10-K 1 d10k.htm FORM 10-K Form 10-K
Table of Contents

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

 


FORM 10-K

 


(MARK ONE)

  x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2006

OR

 

  ¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM                  TO                 

COMMISSION FILE NUMBER 000-30713

 


INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

 

DELAWARE   77-0416458

(State or Other Jurisdiction of

Incorporation or Organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification Number)

950 KIFER RD

SUNNYVALE, CA 94086

(Address of Principal Executive Offices including Zip Code)

(408) 523-2100

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of Each Class:   Name of Each Exchange on which Registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share   The NASDAQ Global Select Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ¨    No  x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.     x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer  x  Accelerated filer  ¨  Non-accelerated filer  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ¨    No  x

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on June 30, 2006, based upon the closing price of Common Stock on such date as reported by NASDAQ Global Select Market (formerly the NASDAQ National Market), was approximately $4,143,293,945. Shares of voting stock held by each officer and director have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This assumption regarding affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

The number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s common stock on January 31, 2007 was 37,137,389.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE: NONE

 



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INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC.

INDEX

 

PART I     
Item 1.  

Business

   3
Item 1A.  

Risk Factors

   20
Item 1B.  

Unresolved Staff Comments

   30
Item 2.  

Properties

   30
Item 3.  

Legal Proceedings

   30
Item 4.  

Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

   30
PART II     
Item 5.  

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

   31
Item 6.  

Selected Consolidated Financial Data

   33
Item 7.  

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

   33
Item 7A.  

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

   45
Item 8.  

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

   47
Item 9.  

Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosures

   75
Item 9A.  

Controls and Procedures

   75
Item 9B.  

Other Information

   75
PART III     
Item 10.  

Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant

   76
Item 11.  

Executive Compensation

   80
Item 12.  

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

   90
Item 13.  

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions

   91
Item 14.  

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

   92
PART IV     
Item 15.  

Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedule

   94
SIGNATURES    96

 


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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations concerning matters that are not historical facts. Words such as “projects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends” and similar words and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to our expected business, new product introductions, results of operations, future financial position, our ability to increase our revenues, the mix of our revenues between product and service revenues, our financing plans and capital requirements, our costs of revenue, our expenses, our potential tax assets or liabilities, the effect of recent accounting pronouncements, our investments, cash flows and our ability to finance operations from cash flows and similar matters and include statements based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the economies and markets in which we operate and our beliefs and assumptions regarding these economies and markets. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are based on current expectation and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including those risk factors described throughout this filing and particularly in Part I, “Item 1A: Risk Factors”. Our actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

PART I

 

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. was founded in 1995. We are a Delaware corporation with our corporate headquarters located at 1266 Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, California 94086. Our telephone number is (408) 523-2100, and our website address is www.intuitivesurgical.com . In this report, “Intuitive Surgical,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Intuitive®, da Vinci®, da Vinci®S, TilePro, Solo Surgery, EndoWrist®, InSite®, AESOP®, HERMES®, ZEUS®, SOCRATES and Navigator are trademarks of Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

We design, manufacture and market the da Vinci Surgical Systems, which are advanced surgical systems that we believe represent a new generation of surgery. We believe that this new generation of surgery, which we call da Vinci surgery, is a revolutionary advancement similar in scope to previous generations of surgery — open surgery and minimally invasive surgery, or MIS. Our da Vinci Surgical Systems consist of a surgeon’s console, a patient-side cart, a high performance vision system and proprietary “wristed” instruments. By placing computer-enhanced technology between the surgeon and patient, we believe that our systems enable surgeons to perform advanced MIS in a manner never before experienced. The da Vinci Surgical System controls Intuitive Surgical endoscopic instruments, including rigid endoscopes, blunt and sharp endoscopic dissectors, scissors, scalpels, forceps/pickups, needle holders, endoscopic retractors, electrocautery, ultrasonic cutters, and accessories during a wide range of surgical procedures. The da Vinci Surgical System seamlessly translates the surgeon’s natural hand movements on instrument controls at the console into corresponding micro-movements of instruments positioned inside the patient through small puncture incisions, or ports. Our da Vinci Surgical System provides the surgeon with the intuitive control, range of motion, fine tissue manipulation capability and 3-D vision characteristic of open surgery, while simultaneously allowing the surgeon to work through the small ports of MIS.

In March 1997, surgeons using an early prototype of our technology successfully performed the first da Vinci surgery on humans. Beginning in May 1998, surgeons using our technology successfully performed what we believe were the world’s first computer-enhanced closed chest heart surgeries, including mitral valve repair, dissection of an internal mammary artery and grafting of a coronary artery. In early 2000, surgeons using our technology successfully completed what we believe was the world’s first beating heart bypass procedure through small ports.

 

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The following table summarizes our clearances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to date:

 

   

July 2000—General laparoscopic procedures

 

   

March 2001—Non-cardiac thoracoscopic procedures

 

   

May 2001—Prostatectomy procedures

 

   

November 2002—Cardiotomy procedures

 

   

July 2004—Cardiac revascularization procedures

 

   

March 2005—Urologic surgical procedures

 

   

April 2005—Gynecologic surgical procedures

 

   

June 2005—Pediatric surgical procedures

As of December 31, 2006, we had sold 571 of our da Vinci Surgical Systems, and surgeons using our technology had successfully completed more than one hundred thousand surgical procedures of various types in major hospitals throughout North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Open surgery remains the predominant form of surgery and is still used in almost every area of the body. However, the large incisions required for open surgery create trauma to the patient, resulting in longer hospitalization and recovery times, increased hospitalization costs, and additional pain and suffering. Over the past two decades, MIS has reduced trauma to the patient by allowing selected surgeries to be performed through small ports rather than large incisions, often resulting in shorter recovery times, fewer complications and reduced hospitalization costs. MIS has been widely adopted for certain surgical procedures, but it has not been widely adopted within complex surgical procedures.

The da Vinci Surgical System enables surgeons to overcome many of the shortcomings of both open surgery and MIS. Surgeons operate while seated comfortably at a console viewing a high resolution, 3-D image of the surgical field. This immersive visualization connects the surgeon to the surgical field and the instruments. While seated at the console, the surgeon manipulates instrument controls in a natural manner, just as he or she has been trained to do in open surgery. Our technology is designed to provide surgeons with a range of motion in the surgical field analogous to the motions of a human wrist, while filtering out the tremor inherent in a surgeon’s hand. In designing our products, we have focused on making our technology as simple as possible to use. In our experience, based on thousands of procedures, surgeons can learn to manipulate our instruments with only a limited amount of training as compared to the training required for a surgeon to become skilled in MIS and can learn to perform da Vinci surgery with less training than is required for MIS.

Our products are designed to make a broad range of open surgical and MIS procedures suitable for da Vinci surgery. The da Vinci Surgical System is designed to enable surgeons to improve surgical outcomes while providing patients with the benefits of MIS. We believe that these advantages will facilitate a fundamental change in surgery.

We operate our business as one segment as defined by generally accepted accounting principles. Our financial results for the previous three fiscal years are discussed in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report.

Next Generation Surgery—da Vinci Surgery

The da Vinci Surgical System is designed to provide the surgeon with the intuitive control, range of motion, fine tissue manipulation capability and 3-D vision characteristic of open surgery while simultaneously allowing the surgeon to work through the small ports of MIS. All this is accomplished in an intuitive manner, in the same way that the movements of a surgeon’s hands in open surgery are entirely intuitive.

 

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The da Vinci S Surgical System, which was introduced in January 2006, shares the same core technology as the standard da Vinci Surgical System. In addition, the da Vinci S Surgical System features a motorized patient cart for easy setup and docking. A single fiber optic cable connects the patient cart to the surgeon’s console. Instrument attachment and exchange is now faster with a quick-click cannula and a single-use sterile adapter. The robotic arms have greater range of motion and the EndoWrist instruments are two inches longer, which together facilitate multiquadrant access. The patient-side cart also features an integrated touch screen monitor for the physician’s assistant. The da Vinci S Surgical System also has a feature called TilePro, which is designed to allow surgeons to import and view a variety of video images without leaving the surgeon’s console.

We believe that our technology overcomes many of the limitations of existing MIS tools and techniques in the following ways:

 

   

Intuitive Instrument Movements. Our technology is designed to directly transform the surgeon’s natural hand movements outside the body into corresponding micro-movements inside the patient’s body. For example, with the da Vinci Surgical System, a hand movement to the right outside the body causes the instrument inside the patient to be moved to the right. In contrast, conventional MIS instruments are essentially long rigid levers that rotate around a fulcrum, or pivot point, located at the port created in the body wall. In conventional MIS, the instrument tip moves in the opposite direction from the surgeon’s hand and surgeons must adjust their hand-eye coordination to translate their hand movements in this “backward” environment.

 

   

EndoWrist Instruments Provide Natural Dexterity and Range of Motion. Our technology is designed to provide surgeons with a range of motion in the surgical field analogous to the motions of a human hand and wrist. Our proprietary instruments, which we call EndoWrist instruments, incorporate “wrist” joints that enable surgeons to reach behind tissues and suture with precision, just as they can in open surgery. The surgeon controls the instrument movements from the surgeon’s console using natural hand and wrist movements. EndoWrist joints are located near the tips of all of our instruments. Conventional MIS instruments provide surgeons less flexibility, dexterity and range of motion than their own hands provide in open surgical procedures. For example, MIS instruments in widespread use today do not have joints near their tips, and cannot replicate a surgeon’s hand and wrist movements to perform manipulations, such as reaching behind tissue, suturing and fine dissection.

 

   

More Precise Movements and Reduced Tremor. With our technology, the surgeon can also use “motion scaling”, a feature that translates, for example, a three-millimeter hand movement outside the patient’s body into a one-millimeter instrument movement in the surgical field inside the patient’s body. Motion scaling is designed to allow greater precision than is normally achievable in either open surgery or MIS. In addition, our technology is designed to filter out the tremor inherent in a surgeon’s hands.

 

   

Immersive 3-D Visualization. Our vision system, which we call the InSite vision system, is designed to give surgeons the perception that their hands are immersed in the surgical field even though they are outside the patient’s body. As a result, we believe that surgeons no longer feel disconnected from the surgical field and the instruments, as they currently do with MIS. In addition, we believe that the InSite system provides a brighter and sharper image than any other 3-D endoscope vision system currently available. The InSite system also incorporates our proprietary Navigator camera control technology that allows the surgeon to easily change, move, zoom and rotate his or her field of vision. The combination of these features offers what we believe is the most advanced surgical vision system available today.

 

   

Immersive High-Definition 3-D Visualization. In the first quarter of 2007, we launched the high definition, 3-D (3-D HD) vision system. The 3-D HD vision system provides 20% more viewing area and enhances visualization of tissue planes and critical anatomy. The digital zoom feature in the 3-D HD vision system allows surgeons to magnify the surgical field of view without adjusting endoscope position and reduces interference between the endoscope and instruments. We believe the new 3-D HD vision system will enable improved surgical outcomes. The 3-D HD vision will be available as an option on new da Vinci S Surgical Systems and as an upgrade option to our existing customers who own a da Vinci S Surgical System.

 

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Teachable and Repeatable. We have designed our products to make them as simple as possible to use, even though the underlying technology is inherently complex. We believe that tissue manipulations using our products are as natural as hand movements in open surgery. In our experience, based on feedback from surgeons who have performed hundreds of procedures, surgeons can learn to manipulate our instruments with less training as compared to the training required for the surgeon to become skilled in MIS. The time required to learn to perform surgical procedures using the da Vinci Surgical System varies depending on the complexity of the procedure and the surgical team’s experience with MIS techniques.

 

   

Multi-Specialty Surgical Platform. The da Vinci Surgical System is designed to enable surgeons to perform a wide range of surgical procedures. To date, we believe surgeons have used the da Vinci Surgical System to perform nearly 100 different types of surgical procedures.

We believe that these advantages provide the patient with benefits of reduced trauma while restoring to the surgeon the range of motion and fine tissue control consistent with open surgery, along with further enhancements such as tremor reduction, motion scaling and superior visualization.

We believe that our technology has the potential to change surgical procedures in two basic ways:

 

   

Convert a large percentage open procedures to da Vinci Surgery. We believe that our technology has the potential to convert a large percentage of open procedures which are traditionally performed through large incisions to da Vinci surgery.

 

   

Facilitate Difficult MIS Operations. We believe that several surgical procedures that today are performed only rarely using MIS techniques can be performed routinely and with confidence using da Vinci surgery. Some procedures have been adapted for MIS techniques but are extremely difficult and are currently performed by a limited number of highly skilled surgeons. We believe our da Vinci Surgical System will enable more surgeons at more institutions to perform these procedures.

Intuitive Surgical’s Products and Services

Our principal products include the da Vinci Surgical System and a variety of multiple-use EndoWrist instruments and accessories.

da Vinci Surgical System

Our da Vinci Surgical System is comprised of the following components:

 

   

Surgeon’s Console. The da Vinci Surgical System allows the surgeon to operate while comfortably seated at an ergonomic console viewing a 3-D image of the surgical field. The surgeon’s fingers grasp the instrument controls below the display with hands naturally positioned relative to his or her eyes. Using hardware, software, algorithms, mechanics and optics, our technology is designed to seamlessly translate the surgeon’s hand movements into precise and corresponding real-time micro movements of the EndoWrist instruments positioned inside the patient.

 

   

Patient-Side Cart. The patient-side cart, which can be easily moved next to the operating table, holds electromechanical arms that manipulate the instruments inside the patient. Up to four arms attached to the cart can be easily positioned as appropriate, and then locked into place. The first two arms, one representing the left hand and one representing the right hand of the surgeon, hold our EndoWrist instruments. The third arm positions the endoscope, allowing the surgeon to easily move, zoom and rotate his or her field of vision. The fourth arm option provides additional surgical capabilities by holding an additional EndoWrist instrument as well as potentially reducing the need for an assistant surgeon. The surgeon has a choice of simultaneously controlling any two of the operating arms by tapping a foot pedal underneath the surgeon’s console. The fourth arm is available as an option on

 

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standard da Vinci Surgical Systems and can be added as an upgrade to existing three-arm da Vinci Surgical Systems.

 

   

3-D Vision System. Our vision system includes our InSite three dimensional, or 3-D, endoscope with two separate vision channels linked to two separate color monitors. Our vision system also incorporates our InSite image processing equipment comprised of high performance video cameras and specialized edge enhancement and noise reduction equipment. The resulting 3-D image has high resolution and contrast and no flicker or cross fading, which sometimes occurs in single monitor systems, and minimizes eye fatigue. Our vision system allows the surgeon to move his or her head in the viewer without affecting image quality. Beginning in January 2007, we also offer our 3-D HD vision system.

EndoWrist Instruments and Intuitive Accessories

We manufacture a variety of EndoWrist instruments, each of which incorporates wrist joints for natural dexterity, with tips customized for various surgical procedures. These EndoWrist instruments are approximately five or eight millimeters in diameter. The instruments mount onto the electromechanical arms that represent the surgeon’s left and right hands and provide the mechanical capability necessary for performing complex tissue manipulations through ports. At their tips, the various EndoWrist instruments include forceps, scissors, electrocautery, scalpels and other surgical tools that are familiar to the surgeon from open surgery and MIS. Generally, a variety of EndoWrist instruments are selected and used interchangeably during a surgery. Where instrument tips need to incorporate a disposable component, such as scalpel blades, we sell disposable inserts. We plan to continue to add new types of EndoWrist instruments for additional types of surgical procedures.

The EndoWrist instruments are multiple-use because they are sterilizable and reusable for a defined number of procedures. A programmed memory chip inside each instrument performs several functions that help determine how the system and instruments work together. When an EndoWrist instrument is attached to an arm of the patient-side cart, the chip performs an “electronic handshake” that ensures the instrument was manufactured by Intuitive and recognizes the type and function of the instrument and number of past uses. For example, the chip distinguishes between scissors and a scalpel and controls the unique functions of different instruments as appropriate. In addition, the chip will not allow the instrument to be used for more than the prescribed number of procedures so that its performance meets specifications during each procedure.

We also sell various accessory products, which are used in conjunction with the da Vinci Surgical System as surgical procedures are performed. Accessory products include sterile drapes used to protect the sterile field during surgery, vision products such as replacement 3-D stereo endoscopes, camera heads, and light guides, and other miscellaneous items.

Other Products

Other products include the AESOP Endoscope Positioner, a surgical robot capable of positioning an endoscope in response to a surgeon’s commands, the ZEUS Surgical System, a robotic platform designed to improve a surgeon’s ability to perform complex surgical procedures, the HERMES Control Center, a voice activated operating room control system designed to enable a surgeon to directly control multiple operating room devices through simple verbal commands, and the SOCRATES Telementoring System, an interactive telecollaborative system allowing a surgeon to mentor and collaborate with another surgeon during an operation. We are no longer promoting the ZEUS and SOCRATES products; however, we continue to support systems that are installed at customer sites. We have discontinued pursuing any further regulatory approvals for these two products.

Customer Services and Support and Training Programs

Our goal is to provide exceptional value to our customers. We create value by understanding customer needs and building efficiency into everything we do. We have a network of field service engineers across the United

 

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States and Europe and maintain relationships with various distributors around the globe. This infrastructure of service and support specialists offer a full complement of services, including 24/7 support, installation, repair and maintenance for our customers.

We generate service revenue by providing these services to our customers through comprehensive service contracts and select time and material programs.

We warranty our AESOP, da Vinci and da Vinci S Surgical Systems generally for twelve months after customer acceptance. Our post-warranty support plans offer short or long-term coverage. Our main logistics operation is based in Sunnyvale, California, and we also have a comprehensive spare parts center located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

We also provide system training to surgeons and nursing personnel. We have established training centers where initial system training and ongoing surgical procedural training are provided.

Using the da Vinci Surgical System

During a procedure, the patient-side cart is positioned next to the operating table with the electromechanical arms arranged to provide access to the initial ports selected by the surgeon. Metal tubes attached to the arms are inserted through the ports, and the EndoWrist instruments are introduced through the tubes into the patient’s body. The surgeon then performs the procedure while sitting comfortably at the surgeon’s console, manipulating the instrument controls and viewing the operation through our InSite vision system. When a surgeon needs to change an instrument, as is done many times during an operation, the instrument is withdrawn from the surgical field using the controls at the console, in similar fashion to the way a surgeon withdraws instruments from the patient in MIS. A scrub nurse standing near the patient removes the used instrument from the electromechanical arm and replaces it with the new instrument, in a process designed to be rapid enough not to disturb the natural flow of the procedure. As a result, the scrub nurse plays a role similar to that played in open surgery and MIS. At the conclusion of the operation, the metal tubes are removed from the patient’s body and the small incisions are sutured or stapled closed.

Our Strategy

Our goal is to establish da Vinci surgery as the standard approach for complex surgical procedures, displacing both open surgical technique and standard MIS within this segment. We intend to accomplish this objective both by pioneering new types of endoscopic surgery and by making existing MIS procedures easier, safer and more cost-effective than the alternative methods. Our strategy is to broaden the number of procedures performed using the da Vinci Surgical System and to educate surgeons, hospitals and patients as to the benefits of da Vinci surgery. Key elements of our strategy include the following:

 

   

Focus on Key Procedures. Our procedure marketing efforts are primarily focused within four surgical specialties: urologic surgery, gynecologic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and general surgery. In 2006, the mix of procedures performed with the da Vinci Surgical System among these four surgical specialties was largest within urology, followed by gynecologic, cardiothoracic, and general surgery. The da Vinci Surgical System is used to perform, among other procedures, da Vinci Prostatectomy, da Vinci Hysterectomy, da Vinci Mitral Valve Repair, Multi-Vessel Small-Thoracotomy Bypass, and da Vinci Gastric Bypass. The development of key procedures, which often are in parallel with our FDA clearances, has been a catalyst for the growth of our company.

 

   

Focus on Key Institutions. Our marketing efforts are focused within both academic and community hospitals. Following the initial placement within a given hospital, we endeavor to expand the number of physicians who use the da Vinci Surgical System and work with the hospitals and their surgeons to promote patient education as to the benefits of da Vinci surgery. We believe that these efforts will result in increased usage per system, leading to higher volume sales of instruments and sales of additional

 

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systems at each hospital. In addition, we believe these efforts will benefit early-adopting hospitals by increasing their market share in the procedures and specialties that benefit from da Vinci surgery. We expect these efforts to increase demand for our products among competitive hospitals, surgeons and referring physicians.

 

   

Focus on Leading Surgeons to Drive Rapid and Broad Adoption. We place significant emphasis on marketing the da Vinci Surgical System to surgeons who are considered to be “thought leaders” in their institutions and fields. These surgeons typically perform complex surgical procedures that are rarely adaptable to MIS techniques. These surgeons tend to publish and report their clinical experiences in peer-reviewed forums. For example, cardiac procedures are among the most difficult to perform using MIS techniques. This strategy puts surgeons at the forefront of procedure development and provides them an opportunity to maintain a competitive edge within their specialty. We believe that early adoption of our products by surgical thought leaders may provide other surgeons the confidence that the da Vinci Surgical System can be used for all types of surgical procedures. In addition to working with academic-based thought leaders, we work with community-based surgeons who are focused on expanding MIS within their community. We help them expand their clinical practice by offering their patients an increased number of minimally invasive procedures.

 

   

Maintain Market Leadership. We intend to maintain our leadership advantage by continuing to develop and enhance our technology and to communicate the benefits of our da Vinci Surgical System to surgeons, hospitals and patients. We will continue to improve our da Vinci Surgical System through software and hardware enhancements and by developing new surgical instruments. We will also continue to develop our surgical platform to facilitate and support future surgical innovations.

 

   

Develop Industry Alliances. We intend to continue to establish strategic alliances with leading medical device companies. To date, these alliances have taken several forms, including cooperation in the areas of product development, training, and procedure development and marketing activities. We have formed alliances with, among other companies, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., Gyrus ACMI, Olympus Corporation and Medtronic, Inc.

 

   

Increasing Patient Awareness. Patients and family members of patients are researching their healthcare decisions more than ever before. The World Wide Web has become a tremendous resource for patients who face multiple choices concerning their surgical treatment options. We intend to expand our use of the World Wide Web as a way to disseminate information on the da Vinci System and da Vinci related surgical procedure options to patients and healthcare providers.

Clinical Applications

We believe our technology is capable of enhancing or enabling a wide variety of procedures in many surgical specialties. Surgeons using our da Vinci Surgical System have performed more than one-hundred thousand surgical procedures of various types, including urologic, gynecologic, cardiothoracic, and general surgery. These surgical applications, which are currently cleared by the FDA, are further described below.

Urologic Surgery

Prostatectomy. Radical prostatectomy is the removal of the prostate gland in patients diagnosed with clinically localized prostatic cancer. The current standard approach to removal of the prostate is via an open surgical procedure. The laparoscopic approach, while not prevalent, is an option, but is difficult and poses challenges to even the most skilled urologist. The da Vinci Surgical System allows for improved visualization of the gross anatomy (dorsal veins, endopelvic fascia, bladder muscle, puboprostatic ligaments), microanatomy (bladder muscosa, nerve bundles) and tissue planes, which are critical for an anatomic dissection. Peer-reviewed clinical publications have reported that radical prostatectomy using the da Vinci Surgical System has improved positive oncologic results, reduced operative blood loss, reduced postoperative pain, improved cosmesis and may provide a better nerve-sparing operation. The da Vinci Surgical System has enabled a large number of surgeons to convert from using an open surgical technique to a minimally invasive technique.

 

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Gynecologic Surgery

Hysterectomy. Removal of the uterus is one of the most commonly performed surgeries in gynecology and it can be performed using open surgery, a vaginal approach, or MIS techniques. It demands a significant degree of tissue manipulation in the dissection and ligation, or tying, of blood vessels, ligaments and other pelvic structures. Laparoscopic techniques used in this procedure increase the risk of injury to the ureters, which are vital structures that provide the conduit for urine between the kidney and bladder. It is often difficult to ensure the identification and prevention of injury to the ureters and bladder with conventional MIS instruments because of the limited angles at which these instruments can be positioned. Furthermore, in hysterectomy procedures for treating endometrial or cervical cancer, it is difficult to access and remove a large number of lymph nodes to prevent the spread of cancer. We believe that our products will increase the surgeon’s dexterity in this procedure and, as a result, may have a significant impact on safety, operating time, and rate of adoption of port-based techniques in hysterectomy.

Myomectomy. Myomectomy, or removal of a myoma/fibroid, is a surgical procedure performed when uterine preservation is sought. Women who desire to remain fertile are candidates for this procedure. Due to the excessive suturing required for this procedure, the standard surgical approach remains an open incision. There are some highly skilled gynecological laparoscopists who perform laparoscopic myomectomies, but to this point, it has remained a small minority. We believe that the da Vinci Surgical System will enable many of these open myomectomies to be performed minimally invasively.

Cardiothoracic Surgery

Mitral Valve Repair. When patients are diagnosed with mitral valve disease, there are two surgical treatment options from which they can choose: mitral valve replacement or mitral valve repair. Mitral valve repairs are generally preferred over mitral valve replacement for a number of reasons, which include longevity and durability of the repaired valve over a replacement valve and the elimination or reduction of the patient’s post-surgical pharmaceutical regimen. Since mitral valve repairs are considered to be more technically challenging than mitral valve replacements, they are only performed approximately 50% of the time. When performing da Vinci mitral valve repairs, surgeons have reported that the enhanced 3-D visualization provides for essential identification of difficult to see anatomical structures and tissue planes. EndoWrist joints permit them to precisely manipulate delicate structures inside of the heart and accurately place sutures into the targeted tissues. In addition, surgeons using the da Vinci Surgical System to operate from a lateral right-sided approach have reported that this requires less tissue manipulation than operating through a sternotomy, while providing greater anatomical exposure. As a result of these factors, several of our surgeon customers have reported a significant shift in favor of mitral valve repairs over mitral valve replacements within their practices. Our da Vinci Surgical System is enabling heart valve repairs to be performed through small ports in a manner that could not have been accomplished with open surgery.

Internal Thoracic Artery Dissection. In a coronary artery bypass graft procedure used in cardiac surgery, a blocked coronary artery is bypassed with a graft. When available, an artery from the chest called the internal mammary artery is dissected from its natural position and grafted into place to perform the bypass. Because the internal mammary artery is located on the underside of the anterior surface of the chest, dissection of the vessel is challenging using existing surgical instruments through the three- to five-inch incision currently used in a coronary artery bypass graft procedure. The da Vinci Surgical System instruments have multiple joints that emulate the surgeon’s arms and hands, allowing exact positioning of the instruments inside the patient’s chest. In addition, the EndoWrist joints permit the surgeon to reach behind the tissues for easier dissection of the internal mammary artery. Thus, we believe that the internal mammary artery can be dissected with greater precision using our technology.

Thoracoscopy. A number of procedures performed in the thorax, or chest cavity, can be accomplished by minimally invasive methods. These methods are generally referred to as thoracoscopic procedures. They include various types of lung resection, biopsy procedures, node dissections, nerve resections and esophageal surgery.

 

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Conventional thoracoscopic tools have all the limitations of conventional laparoscopic tools, such as “backward” counter-intuitive movement and limited range of motion. We believe that the capability of our technology to operate dexterously in the small and restrictive space of the chest cavity offers significant clinical value in the performance of advanced thoracoscopic procedures.

Coronary Artery Bypass. The traditional approach to coronary artery bypass grafting, or CABG, involves splitting the breastbone via a median sternotomy incision, placing the patient on cardio pulmonary bypass, or CPB, and “bypassing” diseased segments of arteries in the heart with conduit arteries and veins. Over time, successful results from this operation have been widely reported. However, there are known morbidities from this approach that MIS techniques for coronary artery bypass surgery seek to overcome. With assistance from the da Vinci Surgical System, patients can undergo multi-vessel full surgical revascularization, while avoiding CPB and the median sternotomy incision, thus reducing the morbidities associated with these procedures. In Single-Vessel or Multi-Vessel Small Thoracotomy bypass, or SVST/ MVST procedures, surgeons use the da Vinci Surgical System to precisely mobilize one or both internal mammary arteries for use in the bypass operation. This is accomplished through three small port incisions in the left chest and once completed, the middle port incision is extended into a four- to six- centimeter incision, enabling the surgeon to complete the anastomoses directly through the incision. In addition to reducing known morbidities from standard open-chest coronary artery bypass surgery, revascularization with the da Vinci Surgical System sets a new standard in minimally invasive coronary artery bypass surgery by placing the patient on an accelerated path to recovery.

General Surgery

Gastric Bypass. A growing number of patients are undergoing surgical treatment for their morbid obesity. Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, or LRYGB, is the most commonly performed surgical procedure for morbid obesity in the United States. Briefly, the LRYGB operation promotes weight loss by two mechanisms. First, the size of the stomach is greatly reduced by surgical “stapling”, thus restricting the amount of food the patient can consume at a given time. Second, a long segment of intestine is bypassed causing less food to be absorbed. The LRYGB is arguably one of the most technically challenging laparoscopic procedures because of the suturing, stapling and tissue (bowel) manipulation that is required. A critical portion of the operation is anastomosing the stomach to the small intestine. Leaks in the anastomosis are the cause of major complications that can result in death. The da Vinci Surgical System is used by surgeons in suturing this anastomosis. We believe procedures performed with the da Vinci Surgical System incorporating a double-layered hand-sewn anastomosis results in fewer anastomotic leaks than in traditional laparoscopic procedures.

Nissen Fundoplication. Nissen fundoplication is a general surgical procedure that is performed to correct esophageal reflux. Esophageal reflux disease is a digestive disorder that affects the muscle connecting the esophagus with the stomach. As an elective procedure, Nissen fundoplication is currently performed on only a small fraction of candidates who suffer from this condition. We believe that our technology will improve the ease of performing the Nissen procedure through ports. Specifically, our technology will address the two most difficult steps in this procedure, which are made more difficult by existing MIS techniques, esophageal dissection and suturing of the fundus of the stomach around the esophagus. If adoption of our technology becomes widespread for Nissen procedures, we believe that the number of surgeons able to perform a Nissen procedure using port-based techniques will increase. Further, we expect that the widespread availability of a port-based approach may expand the number of surgeries performed.

Additional Clinical Applications

We believe there are numerous additional applications that can be addressed with the da Vinci Surgical System. Surgeons using the da Vinci Surgical System have performed nearly 100 different types of surgery in the North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

 

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Sales and Customer Support

We market our products through a direct sales force in the United States and parts of Europe. We also market our products outside the United States through distributors. Our direct sales force is comprised of sales managers, clinical sales representatives, training specialists, and technical sales representatives. Sales activities include educating surgeons and hospital staff across multiple surgical specialties on the advantages of da Vinci surgery and the clinical applications that our technology enables. We also train our sales force to educate hospital management on the potential benefits of adopting our technology, including the potential for increased local market share that may result from offering da Vinci surgery. Once a hospital has installed a da Vinci Surgical System, our clinical sales representatives help drive the utilization of the system, and our technical service representatives provide service and maintenance for the system.

As of December 31, 2006, we had 205 employees in our field sales and support organizations, up from 143 employees in these organizations as of December 31, 2005. We expect to continue growing these organizations as we expand our business.

Our da Vinci Surgical System typically has a lengthy sales cycle. It is viewed as a major capital item by our customers, which often requires approval by their senior level managers and/or boards of directors.

Technology

We lead the development and commercialization of robotic technology designed to extend the benefits of MIS to the broadest possible base of surgical patients. Our products can provide surgeons with the clinical and technical capabilities of traditional open surgery while enabling them to operate through tiny incisions.

The da Vinci Surgical System enables physicians to perform surgery in a manner never before experienced. The da Vinci Surgical System seamlessly translates the surgeon’s hand movements at the console instrument controls into corresponding micro-movements of instruments positioned inside the patient. The da Vinci Surgical System can provide the surgeon with improved visualization, dexterity, and precision compared with MIS surgery, while enabling operation through 1-2 centimeter incisions. The features of the da Vinci Surgical System are further described below.

Superior Visualization

 

   

True-to-life 3-D or 3-D HD vision

 

   

Bright, crisp image

 

   

Immersive view of the surgical field

The da Vinci Surgical System provides visualization of the target anatomy with natural depth-of-field, enhanced contrast and magnification for more accurate tissue identification and tissue layer differentiation.

Improved visualization also enables surgeons to perform delicate tissue handling and dissection with added precision—even in confined spaces. This precision may allow the surgeon to avoid trauma to surrounding structures and tissues such as the neurovascular bundle located near the prostate.

Enhanced Dexterity, Precision and Control

 

   

Fingertip control of EndoWrist Instruments

 

   

Three or four robotic arms provide enhanced surgeon control

 

   

Seven degrees of freedom—90 degrees of articulation

 

   

Motion scaling and tremor reduction

 

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The da Vinci Surgical System’s tremor reduction, motion control and proprietary EndoWrist instrumentation enhance ambidexterity for greater surgical precision and surgeon control. Enhanced control and intuitive motion enables more widespread use of advanced techniques, as well as a reduced learning curve when compared to the traditional MIS techniques. Added instrument range-of-motion enhances access and safety while operating in the confined space of the closed chest, abdomen or pelvis. This enables surgeons to more easily perform complex surgical maneuvers through small ports, eliminating the need for large, traumatic incisions.

Superior Ergonomics

 

   

Optimal alignment of visual and motor axes

 

   

Comfortable seated posture

The da Vinci Surgical System is designed to allow surgeons to operate while seated, which is not only more comfortable, but also may be clinically advantageous due to reduced surgeon fatigue.

The da Vinci Surgical System’s design allows natural hand-eye alignment at the surgeon’s console, which provides improved ergonomics over traditional laparoscopic technology. Since the da Vinci Surgical System’s robotic arms hold the camera and instruments steady, there is also potentially reduced abdominal wall torque, less surgeon assistance required and reduced surgeon fatigue.

Image Processing

Our vision system includes a 3-D endoscope with two independent vision channels linked to two separate color monitors. The system also incorporates image-processing equipment comprised of high-performance video cameras, specialized edge enhancement and noise reduction equipment. The resulting 3-D image is bright, crisp and clear, with no flicker or cross-fading as with single monitor systems. Beginning in January 2007, we also offer our 3-D HD vision system.

Visual Continuity

Camera control, provided through the hand controls and foot pedals, provides near-seamless transition between views. Surgeons can reposition the surgical camera in an instant with foot controls or zoom in, out, up, down, left and right by moving their hands in the desired direction. Repositioning of the surgeon’s head at the console does not affect image quality as with other 3-D display systems.

Fourth Arm

The da Vinci Surgical System’s patient-side cart holds up to four electromechanical arms which hold the 3-D endoscope and manipulate the instruments inside the patient. The instruments and camera attach easily to the arms, and are repositioned by either the console surgeon or patient-side assistant. The addition of a 4th arm may allow for Solo Surgery in some surgical procedures.

The first two arms, representing the surgeon’s left and right hands, hold the EndoWrist instruments. A third arm positions the endoscope, allowing the surgeon to easily change, move, zoom and rotate his or her field of vision from the console. This mobility eliminates the need for an assistant to hold the camera steady. The optional 4th arm extends surgical capabilities by enabling the surgeon to add a third EndoWrist instrument and perform additional tasks like applying countertraction and following running sutures.

The surgeon can simultaneously control any two of the operating arms by tapping a foot pedal underneath the surgeon’s console. The 4th arm is available as an option on new da Vinci Surgical Systems and can be added as an upgrade to existing da Vinci Surgical Systems. The 4th arm is standard on the da Vinci S Surgical System.

 

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Intellectual Property

We believe that achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage is crucial in the medical device industry. To that end, we strive to develop, maintain, protect, and acquire proprietary technologies. Since our inception in late 1995, we have encountered and solved a number of technical hurdles. We have patented and continue to pursue patent and other intellectual property protection for the technology that we have developed to overcome these hurdles. In addition to developing our own patent portfolio, we have spent significant resources to acquire exclusive license rights to necessary and desirable patents and other intellectual property from SRI International and IBM, which were early leaders in applying robotics to surgery. One of the strengths of our portfolio is that the licensed SRI International and IBM patents have original filing dates as early as January 1992 and June 1991, respectively. We have also exclusively licensed a patent application from MIT concerning robotic surgery and an extensive minimally invasive heart surgery patent portfolio from Heartport, Inc. in the field of robotic surgery. The Heartport patents cover many different forms of minimally invasive robotic surgery, including single- and multi-vessel coronary artery bypass grafts, heart valve repair and replacement and beating heart stabilization. In June 2001, we entered into a non-exclusive patent license with Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. of Japan for several robotic surgery patents. As a result of our acquisition of Computer Motion, we now have the benefit of patent licenses previously held by Computer Motion. In January 2004, we licensed both exclusively and non-exclusively four patents from Brookhill-Wilk, LLC. In September 2005, we entered into a cross-license agreement with Hansen Medical, Inc. to co-exclusively license a number of robotic surgery related patents and applications in the fields of endoscopic, laparascopic, thoracoscopic, or open diagnostic surgeries. In December 2005, we purchased three patents related to image-guided surgeries from IBM. In January 2006, we licensed on a non-exclusive basis a number of suction stabilizer related patents and applications that Medtronic’s Cardiac Surgery Division owns (and has the right to grant a license) to make and sell suction stabilizers that are mechanically coupled to and manipulated by robotic devices. Finally, in May 2006, we licensed on a non-exclusive basis a number of master input mechanism and control patents from Sensable Technologies. We have licensed a number of instrument related patents from a number of instrument manufacturers.

As of December 31, 2006, we held exclusive field-of-use as well as non-exclusive licenses for over 180 US patents and over 50 foreign patents, and owned outright 138 US patents and 53 foreign patents. We also own or have licensed numerous pending United States and foreign patent applications. Our patents and patent applications relate to a number of important aspects of our technology, including our surgeon’s console, electromechanical arms, vision system, endoscope positioning system and EndoWrist instruments. We intend to continue to file additional patent applications both in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions to seek protection for our technology.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to obtain patent and copyright protection for our products and processes, to preserve our trade secrets, to operate without infringing or violating valid and enforceable proprietary rights of third parties, and to prevent others from infringing our proprietary rights. We require our employees, consultants, and advisors to execute confidentiality agreements in connection with their employment, consulting or advisory relationships with us. We also require all employees, consultants and advisors who expect to work on our products to agree to disclose and assign to us all inventions conceived during the work day, using our property, or related to our business. We intend to take action to protect our intellectual property rights when we believe doing so is necessary and appropriate. In addition, our strategy is to actively pursue patent protection in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions for technology that we believe is proprietary and that offers a potential competitive advantage, and to license and/or purchase appropriate technologies when necessary or desirable. We cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain adequate protection for our technology or licenses on acceptable terms. Furthermore, if any protection we obtain is reduced or eliminated, others could use our intellectual property without compensating us, resulting in harm to our business. In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Moreover, others may assert that our products infringe their intellectual property rights, which may cause us to engage in costly disputes and, if we are not successful in defending ourselves, could also cause us to pay substantial damages and prohibit us from selling our products.

 

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Research and Development

We focus our research and development efforts on providing our customers with new products and product improvements that enable them to perform new and better surgical procedures with less difficulty. Our research and development team includes experienced personnel in robotic technology. Our design engineers span a number of disciplines, including software engineering, systems analysis and electrical and mechanical engineering. In addition, we have engineers who specialize in vision technology. Finally, we have a manufacturing engineering group that continues to improve the manufacturability and quality of our products. We incurred $29.8 million, $17.4 million and $17.8 million of research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing of our products is a complex operation involving a number of separate processes and components. We purchase both custom and off-the-shelf components from a large number of certified suppliers and subject them to stringent quality specifications. We periodically conduct quality audits of suppliers and have established a supplier certification program. Some of the components necessary for the assembly of our products are currently provided to us by sole-sourced suppliers or single-sourced suppliers. We purchase components through purchase orders rather than long-term supply agreements and generally do not maintain large volumes of finished goods. While alternative suppliers exist and could be identified for sole-sourced components, the disruption or termination of the supply of components could cause a significant increase in the costs of these components, which could affect our operating results. A disruption or termination in the supply of components could also result in our inability to meet demand for our products, which could harm our ability to generate revenues, lead to customer dissatisfaction and damage our reputation.

Competition

We consider our primary competition to be existing open surgery, MIS, drug therapies, radiation treatment and emerging interventional surgical approaches. Our success depends in part on convincing hospitals, surgeons and patients that the demonstrated benefits associated with da Vinci surgery are superior to other techniques. We also face competition from several companies that are developing new approaches and products for the MIS market. Because many of these developments are aimed at MIS, we believe that our da Vinci Surgical System may actually prove complementary to these new technologies.

In addition, a limited number of companies are using or planning to use robots and computers in surgery, including Armstrong Healthcare Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., Integrated Surgical Systems, Inc., MicroDexterity Systems, Inc., Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corporation, Ross-Hime Designs, Inc., Sinters SA, Terumo Medical Corporation, and Toshiba, Inc. Our revenues may be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and market products that are more effective or less expensive than our products.

We believe that the primary competitive factors in the market we address are capability, safety, efficacy, ease of use, price, quality, reliability, and effective sales, support, training and service. The length of time required for products to be developed and to receive regulatory and reimbursement approval is also an important competitive factor.

Government Regulation

United States

Our products and operations are subject to extensive and rigorous regulation by the FDA. The FDA regulates the research, testing, manufacturing, safety, labeling, storage, recordkeeping, promotion, distribution, and production of medical devices in the United States to ensure that medical products distributed domestically

 

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are safe and effective for their intended uses. In addition, the FDA regulates the export of medical devices manufactured in the United States to international markets.

Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FFDCA, medical devices are classified into one of three classes—Class I, Class II or Class III—depending on the degree of risk associated with each medical device and the extent of control needed to ensure safety and effectiveness. Our current products are Class II medical devices.

Class II devices are those which are subject to the general controls and most require premarket demonstration of adherence to certain performance standards or other special controls, as specified by the FDA, and clearance by the FDA. Premarket review and clearance by the FDA for these devices is accomplished through the 510(k) premarket notification process. For most Class II devices, the manufacturer must submit to the FDA a premarket notification submission, demonstrating that the device is “substantially equivalent” in intended use and technology to a “predicate device” that is either:

 

  (1) a device that has grandfather marketing status because it was legally marketed prior to May 28, 1976, the date upon which the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 were enacted, or

 

  (2) a Class I or II device that has been cleared through the 510(k) process.

If the FDA agrees that the device is substantially equivalent to a predicate device, it will grant clearance to commercially market the device. The FDA has a statutory 90-day period to respond to a 510(k) submission. As a practical matter, clearance often takes longer. The FDA may require further information, including clinical data, to make a determination regarding substantial equivalence. If the FDA determines that the device, or its intended use, is not “substantially equivalent,” the FDA will place the device, or the particular use of the device, into Class III, and the device sponsor must then fulfill much more rigorous pre-marketing requirements.

After a device receives 510(k) clearance, any modification that could significantly affect its safety or effectiveness, or that would constitute a major change in its intended use, requires a new 510(k) clearance or could require a pre-market approval application, or PMA, approval. The FDA requires each manufacturer to make this determination in the first instance, but the FDA can review any such decision. If the FDA disagrees with a manufacturer’s decision not to seek a new 510(k) clearance, the agency may retroactively require the manufacturer to seek 510(k) clearance or PMA approval. The FDA also can require the manufacturer to cease marketing and/or recall the modified device until 510(k) clearance or PMA approval is obtained.

Our manufacturing processes are required to comply with the FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practice, or GMP, requirements contained in its Quality System Regulation, or QSR. The QSR covers, among other things, the methods and documentation of the design, testing, production, processes, controls, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, and shipping of a company’s products. The QSR also requires maintenance of a device master record, device history record, design history file and complaint files. A company’s domestic facility, records, and manufacturing processes are subject to periodic unscheduled inspections by the FDA.

Other post-market regulatory requirements apply to our commercial distribution of the da Vinci Surgical System, including the following:

 

   

labeling regulations;

 

   

the FDA’s general prohibition against promoting products for unapproved or “off label” uses;

 

   

the Reports of Corrections and Removals regulation, which requires that manufacturers report to FDA recalls and field corrective actions taken to reduce a risk to health or to remedy a violation of the FFDCA that may pose a risk to health; and

 

   

the Medical Device Reporting regulation, which requires that manufacturers report to the FDA if their device may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if it were to recur.

 

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We are subject to inspection and marketing surveillance by the FDA to determine compliance with all regulatory requirements. If the FDA finds that we have failed to comply, it can institute a wide variety of enforcement actions, ranging from a public warning letter to more severe sanctions including the following:

 

   

fines, injunctions, and civil penalties;

 

   

recall or seizure of our products;

 

   

operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production;

 

   

refusing our requests for 510(k) clearance or PMA approval of new products;

 

   

withdrawing 510(k) clearance or PMA approvals already granted; and

 

   

criminal prosecution.

In July 1997, we received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for the use of the da Vinci Surgical System with rigid endoscopes, blunt dissectors, retractors and stabilizer instruments, and in July 2000 we received 510(k) clearance to perform surgical tasks in general laparoscopic surgery.

Subsequent to the July 2000 clearance of the da Vinci Surgical System, we have obtained additional 510(k) clearances from the FDA to include non-cardiac thoracoscopic procedures (March 2001), prostatectomy procedures (May 2001), cardiotomy procedures (November 2002), urologic surgical procedures (March 2005), gynecologic surgical procedures (April 2005), and pediatric surgical procedures (June 2005). FDA has also cleared the da Vinci Surgical System to be employed with adjunctive mediastinotomy to perform coronary anastomosis during cardiac revascularization procedures (July 2004).

We have modified the labeling, advertising, and user training for the da Vinci Surgical System to call out specific procedures that we believe are within the scope of our existing 510(k) clearances. We cannot assure that the FDA would agree that all such specific procedures are within the scope of the existing general clearance or that we have compiled adequate information to support the safety and efficacy of using the da Vinci Surgical System for all such specific procedures. We also have modified the hardware and software in the da Vinci Surgical System in ways that we believe do not require new 510(k) clearance. We cannot assure that the FDA would agree with our determinations not to seek new 510(k) clearance for any of these changes.

In January 2007, FDA concluded an inspection of our Sunnyvale manufacturing facility and issued a list of observations (Form 483) setting forth five observed deficiencies under the QSR relating to nonconforming product, corrective and preventive actions, complaint handling and supplier management. The Form 483 also set forth two observed deficiencies – one relating to the failure to report field corrections or recalls to the FDA that the FDA believed should have been reported under the Reports of Corrections and Removals regulation and another for failure to file Medical Device Report (MDR) within 30 days. In February 2007, we responsed to each observation with proposed corrective actions. We believe that our proposed corrective actions are appropriate to address the observed deficiencies. However, we cannot assure that, upon re-inspection, the FDA will find that our promised corrective actions are appropriate or that they have been adequately implemented. We also cannot assure that the FDA will not find other deficiencies in our compliance with the QSR and other postmarket regulations.

California Regulation

The State of California requires that we obtain a license to manufacture medical devices and subjects us to periodic inspection. Our facilities and manufacturing processes were inspected in February 1998. We passed the inspection and received our device-manufacturing license from the Food and Drug Branch, or FDB, of the California Department of Health Service in March 1998. In March 2002, our facilities and manufacturing processes in our Sunnyvale facility were re-inspected by the FDB and, after correction of two observed QSR deficiencies, we have received an updated device-manufacturing license for our Sunnyvale facility.

 

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Foreign Regulation

In order for us to market our products in other countries, we must obtain regulatory approvals and comply with extensive safety and quality regulations in other countries. These regulations, including the requirements for approvals or clearance and the time required for regulatory review, vary from country to country. Failure to obtain regulatory approval in any foreign country in which we plan to market our products may harm our ability to generate revenue and harm our business.

Commercialization of medical devices in Europe is regulated by the European Union. The European Union presently requires that all medical products bear the CE mark for compliance with the Medical Device Directive (93/42/EEC). In order to affix the CE mark on products, a recognized European Notified Body must certify a manufacturer’s quality system for compliance with international and European requirements. We have received permission from DGM, our Notified Body and agent of the Danish Government, to affix the CE mark to our da Vinci Surgical System and EndoWrist instruments. To maintain authorization to apply the CE mark, we are subject to annual surveillance audits and periodic re-certification audits. To date we have met these requirements and our certificate is valid until December 2010.

If we modify existing products or develop new products in the future, we may need to apply for permission to affix the CE mark to such products. In addition, we are subject to annual regulatory audits in order to maintain the CE mark permissions already obtained. We do not know whether we will be able to obtain permission to affix the CE mark for new or modified products or whether we will continue to meet the quality and safety standards required to maintain the permissions we have already received. If we are unable to maintain permission to affix the CE mark to our products, we will no longer be able to sell our products in member countries of the European Union.

The regulations in other countries, including the requirements for approvals or clearance and the time required for regulatory review, vary from country to country. These regulations typically require regulatory approvals, and compliance with extensive safety and quality system regulations. Failure to obtain regulatory approval in any foreign country in which we plan to market our products, or failure to comply with any regulation in any foreign country in which we market our products, may impact our ability to generate revenue and harm our business.

Third Party Reimbursement

In the United States and international markets where we sell our products, the government and health insurance companies together are responsible for hospital and surgeon reimbursement for virtually all surgical procedures. Governments and insurance companies generally reimburse hospitals and physicians for surgery when the procedures are considered non-experimental and non-cosmetic. In the United States, reimbursement for medical procedures under the Medicare and Medicaid programs is administered by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Generally, procedure codes are assigned by the American Medical Association using the copyrighted Current Procedural Terminology Editorial Panel, which are in turn incorporated in the Medicare and Medicaid programs coding system. Applications for new procedure codes may be submitted to the American Medical Association.

Governments and insurance companies carefully review and increasingly challenge the prices charged for medical products and services. Reimbursement rates from private companies vary depending on the procedure performed, the third party involved, the insurance plan involved, and other factors. Medicare reimburses hospitals a prospectively determined fixed amount for the costs associated with an in-patient hospitalization based on the patient’s discharge diagnosis, and reimburses physicians a prospectively determined fixed amount based on the procedure performed. This fixed amount is paid regardless of the actual costs incurred by the hospital or physician in furnishing the care and is unrelated to the specific devices used in that procedure. Thus, any reimbursements that hospitals obtain for performing surgery with our products will generally have to cover any additional costs that hospitals incur in purchasing our products.

 

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Domestic institutions typically bill the services performed with our products to various third-party payors, such as Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs and private insurance plans. Because our da Vinci Surgical System has been cleared for commercial distribution in the United States by the FDA, Medicare reimbursement is available for use of the device in cleared procedures and procedures conducted under an approved investigational device exemption application. We believe that the additional procedures we intend to target are generally already reimbursable by government agencies and insurance companies. If hospitals do not obtain sufficient reimbursement from third-party payors for procedures performed with our products, or if governmental and private payors’ policies do not permit reimbursement for surgical procedures performed using our products, we may not be able to generate the revenues necessary to support our business. In such circumstances, we may have to apply to the American Medical Association for a unique Current Procedural Terminology code covering robotic-assisted surgery. If an application for a unique code is required, reimbursement for any use of our products may be unavailable until an appropriate code is granted. The application process, from filing until adoption of a new code, can take two or more years.

In countries outside the United States, reimbursement is obtained from various sources, including governmental authorities, private health insurance plans, and labor unions. In most foreign countries, private insurance systems may also offer payments for some therapies. Additionally, health maintenance organizations are emerging in certain European countries. To effectively conduct our business, we may need to seek international reimbursement approvals, and we do not know if these required approvals will be obtained in a timely manner or at all. Any regulatory or legislative developments in domestic or foreign markets that eliminate or reduce reimbursement rates for procedures performed with our products could harm our ability to sell our products or cause downward pressure on the prices of our products, either of which would affect our ability to generate the revenues necessary to support our business.

Employees

As of December 31, 2006, we had 563 employees, 76 of whom were engaged directly in research and development, 116 in manufacturing and service and 371 in marketing, sales, and administrative activities. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

Website Access to Reports

We make our periodic and current reports available, free of charge, on our website as soon as practicable after such material is electronically filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our website address is www.intuitivesurgical.com and the reports are filed under “SEC Filings”, on the Company—Investor Relations portion of our website.

 

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

RISKS RELATING TO OUR BUSINESS

IF OUR PRODUCTS DO NOT ACHIEVE MARKET ACCEPTANCE, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GENERATE THE REVENUE NECESSARY TO SUPPORT OUR BUSINESS.

The da Vinci Surgical System and our other products represent a fundamentally new way of performing surgery. Achieving physician, patient and third-party payor acceptance of da Vinci surgery as a preferred method of performing surgery will be crucial to our success. If our products fail to achieve market acceptance, hospitals will not purchase our products and we will not be able to generate the revenue necessary to support our business. We believe that physicians’ and third-party payors’ acceptance of the benefits of procedures performed using our products will be essential for acceptance of our products by patients. Physicians will not recommend the use of our products unless we can demonstrate that they produce results comparable or superior to existing surgical techniques. Even if we can prove the effectiveness of our products through clinical trials, surgeons may elect not to use our products for any number of other reasons. For example, cardiologists may continue to recommend conventional heart surgery simply because such surgery is already widely accepted. In addition, surgeons may be slow to adopt our products because of the perceived liability risks arising from the use of new products and the uncertainty of reimbursement from third-party payors.

We expect that there will be a learning process involved for surgical teams to become proficient in the use of our products. Broad use of our products will require training of surgical teams. Market acceptance could be delayed by the time required to complete this training. We may not be able to rapidly train surgical teams in numbers sufficient to generate adequate demand for our products.

BECAUSE OUR MARKETS ARE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE, CUSTOMERS MAY CHOOSE TO PURCHASE OUR COMPETITORS’ PRODUCTS OR MAY NOT ACCEPT DA VINCI SURGERY, WHICH WOULD RESULT IN REDUCED REVENUE AND LOSS OF MARKET SHARE.

da Vinci surgery is a new technology that will compete with established and emerging treatment options in both disease management and reconstructive medical procedures. These competitive treatment options may take the form of traditional MIS, open surgery, interventional approaches, or pharmacological regimens. Some of these procedures are widely accepted in the medical community and in many cases have a long history of use. Technological advances could make such treatments more effective or less expensive than using our products, which could render our products obsolete or unmarketable. We cannot be certain that physicians will use our products to replace or supplement established treatments or that our products will be competitive with current or future technologies.

In addition, we may face competition from companies that develop wristed, robotic or computer-assisted surgical systems and products in the future. Our revenues may be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and market products that are more effective or less expensive than our products. If we are unable to compete successfully, our revenues will suffer. We may not be able to maintain or improve our competitive position against current or potential competitors, especially those with greater resources.

NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS MAY ADVERSELY IMPACT OUR FINANCIAL RESULTS.

We introduce new products with enhanced features and extended capabilities from time to time. Our products are subject to various regulatory processes, and we must obtain and maintain regulatory approvals in order to sell our new products. If a potential purchaser believes that we plan to introduce a new product in the near future or if a potential purchaser is located in a country where a new product that we have introduced has not yet received regulatory approval, planned purchases may be deferred or delayed. As a result, new product introductions may adversely impact our financial results.

 

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WE EXPERIENCE LONG AND VARIABLE SALES CYCLES, WHICH COULD HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON OUR RESULTS OF OPERATIONS FOR ANY GIVEN QUARTER.

Our da Vinci Surgical System has a lengthy sales and purchase order cycle because it is a major capital item and generally requires the approval of senior management at purchasing institutions. These factors may contribute to substantial fluctuations in our quarterly operating results. Because of these fluctuations, it is likely that in some future quarters our operating results will fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If that happens, the market price of our stock would likely decrease. These fluctuations also mean that you will not be able to rely upon our operating results in any particular period as an indication of future performance. In addition, the introduction of new products could adversely impact our sales cycle, as customers take additional time to assess the benefits and costs of such products.

INTERNATIONAL SALES OF OUR PRODUCTS ACCOUNT FOR A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF OUR REVENUES, WHICH EXPOSES US TO RISKS INHERENT IN INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS. OUR GROWTH MAY BE LIMITED IF WE ARE UNABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE OUR INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES.

Our business currently depends in part on our activities in Europe and other foreign markets. Revenue to markets outside of the United States accounted for approximately 17%, 17%, and 21% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. We are subject to a number of challenges that specifically relate to our international business activities. These challenges include:

 

   

failure of local laws to provide the same degree of protection against infringement of our intellectual property;

 

   

protectionist laws and business practices that favor local competitors, which could slow our growth in international markets;

 

   

the risks associated with foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation;

 

   

the expense of establishing facilities and operations in new foreign markets; and

 

   

building an organization capable of supporting geographically dispersed operations.

Currently, more than half of our international sales are denominated in United States dollars. As a result, an increase in the value of the United States dollar relative to foreign currencies could make our products less competitive in international markets. If we are unable to meet and overcome these challenges, our international operations may not be successful, which would limit the growth of our business.

IF DEFECTS ARE DISCOVERED IN OUR PRODUCTS, WE MAY INCUR ADDITIONAL UNFORESEEN COSTS, HOSPITALS MAY NOT PURCHASE OUR PRODUCTS AND OUR REPUTATION MAY SUFFER.

Our products incorporate mechanical parts, electrical components, optical components and computer software, any of which can contain errors or failures, especially when first introduced. In addition, new products or enhancements may contain undetected errors or performance problems that, despite testing, are discovered only after commercial shipment. Because our products are designed to be used to perform complex surgical procedures, we expect that our customers will have an increased sensitivity to such defects. In the past, we have voluntarily recalled certain products as a result of performance problems. We cannot assure that our products will not experience errors or performance problems in the future. If we experience flaws or performance problems, any of the following could occur:

 

   

delays in product shipments;

 

   

loss of revenue;

 

   

delay in market acceptance;

 

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diversion of our resources;

 

   

damage to our reputation;

 

   

product recalls;

 

   

increased service or warranty costs; or

 

   

product liability claims.

THE USE OF OUR PRODUCTS COULD RESULT IN PRODUCT LIABILITY CLAIMS THAT COULD BE EXPENSIVE, DIVERT MANAGEMENT’S ATTENTION AND HARM OUR BUSINESS.

Our business exposes us to significant risks of product liability claims. The medical device industry has historically been litigious, and we face financial exposure to product liability claims if the use of our products were to cause injury or death. There is also the possibility that defects in the design or manufacture of our products might necessitate a product recall. Any weaknesses in training and services associated with our products may also be subject to product liability lawsuits. Although we maintain product liability insurance, the coverage limits of these policies may not be adequate to cover future claims. Particularly as sales of our products increase, we may be unable to maintain product liability insurance in the future at satisfactory rates or in adequate amounts. A product liability claim, regardless of its merit or eventual outcome, could result in significant legal defense costs. Product liability claims have been made against our company in the past. A product liability claim or any product recalls could also harm our reputation or result in a decline in revenues.

WE MAY ENCOUNTER MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS OR DELAYS THAT COULD RESULT IN LOST REVENUE.

Manufacturing our products is a complex process. We may encounter difficulties in scaling up production of our products, including:

 

   

problems involving production yields;

 

   

quality control and assurance;

 

   

component supply shortages;

 

   

shortages of qualified personnel; and

 

   

compliance with state, federal and foreign regulations.

If demand for our products exceeds our manufacturing capacity, we could develop a substantial backlog of customer orders. If we are unable to maintain larger-scale manufacturing capabilities, our ability to generate revenues will be limited and our reputation in the marketplace could be damaged.

OUR RELIANCE ON SOLE AND SINGLE SOURCE SUPPLIERS COULD HARM OUR ABILITY TO MEET DEMAND FOR OUR PRODUCTS IN A TIMELY MANNER OR WITHIN BUDGET.

Some of the components necessary for the assembly of our products are currently provided to us by sole-sourced suppliers or single-sourced suppliers. We purchase components through purchase orders rather than long-term supply agreements and generally do not maintain large volumes of inventory. The disruption or termination of the supply of components could cause a significant increase in the costs of these components, which could affect our profitability. A disruption or termination in the supply of components could also result in our inability to meet demand for our products, which could harm our ability to generate revenues, lead to customer dissatisfaction and damage our reputation. Furthermore, if we are required to change the manufacturer of a key component of our products, we may be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations and guidelines. The delays

 

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associated with the verification of a new manufacturer could delay our ability to manufacture our products in a timely manner or within budget.

WE UTILIZE DISTRIBUTORS FOR A PORTION OF OUR SALES, THE LOSS OF WHICH COULD HARM OUR REVENUES IN THE TERRITORY SERVICED BY THESE DISTRIBUTORS

We have strategic relationships with a number of key distributors for sales and service of our products, principally in foreign countries. If these strategic relationships are terminated and not replaced, our revenues and/or ability to service our products in the territories serviced by these distributors could be adversely affected.

IF INSTITUTIONS OR SURGEONS ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN REIMBURSEMENT FROM THIRD-PARTY PAYORS FOR PROCEDURES USING OUR PRODUCTS, OR IF REIMBURSEMENT IS INSUFFICIENT TO COVER THE COSTS OF PURCHASING OUR PRODUCTS, WE MAY BE UNABLE TO GENERATE SUFFICIENT SALES TO SUPPORT OUR BUSINESS.

Domestic institutions will typically bill the services performed with our products to various third-party payors, such as Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs and private insurance plans. If hospitals do not obtain sufficient reimbursement from third-party payors for procedures performed with our products, or if government and private payors’ policies do not permit reimbursement for surgical procedures performed using our products, we may not be able to generate the revenues necessary to support our business. Our success in international markets also depends upon the eligibility of our products for reimbursement through government-sponsored health care payment systems and third-party payors. Reimbursement practices vary significantly by country. Many international markets have government-managed healthcare systems that control reimbursement for new products and procedures. Other foreign markets have both private insurance systems and government-managed systems that control reimbursement for new products and procedures. Market acceptance of our products may depend on the availability and level of reimbursement in any country within a particular time. In addition, health care cost containment efforts similar to those we face in the United States are prevalent in many of the other countries in which we intend to sell our products and these efforts are expected to continue.

IF WE LOSE OUR KEY PERSONNEL OR ARE UNABLE TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL, OUR ABILITY TO COMPETE WILL BE HARMED.

We are highly dependent on the principal members of our management and scientific staff. Our product development plans depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain engineers with experience in mechanics, software and optics. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel will be critical to our success, and competition for qualified personnel is intense. We may not be able to attract and retain personnel on acceptable terms given the competition for such personnel among technology and healthcare companies and universities. The loss of any of these persons or our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel could harm our business and our ability to compete.

CHANGES TO FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS MAY AFFECT OUR REPORTED RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.

A change in accounting standards or practices can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. New accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing standards or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business.

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (revised 2004), “Share-Based Payment” (“SFAS 123(R)”) is a new standard and the application thereof is subject to interpretation. Our application of SFAS 123(R) may not be consistent with other companies or industry practice, and we may modify our application of SFAS 123(R) in the future, which could further affect our reported results of operations.

 

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In June 2006, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued FASB Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48), “Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes,” an interpretation of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 109, “Accounting for Income Taxes.” The interpretation contains a two-step approach to recognizing and measuring uncertain tax positions accounted for in accordance with SFAS No. 109. The provisions are effective for us as of January 1, 2007 and its adoption may have significant impact to our results of operations. We are currently evaluating the impact this statement will have on our consolidated financial statements.

RISKS RELATING TO OUR REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

OUR PRODUCTS ARE SUBJECT TO A LENGTHY AND UNCERTAIN DOMESTIC REGULATORY PROCESS. IF WE DO NOT OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE NECESSARY DOMESTIC REGULATORY APPROVALS, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MARKET AND SELL OUR PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Our products and operations are subject to extensive regulation in the United States by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. The FDA regulates the research, testing, manufacturing, safety, labeling, storage, record keeping, promotion, distribution and production of medical devices in the United States to ensure that medical products distributed domestically are safe and effective for their intended uses. In order for us to market certain products for use in the United States, we generally must first obtain clearance from the FDA pursuant to Section 510(k) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FFDCA. Clearance under Section 510(k) requires demonstration that a new device is substantially equivalent to another device with 510(k) clearance or grandfather status. If we significantly modify our products after they receive FDA clearance, the FDA may require us to submit a separate 510(k) or premarket approval application, or PMA, for the modified product before we are permitted to market the products in the U.S. In addition, if we develop products in the future that are not considered to be substantially equivalent to a device with 510(k) clearance or grandfather status, we will be required to obtain FDA approval by submitting a PMA.

The FDA may not act favorably or quickly in its review of our 510(k) or PMA submissions, or we may encounter significant difficulties and costs in our efforts to obtain FDA clearance or approval, all of which could delay or preclude sale of new products in the United States. Furthermore, the FDA may request additional data or require us to conduct further testing, or compile more data, including clinical data and clinical studies, in support of a 510(k) submission. The FDA may also, instead of accepting a 510(k) submission, require us to submit a PMA, which is typically a much more complex and burdensome application than a 510(k). To support a PMA, the FDA would likely require that we conduct one or more clinical studies to demonstrate that the device is safe and effective. We may not be able to meet the requirements to obtain 510(k) clearance or PMA approval, or the FDA may not grant any necessary clearances or approvals. In addition, the FDA may place significant limitations upon the intended use of our products as a condition to a 510(k) clearance or PMA approval. Product applications can also be denied or withdrawn due to failure to comply with regulatory requirements or the occurrence of unforeseen problems following clearance or approval. Any delays or failure to obtain FDA clearance or approvals of new products we develop, any limitations imposed by the FDA on new product use, or the costs of obtaining FDA clearance or approvals could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In order to conduct a clinical investigation involving human subjects for the purpose of demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of a device, a company must, among other things, apply for and obtain Institutional Review Board, or IRB, approval of the proposed investigation. In addition, if the clinical study involves a “significant risk” (as defined by the FDA) to human health, the sponsor of the investigation must also submit and obtain FDA approval of an investigational device exemption, or IDE, application. Most of our products to date have been considered significant risk devices requiring IDE approval prior to investigational use. We may not be able to obtain FDA and/or IRB approval to undertake clinical trials in the U.S. for any new devices we intend to market in the United States in the future. If we obtain such approvals, we may not be able to comply with the IDE and other regulations governing clinical investigations or the data from any such trials may not support

 

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clearance or approval of the investigational device. Failure to obtain such approvals or to comply with such regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

COMPLYING WITH FDA REGULATIONS IS AN EXPENSIVE AND TIME-CONSUMING PROCESS, AND OUR FAILURE TO COMPLY FULLY COULD SUBJECT US TO SIGNIFICANT ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS.

Because our products, including the da Vinci Surgical System, are commercially distributed, numerous postmarket regulatory requirements apply, including the following:

 

   

Quality System Regulation, or QSR, which requires manufacturers to follow elaborate design, testing, control, documentation and other quality assurance procedures during the manufacturing process;

 

   

labeling regulations;

 

   

the FDA’s general prohibition against false or misleading statements in the labeling or promotion of products for unapproved or “off-label” uses;

 

   

the Reports of Corrections and Removals regulation, which requires that manufacturers report to the FDA recalls and field corrective actions taken to reduce a risk to health or to remedy a violation of the FFDCA that may pose a risk to health; and

 

   

the Medical Device Reporting regulation, which requires that manufacturers report to the FDA if their device may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if it were to recur.

We are subject to inspection and marketing surveillance by the FDA to determine our compliance with regulatory requirements. If the FDA finds that we have failed to comply, it can institute a wide variety of enforcement actions, ranging from a regulatory letter to a public warning letter to more severe civil and criminal sanctions. Our failure to comply with applicable requirements could lead to an enforcement action that may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We have modified the labeling; advertising and user training for the da Vinci Surgical System to call out specific procedures that we believe are within the scope of our existing 510(k) clearances. We cannot assure that the FDA would agree that all such specific procedures are within the scope of the existing general clearance or that we have compiled adequate information to support the safety and efficacy of using the da Vinci Surgical System for all such specific procedures. We also have modified the hardware and software in the da Vinci Surgical System since clearance in ways that we believe do not require new 510(k) clearance. We cannot assure that the FDA would agree with our determinations not to seek new 510(k) clearance for any of these changes. Computer Motion also modified the hardware and software in its products subsequent to 510(k) clearance without seeking new clearance. We cannot assure that the FDA would agree with the determinations not to seek new 510(k) clearance for any of these changes. The FDA could impose enforcement sanctions and/or require us to obtain 510(k) clearance for any modification to our products or Computer Motion’s products. We may be prohibited from marketing the modified device until such 510(k) clearance is granted.

In January 2007, FDA concluded an inspection of our Sunnyvale manufacturing facility and issued a list of observations (Form 483) setting forth five observed deficiencies under the QSR relating to nonconforming product, corrective and preventive actions, complaint handling and supplier management. The Form 483 also set forth two observed deficiencies – one relating to the failure to report field corrections or recalls to the FDA that the FDA believed should have been reported under the Reports of Corrections and Removals regulation and another for failure to file MDR within 30 days. In February 2007, we responded to each observation with proposed corrective actions. We believe that our proposed corrective actions are appropriate to address the observed deficiencies. However, we cannot assure that, upon re-inspection, the FDA will find that our promised corrective actions are appropriate or that they have been adequately implemented. We also cannot assure that the FDA will not find other deficiencies in our compliance with the QSR and other postmarket regulations.

 

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In June 2003, we acquired Computer Motion and have integrated its FDA compliance quality system into our own. As a result of the integration and review, we identified that Computer Motion has had deficiencies in complaint handling, MDR reporting and Corrections and Removals reporting in the last several years that required submission of retroactive reports to the FDA. We reported 52 MDRs and we believe that our reporting decisions regarding these 52 complaints is conservative in part because many of the complaints likely would not have been reportable if more information had been available. Also, to our knowledge, none of the reported events resulted in a death or serious injury, prolonged hospitalization, or medical intervention to prevent death or serious injury. Computer Motion did respond to complaint trends, and it addressed the trends through corrective actions. Accordingly, the incidence of many of the types of events in the reports had been mitigated by June 2003. Our review also suggests that significant complaint trends identified by Computer Motion over the period of four years were addressed by corrective actions, which have proven to be effective over time. Computer Motion’s product modifications were completed without 510(k) clearance and we believe that they do not require new 510(k) clearance. We cannot assure that the FDA would agree with our determinations not to seek new 510(k) clearance for any of these changes.

We cannot assure that the FDA will not seek to impose enforcement actions on us for Computer Motion violations preceding our acquisition of Computer Motion, that the FDA will agree that since the acquisition we have corrected all regulatory problems, or that our review of Computer Motion’s complaint handling will not lead us to initiate recalls or field actions to remedy problems with Computer Motion products already in the field.

OUR PRODUCTS ARE SUBJECT TO VARIOUS INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY PROCESSES AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS. IF WE DO NOT OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE NECESSARY INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY APPROVALS, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MARKET AND SELL OUR PRODUCTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

To be able to market and sell our products in other countries, we must obtain regulatory approvals and comply with the regulations of those countries. These regulations, including the requirements for approvals and the time required for regulatory review, vary from country to country. Obtaining and maintaining foreign regulatory approvals are expensive, and we cannot be certain that we will receive regulatory approvals in any foreign country in which we plan to market our products. If we fail to obtain regulatory approval in any foreign country in which we plan to market our products, our ability to generate revenue will be harmed.

The European Union requires that manufacturers of medical products obtain the right to affix the CE mark to their products before selling them in member countries of the European Union. The CE mark is an international symbol of adherence to quality assurance standards and compliance with applicable European medical device directives. In order to obtain the right to affix the CE mark to products, a manufacturer must obtain certification that its processes meet certain European quality standards. In January 1999, we received permission to affix the CE mark to our da Vinci Surgical System and EndoWrist instruments.

As we modify existing products or develop new products in the future, including new instruments, we apply for permission to affix the CE mark to such products. In addition, we will be subject to annual regulatory audits in order to maintain the CE mark permissions we have already obtained. We do not know whether we will be able to obtain permission to affix the CE mark for new or modified products or that we will continue to meet the quality and safety standards required to maintain the permissions we have already received. If we are unable to maintain permission to affix the CE mark to our products, we will no longer be able to sell our products in member countries of the European Union.

 

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IF OUR MANUFACTURING FACILITIES DO NOT CONTINUE TO MEET FEDERAL, STATE OR EUROPEAN MANUFACTURING STANDARDS, WE MAY BE REQUIRED TO TEMPORARILY CEASE ALL OR PART OF OUR MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS, WHICH WOULD RESULT IN PRODUCT DELIVERY DELAYS AND LOST REVENUE.

Our manufacturing facilities are subject to periodic inspection by regulatory authorities and our operations will continue to be regulated by the FDA for compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice requirements contained in the FDA’s Quality System Regulations, or QSR. We are also required to comply with International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, quality system standards in order to produce products for sale in Europe. If we fail to continue to comply with Good Manufacturing Practice requirements or ISO standards, we may be required to cease all or part of our operations until we comply with these regulations. We are currently in compliance with ISO standards. The FDA inspected our Mountain View in March 2000 and our Sunnyvale facilities in December 2002 and December 2006. The Good Manufacturing Practice issues raised by the FDA during the inspections either were satisfactorily resolved with the FDA, or we believe can be resolved by us to the FDA’s satisfaction, although we cannot assure that we will be able to do so. We continue to be subject to FDA inspections at any time. Maintaining such compliance is difficult and costly. We cannot be certain that our facilities will be found to comply with Good Manufacturing Practice requirements or ISO standards in future inspections and audits by regulatory authorities.

As required, we are licensed by the State of California to manufacture medical devices. We are subject to periodic inspections by the California Department of Health Services and, if we are unable to maintain this license following any future inspections, we will be unable to manufacture or ship any products.

RISKS RELATING TO OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

IF WE ARE UNABLE TO PROTECT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONTAINED IN OUR PRODUCTS FROM USE BY THIRD PARTIES, OUR ABILITY TO COMPETE IN THE MARKET WILL BE HARMED.

Our commercial success will depend in part on obtaining patent and other intellectual property protection for the technologies contained in our products, and on successfully defending our patents and other intellectual property against third party challenges. We will incur substantial costs in obtaining patents and, if necessary, defending our proprietary rights. The patent positions of medical device companies, including ours, can be highly uncertain and involve complex and evolving legal and factual questions. We do not know whether we will obtain the patent protection we seek, or that the protection we do obtain will be found valid and enforceable if challenged. We also do not know whether we will be able to develop additional patentable proprietary technologies. If we fail to obtain adequate protection of our intellectual property, or if any protection we obtain is reduced or eliminated, others could use our intellectual property without compensating us, resulting in harm to our business. We may also determine that it is in our best interests to voluntarily challenge a third party’s products or patents in litigation or administrative proceedings, including patent interferences or reexaminations. Furthermore, the laws of certain foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent, as do the laws of the United States.

In addition to patents, we typically rely on a combination of trade secret, copyright and trademark laws, nondisclosure agreements and other contractual provisions and technical security measures to protect our intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, these measures may not be adequate to safeguard the technology underlying our products. If they do not protect our rights adequately, third parties could use our technology, and our ability to compete in the market would be reduced. In addition, employees, consultants and others who participate in developing our products may breach their agreements with us regarding our intellectual property, and we may not have adequate remedies for the breach. We also may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights in some foreign countries. For a variety of reasons, we may decide not to file for patent, copyright or trademark protection outside the United States. We also realize that our trade secrets may become known through other means not currently foreseen by us. Notwithstanding our efforts to protect our

 

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intellectual property, our competitors may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or products that are equal or superior to our technology and products without infringing any of our intellectual property rights, or may design around our proprietary technologies.

OTHERS MAY ASSERT THAT OUR PRODUCTS INFRINGE THEIR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS, WHICH MAY CAUSE US TO ENGAGE IN COSTLY DISPUTES AND, IF WE ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL IN DEFENDING OURSELVES, COULD ALSO CAUSE US TO PAY SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGES AND PROHIBIT US FROM SELLING OUR PRODUCTS.

There may be United States and foreign patents issued to third parties that relate to computer-assisted surgery, remote surgery, and minimally invasive surgery. Some of these patents may be broad enough to cover one or more aspects of our present technology, and may cover aspects of our future technology. We do not know whether any of these patents, if challenged, would be held valid, enforceable and infringed. From time to time, we receive, and likely will continue to receive, letters from third parties inviting us to license their patents. We may be sued by, or become involved in an administrative proceeding with, one or more of these third parties.

In January 2007, the California Institute of Technology filed a patent infringement suit against our company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. We believe the lawsuit is without merit and have filed an action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California seeking a declaration that we do not infringe the Caltech patents. We intend to vigorously defend our company in this matter.

We cannot assure that a court or administrative body would agree with any arguments or defenses we may have concerning invalidity, unenforceability or noninfringement of any third-party patent. In addition to the issued patents of which we are aware, other parties may have filed, and in the future are likely to file, patent applications covering surgical products that are similar or identical to ours. We cannot assure that any patents issuing from applications filed by a third party will not cover our products or will not have priority over our patent applications.

The medical device industry has been characterized by extensive litigation and administrative proceedings regarding patents and other intellectual property rights, and companies have employed such actions to gain a competitive advantage. If third parties assert infringement or other intellectual property claims against us, our technical and management personnel will experience a significant diversion of time and effort and we will incur large expenses defending our company. If third parties in any patent action are successful, our patent portfolio may be damaged, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages, and we may be required to stop selling our products or obtain a license which, if available at all, may require us to pay substantial royalties. We cannot be certain that we will have the financial resources or the substantive arguments to defend our patents from infringement or claims of invalidity or unenforceability, or to defend against allegations of infringement of third-party patents. In addition, any public announcements related to litigation or administrative proceedings initiated by us, or initiated or threatened against us, could cause our stock price to decline.

OUR PRODUCTS RELY ON LICENSES FROM THIRD PARTIES, AND IF WE LOSE ACCESS TO THESE TECHNOLOGIES, OUR REVENUES COULD DECLINE.

We rely on technology that we license from others, including technology that is integral to our products. We have entered into license agreements with Brookhill-Wilk, LLC., Hansen Medical, Inc., Heartport, Inc., now part of Johnson & Johnson, IBM Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., MIT, Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., Sensable Technologies and SRI International. Any of these agreements may be terminated for breach. If any of these agreements is terminated, we may be unable to reacquire the necessary license on satisfactory terms, or at all. The loss or failure to maintain these licenses could prevent or delay further development or commercialization of our products.

 

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RISKS RELATING TO OUR TRADING MARKETS

OUR FUTURE OPERATING RESULTS MAY BE BELOW SECURITIES ANALYSTS’ OR INVESTORS’ EXPECTATIONS, WHICH COULD CAUSE OUR STOCK PRICE TO DECLINE.

Due to the nascent nature of our industry, we have limited insight into trends that may emerge in our market and affect our business. The revenue and income potential of our market are unproven, and we may be unable to continue to generate significant revenues. In addition, our costs may be higher than we anticipated. If we fail to generate sufficient revenues or our costs are higher than we expect, our results of operations will suffer. Further, future revenue from sales of our products is difficult to forecast because the market for new surgical technologies is still evolving. Our results of operations will depend upon numerous factors, including:

 

   

the extent to which our products gain market acceptance;

 

   

actions relating to regulatory matters;

 

   

our timing and ability to develop our manufacturing and sales and marketing capabilities;

 

   

demand for our products;

 

   

the size and timing of particular sales and any collection delays related to those sales;

 

   

product quality and supply problems;

 

   

the progress of surgical training in the use of our products;

 

   

our ability to develop, introduce and market new or enhanced versions of our products on a timely basis;

 

   

third-party payor reimbursement policies;

 

   

our ability to protect our proprietary rights and defend against third party challenges;

 

   

our ability to license additional intellectual property rights; and

 

   

the progress and results of clinical trials.

Our operating results in any particular period will not be a reliable indication of our future performance. It is likely that in some future quarters, our operating results will be below the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If this occurs, the price of our common stock, and the value of your investment, will likely decline.

OUR STOCK PRICE HAS BEEN, AND WILL LIKELY CONTINUE TO BE, VOLATILE.

The market price of our common stock has experienced fluctuations and is likely to fluctuate significantly in the future. Our stock price can fluctuate for a number of reasons, including:

 

   

announcements about us or our competitors;

 

   

quarterly variations in operating results;

 

   

introduction or abandonment of new technologies or products;

 

   

changes in product pricing policies;

 

   

changes in earnings estimates by analysts or changes in accounting policies, including expensing stock options in accordance with SFAS123(R); and

 

   

economic changes and political uncertainties.

In addition, stock markets have experienced significant price and volume volatility in the past. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities of many public companies for reasons frequently unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the specific companies. In addition, the securities of many medical device companies, including Intuitive Surgical, have historically been subject to

 

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extensive price and volume fluctuations that may affect the market price of their common stock. If these broad market fluctuations continue, they may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

 

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

 

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

As of December 31, 2006, we owned approximately 315,000 square feet of floor space on 21 acres of land in Sunnyvale, California, where we house our headquarters, manufacturing, research and development, service, and support functions. In addition, we lease approximately 5,000 square feet of space for research and development in Milford, Connecticut, approximately 3,000 square feet of space for a sales office in St. Germain en Laye, France and approximately 5,100 square feet of space for our international headquarters in Aubonne, Switzerland.

In connection with our acquisition of Computer Motion in June 2003, we assumed leases for approximately 48,000 square feet in Goleta, California. These leases had varying terms, the longest of which extends to September 2007. As these leases have expired, we have not renewed them. As of December 31, 2006, approximately 19,000 square feet of this space remained under lease, of which 93% has been subleased through September 2007.

 

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

In January 2007, the California Institute of Technology filed a patent infringement suit against our company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. We believe the lawsuit is without merit and have filed an action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California seeking a declaration that we do not infringe the Caltech patents. We intend to vigorously defend our company in this matter.

We are involved in various legal proceedings and disputes that arise in the normal course of business. These matters include product liability actions, patent infringement actions, contract disputes, and other matters. We do not know whether we will prevail in these matters nor can we assure that any remedy could be reached on commercially viable terms, if at all. Based on currently available information, we believe that we have meritorious defenses to these actions and while the outcome of these matters cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not believe the outcome of any of these matters will have a material adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. In accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards, or SFAS, No. 5, “Accounting for Contingencies,” we record a liability when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. These provisions are reviewed at least quarterly and adjusted to reflect the impacts of negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other information and events pertaining to a particular case.

 

ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

No matters were submitted to a vote of security holders during the quarter ended December 31, 2006.

 

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PART II

 

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

PRICE RANGE OF COMMON STOCK

Our common stock has been traded on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “ISRG” since June 13, 2000. The following table sets forth the high and low closing prices of our common stock for each period indicated and are as reported by NASDAQ.

 

     2006    2005

Fiscal

   High    Low    High    Low

First Quarter

   $ 137.27    $ 88.00    $ 48.81    $ 36.09

Second Quarter

   $ 128.82    $ 98.99    $ 52.05    $ 41.02

Third Quarter

   $ 121.91    $ 91.95    $ 77.87    $ 46.73

Fourth Quarter

   $ 112.16    $ 94.80    $ 123.19    $ 65.84

As of January 31, 2007, there were approximately 438 stockholders of record of our common stock, although we believe that there are a significantly larger number of beneficial owners of our common stock.

DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends. We currently expect to retain earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business, and therefore do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

RECENT SALE OF UNREGISTERED SECURITIES

None.

ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

None.

 

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STOCK PERFORMANCE GRAPH

The graph set forth below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock between December 31, 2001 and December 31, 2006, with the cumulative total return of (i) the S&P Health Index and (ii) the Nasdaq Composite Index, over the same period. This graph assumes the investment of $100,000 on December 31, 2006 in our common stock, the S&P Health Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index, and assumes the reinvestment of dividends, if any.

The comparisons shown in the graph below are based upon historical data. We caution that the stock price performance shown in the graph below is not necessarily indicative of, nor is it intended to forecast, the potential future performance of our common stock.

LOGO

 

     12/31/01    12/31/02    12/31/03    12/31/04    12/31/05    12/31/06

Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

   100.00    61.42    85.19    199.50    584.60    478.07

NASDAQ Composite

   100.00    68.47    102.72    111.54    113.07    123.84

S&P Healthcare Index

   100.00    80.03    90.68    90.90    95.31    100.82

 

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ITEM 6. SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this report. The selected data in this section is not intended to replace the consolidated financial statements.

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2006     2005     2004    2003     2002  
     (In thousands, except per share amounts)  

Revenue

   $ 372,682     $ 227,338     $ 138,803    $ 91,675     $ 72,022  

Gross profit

   $ 247,836     $ 153,569     $ 87,990    $ 44,029     $ 33,901  

Net income (loss)

   $ 72,044 (1)(2)   $ 94,134 (2)   $ 23,478    $ (9,623 )   $ (18,421 )

Net income (loss) per common share:

           

Basic

   $ 1.96     $ 2.68     $ 0.70    $ (0.41 )   $ (1.01 )

Diluted

   $ 1.89     $ 2.51     $ 0.67    $ (0.41 )   $ (1.01 )

Shares used in computing basic and diluted net income (loss) per common share:

           

Basic

     36,737       35,070       33,693      23,626       18,229  

Diluted

     38,093       37,488       34,976      23,626       18,229  

Cash, cash equivalents and investments

   $ 330,296     $ 202,739     $ 132,038    $ 112,949     $ 49,884  

Total assets

   $ 671,790     $ 501,587     $ 354,229    $ 314,994     $ 91,820  

Notes payable, less current portion

   $ —       $ —       $ —      $ 695     $ 1,838  

Long-term liabilities

   $ 1,418     $ 1,009     $ 912    $ 1,701     $ 200  

(1) Net income for the year ended December 31, 2006 included stock-based compensation expense under SFAS 123(R) of $16.3 million, net of tax, related to employee stock options and employee stock purchases. Prior to fiscal 2006, there was no stock-based compensation expense related to employee stock options and employee stock purchase under Statement of Financial Standards No. 123, “Accounting for Stock-based Compensation” (SFAS 123), because the Company did not adopt the recognition provisions of SFAS 123.
(2) Net income for the year ended December 31, 2005 included a deferred tax benefit of $22.2 million related to the reversal of the valuation allowance. During 2006, we began reporting income taxes on a fully-taxed basis.

 

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Overview

Products. We design, manufacture and market da Vinci Surgical Systems, which are advanced surgical systems that we believe represent a new generation of surgery—the third generation. The da Vinci Surgical System consists of a surgeon’s console, a patient-side cart and a high performance vision system. The product line also includes proprietary “wristed” instruments and surgical accessories. The da Vinci Surgical System seamlessly translates the surgeon’s natural hand movements on instrument controls at a console into corresponding micro-movements of instruments positioned inside the patient through small puncture incisions, or ports. We believe that the da Vinci Surgical System is the only commercially available technology that can provide the surgeon with intuitive control, range of motion, fine tissue manipulation capability and 3-D HD visualization, while simultaneously allowing the surgeons to work through the small ports of minimally invasive surgery, or MIS. By placing computer-enhanced technology between the surgeon and the patient, we believe that the da Vinci Surgical System enables surgeons to improve clinical outcomes while reducing the invasiveness of complex surgical procedures. The da Vinci Surgical System is sold into multiple surgical specialties, principally urology, gynecology, cardiothoracic, and general surgery.

 

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Business Model. In our business model, we generate revenue from both the initial capital sales of da Vinci Surgical Systems as well as recurring revenue, comprised of instrument, accessory, service, and training revenue. The da Vinci Surgical System sells for approximately $1.0 million to $1.7 million, depending on configuration, and represents a significant capital equipment investment for our customers. We then generate recurring revenue as our customers purchase our EndoWrist instruments and accessory products for use in performing procedures with the da Vinci Surgical System. EndoWrist instruments and accessories will either expire or wear out as they are used in surgery and will need to be replaced as they are consumed. We generate additional recurring revenue from ongoing system service and customer training. We typically enter into service contracts at the time the system is sold. These service contracts have been generally renewable at the end of the service period, generally at an annual rate of approximately $100,000 to $150,000 per year, depending on configuration of the underlying system.

Since the introduction of the da Vinci Surgical System in 1999, our established base of da Vinci Surgical Systems has grown and robotic surgery volume has increased. Recurring revenue has grown at an equal or faster rate than capital revenue. Over the past five years, revenue generated from the sale of instruments and accessories, service and training increased from $15.7 million, or 22% of revenue, in fiscal 2002 to $29.9 million, or 33% of revenue, in fiscal 2003 to $60.0 million, or 43% of revenue, in fiscal 2004 to $102.7 million, or 45% of revenue, in fiscal 2005 to $166.8 million, or 45% of revenue, in fiscal 2006. We expect recurring revenue to become a larger percentage of total revenue in the future.

2006 Business Events and Trends

Introduction. We experienced rapid growth during the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005 , which was driven by the continued adoption of the da Vinci Surgical System for use in urologic, gynecologic, cardiothoracic, and general surgeries.

Financial Highlights.

 

   

Revenue grew 64% to $372.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2006 from $227.3 million during the year ended December 31, 2005.

 

   

Recurring instrument, accessory, service, and training revenue grew to $166.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2006, up 62% from $102.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2005. We sold 170 da Vinci Surgical Systems during the year ended December 31, 2006; an increase of 48% compared to 115 during the year ended December 31, 2005.

 

   

As of December 31, 2006, we had a da Vinci Surgical System installed base of 559 systems, 429 in North America, 92 in Europe, and 38 in the rest of the world.

 

   

Operating income increased by 56% to $107.4 million, or 29% of revenue, during the year ended December 31, 2006 from $68.8 million, or 30% of revenue during the year ended December 31, 2005. During the first quarter of 2006, in accordance with SFAS 123(R), we began to record stock compensation expense for the estimated value of employee stock options and stock purchases. Stock compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2006 was $25.3 million. Stock compensation expenses are entirely non-cash in nature. No stock compensation expense was included in the 2005 consolidated results of operations.

 

   

Our business continues to demonstrate the ability to generate significant positive cash flow while supporting our rapid business growth. Cash, cash equivalents, and investments increased by $127.6 million from fiscal 2005, as we ended fiscal 2006 with $330.3 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.

 

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Procedure adoption

We believe the adoption of da Vinci surgery occurs surgical procedure by surgical procedure, and it is being adopted for those procedures which offer significant patient value. The value of a surgical procedure to a patient is higher if it offers superior clinical outcomes, less surgical trauma, or both.

The procedures that have driven the most growth in our business recently are the da Vinci Prostatectomy and the da Vinci Hysterectomy. In 2006, da Vinci Prostatectomy procedures, which represented more than half of all the da Vinci surgical procedures for the year, grew over 75% from 2005, and it is expected to grow at least 50% from 2006 to 2007. The da Vinci Hysterectomy procedure was our fastest growing procedure from a percentage growth standpoint in 2006, and it is expected to grow at least 150% from 2006 to 2007.

Regulatory Clearances.

We believe that we have obtained all of the clearances required to market our products to our targeted surgical specialties within the United States. The following table lists chronologically our FDA clearances to date:

 

   

July 2000—General laparoscopic procedures

 

   

March 2001—Non-cardiac thoracoscopic procedures

 

   

May 2001—Prostatectomy procedures

 

   

November 2002—Cardiotomy procedures

 

   

July 2004—Cardiac revascularization procedures

 

   

March 2005—Urologic surgical procedures

 

   

April 2005—Gynecologic surgical procedures

 

   

June 2005—Pediatric surgical procedures

New Products. In January 2006, we launched the da Vinci S Surgical System. The da Vinci S Surgical System shares the same core technology as the standard da Vinci Surgical System and also features fast setup, rapid instrument exchange, multi-quadrant access and multi-image display capabilities. The da Vinci S Surgical System is an addition to the da Vinci product line and is offered at a price approximately $0.2 million above the standard da Vinci Surgical System price. Market response to the da Vinci S Surgical System has proven to be positive, as 148 of the 170 total systems sold during 2006 were da Vinci S Surgical Systems. Many of our existing customers who invested in the standard da Vinci Surgical System identified the benefits of the robotic surgery and expanded their robotic programs with the da Vinci S Surgical System. We will continue to sell, service and support the standard da Vinci Surgical System. We will also continue to invest in product development in order to expand the utility and longevity of all da Vinci Surgical Systems, instruments and accessories.

In January 2007, we launched the high definition, 3-D (3-D HD) vision system. The 3-D HD vision system provides 20% more viewing area and enhances visualization of tissue planes and critical anatomy. The digital zoom feature in the 3-D HD vision system allows surgeons to magnify the surgical field of view without adjusting endoscope position and reduces interference between the endoscope and instruments. We believe the new 3-D HD vision system will enable improved surgical outcomes. The 3-D HD vision will be available as an option on new da Vinci S Surgical Systems and as an upgrade option to our existing customers who own a da Vinci S Surgical System.

We launched several new instruments during the year ended December 31, 2006, including the tenaculuum, atrial retractor, Endo PK Dissector, the Mega Needle driver, and the 5mm instrument set for the da Vinci S Surgical System.

 

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The tenaculum is primarily targeted for gynecological use and is a device used to manipulate and control the uterus, during a hysterectomy, or to control a fibroid during a myomectomy. The atrial retractor is a cardiac tool designed to provide easier access during valve repair procedures.

We developed the Endo PK Dissector in cooperation with Gyrus ACMI, an industry leader in both tissue management technology and endoscopies. The Endo PK Dissector is a fully articulating coagulator and dissector, which is patterned after Gyrus’ successful Lyons Dissector. The Endo PK Dissector addresses several needs for da Vinci Surgical System users. As a dissector, it allows for highly precise dissection, delivers excellent coagulation performance as well as providing grasping capabilities. We expect this instrument to be used within urology, gynecology, and general surgery.

We designed the da Vinci Mega Needle driver specifically to handle larger needles, which are often required in gynecological surgery, such as the da Vinci Hysterectomy, as well as in general surgery. As we continue to expand our instrument offering, we will provide our customers more surgical options and clinical capability, which we anticipate will lead to increased system usage.

Facilities and Information Technology Infrastructure. We have made investments in facilities and information technology infrastructure to support current and future growth. In late December 2005, we invested approximately $20 million to acquire an additional 210,000 square-foot facility, located about one mile from our first Sunnyvale, CA site, where we continue to maintain operations. The acquisition of this new property tripled our square footage in Sunnyvale and provided us with the necessary capacity to maintain all of our corporate functions, including manufacturing, together in Sunnyvale, for several years to come. In 2006, we opened a new customer training facility and service support center at this location. We have invested in information technology infrastructure to upgrade our general ledger and manufacturing systems to a new SAP system. The implementation of this new system was completed in May 2006. Total capital expenditures for 2006 were $15.9 million.

Technology Acquisitions.

 

   

In January 2006, we licensed, on a non-exclusive basis, a number of suction cardiac stabilizer related patents and applications from Medtronic to make and sell suction stabilizers that are mechanically coupled to and manipulated by robotic devices.

 

   

In March 2006, we licensed, on a non-exclusive basis, patents to force reflecting haptic devices and associated software from Sensable Technology to use in the robotic surgical systems.

 

   

In June 2006, we licensed, on a non-exclusive basis, PK electrosurgical instruments and eletrosurgical generator related patent and application from Gyrus Group PLC to make and sell PK instruments and Gyrus electrosurgical generators with robotic systems in the field of surgeries.

International Reorganization. In January 2007, we announced plans to restructure our international operations. We plan to shut down our international headquarters located in France and re-establish our international headquarters in Switzerland. We believe this restructuring will streamline our international operations and optimize our tax structure for the long term. We do not anticipate realizing benefits from the lower tax rates until fiscal 2008 at the earliest. The current restructuring plan will result in costs for relocation of the European operations and certain employees, severance of certain employees, the set-up of new facilities and information technology infrastructure, and other costs associated with the transition. Based upon the plan, we expect to incur costs of approximately $2.0 million through the second quarter of fiscal 2007.

 

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Results of Operations

The following table sets forth, for the years indicated, certain consolidated statements of operations information (in thousands):

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2006    % of total
revenue
    2005     % of total
revenue
    2004    % of total
revenue
 

Revenue:

              

Products

   $ 317,599    85 %   $ 192,417     85 %   $ 116,338    84 %

Services

     55,083    15 %     34,921     15 %     22,465    16 %
                                        

Total revenue

     372,682    100 %     227,338     100 %     138,803    100 %

Cost of revenue:

              

Products

     97,615    26 %     58,357     26 %     40,472    29 %

Services

     27,231    7 %     15,412     6 %     10,341    8 %
                                        

Total cost of revenue

     124,846    33 %     73,769     32 %     50,813    37 %

Products gross profit

     219,984    59 %     134,060     59 %     75,866    55 %

Services gross profit

     27,852    8 %     19,509     9 %     12,124    8 %
                                        

Gross profit

     247,836    67 %     153,569     68 %     87,990    63 %
                                        

Operating costs and expenses:

              

Selling, general and administrative

     110,703    30 %     67,443     30 %     48,994    35 %

Research and development

     29,778    8 %     17,354     8 %     17,812    13 %
                                        

Total operating costs and expenses

     140,481    38 %     84,797     38 %     66,806    48 %
                                        

Income from operations

     107,355    29 %     68,772     30 %     21,184    15 %

Interest and other income, net

     12,783    3 %     5,035     2 %     3,020    2 %
                                        

Income before income taxes

     120,138    32 %     73,807     32 %     24,204    17 %

Income tax expense (benefit)

     48,094    13 %     (20,327 )   -9 %     726    0 %
                                        

Net income

   $ 72,044    19 %   $ 94,134     41 %   $ 23,478    17 %
                                        

Total Revenue

Total revenue increased by 64% during the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005. Revenue increased from $138.8 million during year ended December 31, 2004 to $227.3 million during the year ended December 31, 2005 to $372.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2006. Total revenue growth was driven by the continued adoption of da Vinci surgery. We believe that the adoption of robotic surgery will occur surgical procedure by surgical procedure. Our revenue growth during the periods presented reflects adoption progress made in our target procedures. Da Vinci Prostatectomy (dVP) has been our most successful procedure to date. An increasing body of clinical evidence has indicated dVP to offer superior surgical outcomes compared to traditional open prostatectomy in the critical categories of cancer removal, continence, and sexual potency.

In 2006, da Vinci Hysterectomy (dVH) emerged as our fastest growing procedure on a percentage of growth basis. Favorable clinical results have been reported in hysterectomies for cancerous pathology, which include increased lymph node retrieval counts and significant reduction in blood transfusion. For most patients, a minimally invasive approach using the da Vinci Surgical System offers reduced pain, less blood loss, shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to normal daily activities.

Revenue within the United States accounted for 83% of total revenue during the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, and 79% during the year ended December 31, 2004. We believe domestic revenue accounts for the large majority of total revenue due largely to the competitive nature of the domestic healthcare market. We

 

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also believe that at this stage, as we penetrate the early adopters of robotic surgery, revenue will continue to concentrate in the U.S. market, as U.S. hospitals are generally more willing to invest in technology that will drive incremental patients into their healthcare systems. We expect that as adoption progresses and as we reach standard of care for target procedures, international revenue will increase as a percentage of overall revenue.

The following table summarizes our revenue and da Vinci Surgical System unit sales for the past three years (in millions, except unit sales):

 

Revenue

   2006     2005     2004  

Instruments and accessories

   $ 111.7     $ 67.8     $ 37.5  

Systems

     205.9       124.6       78.8  
                        

Total product revenue

     317.6       192.4       116.3  

Service and training

     55.1       34.9       22.5  
                        

Total revenue

   $ 372.7     $ 227.3     $ 138.8  
                        

Recurring revenue

   $ 166.8     $ 102.7     $ 60.0  

% of total revenue

     45 %     45 %     43 %

Domestic

   $ 309.9     $ 188.8     $ 109.8  

International

     62.8       38.5       29.0  
                        

Total revenue

   $ 372.7     $ 227.3     $ 138.8  
                        

da Vinci Surgical System unit sales

     170       115       76  

Product Revenue

Product revenue increased to $317.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2006 from $192.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. The $125.2 million (65%) increase reflects higher revenue of systems, instruments, and accessories. Product revenue increased to $192.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 from $116.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. The $76.1 million (65%) increase was due to higher revenue of systems, instruments, and accessories.

Instrument and accessory revenue increased to $111.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2006 from $67.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2005. The increase is driven by higher adoption rates of robotic surgery. For established accounts in 2006, we recognized an average of $1,500 to $2,000 in instrument and accessory revenue per surgical procedure performed with the da Vinci Surgical System. Total instrument and accessory revenue per procedure was between $2,000 and $2,500 reflecting the impact of initial instrument and accessory purchases for newly installed systems. Instrument and accessory pricing remains unchanged from 2005. Instrument and accessory revenue increased to $67.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2005 from $37.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2004. The increase was driven by higher adoption rates of robotic surgery.

System revenue increased to $205.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2006 from $124.6 million during the year ended December 31, 2005 due to growth in the number of systems sold reflecting adoption of robotic surgery and increased average selling prices (ASPs) resulting from the successful launch of the higher priced da Vinci S Surgical System. 170 systems were sold during the year ended December 31, 2006, including 4 systems that involved a trade-in, netting to 166 systems added to the installed base, compared to 115 systems during the year ended December 31, 2005. The 170 systems sold during 2006 consisted of 148 da Vinci S Surgical Systems and 22 standard da Vinci Surgical Systems. The average revenue recognized per da Vinci system sold increased to $1.18 million in 2006, compared to $1.05 million in 2005 primarily due to the higher price of da Vinci S Systems. System revenue increased to $124.6 million during year ended December 31, 2005 from $78.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2004, reflecting growth in system unit revenue of

 

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da Vinci Surgical Systems and da Vinci fourth arms. 115 systems were sold during the year ended December 31, 2005, compared to 76 during the year ended December 31, 2004. 106 fourth arms were sold during the year ended December 31, 2005 compared to 65 during the year ended December 31, 2004.

Service and Training Revenue

Service and training revenue, comprised primarily of system service and customer training, increased to $55.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2006 from $34.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. We typically enter into service contracts at the time the system is sold. These service contracts have been generally renewed at the end of the service period. Higher 2006 system service revenue was driven by a larger base of da Vinci Surgical Systems producing contract service revenue and higher revenue earned per system under service contract. There were an average of 451 systems under service contract in 2006 generating an average of $118,000 per system per year, compared to an average of 315 systems under service contract in 2005 generating an average of $108,000 per system per year. The increase in service revenue per system was driven by a higher percentage of da Vinci and da Vinci S Surgical Systems in the 2006 installed base, which typically carry a higher contractual service rate than three-arm systems.

Service revenue comprised of system service and customer training, increased to $34.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2005 from $22.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. The increase in this area was driven by a larger base of da Vinci Surgical Systems producing contract service revenue and higher revenue earned per system under service contract. There were an average of 315 systems under service contract in 2005 generating an average of $108,000 per system, compared to an average of 218 systems under service contract in 2004 generating an average of $99,000 per system. The increase in service revenue per system was driven by the higher percentage of fourth arm da Vinci Systems, which typically carry a higher contractual service rate than three-arm systems.

Gross Profit

Products gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2006 was $220.0 million, or 69% of product revenue, compared to $134.1 million, or 70% of product revenue, during the year ended December 31, 2005. The higher 2006 gross profit was driven by higher 2006 product revenue, as described above. Lower 2006 product profit margins were primarily due to $2.4 million impact of stock option expense that was not included in 2005 results.

Products gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2005 was $134.1 million, or 70% of product revenue, compared to $75.9 million, or 65% of product revenue, during the year ended December 31, 2004. The higher 2005 gross profit was driven by higher 2005 product revenue, as described above. Leveraging manufacturing overhead costs across higher product revenue, lower product material costs, and a higher da Vinci Surgical System average selling price drove the higher 2005 product gross margin. We realized an average of $910,000 of revenue per three-arm da Vinci Surgical System during the year ended December 31, 2005, compared to $867,000 during the year ended December 31, 2004.

Service gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2006 was $27.9 million, or 51% of service revenue, compared to $19.5 million, or 56% of service revenue during the year ended December 31, 2005. Higher 2006 gross profit was driven by increasing service revenue, as described above. The decline in service gross margin was primarily due to costs incurred to support the da Vinci S Surgical System product line and the $1.5 million impact of stock option expenses included in the 2006 results that was not included in 2005 results.

Service gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2005 was $19.5 million, or 56% of service revenue, compared to $12.1 million, or 54% of service revenue, during the year ended December 31, 2004. Increasing gross profit was driven by increasing service revenue, as described above. The increase in service gross margin was primarily from leveraging service and training cost pools across a larger base of da Vinci Surgical Systems generating service revenue.

 

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Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses include personnel costs for sales, marketing and administrative personnel, tradeshow expenses, legal expenses, regulatory fees and general corporate expenses.

Selling, general and administrative expenses during the year ended December 31, 2006 were $110.7 million, up 64% from $67.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2005. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to stock compensation expense charged to general and administrative expenses of $16.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2006, sales organization growth, and higher commissions relating to higher revenue. We also added headcount in various support functions across the organization. We expect selling, general and administrative expenses to continue to increase in the future to support our expanding business.

Selling, general and administrative expenses during the year ended December 31, 2005 were $67.4 million, up 38% from $49.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2004. The year-over-year increase was largely due to sales organization headcount growth to support higher 2005 revenue, higher incentive compensation associated with achieving higher 2005 revenues and profitability, and additional headcount in other support functions across the organization.

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Research and development expenses include costs associated with the design, development, testing and enhancement of our products. These enhancements represent significant improvements to our products.

Research and development expenses during the year ended December 31, 2006 were $29.8 million, compared to $17.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2005. The increase was due to the impact of stock compensation expense charged to research and development of $5.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2006, growth in our research and development organization, higher prototype expenses, and other project costs. We expect to continue to make substantial investments in research and development and anticipate that research and development expenses will continue to increase in the future.

Research and development expenses during the year ended December 31, 2005 were $17.4 million, compared to $17.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2004. Research and development expenses for fiscal 2004 included $1.1 million of charges associated with shutting down the former Computer Motion Goleta, California site. Excluding the impact of these non-recurring charges, higher 2005 research and development expenses resulted primarily from higher 2005 personnel costs associated with our expanding organization.

Interest and Other Income, Net

Interest and other income, net, comprised mostly of interest income, was $12.8 million, $5.0 million, and $3.0 million during the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively. Interest income was $11.4 million, $5.6 million, and $2.9 million during the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively. The increases between years resulted primarily from higher interest income earned on increasing cash, cash equivalent and investment balances and generally increasing interest rates throughout the periods presented.

Income Tax Expense (Benefit)

Our income tax expense (benefit) was $48.1 million, ($20.3) million, and $0.7 million during the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively. The effective tax rate for 2006 is approximately 40.0%, which differs from the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% due primarily to state income taxes net of federal benefit. Most of the income taxes recorded in fiscal 2006 did not result in cash outlays during the year due to the

 

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utilization of net operating loss carryforwards and tax credit carryforwards as well as deductions due to employee stock options.

Our 2005 income tax included a one-time deferred tax benefit of $22.2 million related to the reversal of the valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets in the fourth quarter. Management concluded, based upon operating results, expectations of future taxable income, carryforward periods available to us, and other factors, that it was more likely than not that we would realize sufficient earnings to utilize our deferred tax assets. The recognition of these deferred tax assets had no impact on our cash flows. The effective tax rate for 2005 was approximately (27.5%) and diverged from the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% primarily as a result of the utilization of net operating loss carryforwards, tax credits and the reversal of valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets, partially offset by state income taxes net of federal tax benefit.

The effective tax rate for 2004 was approximately 3.0%, which generally represented federal alternative minimum taxes as well as state and foreign taxes. We had a full valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets in 2004.

At December 31, 2006, we had approximately $62.2 million and $12.4 million in federal and state net operating loss carryforwards, respectively, to reduce future taxable income. Of these amounts, $42.8 million and $7.5 million, respectively, relate to stock option deductions that are not included in our deferred tax assets as we will not recognize these deductions until they are utilized and will be recorded as stockholders’ equity and as a reduction of goodwill. The federal and state carryforwards have expiration dates beginning in 2019 and 2012, respectively, if not utilized.

At December 31, 2006, we had research and development tax credit carryforwards of approximately $5.1 million and $5.2 million for federal and state income tax purposes, respectively. Of these amounts, $5.1 million and $3.3 million, respectively, relate to stock option deductions that are not included in our deferred tax assets as we will not recognize these credits until they are utilized. If not utilized, the federal research and development tax credit carry forwards will begin to expire in 2011. The state research and development tax credit can be carried forward indefinitely.

Liquidity And Capital Resources

Sources and Uses of Cash

Our principal source of liquidity is cash provided by operations and the exercise of stock options. Cash and cash equivalents plus short and long-term investments increased from $132.0 million at December 31, 2004, to $202.7 million at December 31, 2005, to $330.3 million at December 31, 2006. Cash generation is one of our fundamental strengths and provides us with substantial financial flexibility in meeting our operating, investing and financing needs.

Consolidated Cash Flow Data

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2006     2005     2004  
     (in thousands)  

Net cash provided by (used in)

      

Operating activities

   $ 99,845     $ 70,787     $ 30,315  

Investing activities

     (113,353 )     (103,307 )     (48,153 )

Financing activities

     42,183       32,316       12,117  

Effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents

     207       (59 )     157  
                        

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

   $ 28,882     $ (263 )   $ (5,564 )
                        

 

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Operating Activities

For the year ended December 31, 2006, cash flow from operations of $99.8 million exceeded our net income of $72.0 million for two primary reasons:

 

  1) Our net income included substantial non-cash charges in the form of stock compensation, taxes, and depreciation and amortization of long-lived assets. These non-cash charges totaled $56.0 million.

 

  2) We experienced rapid growth in our business with revenues increasing 64% in 2006. This growth requires investment in working capital, particularly accounts receivable and inventory. Our net investment in working capital and other operating assets totaled $28.2 million.

Working capital is comprised primarily of accounts receivable, inventory, deferred revenue and other current liabilities. Accounts receivable increased $41.9 million or 79% in 2006 reflecting increased revenue and the timing of system sales. Inventory increased $9.0 million or 60% in 2006, slightly less than increased volume. Deferred revenue, which includes deferred service contract revenue that is being amortized over the service contract period, increased $11.9 million or 47% in 2006, which is primarily related to the increase in the number of installed systems for which service contracts exist. Other current liabilities including accounts payable, accrued compensation and employee benefits, and accrued liabilities increased $11.0 million or 33% in 2006. Other accrued liabilities fluctuate with changes in the volume of our business and the timing of vendor payments.

For the year ended December 31, 2005, cash flow from operations of $70.8 million was less than our net income of $94.1 million for two primary reasons:

 

  1) we recorded a one-time deferred tax benefit of $22.2 million (see Note 8 of the Notes to the Financial Statements). This benefit was non-cash.

 

  2) we experienced rapid growth in our business with revenues increasing 64% in 2005. This growth requires investment in working capital, particularly accounts receivable and inventory. Our net investment in working capital and other operating assets totaled $9.7 million.

For the year ended December 31, 2004, cash flow from operations of $30.3 million was greater than our net income of $23.5 million primarily due to non-cash charges for depreciation and amortization of long-lived assets.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities during the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004 consisted primarily of purchases in investments (net of proceeds from sales and maturities of investments) of $95.3 million, $72.3 million and $25.7 million, respectively, and purchases of property and equipment and licensing of patents of $18.1 million, $31.0 million and $22.4 million, respectively. Our investments are in U.S. government notes and bonds, corporate notes and bonds, commercial paper and auction rate securities, and generated approximately 4.3% interest in 2006. We are not a capital-intensive business. Our purchases of property and equipment in 2006 related mainly to facilities and information technology infrastructure to support capacity expansion in our business. The purchases of property and equipment in 2005 and 2004 related mainly to the purchase of our facilities in Sunnyvale.

Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities in 2006 consisted primarily of proceeds from stock options and warrants exercises of $19.1 million and excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation of $23.0 million. Net cash flows provided by financing activities in 2005 and 2004 consisted primarily of proceeds from stock options and warrants exercises of $32.9 million and $13.2 million, respectively.

 

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Effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents

The positive effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents in 2006 and 2004 was due to the weakening of the U.S. dollar during those periods against other foreign currencies, primarily the Euro. The negative effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents in 2005 was due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar during that period against other foreign currencies, primarily the Euro.

Our capital requirements depend on numerous factors, including market acceptance of our products, the resources we devote to developing and supporting our products and other factors. We expect to devote substantial capital resources to continue our research and development efforts, to expand our customer support and product development activities and for other general corporate activities. During 2006, we experienced significant business expansion. We increased revenue by 64%, invested in new facilities, upgraded our information technology systems, and increased our headcount by 34%. In this high growth year, we generated $72.0 million of net income, which represented the major driver of the net cash provided by operating activities in 2006. Based upon our business model, we anticipate that we will continue to be able to fund future growth through cash provided from operations. We believe that our current cash, cash equivalents and investments balances, together with income to be derived from the sale of our products, will be sufficient to meet our liquidity requirements for the foreseeable future.

Contractual Obligations and Commercial Commitments

As of December 31, 2006, we had approximately $2.0 million of operating lease commitments, net of sublease income, half of which is due within one year and the other half due by December 2009. We also have purchase obligations of approximately $55.0 million, representing an estimate of all open purchase orders and contractual obligations in the ordinary course of business, including commitments with contract manufacturers and suppliers, for which we have not received the goods or services. A majority of these purchase obligations are due within a year. Although open purchase orders are considered enforceable and legally binding, the terms generally allow us the option to cancel, reschedule, and adjust our requirements based on our business needs prior to the delivery of goods or performance of services.

Off-Balance-Sheet Arrangements

As of December 31, 2006, we did not have any significant off-balance-sheet arrangements, as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of SEC Regulation S-K 40.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP, which requires us to make judgments, estimates and assumptions. Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, included in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, describes our significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. The accounting policies described below are significantly affected by critical accounting estimates. Such accounting policies require significant judgments, assumptions, and estimates used in the preparation of consolidated financial statements, and actual results could differ materially from the amounts reported based on these policies.

Revenue recognition. We frequently enter into revenue arrangements with customers that contain multiple elements or deliverables such as system, services, and training. Judgments as to the allocation of the proceeds received from an arrangement to the multiple elements of the arrangement, the determination of whether any undelivered elements are essential to the functionality of the delivered elements and the appropriate timing of revenue recognition are critical in respect to these arrangements to ensure compliance with GAAP. Changes to the elements in an arrangement and the ability to establish objective and reliable evidence of fair value for those elements could affect the timing of revenue recognition. Revenue recognition also depends on the timing of

 

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shipment and is subject to customer acceptance. If shipments are not made on scheduled timelines or if the products are not accepted by the customer in a timely manner, our reported revenues may differ materially from expectations.

Allowance for sales returns and doubtful accounts. We record estimated reductions in revenue for potential returns of products by customers and other allowances. As a result, management must make estimates of potential future product returns and other allowances related to current period product revenue. In making such estimates, management analyzes historical returns, current economic trends and changes in customer demand and acceptance of our products. If management were to make different judgments or utilize different estimates, material differences in the amount of reported revenue could result.

Similarly, management makes estimates of the uncollectibility of accounts receivables, especially analyzing accounts receivable and historical bad debts, customer concentrations, customer credit-worthiness, current economic trends and changes in customer payment terms, when evaluating the adequacy of the allowance for doubtful accounts. Credit evaluations are undertaken for all major sale transactions before shipment is authorized. On a quarterly basis, we evaluate aged items in the accounts receivable aging report and provide allowance in an amount we deem adequate for doubtful accounts. If management were to make different judgments or utilize different estimates, material differences in the amount of our reported operating expenses could result.

Inventory valuation. Inventory is stated at the lower of cost or market, with cost determined on a first-in, first-out basis. The carrying value of inventory is reduced for estimated obsolescence by the difference between its cost and the estimated market value based upon assumptions about future demand. We evaluate the inventory carrying value for potential excess and obsolete inventory exposures by analyzing historical and anticipated demand. If actual future demand or market conditions are less favorable than those projected by management, additional inventory write-downs may be required in the future, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Accounting for stock options. We account for stock-based compensation in accordance with the fair value recognition provisions of SFAS 123(R). We use the Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model which requires the input of highly subjective assumptions. These assumptions include estimating the length of time employees will retain their vested stock options before exercising them, the estimated volatility of the our common stock price over the expected term and the number of options that will ultimately not complete their vesting requirements. Changes in the subjective assumptions can materially affect the estimate of fair value of stock-based compensation and, consequently, the related amount recognized on the consolidated statements of operations.

Impairment of long-lived assets. We evaluate the recoverability of our long-lived assets in accordance with SFAS 144, “Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets .” When events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of long-lived assets may not be recoverable, we recognize such impairment in the event the net book value of such assets exceeds the future undiscounted cash flows attributable to such assets.

We have intangible assets on our balance sheet related to the acquisition of Computer Motion, Inc. and the acquisition of other patents. The valuation and classification of these assets and the assignment of useful amortization lives involves judgments and the use of estimates. The evaluation of these intangibles for impairment under established accounting guidelines is required on a recurring basis. Changes in business conditions could potentially require future adjustments to asset valuations. We conducted the required intangible assets impairment review during the fourth quarter of 2006. No impairment charge was recorded for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004. A considerable amount of judgment is required in calculating this impairment charge, principally in determining market premiums and financial forecasts. Should conditions be different from management’s current estimates, material write-downs of long-lived assets may be required, which would adversely affect our operating results.

 

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Goodwill. We have goodwill on our balance sheet relating to the acquisition of Computer Motion, Inc. Goodwill is recorded as the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of the net tangible and intangible assets acquired. We perform goodwill impairment tests on an annual basis and more frequently if certain indicators are present. In the event we determine that goodwill has been impaired, we will record an accounting charge for the impairment during the fiscal quarter in which the determination is made. In the fourth quarter of 2006, we performed our assessment of whether there was an indication that goodwill was impaired at December 31, 2006. The quoted market price of our common stock was used to determine fair value for the impairment purpose. Our market capitalization continues to support the fair value of our reporting unit. We completed the goodwill impairment tests and determined that the goodwill was not impaired at December 31, 2006. A considerable amount of judgment is required in calculating this impairment charge, principally in determining the reporting units. Should conditions be different from management’s current estimates, material write-downs of goodwill may be required, which would adversely affect our operating results.

Accounting for income taxes. Significant management judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes, deferred tax assets and liabilities and any valuation allowance recorded against net deferred tax assets in accordance with SFAS No. 109, “ Accounting for Income Taxes”. Beginning fourth quarter of 2005, we released our valuation allowance as we believed that it was more likely than not that we would be able to utilize our deferred tax assets. Management had concluded, based upon operating results, expectations of future taxable income, carryforward periods available to us, and other factors, that it is more likely than not that we will realize sufficient earnings to utilize our deferred tax assets.

As part of the process of preparing our consolidated financial statements, we are required to estimate our income taxes. This process involves estimating our actual current tax exposure together with assessing temporary differences that may result in deferred tax assets and liabilities. Management’s judgment is required in determining any valuation allowance recorded against our deferred tax assets. Any such valuation allowance would be based on management estimates of taxable income and the period over which our deferred tax assets would be recoverable.

RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

See Note 2 under “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for a full description of recent accounting pronouncements including the respective expected dates of adoption and effects on results of operations and financial condition.

 

ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

Interest Rate Risk

The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal while at the same time maximizing the income we receive from our investments without significantly increasing risk. To achieve this objective, we maintain our portfolio of cash equivalents and short-term and long-term investments in a variety of securities, including government and corporate securities and money market funds. These securities are classified as available for sale and consequently are recorded on the balance sheet at fair value with unrealized gains or losses reported as a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). All investments mature within approximately 1.3 years from the date of purchase. Our holdings of the securities of any one issuer, except government agencies, do not exceed 10% of the portfolio. If interest rates rise, the market value of our investments may decline, which could result in a realized loss if we are forced to sell an investment before its scheduled maturity. A hypothetical increase in interest rate by 25 basis points would have resulted in a decrease in the fair value of our net investment position of approximately $0.6 million and $0.4 million as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively. We do not utilize derivative financial instruments to manage our interest rate risks.

 

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Foreign Exchange Risk

The majority of our revenue, expense, and capital purchasing activities are transacted in U.S. dollars. However, since a portion of our operations consists of sales activities outside of the United States, we have entered into transactions in other currencies, primarily the Euro. Our foreign operations also incur most of their expenses in the local currency. For the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004, sales denominated in foreign currencies were 8%, 9% and 8%, respectively, of total revenue. Our international operations are subject to risks typical of international operations, including, but not limited to, differing economic conditions, changes in political climate, differing tax structures, other regulations and restrictions, and foreign exchange rate volatility. An adverse change in exchange rates by 10% for the Euro as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, would have resulted in an adverse impact on income before taxes of approximately $1.9 million and $1.0 for the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively.

 

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Financial Statements

Index To Consolidated Financial Statements

 

Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

   48

Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2006 and 2005

   50

Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004

   51

Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004

   52

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004

   53

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

   54

Schedule II—Valuation and Qualifying Accounts

   74

All other schedules have been omitted because they are not applicable or the required information is shown in the Consolidated Financial Statements or the Notes thereto.

 

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

The Board of Directors and Stockholders of Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2006. Our audits also included the financial statement schedule listed in the index at Item 15(a). These financial statements and schedule are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and schedule based on our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. at December 31, 2006 and 2005, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2006, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also, in our opinion, the related financial statement schedule, when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole, presents fairly in all material respects, the information set forth therein.

As discussed in Note 7 to the consolidated financial statements, in fiscal year 2006, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. changed its method of accounting for stock-based compensation in accordance with guidance provided in Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123(R), “Share-Based Payment”.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the effectiveness of Intuitive Surgical, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 14, 2007 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

/S/ ERNST & YOUNG LLP

Palo Alto, California

February 14, 2007

 

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

The Board of Directors and Stockholders of Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

We have audited management’s assessment, included in Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (the COSO criteria). Intuitive Surgical, Inc.’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on management’s assessment and an opinion on the effectiveness of the company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, evaluating management’s assessment, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

In our opinion, management’s assessment that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006, is fairly stated, in all material respects, based on the COSO criteria. Also, in our opinion, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated balance sheets of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2006 and the financial statement schedule listed in the index at Item 15(a) and our report dated February 14, 2007, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

/S/ ERNST & YOUNG LLP

Palo Alto, California

February 14, 2007

 

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INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE AND PER SHARE AMOUNTS)

 

     December 31,  
     2006    2005  
ASSETS      

Current assets:

     

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 34,390    $ 5,508  

Short-term investments

     205,353      123,679  

Accounts receivable, net of allowances of $1,978 and $1,591 at December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively

     94,680      52,849  

Inventory

     24,295      15,170  

Prepaids and other assets

     6,328      6,450  

Deferred tax assets

     9,405      4,999  
               

Total current assets

     374,451      208,655  

Property, plant and equipment, net

     59,939      52,225  

Long-term investments

     90,553      73,552  

Long-term deferred tax asset

     22,272      35,759  

Intangible assets, net

     5,814      5,353  

Goodwill

     118,240      124,638  

Other assets

     521      1,405  
               

Total assets

   $ 671,790    $ 501,587  
               
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY      

Current liabilities:

     

Accounts payable

   $ 11,092    $ 7,950  

Accrued compensation and employee benefits

     21,091      14,997  

Deferred revenue

     36,559      25,313  

Other accrued liabilities

     11,925      9,727  
               

Total current liabilities

     80,667      57,987  

Long-term liabilities

     1,418      1,009  

Commitments and contingencies

     —        —    

Stockholders’ equity:

     

Preferred stock, 2,500,000 shares authorized, $0.001 par value, issuable in series; no shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively

     —        —    

Common stock, 100,000,000 shares authorized, $0.001 par value, 37,093,263 and 36,187,910 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively

     37      36  

Additional paid-in capital

     537,943      465,021  

Retained earnings (accumulated deficit)

     51,020      (20,989 )

Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

     705      (1,477 )
               

Total stockholders’ equity

     589,705      442,591  
               

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

   $ 671,790    $ 501,587  
               

See accompanying notes.

 

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INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS)

 

     Year Ended December 31,
     2006    2005     2004

Revenue:

       

Products

   $ 317,599    $ 192,417     $ 116,338

Services

     55,083      34,921       22,465
                     

Total revenue

     372,682      227,338       138,803

Cost of revenue:

       

Products

     97,615      58,357       40,472

Services

     27,231      15,412       10,341
                     

Total cost of revenue

     124,846      73,769       50,813
                     

Gross profit

     247,836      153,569       87,990
                     

Operating costs and expenses:

       

Selling, general and administrative

     110,703      67,443       48,994

Research and development

     29,778      17,354       17,812
                     

Total operating costs and expenses

     140,481      84,797       66,806
                     

Income from operations

     107,355      68,772       21,184

Interest and other income, net

     12,783      5,035       3,020
                     

Income before income taxes

     120,138      73,807       24,204

Income tax expense (benefit)

     48,094      (20,327 )     726
                     

Net income

   $ 72,044    $ 94,134     $ 23,478
                     

Net income per common share:

       

Basic

   $ 1.96    $ 2.68     $ 0.70
                     

Diluted

   $ 1.89    $ 2.51     $ 0.67
                     

Shares used in computing basic and diluted net income per common share:

       

Basic

     36,737      35,070       33,693
                     

Diluted

     38,093      37,488       34,976
                     

 

See accompanying notes.

 

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INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE AMOUNTS)

 

    Common
Stock
  Stock
Amount
  Additional
Paid-In
Capital
  Deferred
Compensation
    Retained
Earnings
(Accumulated
Deficit)
    Treasury
Stock
    Stock
Amount
    Accumulated
Other
Comprehensive
Income (Loss)
    Total  

Balances at December 31, 2003

  33,051,631   $ 33   $ 416,559   $ (99 )   $ (138,414 )   —       $ —       $ 878     $ 278,957  

Issuance of common stock upon exercise of options and warrants, and under stock purchase plan

  1,183,164     1     13,368     —         —       —         —         —         13,369  

Income tax benefit from stock option exercises

  —       —       387     —         —       —         —         —         387  

Repurchase of common stock

  —       —       —       —         —       (4,461 )     (136 )     —         (136 )

Stock Compensation

  —       —       48     —         —       —         —         —         48  

Amortization of deferred compensation

  —       —       —       99       —       —         —         —         99  

Comprehensive income:

                 

Change in unrealized gain (loss) on available-for-sale securities

  —       —       —       —         —       —         —         (1,367 )     (1,367 )

Change in foreign currency translation adjustments

  —       —       —       —         —       —         —         97       97  

Net income

  —       —       —       —         23,478     —         —         —         23,478  
                       

Comprehensive income

                    22,208  
                                                             

Balances at December 31, 2004

  34,234,795   $ 34   $ 430,362   $ —       $ (114,936 )   (4,461 )   $ (136 )   $ (392 )   $ 314,932  

Issuance of common stock upon exercise of options and warrants, and under stock purchase plan, net

  1,953,115     2     32,973     —         (187 )   —         —         —         32,788  

Income tax benefit from stock option exercises

  —       —       1,686     —         —       —         —         —         1,686  

Retirement of common stock

  —       —       —       —         —       4,461       136       —         136  

Comprehensive income:

                 

Change in unrealized gain (loss) on available-for-sales securities

  —       —       —       —         —       —         —         (1,134 )     (1,134 )

Change in foreign currency translation adjustments

  —       —       —       —         —       —         —