reports, proxy statements and other information are also available at the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov .

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business