Annual Report

Large accelerated filer x

Accelerated filer o

Non-accelerated filer o

Smaller reporting company o

(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

_____________________________________________

Form 10-K



x		ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
		For the fiscal year ended April 30, 2012
OR
o		TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
		For the transition period from to

000-27999

(Commission File No.)

Finisar Corporation

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)



Delaware (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		94-3038428 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
1389 Moffett Park Drive Sunnyvale, California (Address of principal executive offices)		94089 (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:

408-548-1000

_____________________________________________

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

None

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

Common stock, $.001 par value

(Title of class)

_____________________________________________

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

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

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 229.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes x 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. x

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

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

As of October 30, 2011 , the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $1,918,586,601 based on the closing sales price of the registrant’s common stock as reported on the Nasdaq Stock Market on October 28, 2011 of $21.38 per share. Shares of common stock held by officers, directors and holders of more than ten percent of the outstanding common stock have been excluded from this calculation because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of June 15, 2012 , there were 91,513,900 shares of the registrant’s common stock, $.001 par value, issued and outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2012 annual meeting of stockholders are incorporated by reference in Part III hereof.

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INDEX TO ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED APRIL 30, 2012



			Page
Forward Looking Statements			1

	PART I
	Item 1.	Business	2
	Item 1A.	Risk Factors	8
	Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	20
	Item 2.	Properties	21
	Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	21
	Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	21

	PART II
	Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	24
	Item 6.	Selected Financial Data	24
	Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation	25
	Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	37
	Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	39
	Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	55
	Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	55
	Item 9B.	Other Information	57

	PART III
	Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	57
	Item 11.	Executive Compensation	57
	Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	57
	Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	57
	Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	57

	PART IV
	Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	57
Signatures			58

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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We use words like “anticipates,” “believes,” “plans,” “expects,” “future,” “intends” and similar expressions to identify these forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events; however, our business and operations are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, and, consequently, actual results may materially differ from those projected by any forward-looking statements. As a result, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements since they may not occur.

Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ from those projected are discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors.” We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events.

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PART I


Item 1.	Business

Overview

We are a leading provider of optical subsystems and components that are used in data communication and telecommunication applications. Our optical subsystems consist primarily of transmitters, receivers, transceivers, transponders and active optical cables that provide the fundamental optical-electrical, or optoelectronic, interface for interconnecting the electronic equipment used in building these networks, including the switches, routers and servers used in wireline networks as well as the antennas and base stations for wireless networks. These products rely on the use of semiconductor lasers and photodetectors in conjunction with integrated circuits and novel optoelectronic packaging to provide a cost-effective means for transmitting and receiving digital signals over fiber optic cable at speeds ranging from less than 1 gigabit per second, or Gbps, to more than 100 Gbps, over distances of less than 10 meters to more than 2,000 kilometers, using a wide range of network protocols and physical configurations. We supply optical transceivers and transponders that allow point-to-point communications on a fiber using a single specified wavelength or, bundled with multiplexing technologies, can be used to supply multi-Gbps bandwidth over several wavelengths on the same fiber.

We also provide products known as wavelength selective switches, or WSS. In long-haul and metro networks, each fiber may carry 50 to 100 different high-speed optical channels, each with its own specific optical wavelength. WSS are switches that are used to dynamically switch network traffic from one optical fiber to multiple other fibers without first converting the optical signal to an electronic signal. The wavelength selective feature means that WSS enable any wavelength or combination of wavelengths to be switched from the input fiber to the output fibers. WSS products are sometimes combined with other components and sold as linecards that plug into a system chassis referred to as a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer, or ROADM.

Our line of optical components consists primarily of packaged lasers and photodetectors for data communication and telecommunication applications and passive optical components used in telecommunication applications.

Demand for our products is largely driven by the continually growing need for additional network bandwidth created by the ongoing proliferation of data and video traffic driven by video downloads, Internet protocol TV, social networking, on-line gaming, file sharing, enterprise IP/Internet traffic, cloud computing, and data center virtualization that must be handled by both wireline and wireless networks. Mobile traffic is increasing as the result of proliferation of smartphones, tablet computers, and other mobile devices.

Our manufacturing operations are vertically integrated and we utilize internal sources for many of the key components used in making our products including lasers, photodetectors and integrated circuits, or ICs, designed by our internal IC engineering teams. We also have internal assembly and test capabilities that make use of internally designed equipment for the automated testing of our optical subsystems and components.

We sell our optical products to manufacturers of storage systems, networking equipment and telecommunication equipment, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, Ciena, Cisco Systems, EMC, Emulex, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei, IBM, Juniper, Qlogic, Nokia-Siemens and Tellabs, as well as their contract manufacturers. These customers, in turn, sell their systems to businesses and to wireline and wireless telecommunication service providers and cable TV operators, collectively referred to as carriers.

We were incorporated in California in April 1987 and reincorporated in Delaware in November 1999. Our principal executive offices are located at 1389 Moffett Park Drive, Sunnyvale, California 94089, and our telephone number at that location is +1- 408-548-1000.

All references to “Finisar,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” are references to Finisar Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries, collectively, except as otherwise indicated or where the context otherwise requires.

Business Strategy

In order to maintain our position as a leading supplier of fiber optic subsystems and components, we are continuing to pursue the following business strategies:


•	Continue to Invest in or Acquire Critical Technologies to Further Our Vertical Integration Strategy. Our years of engineering experience, our multi-disciplinary technical expertise and our participation in the development of industry

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standards have enabled us to become a leader in the design and development of optical subsystems and components. We have developed and acquired critical skills that we believe are essential to maintaining a technological lead in our markets including high speed semiconductor laser design and wafer fabrication, complex logic and mixed signal integrated circuit design, optical subassembly design, software coding, system design, and manufacturing test design. In the process of investing in and/or acquiring critical technologies, we have obtained a number of U.S. and foreign patents with other patents pending. We intend to maintain our technological leadership through continual enhancement of our existing products and the development or acquisition of new products. Of special interest are technologies that enable smaller, more efficient, and lower cost transceivers capable of transmitting data at higher speeds, over longer distances, or at greater capacity per fiber.

•

Expand Our Broad Product Line of Optical Subsystems. We offer one of the broadest portfolios of optical subsystems that support a wide range of speeds, fiber types, wavelengths, distances and functionality and are available in a variety of industry standard packaging configurations, or form factors. Our optical subsystems are designed to comply with key networking protocols such as Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, Optical Transport Network, or OTN, and Synchronous Optical Networking/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, or SONET/SDH, and plug directly into standard port configurations used in our customers’ products. The breadth of our optical subsystems product line is important to many of our customers who are seeking to consolidate their supply sources for a wide range of networking products for diverse applications. We are focused on the ongoing expansion of our product line to add key products to meet our customers’ needs. Where time-to-market considerations are especially important in order to secure or enhance our supplier relationships with key customers, we may elect to acquire additional product lines.

•

Leverage Core Competencies Across Multiple, High-Growth Markets. We believe that fiber optic technology will remain the transmission technology of choice for Fibre Channel and Ethernet data communication applications, including 1 Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps Ethernet-based networks, and OTN- and SONET/SDH-based telecommunication applications. We also believe that wavelength management and switching technologies, such as those found in WSS, Optical Channel Monitors and linecards will be increasingly important in optical transmission networks. These markets are characterized by differentiated applications with unique design criteria such as product function, performance, reliability, cost, in-system monitoring, size, power dissipation and software. We intend to target opportunities where our core competencies in high-speed data transmission protocols can be leveraged into leadership positions as these technologies are extended across multiple data communication and telecommunication applications and into other markets and industries such as high performance computing, military, medical and consumer electronics products.

•

Strengthen and Expand Customer Relationships. Over more than 20 years, we have established valuable relationships and a loyal base of customers by providing high-quality products and superior service. Our service-oriented approach has allowed us to work closely with leading data communication and telecommunication system manufacturers to understand and address their current needs and anticipate their future requirements.

•

Continue to Strengthen Our Lower-Cost Manufacturing Capabilities. We believe that new markets can be created by the introduction of new, lower-cost, high value-added products. We achieve lower product costs through the introduction of new technologies, product design and market presence. Our in-house lower-cost manufacturing resources are also a key factor in our ability to offer a lower-cost product solution. We have established our own manufacturing facilities in Ipoh, Malaysia and Shanghai, China in order to take advantage of lower-cost labor while protecting access to our intellectual property and know-how. In addition, access to critical underlying technologies, such as our laser manufacturing and IC design capabilities enables us to accelerate our product development efforts to be able to introduce new low cost products more quickly. We continue to seek ways to lower our production costs through improved product design, improved manufacturing and testing processes and increased vertical integration.

Products

Our optical subsystems and components are integrated into our customers’ systems and used for fiber optics-based data communication and telecommunication networks.

Our family of optical subsystem products consists of transmitters, receivers, transceivers, transponders and active optical cables principally based on the Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, OTN and SONET/SDH protocols. A transmitter uses a laser plus direct or indirect modulation to convert electrical signals into optical signals for transmission over fiber optics. Receivers incorporating photo detectors convert incoming optical signals into electrical signals. A transceiver combines both transmitter and receiver functions in a single device. A transponder includes an IC to provide the data serializer-deserializer function that would otherwise reside in the customer’s equipment if a transceiver is used. An active optical cable combines two transceivers

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and a fiber optic cable that are built into an integrated, connectorized cable assembly that is sold in various cable lengths. Our optical subsystem products perform these functions with high reliability and data integrity and support a wide range of protocols, transmission speeds, fiber types, wavelengths, transmission distances, physical configurations and software enhancements.

Our high-speed optical subsystems are engineered to deliver value-added functionality and intelligence. Most of our optical subsystem products include a microprocessor with proprietary embedded software that provides customers real-time monitoring of transmitted and received optical power, temperature, drive current and other link parameters for each port in their systems.

For data communication applications that rely on the Fibre Channel standard, we currently provide a wide range of optical subsystems for transmission applications at 1 to 16 Gbps. For data communication applications that rely on the Ethernet standard, we provide a broad range of optical subsystems for transmitting signals at 1 to 100 Gbps using the SFP, SFP+, XFP, X2, QSFP and CFP form factors. For OTN and SONET/SDH-based telecommunication applications, we supply optical subsystems that are capable of transmitting at 0.155, 0.622, 2.5, 10, 40 and 100 Gbps.

We also offer a full line of optical subsystems for telecommunication applications using wavelength division multiplexing, or WDM technologies. Our products include coarse wavelength division multiplexing, or CWDM, transceivers in the SFP form factor and dense wavelength division multiplexing, or DWDM, transceivers in the SFP, SFP+ XFP, CFP and 300-pin form factors. These products include both fixed wavelength transceivers and tunable transceivers that are capable of dynamically tuning across a range of wavelengths in the C- and L-Bands.

As a result of several acquisitions, we have gained access to leading-edge technology for the manufacture of a number of active and passive optical components including vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, or VCSELs, Fabry-Perot, or FP, lasers, distributed feedback, or DFB, lasers, tunable lasers, positive intrinsic negative, or PIN, detectors, fused fiber couplers, isolators, filters, polarization beam combiners, interleavers, splitters, and arrayed waveguide gratings, or AWGs. Most of these optical components are used internally in the manufacture of our optical subsystems. We currently sell some of these components in the so-called “merchant market” to other subsystems manufacturers.

We also offer products used in building fiber-to-the-home/curb networks and for parallel optics applications such as backplanes for switches and routers.

We offer WSS and ROADM linecard products for wavelength management in DWDM telecommunication networks. These capabilities are made possible in part through the use of our unique liquid crystal on silicon, or LCoS, technology, similar to that used in miniature projectors. This technology provides a highly flexible WSS capable of operating on both 50 and 100 GHz International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, grids, based on our patented Flexgrid ^TM technology. In addition, this LCoS-based architecture offers the capability for in-service upgrades of functionality and integration of additional system functionality, including drop and continue, channel monitoring and channel contouring features. Our WSS and ROADM linecard product offering ranges from 1x2, 1x4 and 1x9 products up to higher output fiber port counts in our latest 1x23 product.

Customers

Our revenues are principally derived from sales of optical subsystems and components to a broad base of original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, distributors and system integrators. Sales of products for data communication applications represented 56% , 50% and 56% of our total revenues in fiscal 2012 , 2011 and 2010 , respectively. Sales of products for telecommunication applications represented 44% , 50% and 44% of our total revenues in fiscal 2012 , 2011 and 2010 , respectively.

Sales to our ten largest customers represented 59% , 64% and 60% of our total revenues during fiscal 2012 , 2011 and 2010 , respectively. Two customers, Cisco Systems and Huawei, each represented more than 10% of our total revenues during fiscal 2012 . Three customers, Cisco Systems, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent, each represented more than 10% of our total revenues during fiscal 2011 . One customer, Cisco Systems, represented more than 10% of total revenues during fiscal 2010 . No other customer accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues in any of these years.

Technology

The development of high quality optical subsystems and components for high-speed communications requires multidisciplinary expertise in the following technology areas:

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High Frequency Integrated Circuit Design. Our optical subsystems development efforts are supported by an engineering team that specializes in analog/digital IC design. This group utilizes semiconductor technologies such as silicon complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor, or Si CMOS, and silicon germanium bipolar CMOS, or SiGe BiCMOS, to design high-speed, high performance, proprietary ICs such as laser drivers, receiver pre-and post-amplifiers and microprocessors. These proprietary ICs are incorporated across our transceiver and transponder product portfolio at data rates from 1 to 100 Gbps. We are designing advanced LCoS controller ICs for our WSS and ROADM linecard products. Our internally developed ICs provide significant cost and performance advantages throughout our current product portfolio. Our in-house IC design capabilities are critical to our ongoing development of future products with even faster data rates, higher performance, and lower cost.

Optical Subassembly and Mechanical Design. We established ourselves as a low-cost design leader beginning with our initial optical subsystems in 1992. From that base we have developed single-mode laser alignment approaches and low-cost, all-metal packaging techniques for improved electromagnetic interference, or EMI, performance and environmental tolerance. We develop our own component and packaging designs and integrate these designs with proprietary manufacturing processes that allow our products to be manufactured in high volume.

System Design. The design of all of our products requires a combination of sophisticated technical competencies, including optical engineering, high-speed electrical design, digital and analog application specific IC, or ASIC, design and firmware and software engineering. We have built a substantial organization of engineers and scientists with skills in all of these areas. It is the integration and combination of these technical competencies that enables us to design and manufacture optical subsystem and component products that meet the needs of our customers.

Manufacturing System Design. Hardware, firmware and software design skills are utilized to provide specialized manufacturing test systems for our internal use. These test systems are optimized for test capacity and broad test coverage. We use automated, software-controlled testing to enhance the field reliability of all Finisar products and to reduce the level of capital expenditures that would otherwise be required to purchase these test systems.

Optoelectronic Device Design and Wafer Fabrication. The ability to manufacture our own optical components provides significant cost savings as well as the ability to create unique, high performance components that are not commercially available. This enhances our competitive position in terms of performance, time-to-market and intellectual property. Most significantly, we design and manufacture a number of active components that are used in our optical subsystems. Our acquisition of Honeywell’s VCSEL Optical Products business unit in March 2004 provided us with wafer fabrication capability for designing and manufacturing all of the 850 nm VCSEL components used in our shorter distance transceivers for data communication applications. The acquisition of Genoa Corporation in April 2003 provided us with a state-of-the-art foundry for the manufacture of PIN detectors and 1310 nm FP and DFB lasers used in our longer distance transceivers, although we continue to rely on third-party suppliers for a portion of our DFB laser requirements. The acquisition of Ignis AS in May 2011 provided us, through Ignis' wholly owned subsidiary Syntune AB located in Sweden, with access to an internal source of tunable lasers for use in our 300-pin transponders and tunable XFP transceivers for telecommunication applications.

Competition

Several of our competitors in the optical subsystems and components market recently have been acquired or have announced plans to be acquired. These announcements reflect an ongoing realignment of industry capacity with market demand in order to restore the financial health of the optical subsystems industry. Despite this trend, the market for optical subsystems and components for use in data communication and telecommunication applications remains highly competitive. We believe the principal competitive factors in these markets are:


•	product performance, features, functionality and reliability;


•	price/performance characteristics;


•	timeliness of new product introductions;


•	breadth of product line;


•	adoption of emerging industry standards;


•	service and support;


•	size and scope of distribution network;


•	brand name;


•	access to customers; and


•	size of installed customer base.

Competition in the market for optical subsystems and components varies by market segment. Our principal competitors

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for optical transceivers sold for data communication applications include Avago Technologies, JDS Uniphase and Opnext. Our principal competitors for optical transceivers sold for telecommunication applications include JDS Uniphase, Oclaro, Opnext and Sumitomo. Our principal competitors for WSS ROADM products include CoAdna, JDS Uniphase, Oclaro and Oplink. We believe we compete favorably with our competitors with respect to most of the foregoing factors based, in part, upon our broad product line, our sizeable installed base, our significant vertical integration and our lower-cost manufacturing facilities in Ipoh, Malaysia and Shanghai, China. We believe that the recent introduction of a number of products for 10, 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet, or GigE, and parallel optics applications and recent design-wins for our WSS component and ROADM linecard products have strengthened our position in the optical subsystem market.

Sales, Marketing and Technical Support

For sales of our optical subsystems and components, we utilize a direct sales force augmented by two world-wide distributors, 13 international distributors, three domestic distributors, 19 domestic manufacturers’ representatives and four international manufacturers’ representatives. Our direct sales force maintains close contact with our customers and provides technical support to our manufacturers’ representatives. In our international markets, our direct sales force works with local resellers who assist us in providing support and maintenance in the territories they cover.

Our marketing efforts are focused on increasing awareness of our product offerings for optical subsystems and our brand name. Key components of our marketing efforts include:


•	continuing our active participation in industry associations and standards committees to promote and further enhance Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and SONET/SDH/OTN technologies, promote standardization in the data communication and telecommunication markets, and increase our visibility as industry experts; and


•	leveraging major trade show events and conferences to promote our broad product lines.

In addition, our marketing group provides marketing support services for our executive staff, our direct sales force and our manufacturers’ representatives and resellers. Through our marketing activities, we provide technical and strategic sales support to our direct sales personnel and resellers, including in-depth product presentations, technical manuals, sales tools, pricing, marketing communications, marketing research, trademark administration and other support functions.

A high level of continuing service and support is critical to our objective of developing long-term customer relationships. We emphasize customer service and technical support in order to provide our customers and their end users with the knowledge and resources necessary to successfully utilize our product line. Our customer service organization utilizes a technical team of field and factory applications engineers, technical marketing personnel and, when required, product design engineers. We provide extensive customer support throughout the qualification and sale process. In addition, we provide many resources through our World Wide Web site, including product documentation and technical information. We intend to continue to provide our customers with comprehensive product support and believe it is critical to remaining competitive.

Backlog

A substantial portion of our revenues is derived from sales to OEMs and system integrators through hub arrangements where revenue is generated as inventory that resides at these customers or their contract manufacturers is drawn down. Visibility as to future customer demand is limited in these situations. Most of our other revenues are derived from sales pursuant to individual purchase orders that remain subject to negotiation with respect to delivery schedules and are generally cancelable without significant penalties. Manufacturing capacity and availability of key components can also impact the timing and amount of revenue ultimately recognized under such sale arrangements. Accordingly, we do not believe that the backlog of undelivered product under these purchase orders at a particular time is a meaningful indicator of our future financial performance.

Manufacturing

We manufacture most of our optical subsystems at our production facility in Ipoh, Malaysia. This facility consists of 640,000 square feet, of which 240,000 square feet is suitable for clean room operations. The acquisition of this facility has allowed us to transfer most of our manufacturing processes from contract manufacturers to a lower-cost manufacturing facility and to maintain greater control over our intellectual property. We expect to continue to use contract manufacturers for a portion of our manufacturing needs. We conduct a portion of our new product introduction operations at our Ipoh, Malaysia facility. We manufacture short wavelength parallel optical transceiver products and certain passive optical components used in our long wavelength transceiver products as well as ROADM linecards products and WSS assemblies, at our 180,000 square foot facility in Shanghai, China. We entered into a 50 year lease for 550,000 square feet of land in Wuxi, China, where we plan to

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build a manufacturing facility to manufacture products for both data communication and telecommunication applications. We manufacture WSS products in our 55,000 square foot facility in Sydney, Australia and certain telecommunication products in our 81,000 square foot facility in Horsham, Pennsylvania. We manufacture splitters in our 23,000 and 37,200 square foot facilities in GwangJu, Korea. We manufacture AWGs in our 56,000 square foot facility in Birkerod, Denmark. We continue to conduct a substantial portion of our new product introduction activities at our Sunnyvale, California, Horsham, Pennsylvania, and Sydney, Australia facilities. In Sunnyvale, we also conduct supply chain management for certain components as well as quality assurance and documentation control operations. We maintain an international purchasing office in Shenzen, China. We conduct wafer fabrication operations for the manufacture of VCSELs used in short wavelength transceiver product at our facility in Allen, Texas. We conduct wafer fabrication operations for the manufacture of long wavelength FP and DFB lasers at our facility in Fremont, California. We conduct wafer fabrication operations for the manufacturing of tunable lasers and photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, in our facility in Jarfalla, Sweden.

We design and develop a number of the key components of our products, including photodetectors, lasers, ASICs, printed circuit boards and software. In addition, our manufacturing team works closely with our engineers to manage the supply chain. To assure the quality and reliability of our products, we conduct product testing and burn-in at our facilities in conjunction with inspection and the use of testing and statistical process controls. In addition, most of our optical subsystems have an intelligent interface that allows us to monitor product quality during the manufacturing process. Our facilities in Sunnyvale and Fremont, California; Allen, Texas; Horsham, Pennsylvania; Shanghai, China; Ipoh, Malaysia; and Sydney, Australia are qualified under ISO 9001-9002.

Although we use standard parts and components for our products wherever possible, we currently purchase several key components from single or limited sources. Our principal single source components purchased from external suppliers include ASICs and certain DFB lasers that we do not manufacture internally. Generally, purchase commitments with our single or limited source suppliers are on a purchase order basis. We generally try to maintain a buffer inventory of key components. However, any interruption or delay in the supply of any of these components, or the inability to procure these components from alternate sources at acceptable prices and within a reasonable time, would substantially harm our business. In addition, qualifying additional suppliers can be time-consuming and expensive and may increase the likelihood of errors.

We use a rolling 12-month forecast of anticipated product orders to determine our material requirements. Lead times for materials and components we order vary significantly and depend on factors such as the demand for such components in relation to each supplier’s manufacturing capacity, internal manufacturing capacity, contract terms and demand for a component at a given time.

Research and Development

In fiscal 2012 , 2011 and 2010 , our research and development expenses related to our continuing operations were $146.0 million , $117.3 million and $94.8 million , respectively. We believe that our future success depends on our ability to continue to enhance and reduce the cost of our existing products and to develop new products that maintain technological and business competitiveness. We focus our product development activities on addressing the evolving needs of our customers within the data communication and telecommunication markets. We also seek opportunities to leverage the technical and product competencies created for our core markets to develop products for other applications, especially for products using active optical components that we design and manufacture. We work closely with our OEM and system integrator customers to monitor changes in the marketplace. We design our products around current industry standards and will continue to support emerging standards that are consistent with our product strategy. Our research and development groups are aligned with our various product lines, and we also have specific groups devoted to ASIC design and test, subsystem design, and software design. Our product development operations include the active involvement of our manufacturing engineers who examine each product for its manufacturability, predicted reliability, expected lifetime and manufacturing costs.

We believe that our research and development efforts are key to our ability to maintain technical and business competitiveness and to deliver innovative products that address the needs of the market. However, there can be no assurance that our product development efforts will result in commercially successful products, or that our products will not be rendered obsolete by changing technology or new product announcements by other companies.

Intellectual Property

Our success and ability to compete is dependent in part on our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality agreements and licensing arrangements, to establish and protect our proprietary rights. We currently own approximately 1,193 issued U.S. patents and approximately 180 patent applications with additional foreign counterparts. We cannot assure that any patents will issue as a result of pending

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patent applications or that our issued patents will be upheld. Any infringement of our proprietary rights could result in significant litigation costs, and any failure to adequately protect our proprietary rights could result in our competitors offering similar products, potentially resulting in loss of a competitive advantage and decreased revenues. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, existing patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws afford only limited protection. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Attempts may be made to copy or reverse engineer aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Accordingly, we may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our technology or to deter others from developing similar technology. Furthermore, policing the unauthorized use of our products is difficult. We have been involved in extensive litigation to enforce certain of our patents and are currently engaged in such litigation. See “Item 3. Legal Proceedings.” Additional litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights. This litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could significantly harm our business.

The optical networking and communications industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent litigation based on allegations of patent infringement. We have been involved in extensive litigation to protect our products against accusations of infringement. See "Item 3. Legal Proceedings." From time to time, other parties may assert patent, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights to technologies in various jurisdictions that are important to our business, and such claims could result in additional litigation. Any claims asserting that our products infringe or may infringe proprietary rights of third parties, if determined adversely to us, could significantly harm our business. Any such claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, cause product shipment delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, any of which could significantly harm our business. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available on terms acceptable to us, if at all. In addition, our agreements with our customers typically require us to indemnify our customers from any expense or liability resulting from claimed infringement of third party intellectual property rights. In the event a claim against us was successful and we could not obtain a license to the relevant technology on acceptable terms or license a substitute technology or redesign our products to avoid infringement, our business would be significantly harmed.

Employees

As of April 30, 2012 , we employed approximately 8,910 full-time employees and contractors, 824 of whom were located in the United States and 6,664 of whom were located at our production facilities in Ipoh, Malaysia and Shanghai, China. We also from time to time employ part-time employees. Our employees are not represented by any union, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. Certain of our employees in our Sydney, Australia facility are subject to a collective agreement not involving a union. We believe that there is a positive employee relations environment within our company.

Available Information

Our website is located at www.finisar.com . Electronic copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, 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 are available, free of charge, on our website as soon as practicable after we electronically file such material with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The contents of our website are not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.


Item 1A.	Risk Factors

OUR FUTURE PERFORMANCE IS SUBJECT TO A VARIETY OF RISKS, INCLUDING THOSE DESCRIBED BELOW. IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING RISKS ACTUALLY OCCUR, OUR BUSINESS COULD BE HARMED AND THE TRADING PRICE OF OUR COMMON STOCK COULD DECLINE. YOU SHOULD ALSO REFER TO THE OTHER INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT, INCLUDING OUR CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND THE RELATED NOTES.

Our quarterly revenues and operating results fluctuate due to a variety of factors, which may result in volatility or a decline in the price of our stock.

Our quarterly operating results have varied significantly due to a number of factors, including:


•	fluctuation in demand for our products;


•	the timing of new product introductions or enhancements by us and our competitors;


•	the level of market acceptance of new and enhanced versions of our products;


•	the timing or cancellation of large customer orders;

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•	the length and variability of the sales cycle for our products;


•	pricing policy changes by us and our competitors and suppliers;


•	the availability of development funding and the timing of development revenue;


•	changes in the mix of products sold;


•	increased competition in product lines, and competitive pricing pressures; and


•	the evolving and unpredictable nature of the markets for products incorporating our optical components and subsystems.

We expect that our operating results will continue to fluctuate in the future as a result of these factors and a variety of other factors, including:


•	fluctuations in manufacturing yields;


•	the emergence of new industry standards;


•	failure to anticipate changing customer product requirements;


•	the loss or gain of important customers;


•	product obsolescence; and


•	the amount of research and development expenses associated with new product introductions.

Our operating results could also be harmed by:


•	the continuation or worsening of the current global economic slowdown or economic conditions in various geographic areas where we or our customers do business;


•	acts of terrorism and international conflicts or domestic crises;


•	other conditions affecting the timing of customer orders; or


•	a downturn in the markets for our customers' products, particularly the data storage and networking and telecommunication components markets.

We may experience a delay in generating or recognizing revenues for a number of reasons. Orders at the beginning of each quarter are typically lower than expected revenues for that quarter and are generally cancelable with minimal notice. Accordingly, we depend on obtaining orders during each quarter for shipment in that quarter to achieve our revenue objectives. Failure to ship these products by the end of a quarter may adversely affect our operating results. Furthermore, our customer agreements typically provide that the customer may delay scheduled delivery dates and cancel orders within specified timeframes without significant penalty. Because we base our operating expenses on anticipated revenue trends and a high percentage of our expenses are fixed in the short term, any delay in generating or recognizing forecasted revenues could significantly harm our business. It is likely that in some future quarters our operating results will again decrease from the previous quarter or fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. In this event, it is likely that the trading price of our common stock would significantly decline.

As a result of these factors, our operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter. Accordingly, we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations are not meaningful and should not be relied upon as indications of future performance. Any shortfall in revenues or net income from levels expected by the investment community could cause a decline in the trading price of our stock.

We may lose sales if our suppliers or independent contract manufacturers fail to meet our needs or go out of business.

We currently purchase a number of key components used in the manufacture of our products from single or limited sources, and we rely on several independent contract manufacturers to supply us with certain key components and subassemblies, including lasers, modulators, and printed circuit boards. We depend on these sources to meet our production needs. Moreover, we depend on the quality of the components and subassemblies that they supply to us, over which we have limited control. Several of our suppliers are or may become financially unstable as the result of current global market conditions. In addition, from time to time we have encountered shortages and delays in obtaining components, and we may encounter additional shortages and delays in the future. If we cannot supply products due to a lack of components, or are unable to redesign products with other components in a timely manner, our business will be significantly harmed. We generally have no long-term contracts with any of our component suppliers or contract manufacturers. As a result, a supplier or contract manufacturer can discontinue supplying components or subassemblies to us without penalty. If a supplier were to discontinue supplying a key component or cease operations, the resulting product manufacturing and delivery delays could be lengthy, and our business could be substantially harmed. We are also subject to potential delays in the development by our suppliers of key components which may affect our ability to introduce new products. Similarly, disruptions in the operations of our key suppliers or in the services provided by our contract manufacturers, including disruptions due to natural disasters, or the transition to other

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suppliers of these key components or services could lead to supply chain problems or delays in the delivery of our products. These problems or delays could damage our relationships with our customers and adversely affect our business.

We use rolling forecasts based on anticipated product orders to determine our component and subassembly requirements. Lead times for materials and components that we order vary significantly and depend on factors such as specific supplier requirements, contract terms and current market demand for particular components. If we overestimate our component requirements, we may have excess inventory, which would increase our costs. If we underestimate our component requirements, we may have inadequate inventory, which could interrupt our manufacturing and delay delivery of our products to our customers. Any of these occurrences could significantly harm our business.

If we are unable to realize anticipated cost savings from the transfer of certain manufacturing operations to our overseas locations and increased use of internally-manufactured components our results of operations could be harmed.

As part of our ongoing initiatives to reduce the cost of revenues which will continue over the next several quarters, we expect to realize significant cost savings through (i) the transfer of certain product manufacturing operations to lower cost off-shore locations and (ii) product engineering changes to enable the broader use of internally-manufactured components. The transfer of production to overseas locations may be more difficult and costly than we currently anticipate which could result in increased transfer costs and time delays. Further, following transfer, we may experience lower manufacturing yields than those historically achieved in our U.S. manufacturing locations. In addition, the engineering changes required for the use of internally-manufactured components may be more technically-challenging than we anticipate and customer acceptance of such changes could be delayed. If we fail to achieve the planned product manufacturing transfer and increase in internally-manufactured component use within our currently anticipated timeframe, or if our manufacturing yields decrease as a result, we may be unsuccessful in achieving cost savings or such savings will be less than anticipated, and our results of operations could be harmed.

We may not be able to obtain additional capital in the future, and failure to do so may harm our business.

We believe that our existing balances of cash and cash equivalents, together with the cash expected to be generated from future operations and borrowings under our bank credit facility, will be sufficient to meet our cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. We may, however, require additional financing to fund our operations in the future, to finance future acquisitions that we may propose to undertake or to repay or otherwise retire our outstanding convertible debt in the aggregate principal amount of $40 million, which is subject to redemption by the holders in October 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2024. Due to the unpredictable nature of the capital markets, particularly in the technology sector, we cannot assure you that we will be able to raise additional capital if and when it is required, especially if we experience disappointing operating results. If adequate capital is not available to us as required, or is not available on favorable terms, we could be required to significantly reduce or restructure our business operations. If we do raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or convertible debt securities, the percentage ownership of our existing stockholders could be significantly diluted, and these newly-issued securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of existing stockholders.

Failure to accurately forecast our revenues could result in additional charges for obsolete or excess inventories or non-cancelable purchase commitments.

We base many of our operating decisions, and enter into purchase commitments, on the basis of anticipated revenue trends which are highly unpredictable. Some of our purchase commitments are not cancelable, and in some cases we are required to recognize a charge representing the amount of material or capital equipment purchased or ordered which exceeds our actual requirements. In the past, we have periodically experienced significant growth followed by a significant decrease in customer demand such as occurred in fiscal 2001, when revenues increased by 181% followed by a decrease of 22% in fiscal 2002. Based on projected revenue trends during these periods, we acquired inventories and entered into purchase commitments in order to meet anticipated increases in demand for our products which did not materialize. As a result, we recorded significant charges for obsolete and excess inventories and non-cancelable purchase commitments which contributed to substantial operating losses in fiscal 2002. Should revenues in future periods again fall substantially below our expectations, or should we fail again to accurately forecast changes in demand mix, we could again be required to record substantial charges for obsolete or excess inventories or non-cancelable purchase commitments.

If we encounter sustained yield problems or other delays in the production or delivery of our internally-manufactured components or in the final assembly and test of our products, we may lose sales and damage our customer relationships.

Our manufacturing operations are highly vertically integrated. In order to reduce our manufacturing costs, we have acquired

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a number of companies, and business units of other companies that manufacture optical components incorporated in our optical subsystem products and have developed our own facilities for the final assembly and testing of our products. For example, we design and manufacture many critical components incorporated in transceivers used for data communication and telecommunication applications, including all of the short wavelength VCSEL lasers, at our wafer fabrication facility in Allen, Texas and manufacture a portion of our internal requirements for longer wavelength lasers at our wafer fabrication facility in Fremont, California. We assemble and test most of our transceiver products at our facility in Ipoh, Malaysia. As a result of this vertical integration, we have become increasingly dependent on our internal production capabilities. The manufacture of critical components, including the fabrication of wafers, and the assembly and testing of our products, involve highly complex processes. For example, minute levels of contaminants in the manufacturing environment, difficulties in the fabrication process or other factors can cause a substantial portion of the components on a wafer to be nonfunctional. These problems may be difficult to detect at an early stage of the manufacturing process and often are time-consuming and expensive to correct. From time to time, we have experienced problems achieving acceptable yields at our wafer fabrication facilities, resulting in delays in the availability of components. Moreover, an increase in the rejection rate of products during the quality control process before, during or after manufacture, results in lower yields and margins. In addition, changes in manufacturing processes required as a result of changes in product specifications, changing customer needs and the introduction of new product lines have historically significantly reduced our manufacturing yields, resulting in low or negative margins on those products. Poor manufacturing yields over a prolonged period of time could adversely affect our ability to deliver our subsystem products to our customers and could also affect our sale of components to customers in the merchant market. Our inability to supply components to meet our internal needs could harm our relationships with customers and have an adverse effect on our business.

We are dependent on widespread market acceptance of our optical subsystems and components, and our revenues will decline if the markets for these products do not expand as expected.

We derive all of our revenue from sales of our optical subsystems and components. Accordingly, widespread acceptance of these products is critical to our future success. If the market does not continue to accept our optical subsystems and components, our revenues will decline significantly. Our future success also ultimately depends on the continued growth of the communications industry and, in particular, the continued expansion of global information networks, particularly those directly or indirectly dependent upon a fiber optics infrastructure. As part of that growth, we are relying on increasing demand for voice, video and other data delivered over high-bandwidth network systems as well as commitments by network systems vendors to invest in the expansion of the global information network. As network usage and bandwidth demand increase, so does the need for advanced optical networks to provide the required bandwidth. Without network and bandwidth growth, the need for optical subsystems and components, and hence our future growth as a manufacturer of these products, will be jeopardized, and our business would be significantly harmed.

Many of these factors are beyond our control. In addition, in order to achieve widespread market acceptance, we must differentiate ourselves from our competition through product offerings and brand name recognition. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in making this differentiation or achieving widespread acceptance of our products. Failure of our existing or future products to maintain and achieve widespread levels of market acceptance will significantly impair our revenue growth.

We depend on large purchases from a few significant customers, and any loss, cancellation, reduction or delay in purchases by these customers could harm our business.

A small number of customers have consistently accounted for a significant portion of our revenues. For example, sales to our top ten customers represented 59% of our revenues in fiscal 2012 , 64% of our revenues in fiscal 2011 and 60% of our revenues in fiscal 2010 . Our success will depend on our continued ability to develop and manage relationships with our major customers. Although we are attempting to expand our customer base, we expect that significant customer concentration will continue for the foreseeable future. We may not be able to offset any decline in revenues from our existing major customers with revenues from new customers, and our quarterly results may be volatile because we are dependent on large orders from these customers that may be reduced or delayed.

The markets in which we have historically sold our optical subsystems and components products are dominated by a relatively small number of systems manufacturers, thereby limiting the number of our potential customers. Recent consolidation of portions of our customer base, including telecommunication systems manufacturers, and potential future consolidation, may have a material adverse impact on our business. Our dependence on large orders from a relatively small number of customers makes our relationship with each customer critically important to our business. We cannot assure you that we will be able to retain our largest customers, that we will be able to attract additional customers or that our customers will be successful in selling their products that incorporate our products. We have in the past experienced delays and reductions in orders from some of our major customers. In addition, our customers have in the past sought price concessions from us, and we

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expect that they will continue to do so in the future. Expense reduction measures that we have implemented over the past several years, and additional action we are taking to reduce costs, may adversely affect our ability to introduce new and improved products which may, in turn, adversely affect our relationships with some of our key customers. Further, some of our customers may in the future shift their purchases of products from us to our competitors or to joint ventures between these customers and our competitors. The loss of one or more of our largest customers, any reduction or delay in sales to these customers, our inability to successfully develop relationships with additional customers or future price concessions that we may make could significantly harm our business.

Because we do not have long-term contracts with our customers, our customers may cease purchasing our products at any time if we fail to meet our customers' needs.

Typically, we do not have long-term contracts with our customers. As a result, our agreements with our customers do not provide any assurance of future sales. Accordingly:


•	our customers can stop purchasing our products at any time without penalty;


•	our customers are free to purchase products from our competitors; and


•	our customers are not required to make minimum purchases.

Sales are typically made pursuant to inventory hub arrangements under which customers may draw down inventory to satisfy their demand as needed or pursuant to individual purchase orders, often with extremely short lead times. If we are unable to fulfill these orders in a timely manner, it is likely that we will lose sales and customers. If our major customers stop purchasing our products for any reason, our business and results of operations would be harmed.

The markets for our products are subject to rapid technological change, and to compete effectively we must continually introduce new products that achieve market acceptance.

The markets for our products are characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product introductions, substantial capital investment, changes in customer requirements and evolving industry standards with respect to the protocols used in data communication and telecommunication networks. Our future performance will depend on the successful development, introduction and market acceptance of new and enhanced products that address these changes as well as current and potential customer requirements. For example, the market for optical subsystems is currently characterized by a trend toward the adoption of “pluggable” modules and subsystems that do not require customized interconnections and by the development of more complex and integrated optical subsystems. We expect that new technologies will emerge as competition and the need for higher and more cost-effective bandwidth increases. The introduction of new and enhanced products may cause our customers to defer or cancel orders for existing products. In addition, a slowdown in demand for existing products ahead of a new product introduction could result in a write-down in the value of inventory on hand related to existing products. We have in the past experienced a slowdown in demand for existing products and delays in new product development and such delays may occur in the future. To the extent customers defer or cancel orders for existing products due to a slowdown in demand or in the expectation of a new product release or if there is any delay in development or introduction of our new products or enhancements of our products, our operating results would suffer. We also may not be able to develop the underlying core technologies necessary to create new products and enhancements, or to license these technologies from third parties. Product development delays may result from numerous factors, including:


•	changing product specifications and customer requirements;


•	unanticipated engineering complexities;


•	expense reduction measures we have implemented, and others we may implement, to conserve our cash and attempt to achieve and sustain profitability;


•	difficulties in hiring and retaining necessary technical personnel;


•	difficulties in reallocating engineering resources and overcoming resource limitations; and


•	changing market or competitive product requirements.

The development of new, technologically advanced products is a complex and uncertain process requiring high levels of innovation and highly skilled engineering and development personnel, as well as the accurate anticipation of technological and market trends. The introduction of new products also requires significant investment to ramp up production capacity, for which benefit will not be realized if customer demand does not develop as expected. Ramping of production capacity also entails risks of delays which can limit our ability to realize the full benefit of the new product introduction. We cannot assure you that we will be able to identify, develop, manufacture, market or support new or enhanced products successfully, if at all, or on a timely basis. Further, we cannot assure you that our new products will gain market acceptance or that we will be able to respond effectively to product announcements by competitors, technological changes or emerging industry standards. Any failure to

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respond to technological change would significantly harm our business.

Continued competition in our markets may lead to an accelerated reduction in our prices, revenues and market share.

The end markets for optical products have experienced significant industry consolidation during the past few years while the

industry that supplies these customers has experienced less consolidation. As a result, the markets for optical subsystems and components are highly competitive. Our current competitors include a number of domestic and international companies, many of which have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing and distribution resources and brand name recognition than we have. Increased consolidation in our industry, should it occur, will reduce the number of our competitors but would be likely to further strengthen surviving industry participants. We may not be able to compete successfully against either current or future competitors. Companies competing with us may introduce products that are competitively priced, have increased performance or functionality, or incorporate technological advances and may be able to react quicker to changing customer requirements and expectations. There is also the risk that network systems vendors may re-enter the subsystem market and begin to manufacture the optical subsystems incorporated in their network systems. Increased competition could result in significant price erosion, reduced revenue, lower margins or loss of market share, any of which would significantly harm our business. Our principal competitors for data communication applications include Avago Technologies, JDS Uniphase and Opnext. Our principal competitors for telecommunication applications include JDS Uniphase, Oclaro, Opnext and Sumitomo. Our competitors continue to introduce improved products and we will have to do the same to remain competitive.

Decreases in average selling prices of our products may reduce our gross margins.

The market for optical subsystems is characterized by declining average selling prices resulting from factors such as increased competition, overcapacity, the introduction of new products and increased unit volumes as manufacturers continue to deploy network and storage systems. We have in the past experienced, and in the future may experience, substantial period-to-period fluctuations in operating results due to declining average selling prices. We anticipate that average selling prices will decrease in the future in response to product introductions by competitors or us, or by other factors, including pricing pressures from significant customers. In particular, we typically conduct pricing negotiations for our existing products with some of our largest telecommunication OEM customers in the last several months of the calendar year. Decreases in our average selling prices resulting from these negotiations typically become effective at the beginning of the next calendar year and generally have an adverse impact on our gross margins in future quarters. This impact is typically most pronounced in our fourth fiscal quarter ending April 30, when the impact of the new pricing is first felt over a full quarter. In order to sustain profitable operations, we must continue to develop and introduce on a timely basis new products that incorporate features that can be sold at higher average selling prices. Failure to do so could cause our revenues and gross margins to decline, which would result in additional operating losses and significantly harm our business.

We may be unable to reduce the cost of our products sufficiently to enable us to compete with others. Our cost reduction efforts may not allow us to keep pace with competitive pricing pressures and could adversely affect our margins. In order to remain competitive, we must continually reduce the cost of manufacturing our products through design and engineering changes. We may not be successful in redesigning our products or delivering our products to market in a timely manner. We cannot assure you that any redesign will result in sufficient cost reductions to allow us to reduce the price of our products to remain competitive or improve our gross margins.

Shifts in our product mix may result in declines in gross margins.

Gross margins on individual products fluctuate over the product's life cycle. Our overall gross margins have fluctuated from period to period as a result of shifts in product mix, the introduction of new products, decreases in average selling prices for older products and our ability to reduce product costs, and these fluctuations are expected to continue in the future.

Our customers often evaluate our products for long and variable periods, which causes the timing of our revenues and results of operations to be unpredictable.

The period of time between our initial contact with a customer and the receipt of an actual purchase order may span a year or more. During this time, customers may perform, or require us to perform, extensive and lengthy evaluation and testing of our products before purchasing and using the products in their equipment. These products often take substantial time to develop because of their complexity and because customer specifications sometimes change during the development cycle. Our customers do not typically share information on the duration or magnitude of these qualification procedures. The length of these qualification processes also may vary substantially by product and customer, and, thus, cause our results of operations to be unpredictable. While our potential customers are qualifying our products and before they place an order with us, we may incur substantial research and development and sales and marketing expenses and expend significant management effort. Even

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after incurring such costs we ultimately may not sell any products to such potential customers. In addition, these qualification processes often make it difficult to obtain new customers, as customers are reluctant to expend the resources necessary to qualify a new supplier if they have one or more existing qualified sources. Once our products have been qualified, the agreements that we enter into with our customers typically contain no minimum purchase commitments. Failure of our customers to incorporate our products into their systems would significantly harm our business.

Our international business and operations expose us to additional risks.

Products shipped to customers located outside the United States account for a majority of our revenues. In addition, we have significant tangible assets located outside the United States. Our principal manufacturing facility is located in Malaysia. We currently operate smaller facilities in Australia, China, Denmark, Israel, Korea and Sweden, and we are planning to build an expanded manufacturing facility in China. We also rely on several contract manufacturers located in Asia for our supply of key subassemblies. Conducting business outside the United States subjects us to a number of additional risks and challenges, including:


•	periodic changes in a specific country's or region's economic conditions, such as recession;


•	compliance with a wide variety of domestic and foreign laws and regulations and unexpected changes in those laws and regulatory requirements, including uncertainties regarding taxes, tariffs, quotas, export controls, export licenses and other trade barriers;


•	certification requirements;


•	environmental regulations;


•	inadequate protection of intellectual property rights in some countries;


•	potential political, legal and economic instability, foreign conflicts, and the impact of regional and global infectious illnesses in the countries in which we and our customers, suppliers and contract manufacturers are located;


•	preferences of certain customers for locally produced products;


•	difficulties and costs of staffing and managing international operations across different geographic areas and cultures, including assuring compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other U. S. and foreign anticorruption laws;


•	seasonal reductions in business activities in certain countries or regions; and


•	fluctuations in freight rates and transportation disruptions.

These factors, individually or in combination, could impair our ability to effectively operate one or more of our foreign facilities or deliver our products, result in unexpected and material expenses, or cause an unexpected decline in the demand for our products in certain countries or regions. Our failure to manage the risks and challenges associated with our international business and operations could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We will lose sales if we are unable to obtain government authorization to export certain of our products, and we would be subject to legal and regulatory consequences if we do not comply with applicable export control laws and regulations.

Exports of certain of our products are subject to export controls imposed by the U.S. Government and administered by the United States Departments of State and Commerce. In certain instances, these regulations may require pre-shipment authorization from the administering department. For products subject to the Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, administered by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, the requirement for a license is dependent on the type and end use of the product, the final destination, the identity of the end user and whether a license exception might apply. Virtually all exports of products subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, administered by the Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, require a license. Certain of our fiber optics products are subject to EAR and certain of our RF-over-fiber products, as well as certain products developed with government funding, are currently subject to ITAR. Products developed and manufactured in our foreign locations are subject to export controls of the applicable foreign nation.

Given the current global political climate, obtaining export licenses can be difficult and time-consuming. Failure to obtain export licenses for these shipments could significantly reduce our revenue and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Compliance with U.S. Government regulations also subjects us to additional fees and costs. The absence of comparable restrictions on competitors in other countries may adversely affect our competitive position.

We have previously been the subject of inquiries from the Department of State and the Department of Justice regarding compliance with ITAR. Although these inquiries were closed with no action being taken, we expended significant time and resources to resolve them, and future inquiries of this type could also be costly to resolve.

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Our future operating results may be subject to volatility as a result of exposure to foreign exchange risks.

We are exposed to foreign exchange risks. Foreign currency fluctuations may affect both our revenues and our costs and expenses and significantly affect our operating results. Prices for our products are currently denominated in U.S. dollars for sales to our customers throughout the world. If there is a significant devaluation of the currency in a specific country relative to the dollar, the prices of our products will increase relative to that country's currency, our products may be less competitive in that country and our revenues may be adversely affected.

Although we price our products in U.S. dollars, portions of both our cost of revenues and operating expenses are incurred in foreign currencies, principally the Malaysian ringgit, the Chinese yuan, the Australian dollar, the Israeli shekel, the Swedish krona, the Korean won, the Norwegian krone and the Danish krone. As a result, we bear the risk that the rate of inflation in one or more countries will exceed the rate of the devaluation of that country's currency in relation to the U.S. dollar, which would increase our costs as expressed in U.S. dollars. To date, we have not engaged in currency hedging transactions to decrease the risk of financial exposure from fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.

Our business and future operating results are subject to a wide range of uncertainties arising out of the continuing threat of terrorist attacks and ongoing military actions in the Middle East.

Like other U.S. companies, our business and operating results are subject to uncertainties arising out of the continuing threat of terrorist attacks on the United States and ongoing military actions in the Middle East, including the economic consequences of the war in Afghanistan or additional terrorist activities and associated political instability, and the impact of heightened security concerns on domestic and international travel and commerce. In particular, due to these uncertainties we are subject to:


•	increased risks related to the operations of our manufacturing facilities in Malaysia;


•	greater risks of disruption in the operations of our China, Singapore and Israeli facilities and our Asian contract manufacturers, including contract manufacturers located in Thailand, and more frequent instances of shipping delays; and


•	the risk that future tightening of immigration controls may adversely affect the residence status of non-U.S. engineers and other key technical employees in our U.S. facilities or our ability to hire new non-U.S. employees in such facilities.

Future acquisitions could be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and harm our operating results.

In addition to our combination with Optium in August 2008 and our acquisition of Ignis ASA in May 2011, we have completed the acquisition of ten privately-held companies and certain businesses and assets from six other companies since October 2000. We continue to review opportunities to acquire other businesses, product lines or technologies that would complement our current products, expand the breadth of our markets or enhance our technical capabilities, or that may otherwise offer growth opportunities, and we from time to time make proposals and offers, and take other steps, to acquire businesses, products and technologies.

The Optium merger, the Ignis acquisition, and several of our other past acquisitions have been material, and acquisitions that we may complete in the future may be material. In 13 of our 18 acquisitions, we issued common stock or notes convertible into common stock as all or a portion of the consideration. The issuance of common stock or other equity securities by us in connection with any future acquisition would dilute our stockholders' percentage ownership.

Other risks associated with acquiring the operations of other companies include:


•	problems assimilating the purchased operations, technologies or products;


•	unanticipated costs associated with the acquisition;


•	diversion of management's attention from our core business;


•	adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers and customers;


•	risks associated with entering markets in which we have no or limited prior experience; and


•	potential loss of key employees of purchased organizations.

Not all of our past acquisitions have been successful. In the past, we have subsequently sold some of the assets acquired in prior acquisitions, discontinued product lines and closed acquired facilities. As a result of these activities, we incurred significant restructuring charges and charges for the write-down of assets associated with those acquisitions. Through fiscal 2012, we have written off all of the goodwill associated with our past acquisitions with the exception of the recently completed

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acquisition of Ignis. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in overcoming problems encountered in connection with the recent Ignis acquisition or potential future acquisitions, and our inability to do so could significantly harm our business. In addition, to the extent that the economic benefits associated with the Ignis acquisition or any of our future acquisitions diminish in the future, we may be required to record additional write downs of goodwill, intangible assets or other assets associated with such acquisitions, which would adversely affect our operating results.

We have made and may continue to make strategic investments which may not be successful, may result in the loss of all or part of our invested capital and may adversely affect our operating results.

Since inception we have made minority equity investments in a number of early-stage technology companies, totaling approximately $61.9 million . Our investments in these early stage companies were primarily motivated by our desire to gain early access to new technology. We intend to review additional opportunities to make strategic equity investments in pre-public companies where we believe such investments will provide us with opportunities to gain access to important technologies or otherwise enhance important commercial relationships. We have little or no influence over the early-stage companies in which we have made or may make these strategic, minority equity investments. Each of these investments in pre-public companies involves a high degree of risk. We may not be successful in achieving the financial, technological or commercial advantage upon which any given investment is premised, and failure by the early-stage company to achieve its own business objectives or to raise capital needed on acceptable economic terms could result in a loss of all or part of our invested capital. Between fiscal 2003 and 2012, we wrote off an aggregate of $26.2 million in seven investments which became impaired and reclassified $4.2 million of another investment to goodwill as the investment was deemed to have no value. We may be required to write off all or a portion of the $884,000 in such investments remaining on our balance sheet as of April 30, 2012 in future periods.

Our ability to utilize certain net operating loss carryforwards and tax credit carryforwards may be limited under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code.

As of April 30, 2012 , we had net operating loss, or NOL, carryforward amounts of approximately $442.9 million for U.S. federal income tax purposes and $160.5 million for state income tax purposes, and tax credit carryforward amounts of approximately $19.9 million for U.S. federal income tax purposes and $12.6 million for state income tax purposes. The federal and state tax credit carryforwards will expire at various dates beginning in 2014 through 2030 , and $600,000 of such carryforwards will expire in the next five years. The federal and state NOL carryforwards will expire at various dates beginning in 2015 through 2029 , and $94.6 million of such carryforwards will expire in the next five years. Utilization of these NOL and tax credit carryforward amounts may be subject to a substantial annual limitation if the ownership change limitations under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code and similar state provisions are triggered by changes in the ownership of our capital stock. Such an annual limitation could result in the expiration of the NOL and tax credit carryforward amounts before utilization.

If we are unable to retain our key management and technical personnel and attract and retain additional key personnel as required, our business could be significantly harmed.

Our future success is substantially dependent upon the continued contributions of the members of our senior management team, many of whom have years of management, engineering, sales, marketing and manufacturing experience that would be difficult to replace. We also believe our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to attract and retain additional highly skilled managerial, technical, sales and marketing, finance and manufacturing personnel. In particular, we will need to increase the number of our technical staff members with experience in high‑speed networking applications as we further develop our product lines. Competition for these highly skilled employees in our industry is intense. In making employment decisions, particularly in the high‑technology industries, job candidates often consider the value of the equity they are to receive in connection with their employment. Therefore, significant volatility in the price of our common stock may adversely affect our ability to attract or retain key management and technical personnel. The loss of service of any our key management or technical employees, our inability to attract or retain qualified personnel in the future or delays in hiring key personnel, as required, could significantly harm our business. In addition, employees may leave our company and subsequently compete against us. Moreover, companies in our industry whose employees accept positions with competitors frequently claim that their competitors have engaged in unfair hiring practices. We have been subject to claims of this type and may be subject to such claims in the future as we seek to hire qualified personnel. Some of these claims may result in material litigation. We could incur substantial costs in defending ourselves against these claims, regardless of their merits.

Our failure to protect our intellectual property may significantly harm our business.

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We license certain of our proprietary technology, including our digital diagnostics technology, to customers who include current and potential competitors, and we rely largely on provisions of our licensing agreements to protect our intellectual property rights in this technology. Although a number of patents have been issued to us, we have obtained a number of other patents as a result of our acquisitions, and we have filed applications for additional patents, we cannot assure you that any patents will issue as a result of pending patent applications or that our issued patents will be upheld. Additionally, significant technology used in our product lines is not the subject of any patent protection, and we may be unable to obtain patent protection on such technology in the future. Any infringement of our proprietary rights could result in significant litigation costs, and any failure to adequately protect our proprietary rights could result in our competitors offering similar products, potentially resulting in loss of a competitive advantage and decreased revenues.

Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, existing patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws afford only limited protection. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Attempts may be made to copy or reverse engineer aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Accordingly, we may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our technology or deter others from developing similar technology. Furthermore, policing the unauthorized use of our products is difficult and expensive. We are currently engaged in pending litigation to enforce certain of our patents, and additional litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. In connection with the pending litigation, substantial management time has been, and will continue to be, expended. In addition, we have incurred, and we expect to continue to incur, substantial legal expenses in connection with these pending lawsuits. These costs and this diversion of resources could significantly harm our business.

Claims that we or any user of our products infringe third-party intellectual property rights could result in significant expenses or restrictions on our ability to sell our products.

The networking industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent litigation based on allegations of patent infringement. We have been involved in the past as a defendant in patent infringement lawsuits, and we were recently found liable in a patent infringement lawsuit involving two of our cable TV products, each of which has subsequently been redesigned. In addition, in connection with a patent infringement lawsuit that we initiated in January 2010, the defendants raised counterclaims alleging patent infringement by us, and in a later case, the defendant also raised patent infringement counterclaims against us. In connection with our settlement of two of the cases, we received royalty free licenses to the patents involved. While, as a result of various procedural events in the 2010 lawsuit and a tolling agreement between the parties, certain patent counterclaims are not currently being asserted against us, such claims could be re-asserted against us in the future. From time to time, other parties may assert patent, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights to technologies and in various jurisdictions that are important to our business. Any claims asserting that our products infringe or may infringe proprietary rights of third parties, if determined adversely to us, could significantly harm our business. Further, claims against a user of our products in combination with other products that such use infringes proprietary rights of third parties could cause users to choose to not or be required to not utilize our products in such combination, which could harm our sales of such products. Any claims, against us or any use of our products, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, cause product shipment delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, any of which could significantly harm our business. In addition, our agreements with our customers typically require us to indemnify our customers from any expense or liability resulting from claimed infringement of third party intellectual property rights. In the event a claim against us was successful and we could not obtain a license to the relevant technology on acceptable terms or license a substitute technology or redesign our products to avoid infringement, our business would be significantly harmed.

Numerous patents in our industry are held by others, including academic institutions and competitors. Optical subsystem suppliers may seek to gain a competitive advantage or other third parties may seek an economic return on their intellectual property portfolios by making infringement claims against us. In the future, we may need to obtain license rights to patents or other intellectual property held by others to the extent necessary for our business. Unless we are able to obtain those licenses on commercially reasonable terms, patents or other intellectual property held by others could inhibit our development of new products. Licenses granting us the right to use third party technology may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Generally, a license, if granted, would include payments of up-front fees, ongoing royalties or both. These payments or other terms could have a significant adverse impact on our operating results.

Our products may contain defects that may cause us to incur significant costs, divert our attention from product development efforts and result in a loss of customers.

Our products are complex and defects may be found from time to time. Networking products frequently contain undetected software or hardware defects when first introduced or as new versions are released. In addition, our products are often

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embedded in or deployed in conjunction with our customers' products which incorporate a variety of components produced by third parties. As a result, when problems occur, it may be difficult to identify the source of the problem. These problems may cause us to incur significant damages or warranty and repair costs, divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts and cause significant customer relation problems or loss of customers, all of which would harm our business.

We are subject to pending securities class action and shareholder derivative legal proceedings.

Several securities class action lawsuits were filed against us and our Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer following our March 8, 2011 announcement of unaudited financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 and our financial outlook for the fourth quarter. We also have been named as a nominal defendant in several shareholder derivative lawsuits filed in 2011 concerning our March 8, 2011 earnings announcement and filed in 2007 concerning the granting of stock options.

March 8, 2011 Earnings Announcement Cases

The securities class action lawsuits related to our March 8, 2011 earnings announcement allege claims under Section 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of a purported class of persons who purchased stock between December 1 or 2, 2010 through March 8, 2011. The named defendants are Finisar and our Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. To date, no specific amount of damages has been alleged. The cases have been consolidated, lead plaintiffs have been appointed and a consolidated complaint has been filed. We have filed a motion to dismiss the case and this motion is pending.

The shareholder derivative lawsuits related to our March 8, 2011 earnings announcement have been filed in federal court and in California state court. The complaints assert claims for alleged breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and waste on behalf of Finisar. Named as defendants are the members of our board of directors, including our Chairman of the Board and our Chief Executive Officer, and our Chief Financial Officer. No specific amount of damages has been alleged and, by the derivative nature of the lawsuits, no damages will be alleged, against Finisar. The California state cases have been consolidated and a lead plaintiff has been appointed to file a consolidated complaint.

Stock Option Cases

The stock option derivative cases have been consolidated into two proceedings pending in federal and state courts in California. The plaintiffs in all of these cases have alleged that certain current or former officers and directors of Finisar caused it to grant stock options at less than fair market value, contrary to our public statements (including statements in our financial statements), and that, as a result, those officers and directors are liable to Finisar. No specific amount of damages has been alleged and, by the derivative nature of the lawsuits, no damages will be alleged, against Finisar. The state court action has been stayed pending resolution of the consolidated federal court action. The individual defendants have filed motions to dismiss the federal court action, and these motions are pending.

We will continue to incur legal fees in all of the above class action and shareholder derivative cases, including expenses for the reimbursement of legal fees of present and former officers and directors under indemnification obligations. The expense of continuing to defend such litigation may be significant. We intend to defend these lawsuits vigorously, however there can be no assurance that we will be successful in any defense. If any of the lawsuits related to our earnings announcement are adversely decided, we may be liable for significant damages directly or under our indemnification obligations, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and cash flows. Further, the amount of time that will be required to resolve these lawsuits is unpredictable and these actions may divert management's attention from the day-to-day operations of our business, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and cash flows.

Our business and future operating results may be adversely affected by events outside our control.

Our business and operating results are vulnerable to events outside of our control, such as earthquakes, floods, fire, power loss, telecommunication failures and uncertainties arising out of terrorist attacks in the United States and overseas. Our corporate headquarters and a portion of our manufacturing operations are located in California, and our principal manufacturing operations and those of most of our key suppliers and contract manufacturers are located in Asia. These areas have been vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and fires, and other risks which at times have disrupted the local economy and posed physical risks to our property. We are also dependent on communications links with our overseas manufacturing locations and would be significantly harmed if these links were interrupted for any significant length of time. We presently do not have adequate redundant, multiple site capacity if any of these events were to occur, nor can we be certain

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that the insurance we maintain against these events would be adequate.

The conversion of our outstanding convertible subordinated notes would result in substantial dilution to our current stockholders.

As of April 30, 2012 , we had outstanding 5.0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029 in the principal amount of $40.0 million . These notes are convertible, at the option of the holder, at any time on or prior to maturity into shares of our common stock at a conversion price of 10.68 per share. An aggregate of approximately 3,748,478 shares of common stock would be issued upon the conversion of all outstanding convertible notes at this conversion price, which would dilute the voting power and ownership percentage of our existing stockholders. We have previously entered into privately negotiated transactions with certain holders of our convertible notes for the repurchase of notes in exchange for a greater number of shares of our common stock than would have been issued had the principal amount of the notes been converted at the original conversion rate specified in the notes, thus resulting in more dilution. We may enter into similar transactions in the future and, if we do so, there will be additional dilution to the voting power and percentage ownership of our existing stockholders.

Delaware law, our charter documents and our stockholder rights plan contain provisions that could discourage or prevent a potential takeover, even if such a transaction would be beneficial to our stockholders.

Some provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition that a stockholder may consider favorable. These include provisions:


•	authorizing the board of directors to issue additional preferred stock;


•	prohibiting cumulative voting in the election of directors;


•	limiting the persons who may call special meetings of stockholders;


•	prohibiting stockholder actions by written consent;


•	creating a classified board of directors pursuant to which our directors are elected for staggered three-year terms;


•	permitting the board of directors to increase the size of the board and to fill vacancies;


•	requiring a super-majority vote of our stockholders to amend our bylaws and certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation; and


•	establishing advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted on by stockholders at stockholder meetings.

We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law which limit the right of a corporation to engage in a business combination with a holder of 15% or more of the corporation's outstanding voting securities, or certain affiliated persons.

In addition, in September 2002, our board of directors adopted a stockholder rights plan under which our stockholders received one share purchase right for each share of our common stock held by them. Subject to certain exceptions, the rights become exercisable when a person or group (other than certain exempt persons) acquires, or announces its intention to commence a tender or exchange offer upon completion of which such person or group would acquire, 20% or more of our common stock without prior board approval. Should such an event occur, then, unless the rights are redeemed or have expired, our stockholders, other than the acquirer, will be entitled to purchase shares of our common stock at a 50% discount from its then-Current Market Price (as defined) or, in the case of certain business combinations, purchase the common stock of the acquirer at a 50% discount. The rights plan will terminate, and the rights will expire, on September 25, 2012 unless the plan is extended by further action of the board of directors. Should the rights plan terminate as scheduled, the board of directors could adopt a similar plan in the future if it determines that such action is in the best interests of the stockholders.

Although we believe that these charter and bylaw provisions, provisions of Delaware law and our stockholder rights plan provide an opportunity for the board to assure that our stockholders realize full value for their investment, they could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control, even under circumstances that some stockholders may consider beneficial.

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on Finisar common stock and, consequently, a stockholder's ability to achieve a return on such stockholder's investment will depend on appreciation in the price of the common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on Finisar common stock and we do not currently intend to do so for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, a stockholder is not likely to receive any dividends on such stockholder's common stock for the foreseeable future. In addition, our credit facility with Wells Fargo LLC contains restrictions on our ability to pay dividends.

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Our stock price has been and is likely to continue to be volatile.

The trading price of our common stock has been and is likely to continue to be subject to large fluctuations. Our stock price may increase or decrease in response to a number of events and factors, including:


•	trends in our industry and the markets in which we operate;


•	changes in the market price of the products we sell;


•	changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts;


•	acquisitions and financings;


•	quarterly variations in our operating results;


•	the operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors in our common stock may deem comparable; and


•	purchases or sales of blocks of our common stock.

Part of this volatility is attributable to the current state of the stock market, in which wide price swings are common. This volatility may adversely affect the prices of our common stock regardless of our operating performance. If any of the foregoing occurs, our stock price could fall and we may be exposed to class action lawsuits that, even if unsuccessful, could be costly to defend and a distraction to management.


Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

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Item 2. Properties

Our principal facilities are located in California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Malaysia and China.

Information regarding our properties as of April 30, 2012 is as follows:



Location	Use	Size
		(Square Feet)
Owned
Ipoh, Malaysia	Manufacturing operations	640,000
GwangJu, Korea	Manufacturing operations	37,200
Leased
Wuxi, China	Manufacturing operations	603,000
Shanghai, China	General administrative and manufacturing operations of our subsidiary, Finisar Shanghai Inc.	180,000
Allen, Texas	Principal manufacturing operations for our AOC division. A portion of this facility is currently subleased.	160,000
Sunnyvale, California	Corporate headquarters, research and development, sales and marketing, general and administrative and limited manufacturing operations	92,000
Horsham, Pennsylvania	Manufacturing, research and development, engineering, sales and administration, executive offices	81,000
Fremont, California	Wafer fabrication operations	56,000
Birkerod, Denmark	Manufacturing, research and development, engineering, administration offices. A portion of this facility is currently subleased	56,000
Sydney, Australia	Manufacturing, research and development, engineering, administration offices	55,000
GwangJu, Korea	General administrative, sales and manufacturing operations of our subsidiary, Finisar Korea Co. Ltd.	22,900
Nes Ziona, Israel	Research and development, engineering and manufacturing operations	16,700
Shenzhen, China	Manufacturing operations	16,000
Singapore	Research and development and logistics	13,600
Jarfalla, Sweden	Manufacturing, research and development, engineering, administration offices	13,500
Kista, Sweden	Manufacturing, research and development, engineering, administration offices	9,100
Suzhou, China	Research and development and manufacturing operations	6,750
Hyderabad, India	Information technology support center	6,250
Beijing, China	Research and development	4,550
Oslo, Norway	General administrative, sales and marketing offices	4,100
Champaign, Illinois	Research and development	2,500

The leased property in Wuxi, China, includes 550,000 square feet of land leased for 50 years where we plan to build a manufacturing operations facility. We believe our properties are in good condition and are suitable for these present uses. We also believe that our existing and facilities and our planned facility in Wuxi, China will be adequate to accommodate our needs for the foreseeable future.


Item 3.	Legal Proceedings

The material set forth in Note 22 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.


Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable

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Executive Officers of the Registrant

Information concerning our current executive officers as of June 15, 2012 is as follows:



Name	Position(s)	Age
Jerry S. Rawls	Chairman of the Board	67
Eitan Gertel	Chief Executive Officer	50
Kurt Adzema	Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer	43
Christopher E. Brown	Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary	44
John H. Clark	Executive Vice President, Technology and Global Research and Development	62
Todd Swanson	Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing	40
Joseph A. Young	Executive Vice President, Global Operations	55
Mark Colyar	Senior Vice President and General Manager	48

Jerry S. Rawls has served as a member of our board of directors since March 1989 and as our Chairman of the Board since January 2006. Mr. Rawls served as our Chief Executive Officer from August 1999 until the completion of the Optium Corporation merger in August 2008. Mr. Rawls also served as our President from April 2003 until the completion of the Optium merger and previously held that title from April 1989 to September 2002. From September 1968 to February 1989, Mr. Rawls was employed by Raychem Corporation, a materials science and engineering company, where he held various management positions including Division General Manager of the Aerospace Products Division and Interconnection Systems Division. Mr. Rawls holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University and an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University.

Eitan Gertel has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a director since the completion of the Optium merger in August 2008. Mr. Gertel served as Optium’s President and as a director from March 2001 and as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Optium from February 2004 through the completion of the Optium merger. Mr. Gertel worked as President and General Manager of the former transmission systems division of JDS Uniphase Corporation from 1995 to 2001. JDS Uniphase is a provider of broadband test and management solutions and optical products. Mr. Gertel holds a B.S.E.E. from Drexel University.

Kurt Adzema has served as the Company’s Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer since January 2011. Mr. Adzema joined the Company in January 2005 and served as the Company’s Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development until March 2010, when he was appointed Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining the Company, he held various positions at SVB Alliant, a subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank which advised technology companies on merger and acquisition transactions, at Montgomery Securities/Banc of America Securities, an investment banking firm, and in the financial restructuring group of Smith Barney. Mr. Adzema holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Christopher E. Brown has served as our Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since the completion of the Optium merger in August 2008 and as Executive Vice President since January 2011. Mr. Brown served as Optium’s General Counsel and Vice President of Corporate Development from August 2006 through the completion of the merger. Prior to that, Mr. Brown was a partner at the law firm of Goodwin Procter LLP from January 2005 to August 2006, a partner at the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery from January 2003 to January 2005 and an associate at McDermott, Will & Emery from March 2000 to January 2003. Mr. Brown holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

John H. Clark joined Finisar as our Executive Vice President, Technology and Global Research and Development in January 2011. Prior to joining Finisar, Dr. Clark served at Cogo Optronics, Inc., a manufacturer of optical components, as a Director from March 2008 to January 2011, as Chief Strategy Officer from May 2009 to October 2009, and as Executive Chairman from October 2009 to January 2011; at Seagate Corporation, a manufacturer of magnetic and solid state disk drives, as Executive Consultant from March 2006 to March 2008 and as Vice President of SSD Development from March 2008 to May 2009; and at Iolon, Inc., a manufacturer of tunable lasers, as President and Chairman from November 2000 to March 2006. Dr. Clark served at Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., a manufacturer of CATV network equipment, as Chief Operating Officer of its wholly-owned subsidiary ATx Telecom Systems, Inc. from 1996 to 1998 and as Vice President and General Manager of the Optoelectronics Business Unit from 1996 to 2000. Dr. Clark co-founded Amoco Laser Company in 1986 and rose through a series of technical and general management positions to Chief Operating Officer at the time of its sale by Amoco Corporation

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to Scientific-Atlanta in 1996. Dr. Clark started his career with a joint appointment as Senior Staff Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of California (UC) Berkeley. Dr. Clark holds a B.A. in Physics and a B.A. in Chemistry from UC Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley, and carried out his postdoctoral studies as the Oppenheimer Research Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Todd Swanson has served as our Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing since January 2011. Mr. Swanson joined us in 2002 and served as Product Line Manager, Director of Marketing and Vice President, Sales and Marketing for our Optics Division prior to his appointment as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing in August 2008. Mr. Swanson served as Product Line Manager for Princeton Lightwave, a laser company, from June 2001 until he joined Finisar. Mr. Swanson served as Director of Marketing (on a part-time basis while he was studying for his M.B.A.) for Aegis Semiconductor, a manufacturer of optical semiconductor devices, from December 2000 through June 2001. From July 1995 to August 1999, Mr. Swanson was employed by Hewlett-Packard Company as project leader and project manager in the Automotive Lighting Group of the Optoelectronics Division. Mr. Swanson holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joseph A. Young has served as our Executive Vice President, Global Operations since January 2011. Mr. Young served as our Senior Vice President and General Manager, Optics Division from June 2005 to August 2008 when he was appointed Senior Vice President, Operations and Engineering. Mr. Young joined us in October 2004 as our Senior Vice President, Operations. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Young served as Director of Enterprise Products, Optical Platform Division of Intel Corporation from May 2001 to October 2004. Mr. Young served as Vice President of Operations of LightLogic, Inc. from September 2000 to May 2001, when it was acquired by Intel, and as Vice President of Operations of Lexar Media, Inc. from December 1999 to September 2000. Mr. Young was employed from March 1983 to December 1999 by Tyco/ Raychem, where he served in various positions, including his last position as Director of Worldwide Operations for the OEM Electronics Division of Raychem Corporation. Mr. Young holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of New Haven and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mark Colyar has served as our Senior Vice President, Operations and Engineering since the completion of the Optium merger in August 2008. Mr. Colyar served as Optium’s Senior Vice President of Engineering from April 2001 through the completion of the merger and also served as General Manager of Optium’s U.S. operations from February 2004 through the completion of the merger. Mr. Colyar served in various positions at JDS Uniphase’s former TSD division from November 1995 to April 2001, including Director of Sales and Marketing, Vice President of Engineering and Vice President of Operations. Mr. Colyar holds a B.S.E.E. from Drexel University.

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PART II


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

Since our initial public offering on November 11, 1999, our common stock has traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “FNSR.” The following table sets forth the range of high and low closing sales prices of our common stock for the periods indicated:



	High		Low
Fiscal 2012 Quarter Ended:
April 30, 2012	$	23.41	$	16.44
January 29, 2012	$	21.80	$	14.78
October 30, 2011	$	21.89	$	12.55
July 31, 2011	$	27.22	$	14.65
Fiscal 2011 Quarter Ended:
April 30, 2011	$	43.23	$	21.14
January 30, 2011	$	34.76	$	17.01
October 31, 2010	$	21.28	$	12.24
August 1, 2010	$	17.67	$	13.00

According to records of our transfer agent, we had 375 stockholders of record as of May 31, 2012 and we believe there is a substantially greater number of beneficial holders. We have never declared or paid dividends on our common stock and currently do not intend to pay dividends in the foreseeable future so that we may reinvest our earnings in the development of our business. The payment of dividends in the future will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors.


Item 6.	Selected Financial Data

You should read the following selected financial data in conjunction with “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation” and our consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this report. The statement of operations data set forth below for the fiscal years ended April 30, 2012 , 2011 and 2010 and the balance sheet data as of April 30, 2012 and 2011 are derived from, and are qualified by reference to, our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report. The statement of operations data set forth below for the fiscal years ended April 30, 2009 and 2008 and the balance sheet data as of April 30, 2010 , 2009 and 2008 are derived from audited financial statements not included in this report.



	Fiscal Years Ended April 30,
	2012		2011		2010			2009			2008
	(In thousands, except per share data)
Statement of Operations Data:
Revenues	$	952,579	$	948,787	$	629,880		$	497.058		$	401,625
Income (loss) from continuing operations before non-controlling interest	$	43,014	$	88,379	$	(22,806	)	$	(262.492	)	$	(32,844	)
Income (loss) per share from continuing operations- basic	$	0.47	$	1.10	$	(0.35	)	$	(4.99	)	$	(0.85	)
Income (loss) per share from continuing operations- diluted	$	0.46	$	1.00	$	(0.35	)	$	(4.99	)	$	(0.85	)
Balance Sheet Data:
Total assets	$	969,427	$	885,149	$	626,730		$	380,388		$	479,740
Long-term debt	$	—	$	—	$	19,250		$	21,412		$	5,638
Convertible notes	$	40,015	$	40,015	$	128,839		$	134,255		$	238,487

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

Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operation, or MD&A, is provided as a supplement to the accompanying consolidated financial statements and footnotes to help provide an understanding of our financial condition, changes in our financial condition and results of operations. The MD&A is organized as follows:


•	Forward-looking statements. This section discusses how forward-looking statements made by us in the MD&A and elsewhere in this report are based on management’s present expectations about future events and are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances.


•	Business Overview. This section provides an introductory overview and context for the discussion and analysis that follows in MD&A.


•	Recent Developments. This section summarizes recent developments that affect our financial condition and operating results.


•	Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates. This section discusses those accounting policies that are both considered important to our financial condition and operating results and require significant judgment and estimates on the part of management in their application.


•	Results of Operations. This section provides analysis of the Company’s results of operations for the three fiscal years ended April 30, 2012 . A brief description is provided of transactions and events that impact comparability of the results being analyzed.


•	Financial Condition and Liquidity. This section provides an analysis of our cash position and cash flows, as well as a discussion of our financing arrangements and financial commitments.

Forward Looking Statements

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those set forth under “Item 1A. Risk Factors.” The following discussion should be read together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this report.

Business Overview

We are a leading provider of optical subsystems and components that are used in data communication and telecommunication applications. Our optical subsystems consist primarily of transmitters, receivers, transceivers, transponders and active optical cables, which provide the fundamental optical-electrical, or optoelectronic interface for interconnecting the electronic equipment used in building these networks, including the switches, routers and servers used in wireline networks as well as the antennas and base stations for wireless networks. These products rely on the use of semiconductor lasers and photodetectors in conjunction with integrated circuits and novel optoelectronic packaging to provide a cost-effective means for transmitting and receiving digital signals over fiber optic cable at speeds ranging from less than 1 gigabit per second, or Gbps, to more than 100 Gbps, over distances of less than 10 meters to more than 2,000 kilometers, using a wide range of network protocols and physical configurations. We supply optical transceivers and transponders that allow point-to-point communications on a fiber using a single specified wavelength or, bundled with multiplexing technologies, can be used to supply multi-Gbps bandwidth over several wavelengths on the same fiber.

We also provide products known as WSS. In long-haul and metro networks, each fiber may carry 50 to 100 different high-speed optical channels, each with its own specific optical wavelength. WSS are switches that are used to dynamically switch network traffic from one optical fiber to multiple other fibers without first converting to an electronic signal. The wavelength selective feature means that WSS enable any wavelength or combination of wavelengths to be switched from the input fiber to the output fibers. WSS products are sometimes combined with other components and sold as linecards that plug into a system chassis referred to as a ROADM.

Our line of optical components consists primarily of packaged lasers and photodetectors for data communication and telecommunication applications.

Demand for our products is largely driven by the continually growing need for additional network bandwidth created by the

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ongoing proliferation of data and video traffic driven by video downloads, Internet protocol TV, social networking, on-line gaming, file sharing, enterprise IP/Internet traffic, cloud computing, and data center virtualization that must be handled by both wireline and wireless networks. Mobile traffic is increasing as the result of proliferation of smartphones, tablet computers, and other mobile devices.

Our manufacturing operations are vertically integrated and we produce many of the key components used in making our products including lasers, photodetectors and ICs, designed by our internal IC engineering teams. We also have internal assembly and test capabilities that make use of internally designed equipment for the automated testing of our optical subsystems and components.

We sell our optical products to manufacturers of storage systems, networking equipment and telecommunication equipment such as Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, Ciena, Cisco Systems, EMC, Emulex, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard Company, Huawei, IBM, Juniper, Qlogic, Nokia-Siemens and Tellabs, and to their contract manufacturers. These customers, in turn, sell their systems to businesses and to wireline and wireless telecommunication service providers and CATV operators, collectively referred to as carriers.

Our cost of revenues consists of materials, salaries and related expenses for manufacturing personnel, manufacturing overhead, warranty expense, inventory adjustments for obsolete and excess inventory and the amortization of acquired developed technology associated with acquisitions that we have made. As a result of building a vertically integrated business model, our manufacturing cost structure has become more fixed. While this can be beneficial during periods when demand is strong, it can be more difficult to reduce costs during periods when demand for our products is weak, product mix is unfavorable or selling prices are generally lower. While we have undertaken measures to reduce our operating costs there can be no assurance that we will be able to reduce our cost of revenues enough to achieve or sustain profitability.

Since October 2000, we have completed the acquisition of two publicly-held companies. We have also completed the acquisition of ten privately-held companies and certain businesses and assets from six other companies in order to broaden our product offerings and provide new sources of revenue, production capabilities and access to advanced technologies that we believe will enable us to reduce our product costs and develop innovative and more highly integrated product platforms while accelerating the timeframe required to develop such products.

Recent Developments

Acquisition of Ignis ASA

During the first quarter of fiscal 2012 , we completed the acquisition of Ignis ASA (“Ignis”), a Norwegian company traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Ignis is an innovative provider of optical components and network solutions for fiber optic communications. It operates globally through four subsidiaries: Fi-ra Photonics in Korea (71.8% owned) and wholly-owned subsidiaries Syntune in Sweden, Ignis Photonyx in Denmark, and SmartOptics in Norway. Ignis' product and services portfolio comprises passive optical components including optical chips, splitters and multiplexers, active optical components such as tunable lasers and modulators, and WDM-based solutions enabling the building of simple and cost effective high-capacity optical networks. We believe that this acquisition will provide us with a secure supply of Ignis’ tunable laser products which we believe have the highest performance of any such devices currently available in the market; further our vertical integration strategy by providing an internal source of these devices, which we currently purchase on the merchant market; enable us to offer our customers a number of new 40 and 100 Gbps products based on the advanced optical device integration technologies of Ignis’ various business units; and allow us to expand our product portfolio to include a number of other products incorporating innovative technologies and focus on attractive growth markets. For additional information regarding this acquisition, see "Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 5. Acquisition of Ignis ASA."

Arbitration Resolution and Settlement

During the second quarter of fiscal 2012, we received a favorable decision by an arbitrator in an intellectual property dispute unrelated to current or future quarters awarding us $7.4 million . Pursuant to a subsequent settlement reached between the parties involved, we received $7.9 million in full and final settlement of the matter. The full and final settlement included the original award of $7.4 million plus $500,000 interest earned for the period between the date of the decision and the actual payment date. The original award of $7.4 million is recognized as general and administrative expense, and the interest received is recorded as interest income in the consolidated statement of operations for the year ended April 30, 2012 .

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Critical Accounting Policies

The preparation of our financial statements and related disclosures require that we make estimates, assumptions and judgments that can have a significant impact on our revenue and operating results, as well as on the value of certain assets and contingent liabilities on our balance sheet. We believe that the estimates, assumptions and judgments involved in the accounting policies described below have the greatest potential impact on our financial statements and, therefore, consider these to be our critical accounting policies. See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for more information about these critical accounting policies, as well as a description of other significant accounting policies. We believe there have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies during the fiscal year ended April 30, 2012 compared to prior years.

Revenue Recognition, Warranty and Sales Returns

We recognize revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, title and risk of loss have passed to the customer, generally upon shipment, the price is fixed or determinable and collectability is reasonably assured.

At the time revenue is recognized, we establish an accrual for estimated warranty expenses associated with our sales, recorded as a component of cost of revenues. Our standard warranty period usually extends 12 months from the date of sale although it can extend for longer periods of three to five years for certain products sold to certain customers. Our warranty accrual represents our best estimate of the amounts necessary to settle future and existing claims on products sold as of the balance sheet date. While we believe that our warranty accrual is adequate and that the judgment applied is appropriate, such amounts estimated to be incurred could differ materially from what actually transpire in the future. If our actual warranty costs are greater than the accrual, costs of revenue will increase in the future. We also provide an allowance for estimated customer returns, which is netted against revenue. This provision is based on our historical returns, analysis of credit memo data and our return policies. If the historical data used by us to calculate the estimated sales returns does not properly reflect future returns, revenue could be reduced in the future.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

We evaluate the collectability of our accounts receivable based on a combination of factors. In circumstances where, subsequent to delivery, we become aware of a customer’s potential inability to meet its obligations, we record a specific allowance for the doubtful account to reduce the net recognized receivable to the amount we reasonably believe will be collected. For all other customers, we recognize an allowance for doubtful accounts based on the length of time the receivables are past due and historical actual bad debt history. A material adverse change in a major customer’s ability to meet its financial obligations to us could result in a material reduction in the estimated amount of accounts receivable that can ultimately be collected and an increase in our general and administrative expenses for the shortfall.

Slow Moving and Obsolete Inventories

We make inventory commitment and purchase decisions based upon sales forecasts. To mitigate the component supply constraints that have existed in the past and to fill orders with non-standard configurations, we build inventory levels for certain items with long lead times and enter into certain longer-term commitments for certain items. We permanently write off 100% of the cost of inventory that we specifically identify and consider obsolete or excessive to fulfill future sales estimates. We define obsolete inventory as inventory that will no longer be used in the manufacturing process. We periodically discard obsolete inventory. Excess inventory is generally defined as inventory in excess of projected usage, and is determined using our best estimate of future demand at the time, based upon information then available to us. In making these assessments, we are required to make judgments as to the future demand for current or committed inventory levels. We assume that the last twelve months demand is generally indicative of the demand for the next twelve months. In addition to the 12-month demand forecast, we also consider:


•	parts and subassemblies that can be used in alternative finished products;


•	parts and subassemblies that are unlikely to be engineered out of our products; and


•	known design changes which would reduce our ability to use the inventory as planned.

Significant differences between our estimates and judgments regarding future timing of product transitions, volume and mix of customer demand for our products and actual timing, volume and demand mix may result in additional write-offs in the future, or additional usage of previously written-off inventory in future periods for which we would benefit from a reduced cost of revenues in those future periods.

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Investment in Equity Securities

For strategic reasons, we may make minority investments in private or public companies or extend loans or receive equity or debt from these companies for services rendered or assets sold. Our minority investments in private companies are primarily motivated by our desire to gain early access to new technology. Our investments in these companies are passive in nature in that we generally do not obtain representation on the boards of directors. Our investments have generally been part of a larger financing in which the terms were negotiated by other investors, typically venture capital investors. These investments are generally made in exchange for preferred stock with a liquidation preference that helps protect the underlying value of our investment. At the time we made our investments, in most cases the companies had not completed development of their products and we did not enter into any significant supply agreements with the companies in which we invested. In determining if and when a decline in the market value of these investments below their carrying value is other-than-temporary, we evaluate the market conditions, offering prices, trends of earnings and cash flows, price multiples, prospects for liquidity and other key measures of performance. Our policy is to recognize an impairment in the value of our minority equity investments when clear evidence of an impairment exists, such as (a) the completion of a new equity financing that may indicate a new value for the investment, (b) the failure to complete a new equity financing arrangement after seeking to raise additional funds or (c) the commencement of proceedings under which the assets of the business may be placed in receivership or liquidated to satisfy the claims of debt and equity stakeholders. Future adverse changes in market conditions or poor operating results at any of the companies in which we hold a minority position could result in an impairment of our investment and/or an inability to recover the carrying value of these investments.

Business Combinations

We apply the provisions of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Accounting Standards Codification Topic 805, Business Combinations (“ASC 805”), in the accounting for our acquisitions, including our acquisition of Ignis ASA in May 2011. Under ASC 805, the purchase price is equivalent to the fair value of consideration transferred on the date of the business combination, tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed as of the acquisition date are recorded at the acquisition date fair value, and goodwill is recognized for any excess of purchase price over the net fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed.

Accounting for business combinations requires our management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially at the acquisition date including our estimates for intangible assets, contractual obligations assumed, restructuring liabilities, pre-acquisition contingencies and contingent consideration, where applicable. Although we believe the assumptions and estimates we have made in the past have been reasonable and appropriate, they are based in part on historical experience and information obtained from the management of the acquired companies and are inherently uncertain. Unanticipated events and circumstances may occur that may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results.

While we use our best estimates and assumptions to accurately value assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the acquisition date, our estimates are inherently uncertain and subject to refinement. As a result, during the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the acquisition date, we record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period or final determination of the values of assets acquired or liabilities assumed, whichever comes first, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to our consolidated statements of operations.

Goodwill, Intangibles and Other Long-Lived Assets

Goodwill, purchased technology, and other intangible assets resulting from acquisitions are accounted for under the acquisition method. Intangible assets with finite lives are amortized over their estimated useful lives. Amortization of purchased technology and other intangibles has been provided on a straight-line basis over periods ranging from three to ten years.

Goodwill is assessed for impairment annually or more frequently when an event occurs or circumstances change between annual tests that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of the reporting unit below its carrying value. Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level at adoption and at least annually thereafter, utilizing a two-step methodology. The initial step requires us to determine the fair value of each reporting unit and compare it to the carrying value, including goodwill, of such unit. If the fair value of the reporting unit exceeds the carrying value, no impairment loss would be recognized. However, if the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds its fair value, the goodwill of the unit may be impaired. The amount, if any, of the impairment is then measured in the second step in which we determine the implied value of goodwill based on the allocation of the estimated fair value determined in the initial step to all assets and liabilities of the reporting unit.

We are required to make judgments about the recoverability of our long-lived assets, other than goodwill, whenever

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events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may be impaired or not recoverable. In order to make such judgments, we are required to make assumptions about the value of these assets in the future including future prospects for earnings and cash flows. If impairment is indicated, we write those assets down to their fair value which is generally determined based on discounted cash flows. Judgments and assumptions about the future are complex, subjective and can be affected by a variety of factors including industry and economic trends, our market position and the competitive environment of the businesses in which we operate.

At April 30, 2012 , the carrying value of goodwill and intangible assets was $81.4 million and $45.2 million , respectively.

Stock-Based Compensation Expense

Stock-based compensation cost for all stock-based payment awards made to employees and directors including employee stock options, restricted stock units and employee stock purchases under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized as expense on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period. Compensation expense for expected-to-vest stock-based awards that were granted on or prior to April 30, 2006 was valued under the multiple-option approach and will continue to be amortized using the accelerated attribution method. Subsequent to April 30, 2006, compensation expense for expected-to-vest stock-based awards is valued under the single-option approach and amortized on a straight-line basis, net of estimated forfeitures.

We measure the fair value of restricted stock units using the market value on the grant date.

We estimate the fair value of employee stock options and stock purchases under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The value of the portion of the award that is ultimately expected to vest is recognized as expense over the requisite service periods in our consolidated statements of operations.

The determination of the fair value of stock-based awards on the date of grant using an option pricing model is affected by our stock price as well as assumptions regarding a number of complex and subjective variables. These variables include our expected stock price volatility over the expected term of the awards, actual and projected employee stock option exercise behaviors, the risk-free interest rate, estimated forfeitures and expected dividends.

We estimate the expected term of options granted by calculating the average term from our historical stock option exercise experience. We calculate the volatility factor based on our historical stock prices. We base the risk-free interest rate on zero-coupon yields implied from U.S. Treasury issues with remaining terms similar to the expected term on the options. We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future and therefore use an expected dividend yield of zero in the option pricing model. We are required to estimate forfeitures at the time of grant and revise those estimates in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates. We use historical data to estimate pre-vesting option forfeitures and record stock-based compensation expense only for those awards that are expected to vest.

If we use different assumptions for estimating stock-based compensation expense in future periods or if actual forfeitures differ materially from our estimated forfeitures, the change in our stock-based compensation expense could materially affect our operating income, net income and net income per share.

Restructuring Accrual

We are required to recognize liability for costs associated with an exit or disposal activity when the liability is incurred. We calculate facilities consolidation charges using estimates that are based upon the remaining future lease commitments for vacated facilities from the date of facility consolidation, net of estimated future sublease income. The estimated costs of vacating the leased facilities are based on market information and trend analyses, including information obtained from third party real estate sources. Should operating lease rental rates decline from current estimates or should it take longer than expected to find a suitable tenant to sublease the facility, adjustments to the facilities lease losses reserve will be made in future periods, if necessary, based upon the current actual events and circumstances.

Accounting for Income Taxes

We apply the liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, income tax expense is recognized for the amount of taxes payable or refundable for the current year. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized using enacted tax rates for the effect of temporary differences between the book and tax bases of recorded assets and liabilities and their reported amounts, along with net operating loss carryforwards and credit carryforwards. We reduce the deferred tax assets by recording a valuation allowance that is calculated in accordance with the provisions of ASC 740, “Income Taxes,” which

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requires an assessment of both positive and negative evidence regarding the realizability of these deferred tax assets, when measuring the need for a valuation allowance. We record a valuation allowance to reduce our deferred tax assets to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. In determining net deferred tax assets and valuation allowances, management is required to make judgments and estimates related to projections of profitability, the timing and extent of the utilization of net operating loss carry-forwards, applicable tax rates and tax planning strategies. We review the valuation allowance quarterly and will maintain it until sufficient positive evidence exists to support a reversal.

We provide for income taxes based upon the geographic composition of worldwide earnings and tax regulations governing each region. The calculation of tax liabilities involves significant judgment in estimating the impact of uncertainties in the application of complex tax laws. Also, our current effective tax rate assumes that United States income taxes are not provided for the undistributed earnings of non-United States subsidiaries. We intend to indefinitely reinvest the earnings of all foreign corporate subsidiaries accumulated in fiscal 2008 and subsequent years.

Our assumptions, judgments and estimates relative to the current provision for income taxes take into account current tax laws, our interpretation of current tax laws and possible outcomes of current and future audits conducted by foreign and domestic tax authorities. We have established reserves for income taxes to address potential exposures involving tax positions that could be challenged by tax authorities. Although we believe our assumptions, judgments and estimates are reasonable, changes in tax laws or our interpretation of tax laws and the resolution of any future tax audits could significantly impact the amounts provided for income taxes in our consolidated financial statements.

Our assumptions, judgments and estimates relative to the value of a deferred tax asset take into account predictions of the amount and category of future taxable income, such as income from operations or capital gains income. Actual operating results and the underlying amount and category of income in future years could render our current assumptions, judgments and estimates of recoverable net deferred taxes inaccurate. Any of the assumptions, judgments and estimates mentioned above could cause our actual income tax obligations to differ from our estimates, thus materially impacting our financial position and results of operations.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

For a description of recently adopted and issued accounting pronouncements, including the expected dates of adoption and estimated effects, if any, on our Consolidated Financial Statements, see Note 2 to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

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Results of Operations

The following table sets forth certain statement of operations data as a percentage of total revenues for the periods indicated:



	Fiscal Years Ended April 30,
	2012		2011		2010
Revenues	100.0	%	100.0	%	100.0	%
Cost of revenues	70.6		66.6		70.7
Amortization of acquired developed technology	0.7		0.5		0.8
Gross profit	28.7		32.9		28.5
Operating expenses:
Research and development	15.3		12.4		15.0
Sales and marketing	4.2		3.8		4.9
General and administrative	4.7		4.8		5.8
Restructuring charges	—		—		0.7
Amortization of purchased intangibles	0.4		0.2		0.3
Impairment of goodwill	—		—		—
Total operating expenses	24.6		21.2		26.7
Income from operations	4.1		11.7		1.8
Interest income	0.1		0.1		—
Interest expense	(0.4	)	(0.7	)	(1.4	)
Loss on debt extinguishment	—		(0.9	)	(4.0	)
Other income (expense), net	0.9		(0.5	)	(0.3	)
Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes and non-controlling interest	4.7		9.7		(3.9	)
Provision (benefit) for income taxes	0.2		0.5		(0.3	)
Income (loss) from continuing operations before non-controlling interest	4.5		9.2		(3.6	)
Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of income taxes	—		—		5.8
Consolidated net income	4.5		9.2		2.2
Adjust for net income attributable to non-controlling interest	—		—		—
Net income attributable to Finisar Corporation	4.5	%	9.2	%	2.2	%

Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended April 30, 2012 and 2011

Revenues. Revenues increased $3.8 million , or 0.4% , to $952.6 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $948.8 million in fiscal 2011 .

The following table sets forth the changes in revenues by market application (in thousands):



	For Fiscal Years Ended April 30,
	2012		2011		Change			% Change
Datacom revenue	$	537,331	$	478,245	$	59,086		12.4	%
Telecom revenue	415,248		470,542		(55,294		)	(11.8	)%
Total revenues	$	952,579	$	948,787	$	3,792		0.4	%

Datacom revenue for fiscal 2012 increased compared to fiscal 2011 , primarily as a result of an increase in the market demand for our datacom products as enterprises upgraded their technology infrastructure driving demand for the products of our OEM system customers and thus higher demand for our datacom module products. Telecom revenue decreased for fiscal 2012 compared to fiscal 2011 , primarily as a result of a decline in market demand for our telecom products due to adjustments of inventory levels at some of our telecom customers and the cyclical nature of telecom service provider spending influenced by timing of network expansion and general macroeconomic conditions, partially offset by the inclusion of approximately three and one-half quarters of Ignis telecom revenue, representing $44.0 million.

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Amortization of Acquired Developed Technology. Amortization of acquired developed technology, a component of cost of revenues, increased $1.6 million , or 34.7% , to $6.3 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $4.7 million in fiscal 2011 . The increase was due to the amortization of the acquired developed technology related to the Ignis acquisition.

Gross Profit . Gross profit decreased $38.9 million , or 12.5% , to $273.3 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $312.3 million in fiscal 2011 . Gross profit as a percent of revenues decreased by 4.2% , from 32.9% in fiscal 2011 to 28.7% in fiscal 2012 . We recorded charges of $23.9 million for obsolete and excess inventory in fiscal 2012 compared to $19.1 million in fiscal 2011 . We sold inventory that was written-off in previous periods resulting in a benefit of $13.3 million in fiscal 2012 and $12.8 million in fiscal 2011 . As a result, we recognized a net charge of $10.6 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $6.3 million in fiscal 2011 . Cost of revenues included stock-based compensation charges of $5.8 million in fiscal 2012 and $4.6 million in fiscal 2011 . Excluding amortization of acquired developed technology, the net impact of excess and obsolete inventory charges and stock-based compensation charges, gross profit would have been $296.0 million , or 31.1% of revenues, in fiscal 2012 compared to $327.9 million , or 34.6% of revenues, in fiscal 2011 . The decrease in gross margin primarily reflects a decline in average selling prices, partially offset by reduced material costs, as well as under-utilization of certain manufacturing facilities, higher amortization of acquired developed technology, higher net charges for excess and obsolete inventory and consolidation of the financial results of Ignis, whose products have an average gross margin lower than the overall corporate average gross margin.

Research and Development Expenses . Research and development expenses increased $28.7 million , or 24.5% , to $146.0 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $117.3 million in fiscal 2011 . The increase was due to increases in employee related expenses, costs of materials associated with new product development, and the consolidation of financial results of Ignis. Included in research and development expenses were stock-based compensation charges of $8.4 million in fiscal 2012 and $6.3 million in fiscal 2011 . Research and development expenses as a percent of revenues increased to 15.3% in fiscal 2012 compared to 12.4% in fiscal 2011 .

Sales and Marketing Expenses . Sales and marketing expenses increased $4.2 million , or 11.8% , to $40.4 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $36.2 million in fiscal 2011 . The increase was primarily due to increases in employee related expenses and the consolidation of financial results of Ignis. Included in sales and marketing expenses were stock-based compensation charges of $2.9 million in fiscal 2012 and $2.1 million in fiscal 2011 . Sales and marketing expenses as a percent of revenues increased to 4.2% in fiscal 2012 compared to 3.8% in fiscal 2011 .

General and Administrative Expenses . General and administrative expenses decreased $1.2 million , or 2.5% , to $44.4 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $45.6 million in fiscal 2011 . The decrease was primarily due to a non-recurring gain of $7.4 million related to a favorable decision by an arbitrator in an intellectual property dispute and a $3.5 million loss accrual in fiscal 2011 for damages payable as the result of an unfavorable judgment in a patent infringement lawsuit which was partially offset by a non-recurring net gain of $2.4 million related to the settlement of another legal proceeding in fiscal 2011. The decrease was partially offset by the consolidation of the financial results of Ignis. Included in general and administrative expenses were stock-based compensation charges of $7.2 million in fiscal 2012 and $5.0 million in fiscal 2011 . General and administrative expenses as a percent of revenues decreased to 4.7% in fiscal 2012 compared to 4.8% in fiscal 2011 .

Restructuring Costs (Recoveries). During the first quarter of fiscal 2012 , we entered into a sublease agreement with a third party for a portion of our abandoned and unused facility in Allen, Texas. As a result of this sublease agreement, we recorded a recovery of $322,000 to reflect an adjustment to reduce our future net liability related to this facility.

Amortization of Purchased Intangibles . Amortization of purchased intangibles increased $2.0 million , or 128.2% , to $3.5 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $1.5 million in fiscal 2011 . The increase was due to the amortization of certain intangibles related to the acquisition of Ignis.

Interest Income . Interest income increased $543,000 to $1.1 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $530,000 in fiscal 2011 . The increase was primarily due to interest earned on the funds associated with the favorable decision by an arbitrator in the intellectual property dispute discussed above for the period between the date of decision and actual payment date.

Interest Expense. Interest expense decreased $2.7 million , or 41.6% , to $3.7 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $6.4 million in fiscal 2011 . The decrease was primarily related to lower outstanding debt due to partial extinguishment of convertible debt and repayment of long-term bank loans during fiscal 2011 . Interest expense for fiscal 2012 included $2.9 million related to our 5% Convertible Subordinated Notes due October 2029 and various other debt instruments acquired with the acquisition of Ignis. Interest expense also included $500,000 in accretion of the contingent consideration associated with the acquisition of Ignis. Interest expense for fiscal 2011 included $4.2 million related to our 5% Convertible Subordinated Notes due October 2029, $1.5 million related to various other debt instruments and a non-cash charge of $742,000 due to accretion of the original issue discount created by the conversion option in the 2.5% Senior Subordinated Convertible Notes, as interest expense

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over the term of the instrument using the interest method.

Loss on Debt Extinguishment. During the first quarter of 2012, we repaid certain bank loans that we assumed as part of the Ignis acquisition. The repayment of these loans resulted in a loss of $419,000 which we recognized in our consolidated statement of operations for fiscal 2012 . In fiscal 2011 , we entered into privately-negotiated agreements with existing holders of our 5% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029 to exchange an aggregate of approximately $60.0 million principal amount of the notes for shares of our common stock. We recognized loss on debt extinguishment of $8.3 million on these exchanges, representing the fair value of the shares issued in excess of the number of shares issuable in accordance with the original conversion terms of the notes. This loss on debt extinguishment compares to $11.2 million of interest expense that would have been payable with respect to the $60.0 million in exchanged notes through their first maturity date in October 2014 had such notes not been exchanged.

Other Income (Expense), Net. Other income was $8.8 million in fiscal 2012 compared to other expense of $4.7 million in fiscal 2011 . Other income in fiscal 2012 primarily consisted of a gain of $5.4 million related to the fair value measurement of our equity interest in Ignis upon obtaining a controlling interest in May 2011 and a gain of $4.9 million related to the fair value remeasurement of the contingent consideration liability related to the Ignis acquisition. This income was partially offset by $756,000 of amortization of debt issuance costs related to our convertible notes and $619,000 of our proportionate share of the net losses of Ignis during the period prior to our acquisition of a controlling interest, during which period we accounted for our investment using the equity method. Other expense in fiscal 2011 primarily consisted of foreign exchange losses of $1.9 million, $1.2 million of amortization of debt issuance costs related to our convertible notes, and $600,000 of amortization of issuance costs related to other debt.

Provision for Income Taxes. We recorded income tax provisions of $2.0 million and $4.4 million , for fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2011 , respectively. T he income tax provisions for fiscal 2012 and 2011 primarily represent current state and foreign income taxes arising in certain jurisdictions in which we conduct business.

Due to the uncertainty regarding the timing and extent of our future profitability, we continue to record a valuation allowance to offset our U.S. deferred tax assets which represent future income tax benefits associated with our operating losses because we do not currently believe it is more likely than not these assets will be realized. We calculated the valuation allowance in accordance with the provisions of ASC 740, “Income Taxes,” which requires an assessment of both positive and negative evidence regarding the realizability of these deferred tax assets, when measuring the need for a valuation allowance. We record a valuation allowance to reduce our deferred tax assets to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. In determining net deferred tax assets and valuation allowances, management is required to make judgments and estimates related to projections of profitability, the timing and extent of the utilization of net operating loss carry-forwards, applicable tax rates and tax planning strategies. We review the valuation allowance quarterly and will maintain it until sufficient positive evidence exists to support a reversal. If we conclude that sufficient positive evidence exists to support a reversal of all or a portion of the valuation allowance, we expect that a significant portion of any release of the valuation allowance will be recorded as an income tax benefit at the time of release.

Non-controlling interest. Non-controlling interest for fiscal 2012 represents $187,000 of the minority shareholders' proportionate share of the net loss of Ignis offset by $208,000 of the minority shareholders' proportionate share of the net income of Fi-ra.

Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended April 30, 2011 and 2010

Revenues. Revenues increased $318.9 million , or 50.6% , to $948.8 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $629.9 million in fiscal 2010 .

The following table sets forth the changes in revenues by market segment and speed (in thousands):



	For Fiscal Years Ended April 30,
	2011		2010		Change		% Change
Datacom revenue	$	478,245	$	352,136	$	126,109	35.8	%
Telecom revenue	470,542		277,744		192,798		69.4	%
Total revenues	$	948,787	$	629,880	$	318,907	50.6	%

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The increase in revenues for fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 reflects the impact of a combination of factors including increased spending on infrastructure by business enterprises and telecommunication companies as they deal with the ongoing growth in bandwidth through their networks as well as improvement in general economic conditions that contributed to an increase in information technology infrastructure spending. Additionally, we believe that we achieved an increase in our market share, particularly for higher speed products, due in part to the qualification of several products for higher speed applications at certain customers and our entry into new markets.

Amortization of Acquired Developed Technology. Amortization of acquired developed technology, a component of cost of revenues, decreased $85,000 , or 1.8% , to $4.7 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $4.8 million in fiscal 2010 . The decrease was primarily due to full amortization of certain technology acquired in connection with the Honeywell acquisition in fiscal 2004.

Gross Profit. Gross profit increased $132.5 million , or 73.7% , to $312.3 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $179.7 million in fiscal 2010 . Gross profit as a percentage of total revenues increased by 4.4% , from 28.5% in fiscal 2010 to 32.9% in fiscal 2011 . We recorded charges of $19.1 million for obsolete and excess inventory in fiscal 2011 compared to $23.0 million in fiscal 2010 . We sold inventory that was written-off in previous periods resulting in a benefit of $12.8 million in fiscal 2011 and $15.1 million in fiscal 2010 . As a result, we recognized a net charge of $6.3 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $7.9 million in fiscal 2010 . Manufacturing overhead included stock-based compensation charges of $4.6 million in fiscal 2011 and $4.2 million in fiscal 2010 . Excluding amortization of acquired developed technology, the net impact of excess and obsolete inventory charges and stock-based compensation charges, gross profit would have been $327.9 million , or 34.6% of revenue, in fiscal 2011 compared to $196.6 million , or 31.2% of revenue in fiscal 2010 . The increase in gross margin primarily reflects the benefits of higher manufacturing unit volume and the increase in sales of higher margin high speed components and ROADM products partially offset by the unfavorable impact of lower pricing on some products. Although revenues increased by 50.6% in fiscal 2011 , manufacturing overhead costs increased only 32% compared to fiscal 2010 , primarily due to greater utilization of fixed manufacturing capacity.

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses increased $22.5 million , or 23.8% , to $117.3 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $94.8 million in fiscal 2010 . The increase was due to increases in employee related expenses and costs of materials associated with new product development. Included in research and development expenses were stock-based compensation charges of $6.3 million in fiscal 2011 and $5.5 million in fiscal 2010 . Research and development expenses as a percent of revenues decreased to 12.4% in fiscal 2011 compared to 15.0% in fiscal 2010 .

Sales and Marketing Expenses. Sales and marketing expenses increased $5.5 million , or 17.8% , to $36.2 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $30.7 million in fiscal 2010 . The increase was primarily due to increased sales commissions as a result of the increase in revenues. The increase was also partly due to an increase in employee related expenses. Included in sales and marketing expenses were stock-based compensation charges of $2.1 million in fiscal 2011 and $1.9 million in fiscal 2010 . Sales and marketing expenses as a percent of revenues decreased to 3.8% in fiscal 2011 compared to 4.9% in fiscal 2010 .

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased $8.8 million or 24.0% , to $45.6 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $36.8 million in fiscal 2010 . The increase was primarily due to the $3.5 million accrual for damages payable as the result of an unfavorable judgment in the JDS Uniphase and Emcore Corporation litigation described above, and an increase in personnel related costs, partially offset by $2.4 million of litigation settlement income net of legal costs associated with the settlement with Source Photonics Inc. described above. Included in general and administrative expenses were stock-based compensation charges of $5.0 million in fiscal 2011 and $3.4 million in fiscal 2010 . General and administrative expenses as a percent of revenues decreased to 4.8% in fiscal 2011 compared to 5.8% in fiscal 2010 .

Amortization of Purchased Intangibles. Amortization of purchased intangibles decreased $497,000 , or 24.5% , to $1.5 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $2.0 million in fiscal 2010 . The decrease was primarily due to the full amortization of certain intangibles acquired in the Optium merger in fiscal 2009.

Interest Income. Interest income increased $386,000 to $530,000 in fiscal 2011 compared to $144,000 in fiscal 2010 . The increase was due primarily to increase in our cash balances reflecting the receipt of $131.1 million in net proceeds from our common stock offering in March 2010 and $117.9 million in net proceeds from our common stock offering in December 2010.

Interest Expense. Interest expense decreased $2.6 million , or 28.9% , to $6.4 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $9.0 million in fiscal 2010 . The decrease was primarily related to lower outstanding debt due to repayment of $47.5 million principal amount of our 2 1/2% Convertible Subordinated Notes due 2010 and our 2 1/2% Convertible Senior Subordinated Notes due 2010 pursuant to exchange offers in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 and repurchases of $13.0 million principal amount of our 2 1/2% Convertible Subordinated Notes and $51.9 million of our 2 1/2% Convertible Senior Subordinated Notes in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 and repayment of $3.9 million principal amount of our 2 1/2% Convertible Subordinated Notes due 2010

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and $25.7 million principal amount of our 2 1/2% Convertible Senior Subordinated Notes due 2010 in the second quarter of fiscal 2011. Interest expense for fiscal 2011 included $4.2 million related to our 5% Convertible Subordinated Notes due October 2029, $1.5 million related to various other debt instruments and a non-cash charge of $742,000 due to accretion of the original issued discount created by the conversion option in the 2.5% Senior Subordinated Convertible Notes, as interest expense over the term of the instrument using the interest method. Interest expense for fiscal 2010 included $2.7 million related to our 5% Convertible Subordinated Notes due October 2029, $1.8 million related to our convertible subordinated notes which were fully repaid in October 2010, a non-cash charge of $3.0 million related to the accounting for our senior convertible notes and $1.5 million related to various other debt instruments.

Loss on Debt Extinguishment. As described above, in fiscal 2011, we entered into privately-negotiated agreements with existing holders of our 5% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029 to exchange an aggregate of approximately $60.0 million in principal amount of the notes for shares of our common stock. We recognized loss on debt extinguishment of $8.3 million on these exchanges, representing the fair value of the shares issued in excess of the number of shares issuable in accordance with the original conversion terms of the notes. This loss on debt extinguishment compares to $11.2 million of interest expense that would have been payable with respect to the $60.0 million in exchanged notes through their first maturity date in October 2014 had such notes not been exchanged.

Other Income (Expense), Net. Other expense was $4.7 million in fiscal 2011 compared to $1.9 million in fiscal 2010 . Other expense in fiscal 2011 primarily consisted of foreign exchange losses of $1.9 million, $1.2 million of amortization of debt issuance costs for our 5% Convertible Senior Notes and $0.6 million of amortization of issuance costs related to other debt. Other expense in fiscal 2010 was primarily due to a $2 million write-down of a minority interest investment as the decline in its value was other than temporary.

Provision for Income Taxes. We recorded an income tax provision of $4.4 million and an income tax benefit of $1.6 million for fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010 , respectively. The income tax provision for fiscal 2011 represents current state and foreign income taxes arising in certain jurisdictions in which we conduct business. Due to the uncertainty regarding timing and extent of future profitability, we have recorded a valuation allowance to offset our deferred tax assets which represent future income tax benefits associated with our operating losses because we do not believe it is more likely than not these assets will be realized. The income tax benefit for fiscal 2010 included minimum state taxes of $400,000, federal refundable credits of $500,000 and foreign income tax benefit of $1.5 million arising in certain foreign jurisdictions in which the Company conducts business.

Income from Discontinued Operation, net of taxes. During fiscal 2010 , income from discontinued operations was $36.9 million, comprising a gain of $35.9 million on the sale and a net operating gain of $1.0 million. Net operating expenses associated with the transition services agreement from July 15, 2009 through April 30, 2010 were $142,000, which included an adjustment of $165,000 recorded as an adjustment to the gain on sale of discontinued operations.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash Flows from Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $75.1 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $95.4 million in fiscal 2011 and $11.8 million in fiscal 2010 . Cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2012 consisted of our net income, as adjusted to exclude depreciation, amortization and other non-cash items totaling $73.2 million , and cash used for working capital requirements primarily related to increases in inventory and decreases in accounts payable offset by decreases in accounts receivables. Accounts receivable decreased by $11.9 million primarily due to strong collections near the end of the year. Inventory increased by $21.3 million due to increased purchases to support projected increased levels of sales. Accounts payables decreased due to higher payments made near the end of the year.

Net cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2011 consisted of net income, adjusted for depreciation, amortization and other non-cash items totaling $71.5 million and cash used for working capital requirements primarily related to increases in accounts receivable and inventory. Accounts receivable increased by $40.8 million primarily due to the increase in shipments. Inventory increased by $37.1 million due to increased purchases to support increased sales.

Net cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2010 consisted of net income adjusted for depreciation, amortization and other non-cash items totaling $45.9 million offset by a $46.8 million increase in working capital primarily related increases in accounts receivable and inventories offset by increase in accounts payable. Accounts receivable increased by $45.8 million primarily due to increase in shipments and no sales of accounts receivable under our non-recourse accounts receivable purchase agreement with Silicon Valley Bank which was terminated in October 2009. We sold $37.7 million of accounts receivable under this agreement in fiscal 2009. Inventory increased by $26.7 million and accounts payable increased by $28.4 million

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due to an increase in purchases to support increased sales.

Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities totaled $148.6 million in fiscal 2012 compared to $96.3 million in fiscal 2011 and net cash provided by investing activities of $10.6 million in fiscal 2010 . Net cash used in investing activities in fiscal 2012 primarily consisted of $71.2 million related to the acquisition of Ignis and expenditures of $77.0 million for capital equipment.

Net cash used in investing activities in fiscal 2011 represented expenditures of $64.1 million for capital equipment and $32.2 million for investment in Ignis which was accounted for under the equity method prior to the completion of the acquisition in May 2011.

Net cash provided by investing activities in fiscal 2010 primarily consisted of the $40.7 million received from sale of the assets of our Network Tools Division to JDS Uniphase on July 15, 2009. We also received $1.2 million in cash in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 from the sale of a promissory note and all of the preferred stock that we received as consideration for the sale of a product line in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. These receipts were partially offset by $31.4 million of expenditures for capital equipment.

Cash Flows from Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities totaled $6.7 million in fiscal 2012 compared to net cash provided by financing activities of $108.6 million in fiscal 2011 and $147.5 million in fiscal 2010 . Cash used in financing activities in fiscal 2012 primarily reflected repayments of borrowings related to the Ignis acquisition totaling $15.6 million , partially offset by additional borrowings of $1.8 million by Fi-ra (Ignis' Korean subsidiary) and proceeds from the exercise of stock options and share purchases under our stock purchase plan totaling $7.1 million .

Cash provided by financing activities in fiscal 2011 primarily consisted of net proceeds from our common stock offering of $117.9 million and proceeds from the exercise of stock options and share purchases under our employee stock purchase plan totaling $39.5 million , partially offset by repayments of convertible notes totaling $29.6 million and repayments of long-term debt of $19.3 million .

Cash used in financing activities in fiscal 2010 primarily consisted of $98.1 million in net proceeds from the issuance of our 5.0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029, $131.1 million in net proceeds from our common stock offering, $5.5 million of bank borrowings by our Chinese subsidiary and $8.4 million from the exercise of stock options and share purchases under our employee stock purchase plan partially offset by $88.0 million of cash used to purchase outstanding convertible notes and $7.7 million of repayments of long-term debt.

Contractual Obligations and Commercial Commitments

Our contractual obligations at April 30, 2012 totaled $191.0 million , as shown in the following table (in thousands):



			Payments Due by Period

			Less than						After
Contractual Obligations	Total		1 Year		1-3 Years		4-5 Years		5 Years
Short-term debt	$	3,150	$	3,150	$	—	$	—	$	—
Convertible debt	40,015		—		40,015		—		—
Interest on debt (a)	5,018		2,017		3,001		—		—
Operating leases (b)	57,932		11,117		16,400		13,009		17,406
Purchase obligations (c)	84,929		84,929		—		—		—
Total contractual obligations	$	191,044	$	101,213	$	59,416	$	13,009	$	17,406

_________________


(a)	Includes interest to October 2014 on our 5% Convertible Senior Notes due October 2029 as we have the right to redeem the notes in whole or in part at any time on or after October 22, 2014.


(b)	Includes operating lease obligations that have been accrued as restructuring charges.


(c)	Includes open purchase orders with terms that generally allow us the option to cancel or reschedule the order, subject to various restrictions and limitations.

Short-term debt consists of bank loans that resulted from our acquisition of Ignis. These loans matured at various dates

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through June 2012.

Convertible debt consists of convertible senior notes in the aggregate principal amount of $40 million due October 15, 2029. The notes are convertible by the holders at any time prior to maturity into shares of our common stock at specified conversion prices. The notes are redeemable by us, in whole or in part at any time on or after October 22, 2014 if the last reported sale price per share of our common stock exceeds 130% of the conversion price for at least 20 trading days within a period of 30 consecutive trading days ending within five trading days of the date on which we provide the notice of redemption. These notes are also subject to redemption by the holders in October 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2024.

Interest on debt consists of the scheduled interest payments on our convertible debt.

Operating lease obligations consist primarily of base rents for facilities we occupy at various locations.

Purchase obligations represent all open purchase orders and contractual obligations in the ordinary course of business for which we have not received the goods or services. Although open purchase orders are considered enforceable and legally binding, their terms generally allow us the option to cancel, reschedule and adjust our requirements based on our business needs prior to the delivery of goods or performance of services. Our policy with respect to all purchase obligations is to record losses, if any, when they are probable and reasonably estimable.

Our subcontractors purchase materials based on forecasts provided by us. We record a liability for firm, non-cancelable and unconditional purchase commitments for quantities held by subcontractors on our behalf to fulfill the subcontractors' purchase order obligations at their facilities which are in excess of our future demand forecasts. As of April 30, 2012 , the liability for these purchase commitments of $2.0 million has been expensed and recorded on the consolidated balance sheet as other accrued liabilities and is not included in the preceding table.

We believe we have made adequate provisions for potential exposure related to inventory purchases for orders that may not be utilized.

Sources of Liquidity and Capital Resource Requirements

At April 30, 2012 , our principal sources of liquidity consisted of $234.5 million of cash and cash equivalents and an aggregate of $66.6 million available for borrowing under our credit facility with Wells Fargo Foothill, LLC, subject to certain restrictions and limitations. Of this cash and cash equivalents, $35.9 million was held by our foreign subsidiaries as of April 30, 2012 .

We believe that our existing balances of cash and cash equivalents, together with the cash expected to be generated from future operations and borrowings under our bank credit facility, will be sufficient to meet our cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. We may, however, require additional financing to fund our operations in the future, to finance future acquisitions that we may propose to undertake or to repay or otherwise retire all of our outstanding 5% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029, in the aggregate principal amount of $40.0 million , which are subject to redemption by the holders in October 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2024. A significant contraction in the capital markets, particularly in the technology sector, may make it difficult for us to raise additional capital if and when it is required, especially if we experience disappointing operating results. If adequate capital is not available to us as required, or is not available on favorable terms, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be adversely affected.

Off-Balance-Sheet Arrangements

At April 30, 2012 and April 30, 2011 , we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements or relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which are typically established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes.


Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

As of April 30, 2012 , we had $40.0 million of convertible notes with a fixed interest rate of 5% outstanding. The fair value of this debt as of April 30, 2012 was approximately $73.7 million , based on the market price of the notes in the open market as of or close to April 30, 2012 . The difference between the carrying value and the fair value is primarily due to the spread between the conversion price and the market value of the shares underlying the conversion. We are subject to significant fluctuations in fair market value of the debt due to the volatility of the stock market. We had no variable interest rate debt outstanding which would expose us to interest rate risk.

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We invest in equity instruments of privately-held companies for business and strategic purposes. These investments are included in other long-term assets and are accounted for under the cost method when our ownership interest is less than 20% and we do not have the ability to exercise significant influence. At April 30, 2012 , we had an investment in one privately-held company that totaled $884,000 and was accounted for under the cost method. For such non-quoted investments, our policy is to regularly review the assumptions underlying the operating performance and cash flow forecasts in assessing the carrying values. We identify and record impairment losses when events and circumstances indicate that such assets are impaired. The Company concluded that there were sufficient indicators during the fourth quarter of 2012 and second quarter of fiscal 2010 to require an impairment analysis of its investment in one of these companies. Among these indicators was the completion of a new round of equity financing by the investee at a rate per share lower than the value at which the investment was then being carried. The Company determined that the value of its minority equity investment was impaired and thus recorded a $616,000 and $2.0 million impairment loss. No such impairment was recorded in fiscal 2011 . If our investment in a privately-held company becomes readily marketable upon the company’s completion of an initial public offering or its acquisition by another company, our investment would be subject to significant fluctuations in fair market value due to the volatility of the stock market.

We have subsidiaries located in China, Malaysia, Israel, Australia, Korea, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, India and Singapore. Due to the relative volume of transactions through these subsidiaries, we do not believe that we have significant exposure to foreign currency exchange risks. We currently do not use derivative financial instruments to mitigate this exposure. We continue to review this issue and may consider hedging certain foreign exchange risks through the use of currency forwards or options in future years.

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Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

FINISAR CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS INDEX



Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm	40
Consolidated Balance Sheets	40
Consolidated Statements of Operations	40
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity	40
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	40
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements	41
Financial Information by Quarter (Unaudited)	54

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

The Board of Directors and Stockholders

Finisar Corporation

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Finisar Corporation as of April 30, 2012 and 2011 , and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders' equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended April 30, 2012 . Our audits also included the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a). These financial statements and schedule are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and schedule based on our audits.

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

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of Finisar Corporation at April 30, 2012 and 2011 , and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended April 30, 2012 , in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also, in our opinion, the related financial statement schedule, when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole, presents fairly in all material respects the information set forth therein.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), Finisar Corporation's internal control over financial reporting as of April 30, 2012 , based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated June 29, 2012 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.



		/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

San Jose, California
June 29, 2012

FINISAR CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS



	April 30,
	2012			2011
	(In thousands, except share and per share data)
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$	234,544		$	314,765
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $1,311 at April 30, 2012 and 1,324 at April 30, 2011	167,760			168,386
Accounts receivable, other	21,004			12,733
Inventories	218,432			187,617
Deferred tax assets	234			—
Prepaid expenses	25,248			9,906
Total current assets	667,222			693,407
Property, equipment and improvements, net	163,817			125,693
Purchased technology, net	17,322			7,332
Other intangible assets, net	27,855			10,107
Goodwill	81,431			—
Minority investments	884			12,289
Equity method investment	—			31,142
Other assets	10,896			5,179
Total assets	$	969,427		$	885,149
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable	$	72,339		$	76,288
Accrued compensation	27,090			24,525
Other accrued liabilities (Note 11)	20,871			25,112
Deferred revenue	8,970			8,064
Short-term debt (Note 13)	3,150			—
Total current liabilities	132,420			133,989
Long-term liabilities:
Convertible debt (Note 12)	40,015			40,015
Other non-current liabilities	15,175			11,988
Deferred tax liabilities	1,972			—
Total liabilities	189,582			185,992
Commitments and contingencies
Stockholders’ equity:
Preferred stock, $0.001 par value, 5,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding at April 30, 2012 and April 30, 2011	—			—
Common stock, $0.001 par value, 750,000,000 shares authorized, 91,451,615 shares issued and outstanding at April 30, 2012 and 89,903,095 shares issued and outstanding at April 30, 2011	91			90
Additional paid-in capital	2,309,219			2,275,600
Accumulated other comprehensive income	28,720			32,966
Accumulated deficit	(1,566,506		)	(1,609,499		)
Finisar Corporation stockholders' equity	771,524			699,157
Non-controlling interest	8,321			—
Total stockholders' equity	779,845			699,157
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity	$	969,427		$	885,149

See accompanying notes.

FINISAR CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS



	Fiscal Years Ended April 30,
	2012			2011			2010
	(In thousands, except per share data)
Revenues	$	952,579		$	948,787		$	629,880
Cost of revenues	672,924			631,831			445,370
Amortization of acquired developed technology	6,311			4,684			4,769
Gross profit	273,344			312,272			179,741
Operating expenses:
Research and development	146,003			117,281			94,770
Sales and marketing	40,424			36,165			30,702
General and administrative	44,419			45,579			36,772
Restructuring charges (recoveries)	(322		)	—			4,173
Amortization of purchased intangibles	3,494			1,531			2,028
Total operating expenses	234,018			200,556			168,445
Income from operations	39,326			111,716			11,296
Interest income	1,073			530			144
Interest expense	(3,716		)	(6,365		)	(8,957		)
Loss on debt extinguishment	(419		)	(8,340		)	(25,039		)
Other income (expense), net	8,755			(4,715		)	(1,890		)
Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes and non-controlling interest	45,019			92,826			(24,446		)
Provision (benefit) for income taxes	2,005			4,447			(1,640		)
Income (loss) from continuing operations before non-controlling interest	$	43,014		$	88,379		$	(22,806	)
Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of income taxes	—			(284		)	36,937
Consolidated net income	$	43,014		$	88,095		$	14,131
Adjust for net income attributable to non-controlling interest	(21		)	—			—
Net income attributable to Finisar Corporation	$	42,993		$	88,095		$	14,131

Net income (loss) per share attributable to Finisar Corporation common stockholders:
Basic:
Income (loss) per share from continuing operations	$	0.47		$	1.10		$	(0.35	)
Income per share from discontinued operations	$	—		$	—		$	0.57
Net income per share	$	0.47		$	1.10		$	0.22
Diluted:
Income (loss) per share from continuing operations	$	0.46		$	1.00		$	(0.35	)
Income per share from discontinued operations	$	—		$	—		$	0.57
Net income per share	$	0.46		$	1.00		$	0.22
Shares used in computing net income (loss) per share:
Basic	90,823			80,582			64,952
Diluted	94,186			92,715			64,952

See accompanying notes.

FINISAR CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY



	Common Stock			Additional Paid-in Capital			Other Comprehensive Income (Loss)			Accumulated Deficit			Total Finisar's Stockholders’ Equity			Non-controlling Interest		Total Stockholders’ Equity
	Shares	Amount		Additional Paid-in Capital			Other Comprehensive Income (Loss)			Accumulated Deficit			Total Finisar's Stockholders’ Equity			Non-controlling Interest		Total Stockholders’ Equity
				(In thousands, except share data)
Balance at April 30, 2009	59,686,507	$	60	$	1,831,224		$	2,662		$	(1,711,725	)	$	122,221		$	—	$	122,221
Net income	—	—		—			—			14,131			14,131			—		14,131
Change in cumulative foreign currency translation adjustment	—	—		—			13,108			—			13,108			—		13,108
Change in unrealized loss on available-for-sale investments	—	—		—			21			—			21			—		21
Comprehensive income													27,260			—		27,260
Issuance of shares pursuant to equity plans	1,555,694	1		4,861			—			—			4,862			—		4,862
Issuance of shares pursuant to employee stock purchase plan	1,256,571	1		3,604			—			—			3,605			—		3,605
Share-based compensation expense	—	—		15,860			—			—			15,860			—		15,860
Income tax benefit from exercise of stock option	—	—		112			—			—			112			—		112
Shares issued on conversion of convertible debt	3,539,048	4		16,379			—			—			16,383			—		16,383
Reacquisition of convertible debt equity component	—	—		(226		)	—			—			(226		)	—		(226		)
Loss on conversion of convertible debt	—	—		27,477			—			—			27,477			—		27,477
Issuance of common stock pursuant to public offering	9,787,093	10		131,082			—			—			131,092			—		131,092
Balance at April 30, 2010	75,824,913	$	76	$	2,030,373		$	15,791		$	(1,697,594	)	$	348,646		$	—	$	348,646
Net income	—	—		—			—			88,095			88,095			—		88,095
Change in cumulative foreign currency translation adjustment	—	—		—			17,175			—			17,175			—		17,175
Comprehensive income													105,270			—		105,270
Issuance of shares pursuant to equity plans, net of tax withholdings	3,356,572	3		34,409			—			—			34,412			—		34,412
Issuance of pursuant to employee stock purchase plan	698,982	1		5,097			—			—			5,098			—		5,098
Share-based compensation expense	—	—		18,660			—			—			18,660			—		18,660
Shares issued on conversion of convertible debt	5,882,628	6		69,159			—			—			69,165			—		69,165
Issuance of common stock pursuant to public offering	4,140,000	4		117,902			—			—			117,906			—		117,906
Balance at April 30, 2011	89,903,095	$	90	$	2,275,600		$	32,966		$	(1,609,499	)	$	699,157		$	—	$	699,157
Net income	—	—		—			—			42,993			42,993			21		43,014
Change in cumulative foreign currency translation adjustment	—	—		—			(4,246		)	—			(4,246		)	—		(4,246		)
Comprehensive income													38,747			21		38,768
Non-controlling interest at acquisition	—	—		—			—			—			—			8,300		8,300
Issuance of shares pursuant to equity plans, net of tax withholdings	1,118,169	1		2,358			—			—			2,359			—		2,359
Issuance of shares pursuant to employee stock purchase plan	334,464	—		4,744			—			—			4,744