Jabil Circuit, Inc.

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 periods that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No o

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. o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes þ No o

The aggregate market value of the voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant based on the closing sale price of the Common Stock as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on February 27, 2004 was approximately $4.6 billion. For purposes of this determination, shares of Common Stock held by each officer and director and by each person who owns 10% or more of the outstanding Common Stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes. The number of outstanding shares of the Registrant’s Common Stock as of the close of business on October 15, 2004, was 201,501,195. The Registrant does not have any non-voting stock outstanding.

The Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on January 20, 2005 is incorporated by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein.

References in this report to “the Company”, “Jabil”, “we”, “our”, or “us” mean Jabil Circuit, Inc. together with its subsidiaries, except where the context otherwise requires. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, 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, and are made in reliance upon the protections provided by such acts for forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements (such as when we describe what “will”, “may” or “should” occur, what we “plan”, “intend”, “estimate”, “believe”, “expect” or “anticipate” will occur, and other similar statements) include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future sales and operating results, future prospects, anticipated benefits of proposed (or future) acquisitions and new facilities, growth, the capabilities and capacities of business operations, any financial or other guidance and all statements that are not based on historical fact, but rather reflect our current expectations concerning future results and events. We make certain assumptions when making forward-looking statements, any of which could prove inaccurate, including, but not limited to, statements about our future operating results and business plans. The ultimate correctness of these forward-looking statements is dependent upon a number of known and unknown risks and events, and is subject to various uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. The following important factors, among others, could affect future results and events, causing those results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements: business conditions and growth in our customers’ industries, the electronic manufacturing services industry and the general economy, variability of operating results, our dependence on a limited number of major customers, the potential consolidation of our customer base, availability of components, dependence on certain industries, seasonality, variability of customer requirements, our ability to successfully negotiate definitive agreements and consummate acquisitions, and to integrate operations following consummation of acquisitions, our ability to take advantage of our past restructuring efforts to improve utilization and realize savings, other economic, business and competitive factors affecting our customers, our industry and business generally and other factors that we may not have currently identified or quantified. For a further list and description of various risks, relevant factors and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, see the “Factors Affecting Future Results” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections contained elsewhere in this document.

All forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are made only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or which we hereafter become aware of. You should read this document and the documents that we incorporate by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We may not update these forward-looking statements, even if our situation changes in the future. All forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.

We are one of the leading worldwide independent providers of electronic manufacturing services (“EMS”). We design and manufacture electronic circuit board assemblies and systems for major original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) in the aerospace, automotive, computing, consumer, defense, instrumentation, medical, networking, peripherals, storage and telecommunications industries. We serve our customers with dedicated work cell business units that combine high volume, highly automated, continuous flow manufacturing with advanced electronic design and design for manufacturability technologies. Our largest customers currently include Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”), Hewlett-Packard Company (“HP”),

International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”), Lucent Technologies, Inc. (“Lucent”), Marconi Communications plc (“Marconi”), NEC Corporation (“NEC”), Nokia Corporation, Quantum Corporation (“Quantum”), Royal Philips Electronics (“Philips”) and Valeo S.A. (“Valeo”). For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2004, we had net revenues of approximately $6.3 billion and net income of $166.9 million.

We offer our customers significant turnkey EMS solutions that are responsive to their outsourcing needs. Our work cell business units are capable of providing our customers with varying combinations of the following services:


	•	integrated design and engineering;

	•	component selection, sourcing and procurement;

	•	automated assembly;

	•	design and implementation of product testing;

	•	parallel global production;

	•	enclosure services;

	•	systems assembly and direct order fulfillment; and

	•	repair and warranty.

We currently conduct our operations in facilities that are located in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, England, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, Ukraine and the United States. Our parallel global production strategy provides our customers with the benefits of improved supply-chain management, reduced inventory obsolescence, lowered transportation costs and reduced product fulfillment time.

Our principal executive offices are located at 10560 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33716, and our telephone number is (727) 577-9749. Our website is located at http://www.jabil.com. Through a link on the “Investors” section of our website, we make available the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”): our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All such filings are available free of charge. Information contained in our website, whether currently posted or posted in the future, is not a part of this document or the documents incorporated by reference in this document. We were incorporated in Delaware in 1992.

The EMS industry is composed of companies that provide a range of manufacturing services for OEMs. The EMS industry experienced rapid change and growth over most of the past decade as an increasing number of OEMs have chosen to outsource an increasing portion, and, in some cases, all of their manufacturing requirements. In mid-2001, the EMS industry’s revenue declined as a result of significant cut-backs in customer production requirements, which was consistent with the overall global economic downturn at that time. Industry revenues have slowly increased over the last year as customer production requirements generally began to stabilize and OEMs continue to turn to outsourcing versus internal manufacturing. We believe further growth opportunities exist for EMS providers to penetrate the worldwide electronics markets. Factors driving OEMs to favor outsourcing to EMS providers include:


	•	Reduced Product Cost. EMS providers are able to manufacture products at a reduced total cost to OEMs. These cost advantages result from higher utilization of capacity because of diversified product demand and, typically, a higher sensitivity to elements of cost.


	•	Accelerated Product Time-to-Market and Time-to-Volume. EMS providers are often able to deliver accelerated production start-ups and achieve high efficiencies in transferring new products into production. EMS providers are also able to rapidly scale production for changing markets and to position themselves in global locations that serve the leading world markets. With increasingly shorter product life cycles, these key services allow new products to be sold in the marketplace in an accelerated time frame.

	•	Access to Advanced Design and Manufacturing Technologies. Customers of EMS providers may gain access to additional advanced technologies in manufacturing processes, as well as product and production design. Product and production design services may offer customers significant improvements in the performance, cost, time-to-market and manufacturability of their products.

	•	Improved Inventory Management and Purchasing Power. EMS providers are able to manage both procurement and inventory, and have demonstrated proficiency in purchasing components at improved pricing due to the scale of their operations and continuous interaction with the materials marketplace.

	•	Reduced Capital Investment in Manufacturing. OEMs are increasingly seeking to lower their investment in inventory, facilities and equipment used in manufacturing in order to allocate capital to other activities such as sales and marketing, and research and development (“R&D”). This shift in capital deployment has placed a greater emphasis on outsourcing to external manufacturing specialists.

We are focused on expanding our position as one of the leading global EMS providers to major OEMs. To achieve this objective, we continue to pursue the following strategies:


	•	Establish and Maintain Long-Term Customer Relationships. Our core strategy is to establish and maintain long-term relationships with leading OEMs in expanding industries with the size and growth characteristics that can benefit from highly automated, continuous flow manufacturing on a global scale. Over the last two years, we have made concentrated efforts to diversify our industry sectors and customer base. As a result, we have experienced business growth from existing customers and from new customers as a result of organic business wins. Additionally, our acquisitions have meaningfully contributed to our business growth. We focus on maintaining long-term relationships with our customers and seek to expand these relationships to include additional product lines and services. In addition, we have a focused effort to identify and develop relationships with new customers who meet our profile.

	•	Utilize Work Cell Business Units. Most of our work cell business units are dedicated to one customer and operate with a high level of autonomy, utilizing dedicated production equipment, production workers, supervisors, buyers, planners and engineers. We believe our work cell business units promote increased responsiveness to our customers’ needs, particularly as a customer relationship grows to multiple production locations. Under certain circumstances, a work cell may include more than one customer in order to maximize resource utilization.

	•	Expand Parallel Global Production. Our ability to produce the same product on a global scale is a significant requirement of our customers. We believe that parallel global production is a key strategy to reduce obsolescence risk and secure the lowest landed costs while simultaneously supplying products of equivalent or comparable quality throughout the world. Consistent with this strategy, we have established or acquired operations in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, England, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Singapore and Ukraine to increase our European, Asian and Latin American presence.

	•	Offer Systems Assembly and Direct Order Fulfillment. Our systems assembly and direct order fulfillment services allow our customers to reduce product cost and risk of product obsolescence by


		reducing total work-in-process and finished goods inventory. These services are available at all of our manufacturing locations.

	•	Pursue Selective Acquisition Opportunities. OEMs have continued to divest internal manufacturing operations to EMS providers. In many of these situations, the OEM enters into a customer relationship with the EMS provider that acquires the operations. Our acquisition strategy is focused on obtaining OEM, repair and/or design operations that complement our geographic footprint and diversify our business into new industry sectors, while providing opportunities for long-term outsourcing relationships. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We may not achieve expected profitability from our acquisitions.”

In order to achieve high levels of manufacturing performance, we have adopted the following approaches:


	•	Work Cell Business Units. Most of our work cell business units are dedicated to one customer and are empowered to formulate strategies tailored to its customer’s needs. Each work cell business unit has dedicated production lines consisting of equipment, production workers, supervisors, buyers, planners and engineers. Work cell business units have direct responsibility for manufacturing results and time-to-volume production, promoting a sense of individual commitment and ownership. The work cell business unit approach is modular and enables us to grow incrementally without disrupting the operations of other work cell business units. Under certain circumstances, a work cell may include more than one customer in order to maximize resource utilization.

	•	Business Unit Management. Our Business Unit Managers coordinate all financial, manufacturing and engineering commitments for each of our customers at a particular manufacturing facility. Our Business Unit Directors oversee local Business Unit Managers and coordinate on a worldwide basis all financial, manufacturing and engineering commitments for each of our customers that have global production requirements. Jabil’s Business Unit Management has the authority, within high-level parameters set by executive management, to develop customer relationships, make design strategy decisions and production commitments, establish pricing, and implement production and electronic design changes. Business Unit Managers and Directors are also responsible for assisting customers with strategic planning for future products, including developing cost and technology goals. These Managers and Directors operate autonomously, within high-level parameters set by executive management, with responsibility for the development of customer relationships and direct profit and loss accountability for work cell business unit performance.

	•	Continuous Flow. We use a highly automated, continuous flow approach where different pieces of equipment are joined directly or by conveyor to create an in-line assembly process. This process is in contrast to a batch approach, where individual pieces of assembly equipment are operated as freestanding work-centers. The elimination of waiting time prior to sequential operations results in faster manufacturing, which improves production efficiencies and quality control, and reduces inventory work-in-process. Continuous flow manufacturing provides cost reductions and quality improvement when applied to volume manufacturing.

	•	Computer Integration. We support all aspects of our manufacturing activities with advanced computerized control and monitoring systems. Component inspection and vendor quality are monitored electronically in real-time. Materials planning, purchasing, stockroom and shop floor control systems are supported through a computerized Manufacturing Resource Planning system, providing customers with a continuous ability to monitor material availability and track work-in-process on a real-time basis. Manufacturing processes are supported by a real-time, computerized statistical process control system, whereby customers can remotely access our computer systems to monitor real-time yields, inventory positions, work-in-process status and vendor quality data. See “Technology” and “Factors Affecting Future Results — Any delay in the implementation of our information systems could disrupt our operations and cause unanticipated increases in our cost.”


	•	Supply Chain Management. We make available an electronic commerce system/electronic data interchange and web-based tools for our customers and suppliers to implement a variety of supply chain management programs. Most of our customers utilize these tools to share demand and product forecasts and deliver purchase orders. We use these tools with most of our suppliers for just-in-time delivery, supplier-managed inventory and consigned supplier-managed inventory.

We offer a wide spectrum of value-add design services for products that we manufacture for our customers. We provide these services to enhance our relationships with current customers and to help develop relationships with new customers. We offer the following design services:


	•	Electronic Design. Our electronic design team provides electronic circuit design services, including application-specific integrated circuit design and firmware development. These services have been used to develop a variety of circuit designs for cellular telephone accessories, notebook and personal computers, servers, radio frequency products, video set-top boxes, optical communications products, personal digital assistants, communication broadband products, and automotive and consumer appliance controls.

	•	Industrial Design Services. Our industrial design team assists in designing the “look and feel” of the plastic and metal enclosures that house printed circuit board (“PCB”) assemblies and systems.

	•	Mechanical Design. Our mechanical engineering design team specializes in three-dimensional design and analysis of electronic and optical assemblies using state of the art modeling and analytical tools. The mechanical team has extended Jabil’s product offering capabilities to include all aspects of industrial design, advance mechanism development and tooling management. The mechanical team is staffed to support Jabil customers for all development projects, including turnkey system design and design for manufacturing activities.

	•	Computer Assisted Design. Our computer assisted design (“CAD”) team provides PCB design and other related services. These services include PCB design services using advanced CAD/computer assisted engineering tools, PCB design testing and verification services, and other consulting services, which include the generation of a bill of materials, approved vendor list and assembly equipment configuration for a particular PCB design. We believe that our CAD services result in PCB designs that are optimized for manufacturability and cost, and accelerate the time-to-market and time-to-volume production.

	•	Product Solutions. The goal of our Product Solutions group is to make us more profitable by pairing with our OEM partners and collaborating on new product designs. Product Solutions is a launching pad for new technologies and concepts in specific growth areas. This team provides system-based solutions to engineering problems and challenges.

Our design centers are located in: Vienna, Austria; Hasselt, Belgium; Shanghai and Huangpu, China; St. Petersburg, Florida; Tokyo, Japan; Penang, Malaysia; Auburn Hills, Michigan; and Livingston, Scotland. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We may not be able to maintain our engineering, technological and manufacturing process expertise.”

As we increase our efforts to offer design services, we are exposed to different or greater potential liabilities than those we face from our regular manufacturing services. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — Our increasing design services offerings may increase our exposure to product liability, intellectual property infringement and other claims.”

We offer systems assembly, test and direct order fulfillment services to our customers. Our systems assembly services extend our range of assembly activities to include assembly of higher-level sub-systems and systems incorporating multiple PCBs. We maintain systems assembly capacity to meet the increasing

demands of our customers. In addition, we provide testing services, based on quality assurance programs developed with our customers, of the PCBs, sub-systems and systems products that we manufacture. Our quality assurance programs include circuit testing under various environmental conditions to try to ensure that our products meet or exceed required customer specifications. We also offer direct order fulfillment services for delivery of final products we assemble for our customers.

As an extension of our manufacturing model and an enhancement to our total global solution, we offer repair services from strategic hub locations. Jabil repair centers also provide warranty services to certain of our manufacturing customers. We have the ability to service our OEM partners’ products following completion of the traditional manufacturing and fulfillment process.

Our repair centers are located in: Sao Paulo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Coventry, England; St. Petersburg, Florida; Szombathely, Hungary; Dublin, Ireland; Marcianise, Italy; Louisville, Kentucky; Penang, Malaysia; Reynosa, Mexico; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Memphis, Tennessee.

We believe that our manufacturing and testing technologies are among the most advanced in the industry. Through our R&D efforts, we intend to continue to offer our customers among the most advanced high volume, continuous flow manufacturing process technologies. These technologies include surface mount technology, high-density ball grid array, chip scale packages, flip chip/direct chip attach, advanced chip-on-board, thin substrate processes, reflow solder of mixed technology circuit boards, lead-free processing, densification, radio frequency process optimization and other testing and emerging interconnect technologies. In addition to our R&D activities, we are continuously making refinements to our existing manufacturing processes in connection with providing manufacturing services to our customers. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We may not be able to maintain our engineering, technological and manufacturing process expertise.”

To meet our customers’ increasingly sophisticated needs, we continually engage in R&D activities. These efforts consist of design of the circuit board assembly, mechanical design and the related production design necessary to manufacture the circuit board assembly in the most cost-effective and reliable manner. Additional R&D efforts have focused on new optical, test engineering, radio frequency and wireless failure analysis technologies. We are also engaged in the R&D of new reference designs including network infrastructure systems, handset convergent devices, wireless and broadband access products, consumer products and storage products.

For fiscal years 2004, 2003 and 2002, we expended $13.8 million, $9.9 million and $7.9 million, respectively, on R&D activities. To date, substantially all of our R&D expenditures have related to internal R&D activities.

Our core strategy is to establish and maintain long-term relationships with leading OEMs in expanding industries with the size and growth characteristics that can benefit from highly automated, continuous flow manufacturing on a global scale. A small number of customers and significant industry sectors have historically comprised a major portion of our revenue, net of estimated product return costs (“net revenue”). The table below sets forth the respective portion of net revenue for the applicable period attributable to our customers who individually accounted for approximately 10% or more of our net revenue in any respective period:

Our net revenue was distributed over the following significant industry sectors for the periods indicated:

In fiscal year 2004, 40 customers accounted for more than 93% of our net revenue. We expect to continue to depend upon a relatively small number of customers for a significant percentage of our net revenue. As illustrated in the two tables above, the historic percentages of net revenue we have received from specific customers or significant industry sectors have varied substantially from year to year. Accordingly, these historic percentages are not necessarily indicative of the percentage of net revenue that we may receive from any customer or industry sector in the future. In the past, some of our customers have terminated their manufacturing arrangements with us or have significantly reduced or delayed the volume of manufacturing services ordered from us. We cannot provide assurance that present or future customers will not terminate their manufacturing arrangements with us or significantly change, reduce or delay the amount of manufacturing services ordered from us. If they do, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — Because we depend on a limited number of customers, a reduction in sales to any one of our customers could cause a significant decline in our revenue” and Note 9 — “Concentration of Risk and Segment Data” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

We have made concentrated efforts to diversify our industry sectors and customer base through acquisitions and organic growth. Our Business Unit Managers and Directors, supported by executive management, work to expand existing customer relationships through additional product lines and services. These individuals also identify and attempt to develop relationships with new customers who meet our

profile. This profile includes financial stability, need for technology-driven turnkey manufacturing, anticipated unit volume and long-term relationship stability. Unlike traditional sales managers, our Business Unit Managers and Directors are responsible for ongoing management of production for their customers.

A key element of our strategy is to provide localized production of global products for OEMs in the major consuming regions of the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Consistent with this strategy, we have established or acquired manufacturing and/or repair facilities in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, England, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, and Ukraine. In addition, sales offices have been established in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the Netherlands.

Our European facilities located in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, and Ukraine, target existing European customers, North American customers with significant sales in Europe, and potential European customers who meet our customer profile.

Our Asian facilities, located in China, India, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, enable us to provide local manufacturing services and a more competitive cost structure in the Asian market; and serve as a low cost manufacturing source for new and existing customers in the global market.

Our Latin American facilities, located in Mexico and Brazil, enable us to provide a low cost manufacturing source for new and existing customers.

See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from our international operations, which may be subject to a number of risks and often require more management time and expense to achieve profitability than our domestic operations” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

We have identified our global presence as a key to assessing our business performance. While the services provided, the manufacturing process, the class of customers and the order fulfillment process is similar across manufacturing locations, we evaluate our business performance on a geographic basis. Accordingly, our operating segments consist of four geographic regions — the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America — to reflect how we manage our business. See Note 9 — “Concentration of Risk and Segment Data” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

The EMS industry is highly competitive. We compete against numerous domestic and international manufacturers, including Celestica, Inc., Flextronics International, Hon-Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., Sanmina — SCI Corporation and Solectron Corporation. In addition, we may in the future encounter competition from other large electronic manufacturers that are selling, or may begin to sell, electronic manufacturing services. Most of our competitors have international operations, significant financial resources and some have substantially greater manufacturing, R&D and marketing resources than we do. We also face potential competition from the manufacturing operations of our current and potential customers, who are continually evaluating the merits of manufacturing products internally against the advantages of outsourcing to EMS providers.

In addition, in recent years, original design manufacturer (“ODM”) companies that provide design and manufacturing services to OEMs, have significantly increased their share of outsourced manufacturing services provided to OEMs in markets such as notebook and desktop computers, personal computer motherboards, and consumer electronic products. Competition from ODMs may increase if our business in these markets grows or if ODMs expand further into or beyond these markets.

We believe that the primary basis of competition in our targeted markets is manufacturing capability, price, manufacturing quality, advanced manufacturing technology, design expertise, time-to-volume production, reliable delivery and regionally dispersed manufacturing. Management believes we currently compete favorably with respect to these factors. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We compete with numerous EMS providers and others, including our current and potential customers who may decide to manufacture all of their products internally.”

Our order backlog at August 31, 2004 was approximately $1.8 billion, compared to backlog of $1.3 billion at August 31, 2003. Although our backlog consists of firm purchase orders, the level of backlog at any particular time is not necessarily indicative of future sales. Given the nature of our relationships with our customers, we frequently allow our customers to cancel or reschedule deliveries, and therefore, backlog is not a meaningful indicator of future financial results. Although we may seek to negotiate fees to cover the costs of such cancellations or rescheduling, we may not always be successful in such negotiations. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — Most of our customers do not commit to long-term production schedules, which makes it difficult for us to schedule production and achieve maximum efficiency of our manufacturing capacity.”

Production levels for our consumer and automotive industry sectors are subject to seasonal influences. We may realize greater net revenue during our first fiscal quarter, which includes a majority of the holiday selling season.

We procure components from a broad group of suppliers, determined on an assembly-by-assembly basis. Almost all of the products we manufacture require one or more components that are ordered from only one source, and most assemblies require components that are available from only a single source. Some of these components are allocated in response to supply shortages. We attempt to ensure continuity of supply of these components. In cases where unanticipated customer demand or supply shortages occur, we attempt to arrange for alternative sources of supply, where available, or defer planned production to meet the anticipated availability of the critical component. In some cases, supply shortages may substantially curtail production of assemblies using a particular component. In addition, at various times there have been industry wide shortages of electronic components, particularly of memory and logic devices. We cannot assure you that such shortfalls, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations in the future. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We depend on a limited number of suppliers for components that are critical to our manufacturing processes. A shortage of these components or an increase in their price could interrupt our operations and reduce our profits.”

We regard our manufacturing processes and electronic designs as proprietary intellectual property. To protect our proprietary rights, we rely largely upon a combination of trade secret laws; non-disclosure agreements with our customers, employees, and suppliers; our internal security systems; confidentiality procedures and employee confidentiality agreements. Although we take steps to protect our intellectual property, misappropriation may still occur. Historically, patents have not played a significant role in the protection of our proprietary rights. Nevertheless, we currently have a relatively small number of solely owned and jointly held patents in various technology areas, and we believe that our evolving business practices and industry trends may result in a growth of our patent portfolio and its importance to us, particularly as we expand our business activities. Other important factors include the knowledge and experience of our management and personnel and our ability to develop, enhance and market manufacturing services. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — Generally, we do not have employment agreements with any of our key personnel, the loss of which could hurt our operations.”

We license some technology from third parties that we use in providing manufacturing and design services to our customers. We believe that such licenses are generally available on commercial terms from a number of licensors. Generally, the agreements governing such technology grant us non-exclusive, worldwide licenses with respect to the subject technology and terminate upon a material breach by us.

We believe that our electronic designs and manufacturing processes do not infringe on the proprietary rights of third parties. However, if third parties assert valid infringement claims against us with respect to past, current or future designs or processes, we could be required to enter into an expensive royalty arrangement, develop non-infringing designs or processes, or engage in costly litigation.

As of October 8, 2004, we had approximately 34,000 full-time employees, compared to approximately 26,000 full-time employees at October 13, 2003. The increase is primarily due to the addition of employees to satisfy increased customer demand requirements. None of our domestic employees are represented by a labor union. In certain international locations, our employees are represented by labor unions and by works councils. We have never experienced a significant work stoppage or strike and we believe that our employee relations are good.

The information regarding net revenue; segment income and reconciliation of income before income taxes; and property, plant and equipment set forth in Note 9 — “Concentration of Risk and Segment Data” to the Consolidated Financial Statements, is hereby incorporated by reference into this Part I, Item 1.

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign environmental regulations relating to the use, storage, discharge and disposal of hazardous chemicals used during our manufacturing process. Although we believe that we are currently in substantial compliance with all material environmental regulations, any failure to comply with present and future regulations could subject us to future liabilities or the suspension of production. In addition, such regulations could restrict our ability to expand our facilities or could require us to acquire costly equipment or to incur other significant expense to comply with environmental regulations. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — Compliance or the failure to comply with current and future environmental regulations could cause us significant expense.”

Executive officers are appointed by the Board of Directors and serve at the discretion of the Board. Each executive officer is a full-time employee of Jabil. There are no family relationships among our executive officers and directors.

Forbes I.J. Alexander (age 44) was named Chief Financial Officer in September 2004. Alexander joined Jabil in 1993 as Controller of Jabil’s Scotland facility and was promoted to Assistant Treasurer in April 1996. Alexander was Treasurer from November 1996 to August 2004. Prior to joining Jabil, Alexander was Financial Controller of Tandy Electronics European Manufacturing Operations in Scotland and has held various financial positions with Hewlett Packard and Apollo Computer. Alexander is a Fellow at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He holds a B.A. in Accounting from Dundee College, Scotland.

Scott Brown (age 42) was named Executive Vice President in November 2002. Brown joined Jabil as a Project Manager in November 1988 and was promoted to Vice President, Corporate Development in September 1997. Brown has served as Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning since November 2000. Prior to joining Jabil, Brown was a financial consultant with Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Michel Charriau (age 62) was named Chief Operating Officer — Europe in December 2002. Prior to joining Jabil, Charriau was Executive Vice President of Philips Consumer Electronics and the Chief Executive Officer of Philips Contract Manufacturing Services, both divisions of Philips. Charriau joined Philips in 1969 with its Semiconductor Division in France after graduating from Ecole Centrale de Lille with a degree in Engineering. Charriau held several executive positions with Philips, including Chief Purchasing Officer of Consumer Electronics and Chief Operating Officer of Car Systems in Germany.

Meheryar “Mike” Dastoor (age 38) was named Controller in June 2004. Dastoor joined Jabil in 2000 as Regional Controller — Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Jabil, Dastoor was a Regional Financial Controller for Inchcape PLC. Dastoor joined Inchcape in 1993. He holds a degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Bombay. Dastoor is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Wesley “Butch” Edwards (age 52) was named Senior Vice President, Strategic Operations in November 2000. Edwards joined Jabil as Manufacturing Manager of Jabil’s Michigan facility in July 1988 and was promoted to Operations Manager of the Florida facility in July 1989. Edwards was named Vice President, Operations in May 1994 and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Operations in August 1996. He holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Florida.

John Lovato (age 44) was named Senior Vice President for Europe in September 2004. Lovato joined Jabil in 1990 as a Business Unit Manager, served as General Manager of Jabil’s California facility and in 1999 was named Vice President, Global Business Units. Lovato was then named Senior Vice President, Business Development in November 2002. Before joining Jabil, Lovato held positions at Texas Instruments. He holds a B.S. in Electronics Engineering from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

Timothy L. Main (age 47) has served as Chief Executive Officer of Jabil since September 2000, as President since January 1999 and as a director since October 1999. He joined Jabil in April 1987 as a Production Control Manager, was promoted to Operations Manager in September 1987, to Project Manager in July 1989, to Vice President Business Development in May 1991, and to Senior Vice President, Business Development in August 1996. Prior to joining Jabil, Main was a commercial lending officer, international division for the National Bank of Detroit. Main has earned a B.S. from Michigan State University and Master of International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

Joseph A. McGee (age 42) was named Senior Vice President, Global Business Development in September 2004. McGee joined Jabil in 1993 as a Business Unit Manager at Jabil Scotland and has served as Director of Business Development, Jabil Malaysia and General Manager, Jabil California. Since October 2000, McGee has served as Vice President, Global Business Units. Prior to joining Jabil, McGee held positions with Sun Microsystems and Philips. McGee earned a PhD in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and holds an MBA from the University of Glasgow.

Mark Mondello (age 40) was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in November 2002. Mondello joined Jabil in 1992 as Production Line Supervisor and was promoted to Project Manager in 1993. Mondello was named Vice President, Business Development in 1997 and served as Senior Vice President, Business Development from January 1999 through November 2002. Prior to joining Jabil, Mondello served as project manager on commercial and defense-related aerospace programs for Moog, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Florida.

William D. Muir, Jr. (age 36) was named Senior Vice President, Regional President for Asia in September 2004. Muir joined Jabil in 1992 as a Quality Engineer and has served in various management positions including Senior Director of Operations for Jabil Florida, Michigan, Guadalajara and Chihuahua; was promoted to Vice President, Operations — Americas in February 2001 and was named Vice President, Global Business Units in November 2002. In 1992, Muir earned a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Florida.

Robert L. Paver (age 48) joined Jabil as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in 1997. Prior to working for Jabil, Paver was a practicing attorney with the law firm of Holland & Knight in St. Petersburg, Florida. Paver has served as an adjunct professor of law at Stetson University College of Law since 1985. He holds a B.A. from the University of Florida and a J.D. from Stetson University College of Law.

William E. Peters (age 41) was named Senior Vice President, Regional President for the Americas in September 2004. Peters joined Jabil in 1990 as a buyer, was promoted to Purchasing Manager and in 1993 was named Operations Manager for Jabil’s Michigan facility. Peters served as Vice President, Operations from January 1999 and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Operations in November 2000. Prior to joining Jabil, Peters was a financial analyst for Electronic Data Systems. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Michigan State University.

Courtney J. Ryan (age 35) was named Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain in September 2004. Ryan joined Jabil in 1993 as a Quality Engineer and has held various managerial positions, including Workcell Manager, Business Unit Manager, Operations Manager and served as a Vice President, Operations — Europe since February 2001. Ryan holds a B.S. in Economics and an MBA from the University of Florida.

We have manufacturing, repair, design and support operations located in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, England, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, Ukraine and the United States. As part of our restructuring programs described in Note 13 — “Restructuring and Impairment Charges” to the Consolidated Financial Statements, certain of our facilities are no longer used in our business operations, as identified in the tables below. The table below lists the locations and square footage for our facilities as of August 31, 2004:


(1)	A portion of this facility is no longer used in our business operations.

(2)	This facility is no longer used in our business operations.

(3)	This facility is no longer used in our business operations and has been subleased to an unrelated third party.

Our principal manufacturing facilities are ISO certified to ISO 9001:2000 standards and are also certified to ISO-14001 environmental standards. Following are additional certifications that are held by certain of our facilities as listed:


	•	Aerospace Standard AS9100 rev. A — Billerica, Massachusetts and St. Petersburg, Florida

	•	Automotive Standard TS16949 — Auburn Hills, Michigan; Chihuahua, Mexico; Meung-sur-Loire, France; Tiszaujvaros, Hungary; and Vienna, Austria

	•	Medical Standard 13485 — Auburn Hills, Michigan and Livingston, Scotland

	•	Telecommunications Standard TL 9000/3.0 — Auburn Hills, Michigan; Chihuahua, Mexico; Penang, Malaysia; San Jose, California; Shanghai, China; and St. Petersburg, Florida

We are party to certain lawsuits in the ordinary course of business. We do not believe that these proceedings, individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

No matters were submitted to a vote of our stockholders during the fourth quarter covered by this report.

Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “JBL.” The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices per share for our common stock as reported on the New York Stock Exchange for the fiscal periods indicated.

On October 15, 2004, the closing sales price for our common stock as reported on the New York Stock Exchange was $23.49. As of October 15, 2004, there were 3,628 holders of record of our common stock.

We have never paid cash dividends on our capital stock and do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Additionally, certain covenants in our financing agreements restrict the payment of cash dividends. We are in compliance with the covenants in our financing agreements as of August 31, 2004.

Information regarding equity compensation plans is incorporated by reference to the information set forth in Item 12 of Part III of this report.

The following selected data are derived from our consolidated financial statements. This data should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto incorporated into Item 8, and with Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. The historical information set forth below has been restated to reflect the September 1999 merger with GET Manufacturing, Inc. (“GET”), which was accounted for as a pooling of interests.


(1)	During 2004, we recorded acquisition-related charges of $1.3 million ($1.0 million after-tax) primarily in connection with the acquisitions of certain operations of Philips and NEC. We also recorded a loss of $6.4 million ($4.0 million after-tax) on the write-off of unamortized issuance costs associated with our convertible subordinated notes, which were retired in May 2004.

(2)	During 2003, we recorded acquisition-related charges of $15.3 million ($9.8 million after-tax) in connection with the acquisitions of certain operations of Quantum, Alcatel, Valeo, Lucent, Seagate, Philips and NEC. We also recorded charges of $85.3 million ($60.7 million after-tax) related to the restructuring of our business during the fiscal year. We also recorded $2.6 million ($1.6 million after-tax) of other income related to proceeds received in connection with facility closure costs.

(3)	During 2002, we recorded acquisition-related charges of $7.6 million ($4.8 million after-tax) in connection with the acquisition of certain operations of Marconi, Compaq Computer Corporation, Alcatel and Valeo. We also recorded charges of $52.1 million ($40.2 million after-tax) related to the restructuring of our business during the fiscal year.

(4)	During 2001, we recorded charges of $6.6 million ($4.1 million after-tax) related to the acquisition of certain manufacturing facilities of Marconi. We also recorded charges of $27.4 million ($21.6 million after-tax) related to restructuring of our business and other non-recurring charges during our fiscal year.

(5)	During 2000, we recorded additional acquisition-related charges of $5.2 million ($4.7 million after-tax) in connection with the merger with GET.

(6)	Gives effect to two-for-one stock splits in the form of 100% stock dividends to stockholders of record on March 23, 2000.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, 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, and are made in reliance upon the protections provided by such acts for forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements (such as when we describe what “will”, “may” or “should” occur, what we “plan”, “intend”, “estimate”, “believe”, “expect” or “anticipate” will occur, and other similar statements) include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future sales and operating results, future prospects, anticipated benefits of proposed (or future) acquisitions and new facilities, growth, the capabilities and capacities of business operations, any financial or other guidance and all statements that are not based on historical fact, but rather reflect our current expectations concerning future results and events. We make certain assumptions when making forward-looking statements, any of which could prove inaccurate, including, but not limited to, statements about our future operating results and business plans. The ultimate correctness of these forward-looking statements is dependent upon a number of known and unknown risks and events, and is subject to various uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. The following important factors, among others, could affect future results and events, causing those results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements: business conditions and growth in our customers’ industries, the electronic manufacturing services industry and the general economy, variability of operating results, our dependence on a limited number of major customers, the potential consolidation of our customer base, availability of components, dependence on certain industries, seasonality, variability of customer requirements, our ability to successfully negotiate definitive agreements and consummate acquisitions, and to integrate operations following consummation of acquisitions, our ability to take advantage of our past restructuring efforts to improve utilization and realize savings, other economic, business and competitive factors affecting our customers, our industry and business generally and other factors that we may not have currently identified or quantified. For a further list and description of various risks, relevant factors and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, see the “Factors Affecting Future Results” section contained elsewhere in this document.

We are one of the leading worldwide independent providers of electronic manufacturing services (“EMS”). We design and manufacture electronic circuit board assemblies and systems for major original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) in the aerospace, automotive, computing, consumer, defense, instrumentation, medical, networking, peripherals, storage and telecommunications industries. The historical growth of the overall EMS industry, which subsided in early to mid-2001 consistent with the overall global economic downturn at that time, was driven by the increasing number of OEMs who were outsourcing their manufacturing requirements. We anticipate that this industry outsourcing trend will continue during the next several years.

We derive most of our net revenue under purchase orders from OEM customers. We recognize revenue, net of estimated product return costs, when goods are shipped, title and risk of ownership have passed, the price to the buyer is fixed or determinable and recoverability is reasonably assured. The volume and timing of orders placed by our customers vary due to several factors, including: variation in demand

for our customers’ products; our customers’ attempts to manage their inventory; electronic design changes; changes in our customers’ manufacturing strategies; and acquisitions of or consolidations among our customers. Demand for our customers’ products depends on, among other things, product life cycles, competitive conditions and general economic conditions.

Our cost of revenue includes the cost of electronic components and other materials that comprise the products we manufacture, the cost of labor and manufacturing overhead, and adjustments for excess and obsolete inventory. As a provider of turnkey manufacturing services, we are responsible for procuring components and other materials. This requires us to commit significant working capital to our operations and to manage the purchasing, receiving, inspection and stocking of materials. Although we bear the risk of fluctuations in the cost of materials and excess scrap, we periodically negotiate cost of materials adjustments with our customers. Net revenue from each product that we manufacture consists of an element based on the costs of materials in that product and an element based on the labor and manufacturing overhead costs allocated to that product. We refer to the portion of the sales price of a product that is based on materials costs as “material-based revenue,” and to the portion of the sales price of a product that is based on labor and manufacturing overhead costs as “manufacturing-based revenue.” Our gross margin for any product depends on the mix between the cost of materials in the product and the cost of labor and manufacturing overhead allocated to the product. We typically realize higher gross margins on manufacturing-based revenue than we do on materials-based revenue. As we gain experience in manufacturing a product, we usually achieve increased efficiencies, which result in lower labor and manufacturing overhead costs for that product.

Our operating results are impacted by the level of capacity utilization of manufacturing facilities; indirect labor; and selling, general and administrative expenses. Operating income margins have generally improved during periods of high production volume and high capacity utilization. During periods of low production volume, we generally have idle capacity and reduced operating income margins. As our capacity has grown during recent years through the construction of new greenfield facilities, the expansion of existing facilities and our acquisition of additional facilities, our selling, general and administrative expenses have increased to support this growth.

We have consistently utilized advanced circuit design, production design and manufacturing technologies to meet the needs of our customers. To support this effort, our engineering staff focuses on developing and refining design and manufacturing technologies to meet specific needs of specific customers. Most of the expenses associated with these customer-specific efforts are reflected in our cost of revenue. In addition, our engineers engage in R&D of new technologies that apply generally to our operations. The expenses of these R&D activities are reflected in the “Research and Development” line item in our Consolidated Financial Statements.

An important element of our strategy is the expansion of our global production facilities. The majority of our revenue and materials costs worldwide are denominated in U.S. dollars, while our labor and utility costs in plants outside the United States are denominated in local currencies. We hedge these local currency costs, based on our evaluation of the potential exposure as compared to the cost of the hedge, through the purchase of foreign exchange contracts. Changes in the fair market value of such hedging instruments are included in other comprehensive income. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We are subject to risks of currency fluctuations and related hedging operations” and Note 1(n) — “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Comprehensive Income” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

We currently depend, and expect to continue to depend, upon a relatively small number of customers for a significant percentage of our net revenue. A significant reduction in sales to any of our large customers or a customer exerting significant pricing and margin pressures on us would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. In the past, some of our customers have terminated their manufacturing arrangements with us or have significantly reduced or delayed the volume of manufacturing services ordered from us. There can be no assurance that present or future customers will not terminate their manufacturing arrangements with us or significantly change, reduce or delay the amount of manufacturing services ordered from us. Any such termination of a manufacturing relationship or change,

reduction or delay in orders could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — Because we depend on a limited number of customers, a reduction in sales to any one of our customers could cause a significant decline in our revenue” and Note 9 — “Concentration of Risk and Segment Data” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Net revenue for fiscal year 2004 increased 32 percent to $6.3 billion compared to $4.7 billion for fiscal year 2003. Our sales levels during fiscal year 2004 improved across all industry sectors, demonstrating our continued trend of industry sector and customer diversification. The increase in our net revenue base year-over-year represents stronger demand from existing programs, as well as organic growth from new and existing customers.

The following table sets forth, for the fiscal year ended August 31, certain key operating results and other financial information (in thousands, except per share data).

Management regularly reviews financial and non-financial performance indicators to assess the Company’s operating results. The following table sets forth, for the quarterly periods indicated, certain of management’s key financial performance indicators.

The sales cycle is calculated as the sum of days in accounts receivable and days in inventory, less the days in accounts payable; accordingly, the variance in the sales cycle quarter over quarter is a direct result of changes in these indicators. Days in accounts receivable have increased three days during the three months ended August 31, 2004 primarily as a result of timing of sales. The days in accounts receivable for

the three months ended May 31, 2004 decreased two days primarily as a result of improved collection efforts during that quarter. The accounts receivable securitization program entered into in February 2004 also contributed one day to the decrease for the three months ended May 31, 2004. This securitization program was also the primary reason for the significant decrease in days in accounts receivable during the three months ended February 29, 2004. Days in inventory and inventory turns have remained constant during the three months ended August 31, 2004. The five-day decrease in days in inventory during the three months ended May 31, 2004 was primarily a result of increased emphasis on inventory management and resulted in the one-day increase in inventory turns for that period. Days in accounts payable have increased three days during the three months ended August 31, 2004 primarily as a result of the timing of inventory purchases and payments of accounts payable.

The preparation of our financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and judgments that affect our reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions based upon historical experience and various other factors and circumstances. Management believes that our estimates and assumptions are reasonable under the circumstances; however, actual results may vary from these estimates and assumptions under different future circumstances. We have identified the following critical accounting policies that affect the more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. For further discussion of our significant accounting policies, refer to Note 1 — “Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

We derive revenue principally from the product sales of electronic equipment built to customer specifications. We also derive revenue to a lesser extent from repair services, design services and excess inventory sales. Revenue from product sales and excess inventory sales is recognized, net of estimated product return costs, when goods are shipped; title and risk of ownership have passed; the price to the buyer is fixed or determinable; and recoverability is reasonably assured. Service related revenues are recognized upon completion of the services. We assume no significant obligations after product shipment.

We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts related to receivables not expected to be collected from our customers. This allowance is based on management’s assessment of specific customer balances, considering the age of receivables and financial stability of the customer. If there is an adverse change in the financial condition of our customers, or if actual defaults are higher than provided for, an addition to the allowance may be necessary.

We purchase inventory based on forecasted demand and record inventory at the lower of cost or market. Management regularly assesses inventory valuation based on current and forecasted usage and other lower of cost or market considerations. If actual market conditions or our customers’ product demands are less favorable than those projected, additional valuation adjustments may be necessary.

We review property, plant and equipment for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. Recoverability of property, plant and equipment is measured by comparing its carrying value to the projected cash flows the property, plant and equipment are expected to generate. If such assets are considered to be impaired, the

impairment to be recognized is measured as the amount by which the carrying value of the property exceeds its fair market value. The impairment analysis is based on significant assumptions of future results made by management, including revenue and cash flow projections. Circumstances that may lead to impairment of property, plant and equipment include unforeseen decreases in future performance or industry demand and the restructuring of our operations resulting from a change in our business strategy.

We have recorded intangible assets, including goodwill, principally based on third-party valuations, in connection with business acquisitions. Estimated useful lives of amortizable intangible assets are determined by management based on an assessment of the period over which the asset is expected to contribute to future cash flows. The allocation of amortizable intangible assets impacts the amounts allocable to goodwill. In accordance with SFAS 142, we are required to perform a goodwill impairment test at least on an annual basis and whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable from estimated future cash flows. We completed the annual impairment test during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004 and determined that no impairment existed as of the date of the impairment test. The impairment test is performed at the reporting unit level, which we have determined to be consistent with our operating segments as defined in Note 9 — “Concentration of Risk and Segment Data” to the Consolidated Financial Statements. The impairment analysis is based on assumptions of future results made by management, including revenue and cash flow projections at the reporting unit level. Circumstances that may lead to impairment of goodwill or intangible assets include unforeseen decreases in future performance or industry demand, and the restructuring of our operations resulting from a change in our business strategy. For further information on our intangible assets, including goodwill, refer to Note 4 — “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

We have recognized restructuring and impairment charges related to reductions in workforce, re-sizing and closure of facilities and the transition of certain facilities into new customer development sites. These charges were recorded pursuant to formal plans developed and approved by management. The recognition of restructuring and impairment charges requires that we make certain judgments and estimates regarding the nature, timing and amount of costs associated with these plans. The estimates of future liabilities may change, requiring additional restructuring and impairment charges or the reduction of liabilities already recorded. At the end of each reporting period, we evaluate the remaining accrued balances to ensure that no excess accruals are retained and the utilization of the provisions are for their intended purpose in accordance with the restructuring programs. For further discussion of our restructuring programs, refer to Note 13 — “Restructuring and Impairment Charges” to the Consolidated Financial Statements and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Results of Operations — Restructuring and Impairment Charges.”

We have pension and postretirement benefit costs and liabilities, which are developed from actuarial valuations. Actuarial valuations require management to make certain judgments and estimates of discount rates and return on plan assets. We evaluate these assumptions on a regular basis taking into consideration current market conditions and historical market data. The discount rate is used to state expected future cash flows at a present value on the measurement date. This rate represents the market rate for high-quality fixed income investments. A lower discount rate increases the present value of benefit obligations and increases pension expense. When considering the expected long-term rate of return on pension plan assets, we take into account current and expected asset allocations, as well as historical and expected returns on plan assets. Other assumptions include demographic factors such as retirement, mortality and turnover. For further discussion of our pension and postretirement benefits, refer to Note 7 — “Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

We estimate our income tax provision in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate, a process that includes estimating exposures related to examinations by taxing authorities. We must also make judgments regarding the ability to realize our net deferred tax assets. The carrying value of our net deferred tax assets are based on our belief that it is more likely than not that we will generate sufficient future taxable income in certain jurisdictions to realize these deferred tax assets. A valuation allowance has been established for deferred tax assets that we do not believe meet the “more likely than not” criteria established by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 109, Accounting for Income Taxes. Our judgments regarding future taxable income may change due to changes in market conditions, changes in tax laws or other factors. If our assumptions and consequently our estimates change in the future, the valuation allowances we have established may be increased or decreased, resulting in a respective increase or decrease in income tax expense. For further discussion related to our income taxes, refer to Note 6 — “Income Taxes” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, certain operating data as a percentage of net revenue:

Fiscal Year Ended August 31, 2004 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended August 31, 2003

Net Revenue. Our net revenue increased 32.2% to $6.3 billion for fiscal year 2004, up from $4.7 billion in fiscal year 2003. The increase was due to increased sales levels across all industry sectors. Specific increases include a 61% increase in the sale of consumer products; a 134% increase in the sale of instrumentation and medical products; a 15% increase in the sale of networking products; an 18% increase in the sale of automotive products; a 10% increase in the sale of computing and storage products; a 10% increase in the sale of peripheral products; and a 6% increase in the sale of telecommunications products. The increased sales levels were due to the addition of new customers, acquisitions and organic growth in these industry sectors. The increase in the consumer industry sector was primarily attributable to the acquisition of certain operations of Philips during fiscal year 2003. The increase in the instrumentation

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, revenue by industry sector expressed as a percentage of net revenue. The distribution of revenue across our industry sectors has fluctuated, and will continue to fluctuate, as a result of numerous factors, including but not limited to the following: increased business from new and existing customers; fluctuations in customer demand; seasonality, especially in the automotive and consumer industry sectors; and increased growth in the automotive, consumer, and instrumentation and medical products industry sectors as more vertical OEMs are electing to outsource their production in these areas.

Foreign source revenue represented 84.6% of our net revenue for fiscal year 2004 and 80.7% of net revenue for fiscal year 2003. The increase in foreign source revenue was primarily attributable to incremental revenue resulting from our acquisitions in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, China, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland and Singapore during fiscal year 2003. We expect our foreign source revenue to continue to increase as a percentage of total net revenue.

Gross Profit. Gross profit decreased to 8.6% of net revenue in fiscal year 2004 from 9.2% in fiscal year 2003. The percentage decrease was primarily due to a higher portion of materials-based revenue (driven in part by growth in the consumer industry sector), combined with the continued shift of production to lower cost regions. The mix of value-add based revenue from our acquisitions also contributed to the decrease.

Additionally, we have been awarded a significant amount of new business during fiscal year 2004. The level of activity required to integrate new business into our factories typically has a slightly dilutive impact on gross profit during the initial period of production where certain costs are incurred before any corresponding increase in revenues might occur. As production for the new business increases, the contribution to gross profit typically increases. The percentage decrease in gross profit for fiscal year 2004 versus fiscal year 2003 was partially offset by cost reductions realized from our restructuring activities in previous fiscal years.

In absolute dollars, gross profit for fiscal year 2004 increased $102.9 million versus fiscal year 2003 due to the increased revenue base.

Selling, General and Administrative. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to $263.5 million (4.2% of net revenue) in fiscal year 2004 from $243.7 million (5.2% of net revenue) in fiscal year 2003. The absolute dollar increase was primarily attributable to operations acquired during fiscal year 2003 and to operations in facilities for which construction was completed during fiscal year 2003. These increases were partially offset by $1.2 million of quarterly cost reductions realized from our restructuring activities. The decrease as a percentage of net revenue was due primarily to the increased revenue base in fiscal year 2004 and the cost reductions realized from our restructuring activities.

R&D. R&D expenses in fiscal year 2004 increased to $13.8 million from $9.9 million in fiscal year 2003 but remained at 0.2% of net revenue for each of the fiscal years ended August 31, 2004 and 2003. We continued to engage in R&D activities at our historical levels. These activities included design of circuit board assemblies and the related production process; development of new products and products associated with customer design-related programs; and new failure analysis techniques.

Amortization of Intangibles. We recorded $43.7 million of amortization of intangibles in fiscal year 2004 as compared to $36.9 million in fiscal year 2003. The increase was attributable to acquired amortizable intangible assets resulting from our acquisitions consummated in fiscal year 2003. For additional information regarding purchased intangibles, see “Acquisitions and Expansion” below, Note 1(f) — “Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets”, Note 4 — “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets” and Note 12 — “Business Acquisitions” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Acquisition-related Charges. During fiscal year 2004, we incurred $1.3 million in acquisition-related charges in connection with the acquisitions of certain operations of Philips and NEC. During fiscal year 2003, we incurred $15.3 million in acquisition-related charges in connection with the acquisitions of certain operations of Quantum, Alcatel, Valeo, Lucent, Seagate, Philips and NEC. See Note 12 — “Business Acquisitions” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Restructuring and Impairment Charges. There were no restructuring and impairment charges incurred during fiscal year 2004. During fiscal year 2003, we continued a restructuring program to reduce our cost structure and further align our manufacturing capacity with geographic production demands of our customers. This restructuring program resulted in restructuring and impairment charges of $85.3 million for fiscal year 2003.

As of August 31, 2004, liabilities related to our restructuring activities totaled approximately $10.7 million. Approximately $5.9 million of this total is expected to be paid out within the next twelve months for severance and benefit payments related to the remaining restructuring activities and lease commitment costs. The remaining balance, consisting of lease commitment costs, is expected to be paid out through August 31, 2006.

As a result of the restructuring activities completed through August 31, 2003, we realized a cumulative cost savings of approximately $24.0 million during fiscal year 2004. This cost savings consisted of $19.2 million reduction in cost of revenue due to a reduction in employee payroll and benefit expense of $11.6 million and $7.6 million in depreciation expense, and $4.8 million reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses.

The restructuring programs discussed above and in Note 13 — “Restructuring and Impairment Charges” to the Consolidated Financial Statements have allowed us to align our production capacity and shift our geographic footprint to meet current customer requirements. As a result, particularly in light of emerging increases in customer demand, we currently have no plans for additional material restructuring activities. However, we continuously evaluate our operations and cost structure relative to general economic conditions, market demands and cost competitiveness, and our geographic footprint as it relates to our customers’ production requirements. A change in any of these factors could result in additional restructuring and impairment charges in the future.

Other Loss (Income). During fiscal year 2004, we recorded a $6.4 million loss on the write-off of unamortized debt issuance costs, which resulted from the redemption of our convertible subordinated notes in May 2004. See Note 5 — “Notes Payable, Long-Term Debt and Long-Term Lease Obligations” to the Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion of the redemption. During fiscal year 2003, we recorded $2.6 million of other income related to proceeds received in the first quarter of fiscal year 2003 in connection with facility closure costs.

Interest Income. Interest income increased to $7.2 million in fiscal year 2004 from $6.9 million in fiscal year 2003. The increase was primarily due to higher average cash balances, partially offset by lower interest yields on cash deposits and short-term investments.

Interest Expense. Interest expense increased to $19.4 million in fiscal year 2004, from $17.0 million in fiscal year 2003. This increase was primarily a result of the issuance of our $300.0 million, seven-year, 5.875% senior notes in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003, which are effectively converted to a variable rate by our interest rate swap. This increase was partially offset by the redemption of our 1.75% convertible subordinated notes in May 2004. See Note 5 — “Notes Payable, Long-Term Debt and Long-Term Lease Obligations” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Income Taxes. Income tax expense reflects an effective tax rate of 15.5% for fiscal year 2004, as compared to an income tax benefit of 16.4% for fiscal year 2003. The tax rate is predominantly a function of the mix of tax rates in the various jurisdictions in which we do business. The amount of restructuring charges recorded during fiscal year 2003, and the fact that the income taxes associated with the restructuring charges were calculated using the effective tax rates in the jurisdictions in which those charges were incurred, resulted in an income tax benefit in the prior fiscal year. In addition, as the proportion of our income derived from foreign sources has increased, our effective tax rate, excluding the impact of restructuring charges, has decreased. Our international operations have historically been taxed at a lower rate than in the United States, primarily due to tax incentives, including tax holidays, granted to our sites in Malaysia, China, Brazil, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary that expire at various dates through 2012. Such tax holidays are subject to conditions with which we expect to continue to comply. See Note 6 — “Income Taxes” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Fiscal Year Ended August 31, 2003 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended August 31, 2002

Net Revenue. Our net revenue increased 33.4% to $4.7 billion for fiscal year 2003, up from $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2002. The increase was primarily due to a 218% increase in production of consumer products, an 80% increase in production of instrumentation and medical products, a 72% increase in production of automotive products, a 54% increase in production of computing and storage products and a 4% increase in production of networking products due to the addition of new customers, acquisitions and organic growth in those industry sectors. The increase in the consumer industry sector was primarily due to the acquisition of certain operations of Philips during fiscal year 2003. These increases were offset in part by an 18% decrease in production of telecommunications products due to reduced demand in this industry sector.

Foreign source revenue represented 80.7% of our net revenue for fiscal year 2003 and 60.6% of net revenue for fiscal year 2002. The increase in foreign source revenue was primarily attributable to incremental revenue resulting from our acquisitions in France and Scotland during late fiscal year 2002, and our acquisitions in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, China, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland and Singapore during fiscal year 2003.

Gross Profit. Gross profit decreased slightly to 9.2% in fiscal year 2003 from 9.4% in fiscal year 2002 primarily due to a decrease in the portion of manufacturing-based revenue and the mix of value-add based revenue from our acquisitions, partially offset by cost reductions realized from our restructuring activities.

Selling, General and Administrative. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to $243.7 million (5.2% of net revenue) in fiscal year 2003 from $203.8 million (5.7% of net revenue) in fiscal year 2002. The absolute dollar increase was primarily attributable to operations acquired in late fiscal year 2002 and fiscal year 2003 and to operations in facilities for which construction was completed during fiscal year 2003. The decrease as a percentage of net revenue was due primarily to the increased revenue base in fiscal year 2003.

R&D. R&D expenses in fiscal year 2003 increased to $9.9 million from $7.9 million in fiscal year 2002 but remained at 0.2% of net revenue for each of the fiscal years ended August 31, 2003 and 2002. Despite the economic conditions faced in the respective time period, we continued to engage in R&D activities, including design of circuit board assemblies and the related production process, development of new products and new failure analysis techniques at our historical levels.

Amortization of Intangibles. We recorded $36.9 million of amortization of intangibles in fiscal year 2003 as compared to $15.1 million in fiscal year 2002. The increase was attributable to acquired amortizable intangible assets resulting from our acquisitions in late fiscal year 2002 and fiscal year 2003. For additional information regarding purchased intangibles, see “Acquisitions and Expansion” below, Note 1(f) — “Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets”, Note 4 — “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets” and Note 12 — “Business Acquisitions” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Acquisition-related Charges. During fiscal year 2003, we incurred $15.3 million in acquisition-related charges in connection with the acquisitions of certain operations of Quantum, Alcatel, Valeo, Lucent, Seagate, Philips and NEC. See Note 12 — “Business Acquisitions” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Restructuring and Impairment Charges. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2003, we initiated a restructuring program to reduce our cost structure and further align our manufacturing capacity with customer geographic requirements. This restructuring program resulted in restructuring and impairment charges of $85.3 million for fiscal year 2003. These restructuring and impairment charges included cash costs totaling $47.7 million consisting of employee severance and benefits costs of approximately $29.9 million, costs related to lease commitments of approximately $14.9 million and other restructuring costs of $2.9 million. Non-cash costs of approximately $37.6 million represent fixed asset impairment charges related to our restructuring activities. As of August 31, 2003, liabilities of $12.9 million related to these restructuring activities were expected to be paid out within the next twelve months and liabilities of $8.8 million were expected to be paid out through August 31, 2006.

The employee severance and benefit costs included in our restructuring and impairment costs recorded in fiscal year 2003 were related to the elimination of approximately 2,300 employees, the majority of which were engaged in direct and indirect manufacturing activities in manufacturing facilities in the United States and Europe. Lease commitment costs consisted primarily of future lease payments for facilities vacated because of the closure and consolidation of facilities in the United States. The fixed asset impairment charge resulted from the closure of our Boise, Idaho and Coventry, England facilities, as well as a realignment of our worldwide capacity due to the restructuring activities carried out during fiscal year 2003. The production from the Boise location was transferred to other existing locations during fiscal year 2003. The transfer of production from the Coventry location began during the second quarter of fiscal year 2003 and was substantially completed during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003. For additional information regarding restructuring costs, see Note 13 — “Restructuring and Impairment Charges” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Interest Income. Interest income decreased to $6.9 million in fiscal year 2003 from $9.8 million in fiscal year 2002 reflecting lower interest yields on cash deposits and short-term investments.

Interest Expense. Interest expense increased to $17.0 million in fiscal year 2003, from $13.1 million in fiscal year 2002, primarily as a result of borrowings under our revolving credit facilities during the year, imputed interest related to the Philips acquisitions and the issuance of the $300.0 million, seven-year, 5.875% senior notes in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003. See Note 5 — “Notes Payable, Long-Term Debt and Long-Term Lease Obligations” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Income Taxes. We recognized an effective income tax benefit of 16.4% in fiscal year 2003, as compared to an effective income tax rate of 22.4% in fiscal year 2002. The tax rate is a function of the mix of the effective tax rates in the tax jurisdictions in which our restructuring charges were incurred, and the mix of domestic versus international income from operations. The amount of restructuring charges recorded during fiscal year 2003, and the fact that the income taxes associated with the restructuring charges were calculated using the effective tax rates in the jurisdictions in which those charges were incurred, resulted in an income tax benefit. In addition, as the proportion of our income derived from foreign sources has increased, our effective tax rate has decreased as our international operations have historically been taxed at a lower rate than in the United States, primarily due to tax holidays granted to

The following table sets forth certain unaudited quarterly financial information for the 2004 and 2003 fiscal years. In the opinion of management, this information has been presented on the same basis as the audited consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere, and all necessary adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) have been included in the amounts stated below to present fairly the unaudited quarterly results when read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto. The operating results for any quarter are not necessarily indicative of results for any future period.

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, certain financial information stated as a percentage of net revenue:

We have made a number of acquisitions that were accounted for using the purchase method of accounting. Our consolidated financial statements include the operating results of each business from the date of acquisition. See “Factors Affecting Future Results — We may not achieve expected profitability from our acquisitions.” For further discussion of our acquisitions, see Note 12 — “Business Acquisitions” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

At August 31, 2004, we had cash and cash equivalent balances totaling $621.3 million, total notes payable, long-term debt and capital lease obligations of $309.6 million and $405.5 million available for borrowings under our revolving credit facilities and accounts receivable securitization program.

The following table sets forth, for the fiscal year ended August 31, selected consolidated cash flow information (in thousands):

Net cash provided by operating activities for fiscal year 2004 was $451.2 million. This consisted primarily of $166.9 million of net income, $221.7 million of depreciation and amortization, $198.0 million from increases in accounts payable and accrued expenses and $30.9 million from increases in income taxes payable, offset by increases in inventory of $133.9 million and increases in deferred income taxes of $43.1 million. The increase in inventory was due to increased levels of business during fiscal year 2004 and positioning for estimated future demand. The increase in accounts payable was due to the increase in inventory and timing of purchases near year-end. Additionally, accrued compensation and employee benefits increased over the prior fiscal year due to the increase in number of employees at August 31, 2004.

Net cash used in investing activities of $205.6 million for fiscal year 2004 consisted primarily of our capital expenditures of $217.7 million for construction and equipment worldwide, offset by proceeds from the sale of property and equipment of $13.6 million. Purchases of manufacturing and computer equipment were made to support our ongoing business and to expand certain existing manufacturing locations.

Net cash used in financing activities of $318.4 million for fiscal year 2004 resulted primarily from the redemption of our convertible subordinated notes in May 2004 for $345.0 million and payments on long-term debt and capital lease obligations totaling $2.4 million. These payments were offset slightly by $28.9 million net proceeds from the issuance of common stock under option and employee purchase plans during fiscal year 2004. See Note 5 — “Notes Payable, Long-Term Debt and Long-Term Lease Obligations” and Note 8 — “Stockholders’ Equity” to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

We may need to finance future growth and any corresponding working capital needs with additional borrowings under our revolving credit facilities described below, as well as additional public and private offerings of our debt and equity. During the first quarter of fiscal year 1999, we filed a $750.0 million “shelf” registration statement with the SEC registering the potential sale of debt and equity securities in the future, from time-to-time, to augment our liquidity and capital resources. In June 2000, we sold 13.0 million shares of our common stock pursuant to our “shelf” registration statement, which generated net proceeds of $525.4 million. In August 2000, we increased the amount of securities available to be issued under a shelf registration statement to $1.5 billion.

In May 2001, we issued a total of $345.0 million, 20-year, 1.75% convertible subordinated notes (the “Convertible Notes”) at par, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $337.5 million. The Convertible Notes were issued pursuant to our “shelf” registration statement. The Convertible Notes were to mature on May 15, 2021 and pay interest semiannually on May 15 and November 15. Under the terms of the Convertible Notes, the Note holders had the right to require us to purchase all or a portion of their Convertible Notes on May 15 in the years 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2014 at par plus accrued interest. Additionally, we had the right to redeem all or a portion of the Convertible Notes for cash at any time on or after May 18, 2004. Accordingly, the Convertible Notes were classified as current debt as of August 31, 2003. On May 17, 2004, we paid $70.4 million par value to certain note holders who exercised their right to require us to purchase their Convertible Notes. On May 18, 2004, we paid $274.6 million par value upon exercise of our right to redeem the remaining Convertible Notes outstanding. In addition to the par value of the Convertible Notes, we paid accrued and unpaid interest of approximately $3.1 million to the note holders. As a result of these transactions, we recognized a loss of $6.4 million on the write-off of unamortized issuance costs associated with the Convertible Notes. This loss has been recorded as an other loss in the Consolidated Statement of Earnings for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2004.

In July 2003, we issued a total of $300.0 million, seven-year, 5.875% senior notes (“5.875% Senior Notes”) at 99.803% of par, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $297.2 million. The 5.875% Senior Notes were offered pursuant to our “shelf” registration statement. The 5.875% Senior Notes mature on July 15, 2010 and pay interest semiannually on January 15 and July 15.

Approximately $855.0 million of securities remain registered with the SEC under our shelf registration statement at August 31, 2004.

In July 2003, we entered into an interest rate swap transaction to effectively convert the fixed interest rate of our 5.875% Senior Notes to a variable rate. The swap, which expires in 2010, is accounted for as a fair value hedge under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Certain Hedging Activities (“SFAS 133”). The notional amount of the swap is $300.0 million, which is related to the 5.875% Senior Notes. Under the terms of the swap, we will pay an interest rate equal to the six-month London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) rate, set in arrears, plus a fixed spread of 1.945%. In exchange, we will receive a fixed rate of 5.875%. At August 31, 2004, $5.6 million has been recorded in other long-term liabilities to record the fair value of the interest rate swap, with a corresponding decrease to the carrying value of the 5.875% Senior Notes on the Consolidated Balance Sheet.

On May 28, 2003, we negotiated a six-month, 1.8 billion Japanese Yen (“JPY”) (approximately $15.2 million based on currency exchange rates at the time) credit facility for a Japanese subsidiary with a Japanese bank. Under the terms of the credit facility, interest accrued on outstanding borrowings based on the Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (“TIBOR”) plus a spread of 1.75%. The credit facility was to expire on December 2, 2003 and any outstanding borrowings would then be due and payable. During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003, we borrowed 1.8 billion JPY on this facility. The cash proceeds, which translated to $15.2 million based on foreign currency rates in effect at the date of the borrowing, were used to partially fund the acquisition of certain operations of NEC in Gotemba, Japan. On August 28, 2003, we renegotiated the 1.8 billion JPY credit facility by converting it into a five-year term loan (“Japan Term Loan”), with the final principal payment due May 31, 2008. We pay interest on the Japan Term Loan quarterly at a fixed annual rate of 2.97%. The Japan Term Loan requires quarterly repayments of principal of 105 million JPY. The Japan Term Loan requires compliance with financial and operating covenants including maintaining a minimum equity balance at the respective subsidiary level. We were in compliance with the respective covenants as of August 31, 2004.

On May 28, 2003, we negotiated a six-month, 0.6 billion JPY (approximately $5.5 million based on currency exchange rates at August 31, 2004) credit facility for a Japanese subsidiary with a Japanese bank. The facility was to expire on December 2, 2003. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2004 we renewed this existing facility for a term of one year. Under the terms of the facility, we pay interest on outstanding borrowings based on TIBOR plus a spread of 1.75%. The credit facility expires on December 2, 2004 and any outstanding borrowings are then due and payable. We plan to renew this facility in the first quarter of fiscal year 2005. As of August 31, 2004, there were no borrowings outstanding under this facility.

On July 14, 2003, we amended and revised our then existing three-year, $295.0 million revolving credit facility, cancelled our then existing 364-day, $305.0 million credit facility and established a three-year, $400.0 million unsecured revolving credit facility with a syndicate of banks (the “Amended Revolver”). Under the terms of the Amended Revolver, borrowings can be made under either floating rate loans or Eurodollar rate loans. We pay interest on outstanding floating rate loans at the greater of the agent’s prime rate or 0.50% plus the federal funds rate. We pay interest on outstanding Eurodollar loans at the LIBOR in effect at the loan inception plus a spread of 0.65% to 1.35%. We pay a facility fee based on the committed amount of the Amended Revolver at a rate equal to 0.225% to 0.40%. We also pay a usage fee if our borrowings on the Amended Revolver exceed 33 1/3% of the aggregate commitment. The usage fee rate ranges from 0.125% to 0.25%. The interest spread, facility fee and usage fee are determined based on our general corporate rating or rating of our senior unsecured long-term indebtedness as determined by Standard and Poor’s Rating Service and Moody’s Investor Service. As of August 31, 2004, the interest spread on the Amended Revolver was 1.325%. The Amended Revolver expires on July 14, 2006 and outstanding borrowings are then due and payable. The Amended Revolver requires compliance with several financial covenants including a fixed charge coverage ratio, consolidated net worth threshold and indebtedness to EBITDA ratio, as defined in the Amended Revolver. The Amended Revolver requires compliance with certain operating covenants, which limit, among other things, our incurrence of additional indebtedness. We were in compliance with the respective covenants as of August 31, 2004. As of August 31, 2004, there were no borrowings outstanding on the Amended Revolver.

On February 25, 2004, we entered into an asset backed securitization program with a bank, which originally provided for the sale at any one time of up to $100.0 million of eligible accounts receivable of certain domestic operations. As a result of an amendment in April 2004, the program was increased to up to $120.0 million at any one time. Under this agreement, we continuously sell a designated pool of trade accounts receivable to a wholly-owned subsidiary, which in turn sells an ownership interest in the receivables to a conduit, administered by an unaffiliated financial institution. This wholly-owned subsidiary is a separate bankruptcy-remote entity and its assets would be available first to satisfy the claims of the conduit. As the receivables sold are collected, we are able to sell additional receivables up to the maximum permitted amount under the program. The securitization program requires compliance with several financial covenants including a fixed charge coverage ratio, consolidated net worth threshold and indebtedness to EBITDA ratio, as defined in the securitization agreement. We were in compliance with the respective covenants as of August 31, 2004. The securitization agreement expires in February 2005 and may be extended on an annual basis. For each pool of eligible receivables sold to the conduit, we retain a percentage interest in the face value of the receivables, which is calculated based on the terms of the agreement. Net receivables sold under this program are excluded from accounts receivable on the Consolidated Balance Sheet and are reflected as cash provided by operating activities in the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows. We continue to service, administer and collect the receivables sold under this program. We pay facility fees of 0.30% per annum of the average purchase limit and program fees of up to 0.125% of outstanding amounts. The investors and the securitization conduit have no recourse to the Company’s assets for failure of debtors to pay when due. As of August 31, 2004, we have sold $183.8 million of eligible accounts receivable, which represents the face amount of total outstanding receivables at that date. In exchange, we received cash proceeds of $120.0 million and retained an interest in the receivables of approximately $63.8 million. In connection with the securitization program, we recognized pretax losses on the sale of receivables of approximately $0.8 million during the fiscal year ended August 31, 2004.

On June 9, 2004, we negotiated a two-year, $100.0 thousand credit facility for a Ukrainian subsidiary with a Ukrainian bank. Under the terms of the facility, we pay interest on outstanding borrowings based on LIBOR plus a spread of 2.25%. The credit facility expires on June 9, 2006 and any outstanding borrowings are then due and payable. As of August 31, 2004, there were $81.0 thousand of borrowings outstanding under this facility.

At August 31, 2004, our principal sources of liquidity consisted of cash, cash equivalents and available borrowings under our revolving credit facilities and accounts receivable securitization program.

Our working capital requirements and capital expenditures could continue to increase in order to support future expansions of our operations through construction of greenfield operations or acquisitions. It is possible that future expansions may be significant and may require the payment of cash. Future liquidity needs will also depend on fluctuations in levels of inventory and shipments, changes in customer order volumes and timing of expenditures for new equipment.

We currently believe that during the next twelve months, our capital expenditures will be in the range of $150.0 million to $200.0 million, principally for machinery and equipment, and expansion in China, Eastern Europe and India. We believe that our level of resources, which include cash on hand, available borrowings under our revolving credit facilities, additional proceeds available under our accounts receivable securitization program and funds provided by operations, will be adequate to fund these capital expenditures and our working capital requirements for the next twelve months. Should we desire to consummate significant additional acquisition opportunities or undertake significant expansion activities, our capital needs would increase and could possibly result in our need to increase available borrowings under our revolving credit facilities or access public or private debt and equity markets. There can be no assurance, however, that we would be successful in raising additional debt or equity on terms that we would consider acceptable.

Our contractual obligations for short and long-term debt arrangements and future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable operating lease arrangements as of August 31, 2004 are summarized

below. We do not participate in, or secure financing for any unconsolidated limited purpose entities. Non-cancelable purchase commitments do not typically extend beyond the normal lead-time of several weeks at most. Purchase orders beyond this time frame are typically cancelable.

As referenced, this Annual Report on Form 10-K includes certain forward-looking statements regarding various matters. The ultimate correctness of those forward-looking statements is dependent upon a number of known and unknown risks and events, and is subject to various uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be different from those expressed or implied by those statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on those forward-looking statements. The following important factors, among others, as well as those factors set forth in our other SEC filings from time to time, could affect future results and events, causing results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements.

Our operating results may fluctuate due to a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control.

Our annual and quarterly operating results are affected by a number of factors, including:


	•	adverse changes in general economic conditions;

	•	the level and timing of customer orders;

	•	the level of capacity utilization of our manufacturing facilities and associated fixed costs;

	•	the composition of the costs of revenue between materials, labor and manufacturing overhead;

	•	price competition;

	•	our level of experience in manufacturing a particular product;

	•	the degree of automation used in our assembly process;

	•	the efficiencies achieved in managing inventories and fixed assets;

	•	fluctuations in materials costs and availability of materials; and

	•	the timing of expenditures in anticipation of increased sales, customer product delivery requirements and shortages of components or labor.

The volume and timing of orders placed by our customers vary due to variation in demand for our customers’ products; our customers’ attempts to manage their inventory; electronic design changes; changes in our customers’ manufacturing strategies; and acquisitions of or consolidations among our customers. In the past, changes in customer orders have had a significant effect on our results of operations due to corresponding changes in the level of our overhead absorption. Any one or a combination of these factors could adversely affect our annual and quarterly results of operations in the future. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Quarterly Results.”

Because we depend on a limited number of customers, a reduction in sales to any one of our customers could cause a significant decline in our revenue.

For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2004, our five largest customers accounted for approximately 49% of our net revenue and 40 customers accounted for over 93% of our net revenue. For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2004, Philips and Cisco accounted for approximately 18% and 12% of our net revenue, respectively. We expect to continue to depend upon a relatively small number of customers for a significant percentage of our net revenue and upon their growth, viability and financial stability. Our customers’ industries have experienced rapid technological change, shortening of product life cycles, consolidation, and pricing and margin pressures. Consolidation among our customers may further reduce the number of customers that generate a significant percentage of our revenues and exposes us to increased risks relating to dependence on a small number of customers. A significant reduction in sales to any of our customers or a customer exerting significant pricing and margin pressures on us would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. In the past, some of our customers have terminated their manufacturing arrangements with us or have significantly reduced or delayed the volume of manufacturing services ordered from us. The EMS industry’s revenue declined in mid-2001 as a result of significant cut backs in customer production requirements, which was consistent with the overall global economic downturn. We cannot assure you that present or future customers will not terminate their manufacturing arrangements with us or significantly change, reduce or delay the amount of manufacturing services ordered from us. If they do, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, we generate significant account receivables in connection with providing manufacturing services to our customers. If one or more of our customers were to become insolvent or otherwise were unable to pay for the manufacturing services provided by us, our operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business — Customers and Marketing.”

Consolidation in industries that utilize electronics components may adversely affect our business.

In the current economic climate, consolidation in industries that utilize electronics components may further increase as companies combine to achieve further economies of scale and other synergies. Consolidation in industries that utilize electronics components could result in an increase in excess manufacturing capacity as companies seek to divest manufacturing operations or eliminate duplicative product lines. Excess manufacturing capacity has increased, and may continue to increase, pricing and competitive pressures for the EMS industry as a whole and for us in particular. Consolidation could also result in an increasing number of very large companies offering products in multiple industries. The significant purchasing power and market power of these large companies could increase pricing and competitive pressures for us. If one of our customers is acquired by another company that does not rely on us to provide services and has its own production facilities or relies on another provider of similar services, we may lose that customer’s business. Such consolidation among our customers may further reduce the number of customers that generate a significant percentage of our revenues and exposes us to increased risks relating to dependence on a small number of customers. Any of the foregoing results of industry consolidation could adversely affect our business.

Our customers compete in markets that are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and continuous improvements in products and services. These conditions frequently result in short product life cycles. Our success will depend largely on the success achieved by our customers in developing and marketing their products. If technologies or standards supported by our customers’ products become obsolete or fail to gain widespread commercial acceptance, our business could be materially adversely affected.

We depend on industries that utilize electronics components, which continually produces technologically advanced products with short life cycles; our inability to continually manufacture such products on a cost-effective basis would harm our business.

Factors affecting the industries that utilize electronics components in general could seriously harm our customers and, as a result, us. These factors include:


	•	The inability of our customers to adapt to rapidly changing technology and evolving industry standards, which result in short product life cycles.

	•	The inability of our customers to develop and market their products, some of which are new and untested, the potential that our customers’ products may become obsolete or the failure of our customers’ products to gain widespread commercial acceptance.

	•	Recessionary periods in our customers’ markets.

In addition, if we are unable to offer technologically advanced, cost effective, quick response manufacturing services to customers, demand for our services will also decline. A substantial portion of our net revenue is derived from our offering of complete service solutions for our customers. For example, if we fail to maintain high-quality design and engineering services, our net revenue may significantly decline.

Most of our customers do not commit to long-term production schedules, which makes it difficult for us to schedule production and achieve maximum efficiency of our manufacturing capacity.


	•	variation in demand for our customers’ products;

	•	our customers’ attempts to manage their inventory;

	•	electronic design changes;

	•	changes in our customers’ manufacturing strategy; and

	•	acquisitions of or consolidations among customers.

Due in part to these factors, most of our customers do not commit to firm production schedules for more than one quarter in advance. Our inability to forecast the level of customer orders with certainty makes it difficult to schedule production and maximize utilization of manufacturing capacity. In the past, we have been required to increase staffing and other expenses in order to meet the anticipated demand of our customers. Anticipated orders from many of our customers have, in the past, failed to materialize or delivery schedules have been deferred as a result of changes in our customers’ business needs, thereby adversely affecting our results of operations. On other occasions, our customers have required rapid increases in production, which have placed an excessive burden on our resources. Such customer order fluctuations and deferrals have had a material adverse effect on us in the past, and we may experience such effects in the future. A business downturn resulting from any of these external factors could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business — Backlog.”

Our customers may cancel their orders, change production quantities or delay production.

EMS providers must provide increasingly rapid product turnaround for their customers. We generally do not obtain firm, long-term purchase commitments from our customers and we continue to experience reduced lead-times in customer orders. Customers may cancel their orders, change production quantities or delay production for a number of reasons. The success of our customers’ products in the market affects our business. Cancellations, reductions or delay by a significant customer or by a group of customers could negatively impact our operating results.

In addition, we make significant decisions, including determining the levels of business that we will seek and accept, production schedules, component procurement commitments, personnel needs and other resource requirements, based on our estimate of customer requirements. The short-term nature of our customers’ commitments and the possibility of rapid changes in demand for their products reduces our ability to accurately estimate the future requirements of those customers.

On occasion, customers may require rapid increases in production, which can stress our resources and reduce operating margins. In addition, because many of our costs and operating expenses are relatively fixed, a reduction in customer demand can harm our gross profits and operating results.

We compete with numerous EMS providers and others, including our current and potential customers who may decide to manufacture all of their products internally.

The EMS business is highly competitive. We compete against numerous domestic and foreign manufacturers, including Celestica, Inc., Flextronics International, Hon-Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., Sanmina-SCI Corporation and Solectron Corporation. In addition, we may in the future encounter competition from other large electronic manufacturers that are selling, or may begin to sell, EMS. Most of our competitors have international operations, significant financial resources and some have substantially greater manufacturing, R&D, and marketing resources than us. These competitors may:


	•	respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies;

	•	have greater name recognition, critical mass and geographic market presence;

	•	be better able to take advantage of acquisition opportunities;

	•	adapt more quickly to changes in customer requirements;

	•	devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their services; and

	•	be better positioned to compete on price for their services.

We also face competition from the manufacturing operations of our current and potential customers, who are continually evaluating the merits of manufacturing products internally against the advantages of outsourcing to EMS providers. In addition, in recent years, original design manufacturers, or “ODMs”, companies that provide design and manufacturing services to OEMs, have significantly increased their share of outsourced manufacturing services provided to OEMs in several markets, such as notebook and desktop computers, personal computer motherboards, and consumer electronic products. Competition from ODMs may increase if our business in these markets grows or if ODMs expand further into or beyond these markets. See “Business — Competition.”

Increased competition may result in decreased demand or prices for our services.

The EMS industry is highly competitive. We compete against numerous U.S. and foreign EMS providers with global operations, as well as those who operate on a local or regional basis. In addition, current and prospective customers continually evaluate the merits of manufacturing products internally. Some of our competitors have substantially greater managerial, manufacturing, engineering, technical, systems, R&D, sales and marketing resources than we do. Consolidation in the EMS industry results in larger and more geographically diverse competitors who have significant combined resources with which to compete against us.

We may be operating at a cost disadvantage compared to competitors who have greater direct buying power from component suppliers, distributors and raw material suppliers or who have lower cost structures as a result of their geographic location or the services they provide. As a result, competitors may procure a competitive advantage and obtain business from our customers. Our manufacturing processes are generally not subject to significant proprietary protection. In addition, companies with greater resources or a greater market presence may enter our market or increase their competition with us. We also expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their current products or services, to reduce their

current products or service sales prices and to introduce new products or services that may offer greater performance and improved pricing. Any of these could cause a decline in sales, loss of market acceptance of our products or services, profit margin compression, or loss of market share.

We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from our international operations, which may be subject to a number of risks and often require more management time and expense to achieve profitability than our domestic operations.

We derived 84.6% of revenues from international operations in fiscal year 2004 compared to 80.7% in fiscal year 2003. We expect our revenues from international operations to continue to increase. We currently operate outside the United States in Vienna, Austria; Bruges and Hasselt, Belgium; Belo Horizonte, Manaus and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Huangpu, Panyu, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; Coventry, England; Brest and Meung-sur-Loire, France; Szombathely and Tiszaujvaros, Hungary; Pimpri, India; Dublin, Ireland; Bergamo and Marcianise, Italy; Gotemba, Japan; Penang, Malaysia; Chihuahua, Guadalajara and Reynosa, Mexico; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Kwidzyn, Poland; Ayr and Livingston, Scotland; Singapore City, Singapore; and Uzhgorod, Ukraine. We continually consider additional opportunities to make foreign acquisitions and construct new foreign facilities. Our international operations may be subject to a number of risks, including:


	•	difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;

	•	political and economic instability;

	•	unexpected changes in regulatory requirements and laws;

	•	longer customer payment cycles and difficulty collecting accounts receivable export duties, import controls and trade barriers (including quotas);

	•	governmental restrictions on the transfer of funds to us from our operations outside the United States;

	•	burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws and labor practices;

	•	fluctuations in currency exchange rates, which could affect local payroll, utility and other expenses; and

	•	inability to utilize net operating losses incurred by our foreign operations against future income in the same jurisdiction.

In addition, several of the countries where we operate have emerging or developing economies, which may be subject to greater currency volatility, negative growth, high inflation, limited availability of foreign exchange and other risks. These factors may harm our results of operations, and any measures that we may implement to reduce the effect of volatile currencies and other risks of our international operations may not be effective. In our experience, entry into new international markets requires considerable management time as well as start-up expenses for market development, hiring and establishing office facilities before any significant revenues are generated. As a result, initial operations in a new market may operate at low margins or may be unprofitable. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

If we do not manage our growth effectively, our profitability could decline.

We have grown rapidly. Our ability to manage growth effectively will require us to continue to implement and improve our operational, financial and management information systems; continue to develop the management skills of our managers and supervisors; and continue to train, motivate and manage our employees. Our failure to effectively manage growth could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. See “Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully integrate the operations and management of our recent acquisitions. Similarly, we cannot assure you that we will be able to consummate or, if consummated, successfully integrate the operations and management of future acquisitions. Acquisitions involve significant risks, which could have a material adverse effect on us, including:


	•	Financial risks, such as (1) potential liabilities of the acquired businesses; (2) costs associated with integrating acquired operations and businesses; (3) the dilutive effect of the issuance of additional equity securities; (4) the incurrence of additional debt; (5) the financial impact of valuing goodwill and other intangible assets involved in any acquisitions, potential future impairment write-downs of goodwill and the amortization of other intangible assets; (6) possible adverse tax and accounting effects; and (7) the risk that we spend substantial amounts purchasing these manufacturing facilities and assume significant contractual and other obligations with no guaranteed levels of revenue or that we may have to close facilities at our cost.


	•	Operating risks, such as (1) the diversion of management’s attention to the assimilation of the businesses to be acquired; (2) the risk that the acquired businesses will fail to maintain the quality of services that we have historically provided; (3) the need to implement financial and other systems and add management resources; (4) the risk that key employees of the acquired businesses will leave after the acquisition; (5) unforeseen difficulties in the acquired operations; and (6) the impact on us of any unionized work force we may acquire or any labor disruptions that might occur.

We have acquired and will continue to pursue the acquisition of manufacturing and supply chain management operations from OEMs. In these acquisitions, the divesting OEM will typically enter a supply arrangement with the acquiror. Therefore, the competition for these acquisitions is intense. In addition, certain OEMs may not choose to consummate these acquisitions with us because of our current supply arrangements with other OEMs. If we are unable to attract and consummate some of these acquisition opportunities, our growth could be adversely impacted.

Arrangements entered into with divesting OEMs typically involve many risks, including the following:


	•	The integration into our business of the acquired assets and facilities may be time-consuming and costly.

	•	We, rather than the divesting OEM, may bear the risk of excess capacity.

	•	We may not achieve anticipated cost reductions and efficiencies.

	•	We may be unable to meet the expectations of the OEM as to volume, product quality, timeliness and cost reductions.

	•	If demand for the OEM’s products declines, the OEM may reduce its volume of purchases, and we may not be able to sufficiently reduce the expenses of operating the facility or use the facility to provide services to other OEMs.

As a result of these and other risks, we may be unable to achieve anticipated levels of profitability under these arrangements, and they may not result in any material revenues or contribute positively to our earnings.

Our ability to achieve the expected benefits of the outsourcing opportunities associated with these acquisitions is subject to risks, including our ability to meet volume, product quality, timeliness and pricing requirements, and our ability to achieve the OEMs expected cost reduction. In addition, when acquiring manufacturing operations, we may receive limited commitments to firm production schedules. Accordingly, in these circumstances, we may spend substantial amounts purchasing these manufacturing facilities and assume significant contractual and other obligations with no guaranteed levels of revenues. We may also

Over the past few years, we have undertaken initiatives to restructure our business operations with the intention of improving utilization and realizing cost savings in the future. These initiatives have included changing the number and location of our production facilities, largely to align our capacity and infrastructure with current and anticipated customer demand. This alignment includes transferring programs from higher cost geographies to lower cost geographies. The process of restructuring entails, among other activities, moving production between facilities, reducing staff levels, realigning our business processes and reorganizing our management. We continue to evaluate our operations and may need to undertake additional restructuring initiatives in the future. If we incur additional restructuring related charges, our financial condition and results of operations may suffer.

We depend on a limited number of suppliers for components that are critical to our manufacturing processes. A shortage of these components or an increase in their price could interrupt our operations and reduce our profits.

Substantially all of our net revenue is derived from turnkey manufacturing in which we provide materials procurement. While most of our significant long-term customer contracts permit quarterly or other periodic adjustments to pricing based on decreases and increases in component prices and other factors, we may bear the risk of component price increases that occur between any such re-pricings or, if such re-pricing is not permitted, during the balance of the term of the particular customer contract. Accordingly, certain component price increases could adversely affect our gross profit margins. Almost all of the products we manufacture require one or more components that are available from only a single source. Some of these components are allocated from time to time in response to supply shortages. In some cases, supply shortages will substantially curtail production of all assemblies using a particular component. In addition, at various times industry-wide shortages of electronic components have occurred, particularly of memory and logic devices. Such circumstances have produced insignificant levels of short-term interruption of our operations, but could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations in the future. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business — Components Procurement.”

We may not be able to maintain our engineering, technological and manufacturing process expertise.

The markets for our manufacturing and engineering services are characterized by rapidly changing technology and evolving process development. The continued success of our business will depend upon our ability to:


	•	hire, retain and expand our qualified engineering and technical personnel;

	•	maintain technological leadership;

	•	develop and market manufacturing services that meet changing customer needs; and

	•	successfully anticipate or respond to technological changes in manufacturing processes on a cost-effective and timely basis.

Although we believe that our operations use the assembly and testing technologies, equipment and processes that are currently required by our customers, we cannot be certain that we will develop the capabilities required by our customers in the future. The emergence of new technology, industry standards or customer requirements may render our equipment, inventory or processes obsolete or noncompetitive. In addition, we may have to acquire new assembly and testing technologies and equipment to remain competitive. The acquisition and implementation of new technologies and equipment may require significant expense or capital investment, which could reduce our operating margins and our operating results. In facilities that we establish or acquire, we may not be able to maintain our engineering,

technological and manufacturing process expertise. Our failure to anticipate and adapt to our customers’ changing technological needs and requirements or to maintain our engineering, technological and manufacturing expertise, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we manufacture products containing design or manufacturing defects, or if our manufacturing processes do not comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, demand for our services may decline and we may be subject to liability claims.

We manufacture and design products to our customers’ specifications, and, in some cases, our manufacturing processes and facilities may need to comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. For example, medical devices that we manufacture or design, as well as the facilities and manufacturing processes that we use to produce them, are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and non-US counterparts of this agency. Similarly, items we manufacture for customers in the defense and aerospace industries, as well as the processes we use to produce them, are regulated by the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Authority. In addition, our customers’ products and the manufacturing processes that we use to produce them often are highly complex. As a result, products that we manufacture may at times contain manufacturing or design defects, and our manufacturing processes may be subject to errors or not be in compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. Defects in the products we manufacture or design, whether caused by a design, manufacturing or component failure or error, or deficiencies in our manufacturing processes, may result in delayed shipments to customers or reduced or cancelled customer orders. If these defects or deficiencies are significant, our business reputation may also be damaged. The failure of the products that we manufacture or our manufacturing processes and facilities to comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements may subject us to legal fines or penalties and, in some cases, require us to shut down or incur considerable expense to correct a manufacturing process or facility. In addition, these defects may result in liability claims against us or expose us to liability to pay for the recall of a product. The magnitude of such claims may increase as we expand our medical, automotive, and aerospace and defense manufacturing services, as defects in medical devices, automotive components, and aerospace and defense systems could kill or seriously harm users of these products and others. Even if our customers are responsible for the defects, they may not, or may not have resources to, assume responsibility for any costs or liabilities arising from these defects.

Our increasing design services offerings may result in additional exposure to product liability, intellectual property infringement and other claims

We have increased our efforts to offer certain design services, primarily those relating to products that we manufacture for our customers, and we now offer design services related to collaborative design manufacturing and turnkey solutions. Providing such services can expose us to different or greater potential liabilities than those we face when providing our regular manufacturing services. With the growth of our design services business, we have increased exposure to potential product liability claims resulting from injuries caused by defects in products we design, as well as potential claims that products we design infringe third-party intellectual property rights. Such claims could subject us to significant liability for damages and, regardless of their merits, could be time-consuming and expensive to resolve. We also may have greater potential exposure from warranty claims, and from product recalls due to problems caused by product design. Costs associated with possible product liability claims, intellectual property infringement claims, and product recalls could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. When providing collaborative design manufacturing or turnkey solutions, we may not be guaranteed revenues needed to recoup or profit from the investment in the resources necessary to design and develop products. Particularly, no revenue may be generated from these efforts if our customers do not approve the designs in a timely manner or at all, or if they do not then purchase anticipated levels of products. Furthermore, contracts may allow the customer to delay or cancel deliveries and may not obligate the customer to any volume of purchases, or may provide for penalties or cancellation of orders if we are late in delivering designs or products. We may even have the responsibility to ensure that products we design satisfy safety and regulatory standards and to obtain any necessary certifications. Failure to timely obtain the necessary

The success of our turnkey activity depends in part on our ability to obtain, protect, and leverage intellectual property rights to our designs.

We strive to obtain and protect certain intellectual property rights to our turnkey solutions designs. We believe that having a significant level of protected proprietary technology gives us a competitive advantage in marketing our services. However, we cannot be certain that the measures that we employ will result in protected intellectual property rights or will result in the prevention of unauthorized use of our technology. If we are unable to obtain and protect intellectual property rights embodied within our designs, this could reduce or eliminate the competitive advantages of our proprietary technology, which would harm our business.

Intellectual property infringement claims against our customers or us could harm our business.

Our turnkey solutions products may compete against the products of Original Design Manufacturers and those of Original Equipment Manufacturers, many of whom may own the intellectual property rights underlying those products. As a result, we could become subject to claims of intellectual property infringement. Additionally, customers for our turnkey solutions services typically require that we indemnify them against the risk of intellectual property infringement. If any claims are brought against us or against our customers for such infringement, whether or not these claims have merit, we could be required to expend significant resources in defense of such claims. In the event of such an infringement claim, we may be required to spend a significant amount of money to develop non-infringing alternatives or obtain licenses. We may not be successful in developing such alternatives or obtaining such a license on reasonable terms or at all.

If our turnkey solutions products are subject to design defects, our business may be damaged and we may incur significant fees.

In our contracts with turnkey solutions customers, we generally provide them with a warranty against defects in our designs. If a turnkey solutions product or component that we design is found to be defective in its design, this may lead to increased warranty claims. Although we have product liability insurance coverage, it may not be available on acceptable terms, in sufficient amounts, or at all. A successful product liability claim in excess of our insurance coverage or any material claim for which insurance coverage was denied or limited and for which indemnification was not available could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our success depends to a large extent upon the continued services of our executive officers. Generally our employees are not bound by employment or non-competition agreements, and we cannot assure you that we will retain our executive officers and other key employees. We could be seriously harmed by the loss of any of our executive officers. In order to manage our growth, we will need to recruit and retain additional skilled management personnel and if we are not able to do so, our business and our ability to continue to grow could be harmed. In addition, in connection with expanding our turnkey solutions activities, we must attract and retain experienced design engineers. Competition for highly skilled employees is substantial. Our failure to recruit and retain experienced design engineers could limit the growth of our turnkey solutions activities, which could adversely affect our business.

Any delay in the implementation of our information systems could disrupt our operations and cause unanticipated increases in our costs.

We have completed the installation of an Enterprise Resource Planning system in most of our manufacturing sites and in our corporate location. We are in the process of installing this system in certain of our remaining plants, which will replace the current Manufacturing Resource Planning system, and financial information systems. Any delay in the implementation of these information systems could result in material adverse consequences, including disruption of operations, loss of information and unanticipated increases in cost.

Compliance or the failure to comply with current and future environmental regulations could cause us significant expense.

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign environmental regulations relating to the use, storage, discharge and disposal of hazardous chemicals used during our manufacturing process. If we fail to comply with any present and future regulations, we could be subject to future liabilities or the suspension of production. In addition, such regulations could restrict our ability to expand our facilities or could require us to acquire costly equipment, or to incur other significant expenses to comply with environmental regulations.

As of August 31, 2004, our executive officers, directors and certain of their family members collectively beneficially owned 19.0% of our outstanding common stock, of which William D. Morean, our Chairman of the Board, beneficially owned 13.5%. As a result, our executive officers, directors and certain of their family members have significant influence over (1) the election of our Board of Directors, (2) the approval or disapproval of any other matters requiring stockholder approval, and (3) the affairs and policies of Jabil.

We base our tax position upon the anticipated nature and conduct of our business and upon our understanding of the tax laws of the various countries in which we have assets or conduct activities. Our tax position, however, is subject to review and possible challenge by taxing authorities and to possible changes in law. We cannot determine in advance the extent to which some jurisdictions may assess additional tax or interest and penalties on such additional taxes.

Several countries in which we are located allow for tax holidays or provide other tax incentives to attract and retain business. We have obtained holidays or other incentives where available. Our taxes could increase if certain tax holidays or incentives are retracted, or if they are not renewed upon expiration, or tax rates applicable to us in such jurisdictions are otherwise increased. In addition, further acquisitions may cause our effective tax rate to increase.

Our credit is rated by credit rating agencies. For example, our 5.875% Senior Notes were rated Baa3 by Moody’s Investor Service, which is considered “investment grade” debt and BB+ by Standard and Poor’s Rating Service, which is considered one level below “investment grade” debt. If in the future our credit rating is downgraded so that neither credit rating agency rates our 5.875% Senior Notes as “investment grade” debt, such a downgrade may increase our cost of capital should we borrow under our revolving credit facilities, may make it more expensive for us to raise additional capital in the future on terms that are acceptable to us or at all, may negatively impact the price of our common stock and may have other negative implications on our business, many of which are beyond our control.

We are subject to risks of currency fluctuations and related hedging operations.

A portion of our business is conducted in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Changes in exchange rates among other currencies and the U.S. dollar will affect our cost of sales, operating margins and revenues. We cannot predict the impact of future exchange rate fluctuations. We use financial instruments, primarily forward purchase contracts, to hedge U.S. dollar and other currency commitments arising from trade accounts receivable, trade accounts payable and fixed purchase obligations. If these hedging activities are not successful or we change or reduce these hedging activities in the future, we may experience significant unexpected expenses from fluctuations in exchange rates.

We have the ability to borrow approximately $400 million under our Amended Revolver. In addition, we could incur additional indebtedness in the future in the form of bank loans, notes or convertible securities. An increase in the level of our indebtedness, among other things, could:


	•	make it difficult for us to obtain any necessary financing in the future for other acquisitions, working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements or other purposes;

	•	limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to changes in, our business; and

	•	make us more vulnerable in the event of a downturn in our business.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to meet future debt service obligations.

An adverse change in the interest rates for our borrowings could adversely affect our financial condition.

We pay interest on outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facilities and other long term debt obligations at interest rates that fluctuate based upon changes in various base interest rates. An adverse change in the base rates upon which our interest rates are determined could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

We have recorded intangible assets, including goodwill, in connection with business acquisitions. We are required to perform goodwill impairment tests at least on an annual basis and whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable from estimated future cash flows. As a result of our annual and other periodic evaluations, we may determine that the intangible asset values need to be written down to their fair values, which could result in material charges that could be adverse to our operating results and financial position.

Customer relationships with emerging companies may present more risks than with established companies.

Customer relationships with emerging companies present special risks because such companies do not have an extensive product history. As a result, there is less demonstration of market acceptance of their products making it harder for us to anticipate needs and requirements than with established customers. In addition, due to the current economic environment, additional funding for such companies may be more difficult to obtain and these customer relationships may not continue or materialize to the extent we plan or we previously experienced. This tightening of financing for start-up customers, together with many start-up customers’ lack of prior earnings and unproven product markets increase our credit risk, especially in accounts receivable and inventories. Although we perform ongoing credit evaluations of our customers and adjust our allowance for doubtful accounts receivable for all customers, including start-up customers, based on the information available, these allowances may not be adequate. This risk exists for any new emerging company customers in the future.

Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The market price of our common stock has fluctuated substantially in the past and could fluctuate substantially in the future, based on a variety of factors, including future announcements covering us or our key customers or c


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

		For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2004

or

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

		For the transition period from to


Delaware		38-1886260
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

10560 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street North, St. Petersburg, Florida (Address of principal executive offices)		33716 (Zip Code)


Title of each class		Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share		New York Stock Exchange
Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Rights		New York Stock Exchange


Part I
	Item 1.	Business	2
	Item 2.	Properties	13
	Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	15
	Item 4.	Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders	15

Part II
	Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	15
	Item 6.	Selected Financial Data	16
	Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	18
	Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	45
	Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	46
	Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	46
	Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	46
	Item 9B.	Other Information	47

Part III
	Item 10.	Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant	47
	Item 11.	Executive Compensation	48
	Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	49
	Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions	49
	Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	49

Part IV
	Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	50
Signatures			89
Ex-10.6.1: 2002 Stock Incentive Plan Stock Option Agreement
Ex-10.6.2: 2002 Stock Incentive Plan-French Subplan Stock Option Agreement
Ex-10.6.3: 2002 Stock Incentive Plan-UK Subplan CSOP Option Certificate
Ex-10.10.6.4: 2002 Stock Incentive Plan-UK Subplan Stock Option Agreement
Ex-10.6.5: Restricted Stock Award Agreement
Ex-21.1: List of Subsidiaries
Ex-23.1: Independent Auditors' Consent
Ex-31.1: Certification by the President and Chief Executive Officer
Ex-31.2: Certification by the Chief Financial Officer
Ex-32.1: Certification by the President and Chief Executive Officer
Ex-32.2: Chief Financial Officer


		Approximate		Type of Interest
Location		Square Footage		(Leased/Owned)		Description of Use

Auburn Hills, Michigan			323,000		Owned	Manufacturing, Design
Auburn Hills, Michigan			12,000		Leased	Support
Billerica, Massachusetts(1)			503,000		Leased	Prototype Manufacturing
Boise, Idaho(2)			353,000		Owned	Manufacturing
Louisville, Kentucky			138,000		Leased	Repair
McAllen, Texas			100,000		Leased	Support
Memphis, Tennessee			630,000		Leased	Manufacturing
Memphis, Tennessee			275,000		Leased	Repair
San Jose, California(1)			281,000		Leased	Prototype Manufacturing
St. Joe, Michigan			5,000		Leased	Support
St. Petersburg, Florida			238,000		Leased	Manufacturing, Support
St. Petersburg, Florida			299,000		Owned	Manufacturing, Design, Repair, Support

	Total Americas		3,157,000

Belo Horizonte, Brazil			124,000		Leased	Manufacturing
Chihuahua, Mexico			1,025,000		Owned	Manufacturing
Guadalajara, Mexico			363,000		Owned	Manufacturing
Manaus, Brazil			226,000		Leased	Manufacturing
Reynosa, Mexico			410,000		Owned	Repair
Sao Paulo, Brazil			35,000		Leased	Repair
Tijuana, Mexico(3)			63,000		Leased	Support

	Total Latin America		2,246,000



	Year Ended August 31,

	2004		2003		2002

Consumer		25%		20%		8%
Networking		20%		23%		30%
Computing and Storage		13%		15%		13%
Instrumentation and Medical		12%		7%		5%
Telecommunications		11%		14%		23%
Automotive		8%		9%		7%
Peripherals		6%		8%		10%
Other		5%		4%		4%

		100%		100%		100%


Item 5.	*Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities*


		High		Low

Year Ended August 31, 2004
	First Quarter (September 1, 2003 — November 30, 2003)	$	31.65	$	25.43
	Second Quarter (December 1, 2003 — February 29, 2004)	$	32.40	$	24.75
	Third Quarter (March 1, 2004 — May 31, 2004)	$	31.49	$	24.60
	Fourth Quarter (June 1, 2004 — August 31, 2004)	$	29.10	$	19.18
Year Ended August 31, 2003
	First Quarter (September 1, 2002 — November 30, 2002)	$	23.65	$	11.13
	Second Quarter (December 1, 2002 — February 28, 2003)	$	22.69	$	14.51
	Third Quarter (March 1, 2003 — May 31, 2003)	$	21.50	$	15.28
	Fourth Quarter (June 1, 2003 — August 31, 2003)	$	28.20	$	20.41



		Fiscal Years Ended August 31,

		2004			2003			2002			2001			2000


		(In thousands, except for per share data)
Consolidated Statement of Earnings Data:
Net revenue		$	6,252,897		$	4,729,482		$	3,545,466		$	4,330,655		$	3,558,321
Cost of revenue			5,714,517			4,294,016			3,210,875			3,936,589			3,199,972

Gross profit			538,380			435,466			334,591			394,066			358,349
	Selling, general and administrative		263,504			243,663			203,845			184,112			132,717
	Research and development		13,813			9,906			7,864			6,448			4,839
	Amortization of intangibles		43,709			36,870			15,113			5,820			2,724
	Acquisition-related charges		1,339	(1)		15,266	(2)		7,576	(3)		6,558	(4)		5,153	(5)
	Restructuring and impairment charges		—			85,308	(2)		52,143	(3)		27,366	(4)		—

Operating income			216,015			44,453			48,050			163,762			212,916
Other loss (income)			6,370	(1)		(2,600	)(2)		—			—			—
	Interest income		(7,237	)		(6,920	)		(9,761	)		(8,243	)		(7,385	)
	Interest expense		19,369			17,019			13,055			5,857			7,605

Income before income taxes			197,513			36,954			44,756			166,148			212,696
	Income tax expense (benefit)		30,613			(6,053	)		10,041			47,631			67,048

Net income		$	166,900		$	43,007		$	34,715		$	118,517		$	145,648

Earnings per share:
	Basic	$	0.83		$	0.22		$	0.18		$	0.62		$	0.81

	Diluted	$	0.81		$	0.21		$	0.17		$	0.59		$	0.78

Common shares used in the calculations of earnings per share(6):
	Basic		200,430			198,495			197,396			191,862			179,032

	Diluted		205,849			202,103			200,782			202,223			187,448



	August 31,

	2004		2003		2002		2001		2000


	(In thousands)
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
Working capital	$	1,023,591	$	830,729	$	994,962	$	942,023	$	693,018

Total assets	$	3,329,356	$	3,244,745	$	2,547,906	$	2,357,578	$	2,015,915

Current installments of notes payable, long-term debt and long-term lease obligations	$	4,412	$	347,237	$	8,692	$	8,333	$	8,333

Notes payable, long-term debt and long-term lease obligations, less current installments	$	305,194	$	297,018	$	354,668	$	361,667	$	25,000

Total stockholders’ equity	$	1,819,340	$	1,588,476	$	1,506,966	$	1,414,076	$	1,270,183

Cash dividends paid	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—


Item 7.	*Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations*



	Fiscal Year Ended

	August 31,		August 31,		August 31,
	2004		2003		2002

Net revenue	$	6,252,897	$	4,729,482	$	3,545,466
Gross profit	$	538,380	$	435,466	$	334,591
Operating income	$	216,015	$	44,453	$	48,050
Net income	$	166,900	$	43,007	$	34,715
Basic earnings per share	$	0.83	$	0.22	$	0.18
Diluted earnings per share	$	0.81	$	0.21	$	0.17



		Fiscal Year 2004												Fiscal Year 2003

		Aug. 31,			May 31,			Feb. 29,			Nov. 30,			Aug. 31,			May 31,			Feb. 28,			Nov. 30,
		2004			2004			2004			2003			2003			2003			2003			2002


		(In thousands, except per share data)
Net revenue		$	1,626,177		$	1,625,850		$	1,491,876		$	1,508,994		$	1,296,015		$	1,219,304		$	1,145,917		$	1,068,246
	Cost of revenue		1,488,488			1,489,935			1,360,549			1,375,545			1,175,611			1,106,673			1,041,030			970,702

Gross profit			137,689			135,915			131,327			133,449			120,404			112,631			104,887			97,544
	Selling, general and administrative		65,596			65,913			65,986			66,009			65,051			62,462			60,310			55,840
	Research and development		4,405			3,318			3,184			2,906			2,506			2,353			2,431			2,616
	Amortization of intangibles		10,806			10,792			11,952			10,159			12,514			8,489			9,716			6,151
	Acquisition-related charges		—			—			—			1,339			3,934			3,920			3,697			3,715
	Restructuring and impairment charges		—			—			—			—			8,958			32,863			17,128			26,359

Operating income			56,882			55,892			50,205			53,036			27,441			2,544			11,605			2,863
	Other loss (income)		—			6,370			—			—			—			—			—			(2,600	)
	Interest income		(1,679	)		(2,087	)		(1,815	)		(1,656	)		(1,684	)		(1,465	)		(1,847	)		(1,924	)
	Interest expense		4,249			5,584			4,776			4,760			5,246			3,862			4,182			3,729

Income before income taxes			54,312			46,025			47,244			49,932			23,879			147			9,270			3,658
	Income tax expense (benefit)		10,054			5,894			7,229			7,436			3,807			(4,319	)		(842	)		(4,699	)

Net income		$	44,258		$	40,131		$	40,015		$	42,496		$	20,072		$	4,466		$	10,112		$	8,357

Earnings per share:
	Basic	$	0.22		$	0.20		$	0.20		$	0.21		$	0.10		$	0.02		$	0.05		$	0.04

	Diluted	$	0.22		$	0.19		$	0.19		$	0.20		$	0.10		$	0.02		$	0.05		$	0.04

Common shares used in the calculations of earnings per share:
	Basic		201,110			200,716			200,267			199,626			199,059			198,596			198,351			197,972

	Diluted		205,165			206,371			214,738			213,940			203,980			202,132			200,726			200,099



	Fiscal Year Ended August 31,

	2004			2003			2002

Net cash provided by operating activities	$	451,241		$	263,493		$	553,562
Net cash used in investing activities		(205,593	)		(517,493	)		(350,223	)
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities		(318,440	)		312,420			6,348
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash		(5,634	)		593			396

Net (decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents	$	(78,426	)	$	59,013		$	210,083



	Payments Due by Period (In thousands)

			Less Than		1-3		4-5		After
Contractual Obligations	Total		1 Year		Years		Years		5 Years

Notes payable, long-term debt and long-term lease obligations	$	309,606	$	4,412	$	8,314	$	3,019	$	293,861
Operating Lease Obligations		134,860		32,534		52,497		28,939		20,890

Total	$	444,466	$	36,946	$	60,811	$	31,958	$	314,751


Item 2.	*Properties*


	*Summary of Results*


	*Key Performance Indicators*


	*Revenue Recognition*