Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

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Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2012
Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

1. Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Description of Business

MaxLinear, Inc. (the Company) was incorporated in Delaware in September 2003. The Company is a provider of integrated, radio-frequency and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for broadband communication applications whose customers include module makers, original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, and original design manufacturers, or ODMs, who incorporate the Company’s products in a wide range of electronic devices including mobile handsets, cable and terrestrial set top boxes, televisions, personal computers and netbooks and automotive entertainment applications. The Company is a fabless semiconductor company focusing its resources on the design, sales and marketing of its products.

Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of MaxLinear, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany transactions and investments have been eliminated in consolidation.

The functional currency of certain foreign subsidiaries is the local currency. Accordingly, assets and liabilities of these foreign subsidiaries are translated at the current exchange rate at the balance sheet date and historical rates for equity. Revenue and expense components are translated at weighted average exchange rates in effect during the period. Gains and losses resulting from foreign currency translation are included as a component of stockholders’ equity. Foreign currency transaction gains and losses are included in the results of operations and, to date, have not been significant.

The Company has prepared the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and disclosures required by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments, which include only normal recurring adjustments, considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2012 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2012. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2011, included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 14, 2012.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of unaudited consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the unaudited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes of the unaudited consolidated financial statements. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue is generated from sales of the Company’s integrated circuits. The Company recognizes revenue when all of the following criteria are met: 1) there is persuasive evidence that an arrangement exists, 2) delivery of goods has occurred, 3) the sales price is fixed or determinable and 4) collectibility is reasonably assured. Title to product transfers to customers either when it is shipped to or received by the customer, based on the terms of the specific agreement with the customer.

Revenue is recorded based on the facts at the time of sale. Transactions for which the Company cannot reliably estimate the amount that will ultimately be collected at the time the product has shipped and title has transferred to the customer are deferred until the amount that is probable of collection can be determined. Items that are considered when determining the amounts that will be ultimately collected are: a customer’s overall creditworthiness and payment history, customer rights to return unsold product, customer rights to price protection, customer payment terms conditioned on sale or use of product by the customer, or extended payment terms granted to a customer.

A portion of the Company’s revenues are generated from sales made through distributors under agreements allowing for pricing credits and/or stock rotation rights of return. Revenues from the Company’s distributors accounted for 35% and 41% of net revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2012, respectively. Revenues from the Company’s distributors accounted for 70% and 72% of our net revenue in the three and six months ended June 30, 2011, respectively. Pricing credits to the Company’s distributors may result from its price protection and unit rebate provisions, among other factors. These pricing credits and/or stock rotation rights prevent the Company from being able to reliably estimate the final sales price of the inventory sold and the amount of inventory that could be returned pursuant to these agreements. As a result, for sales to distributors, the Company has determined that it does not meet all of the required revenue recognition criteria at the time it delivers its products to distributors as the final sales price is not fixed or determinable. For these distributor transactions, revenue is not recognized until product is shipped to the end customer and the amount that will ultimately be collected is fixed or determinable. Upon shipment of product to these distributors, title to the inventory transfers to the distributor and the distributor is invoiced, generally with 30 day terms. On shipments to the Company’s distributors where revenue is not recognized, the Company records a trade receivable for the selling price as there is a legally enforceable right to payment, relieving the inventory for the carrying value of goods shipped since legal title has passed to the distributor, and records the corresponding gross profit in the consolidated balance sheet as a component of deferred revenue and deferred profit, representing the difference between the receivable recorded and the cost of inventory shipped. Future pricing credits and/or stock rotation rights from the Company’s distributors may result in the realization of a different amount of profit included in the Company’s future consolidated statements of operations than the amount recorded as deferred profit in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.

The Company records reductions in revenue for estimated pricing adjustments related to price protection and unit rebate agreements with the Company’s end customers in the same period that the related revenue is recorded. Price protection pricing adjustments are recorded at the time of sale as a reduction to revenue and an increase in the Company’s accrued liabilities. The Company may enter into unit rebate agreements with end customers based on volume purchases. The Company estimates that all of the unit rebates will be achieved based on the history of these programs, reduces the average selling price of the product sold under the rebate program and defers revenue for the difference between the amount billed to the customer and the adjusted average selling price. Once the targeted level is achieved, the deferred revenue is recognized as revenue as rebated products are shipped to the end customer. Deferred revenue associated with rebate programs is included in deferred revenue and deferred profit in the consolidated balance sheet.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Effective January 1, 2012, the Company adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s, or FASB, updated guidance on fair value measurements that clarifies the application of existing guidance and disclosure requirements, changes certain fair value measurement principles and requires additional disclosures about fair value measurements. The Company’s adoption of the updated guidance did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

Effective January 1, 2012, the Company adopted the FASB’s new standard regarding the presentation of comprehensive income. The new standard requires the presentation of comprehensive income, the components of net income and the components of other comprehensive income either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements. The new standard also requires presentation on the face of the financial statements of reclassification adjustments for items that are reclassified from other comprehensive income to net income in the statement where the components of net income and the components of other comprehensive income are presented. The Company’s adoption of the new standard did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.