SEC Company Response from NVIDIA CORP (NVDA) (CIK 0001045810) (NVDA) — Jul 17, 2007
NVIDIA CORP (NVDA) (CIK 0001045810)
Date: July 17, 2007 · CIK: 0001045810 · Accession: 0001045810-07-000032
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 000-23985
Referenced dates: July 9, 2007
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CORRESP
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filename1.htm
correspondence.htm
July
17,
2007
Via
Edgar, Federal Express and Facsimile
Angela
Crane
U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
450
Fifth
Street, N.W.
Washington,
D.C. 20549
Re: NVIDIA
Corporation
Comments
on Form 10-K for the year ended January 28, 2007
File
Number 000-23985
Dear
Ms.
Crane:
On
behalf
of NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA” or the “Company”) we are submitting for filing
this letter in response to comments received from the staff of the Securities
and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” and the “Staff”) by letter dated July
9, 2007 (the “Comment Letter”) with respect to the Company’s Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended January 28, 2007, Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended
April 29, 2007, and Form 8-K filed May 10, 2007.
The
numbering of the paragraphs below corresponds to the numbering of the comments
in the Comment Letter, which for the Staff’s convenience have been included in
this response letter.
Form
10-Q for the quarterly period ended April 29, 2007
Management's
Discussion and Analysis, page 21
1.
When
you cite more than one factor in explaining the
change in a financial statement line item, the amounts of the individual
factors cited, including offsetting factors, should be separately
quantified. Please apply throughout MD&A in future
filings.
NVIDIA
respectfully acknowledges the Staff’s comment and we will separately quantify
the amounts of individual factors cited when we cite more than one factor in
explaining the change in a financial statement line item, to the extent that
it
is practicable to do so. We will apply this practice in our future
filings, beginning with our Form 10-Q to be filed for the quarterly period
ending July 29, 2007.
Note
10. Balance Sheet Components, page 14
2.
We
note that "accrued customer programs" represent 22%
of your total liabilities. Please tell us and revise future filing
to
disclose the nature of these customer programs and how you account
for
them. Cite the accounting literature that supports your accounting
treatment.
NVIDIA
advises the Staff that “accrued customer programs” consist primarily of rebates
and marketing development funds. Accrued customer rebates and
marketing programs accounted for 99.98% of the total accrued customer programs
as of the quarter ended April 29, 2007.
We
described these customer programs and our accounting for them in our Form 10-K
for the year ended January 28, 2007, in both the Critical Accounting Policies
and Estimates section of Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and in Note 1 – Organization and
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of our Consolidated Financial
Statements, as follows:
“We
record estimated reductions to revenue for customer programs at the time revenue
is recognized. Our customer programs primarily involve rebates, which are
designed to serve as sales incentives to resellers of our products in various
target markets. We account for rebates in accordance with Emerging Issues Task
Force Issue 01-9, or EITF 01-09, Accounting for Consideration Given by a Vendor
to a Customer (Including a Reseller of the Vendor’s Products) and, as such, we
accrue for 100% of the potential rebates and do not apply a breakage factor.
Rebates typically expire six months from the date of the original sale, unless
we reasonably believe that the customer intends to claim the rebate. Unclaimed
rebates are reversed to revenue upon expiration of the rebate.
Our
customer programs also include marketing development funds, or MDFs. We account
for MDFs as either a reduction of revenue or an operating expense in accordance
with EITF 01-09. MDFs represent monies paid to retailers, system builders,
original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, distributors and add-in card partners
that are earmarked for market segment development and expansion and typically
are designed to support our partners’ activities while also promoting NVIDIA
products. If market conditions decline, we may take actions to increase amounts
offered under customer programs, possibly resulting in an incremental reduction
of revenue at the time such programs are offered.”
NVIDIA
respectfully acknowledges the Staff’s comment and will include similar
disclosures in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements in our
future filings on Form 10-Q regarding the nature of, and accounting for,
customer programs.
Form
8-K filed May 10, 2007 (correction of typographical error indicating filing
date
as March 10, 2007 instead of May 10, 2007)
3. Please
revise the statement of income to remove the "total stock-based compensation
expense" line-item from the table included as a footnote on the face of
your
statements of income. As indicated in SAB Topic 14-F, you can revise the
statement to present the related stock-based compensation charges in a
parenthetical note to the appropriate income statement line
items.
NVIDIA
respectfully acknowledges the Staff’s comment and we will remove the “total
stock-based compensation expense” line item from the table included as a
footnote on the face of our statements of income from our future earnings
releases furnished by Form 8-K.
4.
We
note that you present your non-GAAP measures and reconciliation in the form
of
adjusted statement of income. This format may be confusing to investors as
it
also reflects several non-GAAP measures, including non-GAAP gross profit,
non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP income before income tax expense, non-GAAP
income taxes, non-GAAP basic net income per share, and non-GAAP diluted shares,
which have not been described to investors. In fact, it appears that management
does not use certain of these non-GAAP measures but they are shown here as
a
result of the presentation format. Please note that Instruction 2 to Item 2.02
of Form 8-K requires that when furnishing information under this item, you
must
provide all the disclosures required by paragraph (e)(1)(i) of Item 10 of
Regulation S-K, including a reconciliation to the directly comparable GAAP
measure for each non-GAAP measure presented and explain why you believe the
measures provide useful information to investors.
·
To
eliminate investor confusion, please remove the adjusted statements
of
income from all future filings and instead disclose only those non-GAAP
measures used by management that you wish to highlight for investors,
with
the appropriate
reconciliations.
·
Please
note that in the event that your Form 8-K is
incorporated by reference into a 33 Act registration statement, we
may
have additional questions relating to the appropriateness of this
information being included in a document filed with, and not just
furnished to, the Commission. At that time, we may request an amendment
to
the Form 8-K.
In
response to the Staff’s comment, we will remove the presentation of an adjusted
non-GAAP statement of income from our future earnings releases furnished by
Form
8-K and we plan to disclose only those non-GAAP measures used by management
that
we wish to highlight for investors, with the appropriate
reconciliations.
NVIDIA
also informs the Staff that the Form 8-K filed on May 10, 2007, has not been
incorporated by reference in any other filing under the Securities Act of
1933. Additionally, please note that we do not plan to incorporate
this Form 8-K in any of our future filings made pursuant to the Securities
Act
of 1933.
In
connection with responding to the Staff’s comments, NVIDIA acknowledges
that:
·
The
Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure
in
its filings;
·
Staff
comments or changes to disclosure in response to Staff comments do
not
foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the
filing; and
·
The
Company may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding
initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities
laws of the United States.
Please
call me at (408) 486-2000 regarding any questions or comments on this
matter.
Sincerely,
/s/
Marvin
D. Burkett
Marvin
D. Burkett
Chief
Financial Officer
cc: Jen-Hsun
Huang
Raman
Chitkara (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP)
Eric
C. Jensen (Cooley Godward Kronish LLP)