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CSP Inc.

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FY2012 Annual Report · CSP Inc.
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UNITED STATES  
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION  
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549  
FORM 10-K  

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

For the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2012.  

(cid:133)  TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES  
      EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934  

For the transition period from             to             .  

Commission File Number 000-10843  
CSP Inc.  

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)  

Massachusetts 
(State of incorporation) 

04-2441294 
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 

43 Manning Road, Billerica, Massachusetts 01821-3901 (978) 663-7598  
(Address and telephone number of principal executive offices)  

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:  

Title of Each Class 

Name of Exchange of Which Registered

Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share 

NASDAQ Global Market 

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

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities 

Act.    Yes  (cid:133)    No  ⌧  

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the 

Act.    Yes  (cid:133)    No  ⌧  

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  ⌧    No  (cid:133).  

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 during the preceding 12 months (or for such 
shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ⌧    No  (cid:133).  

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.  (cid:133)  

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.  

Large accelerated filer  (cid:133) 
Non-accelerated filer  (cid:133) 

Accelerated filer  (cid:133) 
Smaller Reporting Company  ⌧ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.    Yes  (cid:133)    No  ⌧  

As of March 31, 2012, the aggregate market value of the registrant's common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was  

$11,912,731 based on the closing sale price of $4.02 as reported on the Nasdaq Global Market.  

As of November 30, 2012, we had outstanding 3,399,342 shares of common stock.  

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE  

Certain portions of the information required in Part III of this Form 10-K are incorporated by reference from our definitive proxy 

statement for our 2013 annual meeting of stockholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the 
end of our fiscal year ended September 30, 2012.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PART I. 

Business 

Item 1. 
Item 1A.  Risk Factors 
Item 2. 
Item 3. 

Properties 
Legal Proceedings 

Item 4. 

Mine Safety Disclosures 

PART II. 
Item 5. 

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

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 
Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 
Change in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosures 

Item 7. 
Item 8. 
Item 9. 
Item 9A.  Controls and Procedures 
Item 9B.  Other Information 

PART III. 
Item 10.  Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 
Item 11. 
Item 12. 

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

Item 13.  Certain Relationships, Related Transactions and Director Independence 
Item 14. 

Principal Accountant Fees and Services 

PART IV. 
Item 15. 

Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 

Note: Items 1B, 6 and 7A are not required for Smaller Reporting Companies and therefore are not furnished. 

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Item 1. 

Business  

PART I  

CSP Inc. (“CSPI” or “the Company” or “we” or “our”) was incorporated in 1968 and is based in Billerica, Massachusetts. 

To meet the diverse requirements of our industrial, commercial, and defense customers worldwide, CSPI and its subsidiaries 
develop and market IT integration solutions and high-performance cluster computer systems.  

Segments  

CSPI operates in two segments, the Systems segment and the Service and System Integration segment.  

• 

• 

The Systems segment consists primarily of CSPI's MultiComputer Division (the “MultiComputer Division”) which 
designs and manufactures commercial high-performance computer signal processing systems for a variety of 
complex real time applications in defense and commercial markets. MultiComputer Division products are based on 
an architectural solution that is open, standards-based, vendor independent, scalable, easily integrated with third-
party products and compatible with future product offerings. These products utilize cluster technologies, multi-core 
processors, and many-core General Purpose Graphics Processing Units ("GPGPUs"). MultiComputer systems 
consist of “blades” (self-contained, high-density computer boards) and are designed to achieve a high level of 
computer processing and to operate in environments with size, weight and power ("SWaP") limitations. The blades 
and other components that make up the system can be housed in commercially available air-cooled chassis or in 
ruggedized chassis, designed to withstand physically demanding environments. These systems have traditionally 
been utilized for sonar and radar digital signal processing (“DSP”), image recognition and simulation applications. 
The MultiComputer Division sells all its products through its own direct sales force in the United States and via 
distributors and authorized resellers in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.  

The Service and System Integration Segment consists of the computer maintenance and integration services and 
third-party computer hardware and software value added reseller (“VAR”) businesses of our Modcomp subsidiary 
(“Modcomp”). Modcomp is a wholly owned subsidiary of CSPI which operates in the United States, Germany and 
the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”). Modcomp markets and sells its products through its own direct sales force. 
Modcomp provides solutions and services for complex IT environments including storage and servers, unified 
communications solutions, IT security solutions and consulting services. Modcomp also provides managed IT 
services through its state of the art network operations center (“NOC”). 

Financial Information about Industry Segments  

The following table details our sales by operating segment for fiscal years ending September 30, 2012 and 2011. 

Additional segment and geographical information is set forth in Note 12 to our financial statements.  

Segment 

Systems 
Service and System Integration 
Total Sales 

Systems Segment  

Products and Services  

2012 

$

$

11,141
73,666
84,807

% 

2011 
(Amounts in thousands) 
13%   $ 
87%   
100%   $ 

7,822 
65,823 
73,645 

% 

11%
89%
100%

The Systems segment's MultiComputer products utilize commercially available hardware components that are compliant 

with industry standards as well as open source software and deliver a high-performance, high density and low power 
consuming computer solution to our customers. These systems incorporate tens to hundreds of processors, all interconnected by 
a very high-bandwidth network. They are specifically designed for analysis of complex signals and images in real-time or in 
modeling and simulations. CSPI's leadership in processing density, large memory subsystems, high-bandwidth networking 
components, optimized signal processing libraries, and specialized algorithms make these products a natural fit for applications 
in the commercial/industrial, medical/biotechnology, geophysics, scientific/engineering and military/defense markets. 

Hardware Products  

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Historically MultiComputer Division products have integrated industry standard software, hardware and architecture 

technologies to minimize the risks associated with proprietary solutions. Over the years CSPI has met customer requirements 
with scalable products based on cluster technologies, multi-core processors, and many-core GPGPUs. 

Introduced in 1997, the first generation of MultiComputer Division cluster computer systems was referred to as the 

FastCluster 2000 SERIES. Based upon industry standards, the 2000 SERIES systems included a VME 6U form factor (the 
form factor best suited for use in rugged applications), the Motorola™ G4 PowerPC RISC processors with AltiVec™ 
technology, high-speed memory and Myrinet-2000™ cluster interconnect. The 2000 SERIES product line was ideally suited 
for use by customers in the aerospace, commercial and defense markets seeking Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (“COTS”) 
solutions to reduce costs and ensure widespread availability. To remain competitive, our COTS solutions incorporated the latest 
industry standard technologies and minimized the risks associated with proprietary solutions. The 2000 SERIES advanced 
processing capabilities coupled with the smaller footprint was also suited for exploration operations in the geophysical market. 

In fiscal 2006, we announced the next generation FastCluster product line, the 3000 SERIES VXS. The 3000 SERIES 
VXS product line was designed to deliver performance that was superior to our predecessor products in interconnect bandwidth 
and processing density while preserving absolute code reuse at the application layer. The 3000 SERIES VXS product line 
targeted high performance DSP, signal intelligence (“SIGINT”), radar and sonar applications in airborne, shipboard and 
unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) platforms where space, power and cooling are at a premium. With its built-in 10-Gigabit 
Ethernet technology, the 3000 SERIES VXS supported the most prevalent networking standard found in both business and 
industrial settings. 

In fiscal 2010, we announced the development of the 3000 SERIES OpenVPXTM with Intel multi-core processors and the 

OpenVPXTM VITA/ANSI standard (Vita 65) to support high performance radar, sonar, C4ISR and SIGINT applications.  
OpenVPXTM is the architecture framework that defines system-level interoperability for multivendor, multimode, integrated 
system environments. OpenVPXTM's consideration of system-level requirements improves interoperability between computing 
and communications platforms and reduces customization, testing, cost and risk. Since our initial development of the first 3000 
SERIES OpenVPXTM  processor blade, we have introduced several enhancements including converged fabric technology and 
our 3300GTX NVIDIA GPGPU coprocessor board.  The CSPI Converged Fabric integrates the Mellenox SwitchXTM Virtual 
Protocol Interconnect® technology - allowing Infiniband, Ethernet, and Fibre Channel traffic to exist on a single “one-wire” 
fabric.  The 3300GTX coprocessor enables Teraflop levels of performance for applications that require high bandwidth data 
streaming and can benefit from massively parallel processing. The 3000 SERIES OpenVPXTM platform with these 
enhancements, is currently being marketed as our TeraXP Embedded Server.  We expect significant development efforts to 
continue on the TeraXP platform, as we pursue initial sales opportunities for this new product line. 

In fiscal 2011, we announced our new 4000 SERIES ATCA products.  The 4000 SERIES is based on InfiniBand, 
Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (“AdvancedTCA” or “ATCA”) and Network Building Equipment System 
(“NEBS”) standards to deliver affordability, sustainability and high availability to manned and unmanned large mobile 
platforms (land, sea and air.)  ATCA was originally designed to address the high availability, robust system management and 
DC power distribution needs of the telecom and communications markets.  ATCA has since become attractive to defense 
markets as well as commercial markets. 

The 4000 Series ATCA products target computing and communication applications that share the need for increased 

bandwidth and reliability, extremely robust mechanical and electrical definitions, power efficiency and unprecedented 
processor density.  ATCA provides built-in high reliability features such as a 40-gigabit Ethernet backplane, redundant shelf 
managers, fail-over capability and support of live insertion of boards, power supplies and fans. We will expend development 
resources we consider necessary as we pursue initial sales opportunities for the 4000 SERIES ATCA product line.  

All of the products of the MultiComputer Division offer the user a choice in selecting the system software best suited to 

their application requirements. For customers wanting a lower cost solution, our cluster computer systems are available with 
the commercially available open-source Linux operating system and toolkit. Customer applications requiring real-time 
response have the option of purchasing systems with the industry standard VxWorks real-time operating system and Tornado II 
development tools suite.  

All MultiComputer cluster computer systems use open systems software technologies including message passing 
interface (“MPI”) software for interprocessor communications and CSPI's highly optimized industry standard math libraries. 
This software facilitates the development of truly portable code for seamless reuse across applications, while taking advantage 
of optimized performance on both PowerPC with AltiVec and Intel processors.  

Markets, Marketing and Dependence on Certain Customers  

Aerospace & Defense Market  

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We market our MultiComputer products to defense and commercial markets with an emphasis on applications requiring 
the analysis of complex signals such as seismic exploration, scientific/engineering research, sonar and radar. We commercially 
distribute our products in these markets as an original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) supplier to system integrators, 
distributors and value-added resellers. In these markets, the supplier/customer relationship is viewed as a long-term strategic 
partnership.  

A prime contractor will typically incorporate our products into their own future product developments and, therefore, will 
need early access to low-level, detailed technical specifications, prototype units and long term product availability and support. 
As a supplier in this market, we recognize that there may be a significant up-front investment of time and resources in building 
a business partnership. However, the result of this partnership is a strong potential for long-term revenue streams as products 
progress from development phases into deployment.  

Our use of high performance embedded computing technologies to support information exchange in real-time are 
becoming increasingly significant to twenty-first century “network centric warfare” military operations. There has been steady 
growth of new programs requiring signal/image processing and analysis equipment as well as upgrades to existing military 
programs. However, the efficiency inherent in these technologies reduces the number of systems required to achieve the same 
results. Both new and upgraded programs require a substantial investment in development and evaluation before products 
deploy into field use. The time from development to deployment varies based on the program; however, it very often extends 
beyond twenty-four months. Looking forward to fiscal 2013 and beyond, our focus is to continue to build interest in our 3000 
SERIES VXS products by integrating the latest PowerPC with AltiVec processor, and to market our 4000 SERIES ATCA and 
TeraXP OpenVPXTM embedded server products among our existing customers as well as additional commercial application 
customers.  

Competition  

The Systems segment's markets are very competitive. Customer requirements coupled with advances in technology drive 

our efforts to continuously improve existing products and develop new ones. Starting with Intel i860 microprocessors used in 
the SuperCards of the 1980s to the Motorola PowerPCs with AltiVec processors incorporated in the early FastCluster 2000 
SERIES and later the addition of Linux open source software, we have responded with product offerings that are vital to 
remaining competitive. Product development efforts in fiscal year 2012 involved completing and launching new enhancements 
to our OpenVPX product line, with a focus on continuing to provide our customers with increased processing capabilities based 
on the latest industry standard technologies: Intel Xeon, multi-core processors, GPGPUs and the Mellanox Converged Fabric 
interconnect supporting fast data rate Infiniband and 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet support.  

Applications expertise, product innovation, strong technical support and dedicated customer service allow us to compete 

favorably as a provider of high-performance embedded computing systems.  

Our direct competitors in the aerospace and defense market are Mercury Computer Inc., Kontron, Curtis Wright and 
G. E. Intelligent Platforms. Our indirect competitors are the board manufacturers that specialize in the DSP segment of this 
market. In the past, manufacturers such as Emerson, HP, IBM and Dell participated in the low performance segment of the 
general-purpose computer and single board computer market. Today, those companies manufacture general-purpose computer 
systems incorporating multi-core processors and have the potential to become formidable competitors in compute intensive 
applications, such as radar and sonar. While our products are designed to offer the best overall value in combined performance, 
features and price, we may not overcome the capabilities of larger companies to address the needs of the cost sensitive 
customer, where price, as opposed to system performance, size and specialized packaging, is the primary factor in the buying 
decision.  

New companies enter the field periodically and larger companies with greater technical resources and marketing 

organizations could decide to compete in the future. The future growth of this market depends upon continued growth in 
strategic partnerships and providing high density and scalability in a compact, low power and cost effective package that can 
easily be integrated into OEM designs for high performance computation. Since the majority of sales are to prime contractors, 
the principal barrier to gaining market share is the reluctance of established users to redesign their product once it is in 
production. A key area of opportunity exists in design wins on new programs.  

Manufacturing, Assembly and Testing  

All MultiComputer systems are shipped to our customers directly from our plant in Billerica, Massachusetts. Our 
manufacturing activities consist mainly of final assembly and testing of printed circuit boards and systems that are designed by 
us and fabricated by outside vendors.  

Upon receipt of material and components by us from outside suppliers, our quality assurance technicians inspect these 

products and components. During manufacture and assembly, both subassemblies and completed systems are subjected to 
extensive testing, including burn-in and environmental stress screening designed to minimize equipment failure at delivery and 
over its useful service life. We also use diagnostic programs to detect and isolate potential component failures. A 

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comprehensive log is maintained of all past failures to monitor the ongoing reliability of our products  and improve design 
standards.  

We provide a warranty covering defects arising from products sold and service performed, which varies from 90 days to 

one year, depending upon the particular unit.  

Customer Support  

Our MultiComputer Division supports our customers with telephone assistance, on-site service, system installation, 

training and education. We provide product support service during the warranty period. Customers may purchase extended 
software and hardware maintenance and on-site service contracts for support beyond the warranty period.  

We offer training courses at our corporate headquarters or the customer site. Field and customer service support is 

provided by employees located at our headquarters in Billerica, Massachusetts for Systems segment customers.  

Sources and Availability of Raw Materials  

Several components used in our Systems segment products are obtained from sole-source suppliers. We are dependent on 

key vendors like Myricom, Inc. and Mellanox Technologies for our high-speed interconnect components, Freescale 
Semiconductor, Inc. for PowerPC processors for our 2000 SERIES and our 3000 SERIES VXS products and Intel for our 
microprocessors for our TeraXP OpenVPXTM embedded servers and Wind River Systems, Inc. for VxWorks operating system 
software. Despite our dependence on these sole-source suppliers, we do not consider the risk of interruption of supply to be 
significant to meet our projected revenue requirements for the near term. Also, all components used to build our 3000 SERIES 
VXS, 4000 SERIES and TeraXP OpenVPXTM products are currently available in a timely manner.  

Research and Development  

For the year ended September 30, 2012, our expenses for research and development were approximately $1.7 million 

compared to approximately $1.8 million for fiscal year 2011. Expenditures for research and development are expensed as they 
are incurred. Our Systems segment expects to continue to have substantial expenditures related to the development of new 
hardware products and the software that enables the hardware to function. Our current development plan is intended to extend 
the usefulness and marketability of existing products by continuing to develop enhancements to our 3000 SERIES VXS, 4000 
SERIES and TeraXP OpenVPXTM product lines and introduce new products into existing market segments.  

We do not have any patents that are material to our business.  

Backlog  

The backlog of customer orders and contracts in the Systems segment was approximately $3.1 million at September 30, 
2012 as compared to $1.4 million at September 30, 2011. Our backlog can fluctuate greatly. These fluctuations can be due to 
the timing of receiving large orders representing prime contractor purchases. It is expected that all of the customer orders in 
backlog will ship within the next twelve months.  

Service and System Integration Segment  

Products and Services  

Integration Solutions  

Over the past several years, the business of our Service and System Integration segment has evolved away from selling 

our proprietary process control and data acquisition (“PCDA”) computer systems, into becoming a systems integrator and VAR 
of integrated solutions including third-party hardware, software and technical computer-related consulting services and 
managed services via a state of the art NOC. Our value proposition is our ability to integrate diverse third-party components 
together into a complete solution and install the system at the customer site and to offer high value IT consulting services to 
deliver solutions. 

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Third-Party Hardware and Software  

Modcomp sells third-party hardware and software products in the information technology market, with a strategic focus 

on industry standard servers and data center infrastructure solutions, midrange data storage infrastructure products, network 
products, unified communications and IT security hardware and software solutions. Our key offerings include products from 
HP, Cisco Systems, Sun/Oracle, IBM, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, QLogic, Dell, Enterasys, Citrix, APC, EMC, Intel, VMWare, 
Fortinet, nCirlce, Microsoft, Arcsight and Checkpoint. Through our supplier relationships with these vendors, we are able to 
offer competitively priced best-of-breed products to meet our customers' diverse technology needs, providing procurement and 
engineering expertise in server infrastructure, storage, security, unified communications and networking, to the small-to-
medium sized businesses (“SMBs”) and large enterprise businesses (“LEBs”) with complex IT environments. We offer our 
customers a single point of contact for complex multi-vendor technology purchases. Many of our SMB customers have unique 
technology needs and may lack technical purchasing expertise or have very limited IT engineering resources on staff. We also 
provide installation, integration, logistical assistance and other value-added services that customers may require. Our current 
customers are in web and infrastructure hosting, education, telecommunications, health services, distribution, financial services, 
professional services, manufacturing and entertainment industries. We target SMB and LEB customers across all industries.  

Professional Services  

We provide professional IT consulting services in the following areas:  

•  Maintenance and technical support both for third-party products and proprietary Modcomp legacy PCDA systems -

• 

• 

hardware and software, operating system and user support.  

Implementation, integration, configuration and installation services. 

Storage area network (“SAN”) solutions. We help our customers implement SAN solutions using products from 
Hitachi, EMC, HP, DataDomain and NetApp.  SANs have advantages over conventional storage architecture.  These 
advantages include cost savings from better utilization of hardware and lower headcount requirements to run and 
maintain data storage systems, higher availability and faster data access rates resulting in increased productivity. 

•  Virtualization - We implement virtualization solutions using products from companies such as VMWare. 

Virtualization allows one computer to do the job of multiple computers by sharing resources of a single computer 
across multiple environments.  With virtual servers and desktops, users can host multiple operating systems and 
applications, which can eliminate physical and geographical limitations. Other benefits include energy cost savings, 
lower capital expenditure requirements, high availability of resources, better desktop management, increased security 
and improved disaster recovery processes.   

• 

• 

Enterprise security intrusion prevention, network access control and unified threat management.  Using third-party 
products from companies like Checkpoint, Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems, our services are designed to ensure 
data security and integrity through the establishment of virtual private networks, firewalls and other technologies.  

IT security compliance services.  We provide services for IT security compliance with personal privacy laws such as 
HIPAA and internal control regulations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  

•  Unified communications, wireless and routing and switching solutions using Cisco Systems' products and services.  

•  Custom software applications and solutions development and support.  We develop custom applications to customer 
specifications using industry standard platforms such as Microsoft.Net, Sharepoint and OnBase. We are a Microsoft 
Gold Partner.  

•  NOC managed IT services that include monitoring, reporting and management of alerts for the resolution and 

preventive general IT and IT security support tasks.  

Markets, Marketing and Dependence on Certain Customers  

We are an IT systems integrator and computer hardware and software Value Added Reseller (“VAR”). We also provide 

technical services to achieve a value-add to our customers. We operate within the VAR sales channels of major computer 
hardware and software OEMs, primarily within the geographic areas of our sales offices and across the U.S. We provide 
innovative IT solutions, including a myriad of infrastructure products with customized integration consulting services and 
managed services to meet the unique requirements of our customers. We market the products we sell and services we provide 
through various sales offices in the U.S., Germany and the U.K. using our direct sales force (for a detailed list of our locations, 
see Item 2 of this Form 10-K).  

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Competition  

The primary competition in the Service and System Integration segment are other VARs, ranging from small companies 

that number in the thousands, to large enterprises such as CDW, PC Connection, Insight, MoreDirect, Dimension Data, Bechtle 
AG, Presidio and Computacenter AG & Co oHG. In addition, we compete directly with many of the companies who 
manufacture the third-party products that we sell including Cisco Systems, IBM, HP EMC, Hitachi and others. In the network 
management, security and storage systems integration services business, our competitors are extensive and vary to a certain 
degree in each of the geographical markets, but they include such competitors as HP/EDS, IBM and Cap Gemini.  

Nearly all of our product offerings are available through other channels. Favorable competitive factors for the Service 

and System Integration segment include procurement capability, product diversity allowing for delivery of complete and 
custom solutions to our customers, strength of key partner relationships with the major IT OEMs, ability to supply unique 
and/or specialized needs of the SMB and LEB markets, strong knowledge of the IT products that we sell, ability to provide 
managed services through our NOC and the consulting integration services required to design and install the custom solutions 
that fit our customers' IT needs. Unfavorable competitive factors include low name recognition, limited geographic coverage 
and pricing.  

Backlog  

The backlog of customer orders and contracts for the Service and System Integration segment was approximately $7.1 
million at September 30, 2012, as compared to $6.7 million at September 30, 2011. Our backlog can fluctuate greatly. These 
fluctuations can be due to the timing of receiving large orders for third- party products and/or IT services. It is expected that all 
of the customer orders in backlog will ship and/or be provided within the next twelve months.  

Significant Customers  

See Note 12 for detailed information regarding customers which comprised 10% or more of consolidated revenues for the 

years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011.  

Employees  

On September 30, 2012, we had approximately 147 full time equivalent employees worldwide for our consolidated 
operations. None of our employees are represented by a labor union and we had no work stoppages. We consider relations with 
our employees to be good.  

Financial Information about Geographic Areas  

Information regarding our sales by geographic area and percentage of sales based on the location to which the products 

are shipped or services are rendered are in Note 12 of our consolidated financial statements. 

Corporate By-laws 

On December 13, 2012, the Company's Board of Directors approved an amendment to Section Article II, Section 3 of the 

Company's by-laws.  As so amended, the section reads:  “All meetings of the stockholders shall be held at the principal office 
of the corporation in Massachusetts, unless a different place within Massachusetts or elsewhere within the United States is 
designated by the Board of Directors; provided, however, that special meetings called upon stockholders' applications shall be 
held in the same county as the principal office of the corporation, unless some other meeting place in Massachusetts specified 
in the application shall be approved by the Directors.  Any adjourned session of any meeting of the stockholders shall be held at 
such place with Massachusetts or elsewhere within the United States as is designated in the vote of adjournment.”  The prior 
by-law did not by its terms limit the location of meetings to the United States, nor did it address adjournment. 

Item 1A. 

Risk Factors   

We depend on a small number of customers for a significant portion of our revenue and loss of any customer could 

significantly affect our business  

We are dependent on a small number of customers for a large portion of our revenues. Both the Systems and Service and 
System Integration segments are reliant upon a small number of significant customers, the loss of any one of which could have 
a material adverse effect on our business. A significant diminution in the sales to or loss of any of our major customers would 
have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our revenues are 
largely dependent upon the ability of our customers to have continued growth or need for services or to develop and sell 
products that incorporate our products. No assurance can be given that our customers will not experience financial or other 
difficulties that could adversely affect their operations and, in turn, our results of operations. 

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We depend on contracts with the federal government  for a significant portion of our revenue, and our  business could be 

seriously harmed if the government significantly decreased or ceased doing business with us.  

We derived 13% of our total revenue in FY2012 and 10%  of our total revenue in FY2011 from the Department of 

Defense ("DoD") as a subcontractor.  We expect that the DoD contracts will continue to be important to our business for the 
foreseeable future.  If we were suspended or debarred from contracting with the federal government generally, the General 
Services Administration, or any significant agency in the intelligence community or the DoD, or if our reputation or 
relationship with government agencies were to be impaired, or if the government otherwise ceased doing business with us or 
significantly decreased the amount of business it does with us, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results 
could be materially and adversely affected. 

Our business could be adversely affected by changes in budgetary priorities of the federal government.   

Because we derive a significant percentage of our revenue from contracts with the federal government, changes in federal 

government budgetary priorities could directly affect our financial performance.  A significant decline in government 
expenditures, a shift of expenditures away from programs that we support or a change in federal government contracting 
policies could cause federal government agencies to reduce their purchases under contracts, to exercise their right to terminate 
contracts at any time without penalty or not to exercise options to renew contracts.   

During 2011, the federal government was unable to reach agreement on budget reduction measures required by the 
Budget Control Act of 2011 (Budget Act) passed by Congress.  Unless Congress and the Administration take further action, the 
Budget Act will trigger automatic reductions in both defense and discretionary spending in January 2013.  While the impact of 
sequestration is yet to be determined, automatic across-the-board budget cuts in sequestration could have significant 
consequences to our business and industry.   

In years when Congress does not complete its budget process before the end of its fiscal year (September 30), government 

operations are funded through a continuing resolution (CR) that temporarily funds federal agencies.  Recent CRs have 
generally provided funding at the levels provided in the previous fiscal year and have not authorized new spending initiatives.  
When the federal government operates under a CR, delays can occur in the procurement of products and services.  Historically, 
such delays have not had a material effect on our business; however, should funding of the federal government by CR be 
prolonged or extended through the entire government 2013 fiscal year, and sequestration take place in January 2013 as part of 
the implementation of the Budget Act, it could have significant consequences to our business and our industry. 

Additionally, our business could be seriously affected if the demand for and priority of funding for combat operations in 

Afghanistan decreases which may reduce the demand for our services on contracts supporting some operations and 
maintenance activities in the Department of Defense or if we experience an increase in set-asides for small businesses, which 
could result in our inability to compete directly for prime contracts. 

. 

Federal government contracts contain numerous provisions that are unfavorable to us. 

Federal government contracts contain provisions and are subject to laws and regulations that give the government rights 

and remedies, some of which are not typically found in commercial contracts, including allowing the government to:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

cancel multi-year contracts and related orders if funds for contract performance for any subsequent year become 
unavailable;  

 claim rights in systems and software developed by us;  

 suspend or debar us from doing business with the federal government or with a governmental agency;  

 impose fines and penalties and subject us to criminal prosecution; and  

 control or prohibit the export of our data and technology.   

If the government terminates a contract for convenience, we may recover only our incurred or committed costs, 

settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination.  If the government terminates a contract for default, 
we may be unable to recover even those amounts, and instead may be liable for excess costs incurred by the government in 
procuring undelivered items and services from another source.  Depending on the value of a contract, such termination could 
cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated. 

As is common with government contractors, we have experienced and continue to experience occasional performance 
issues under certain of our contracts.  Depending upon the value of the matters affected, a performance problem that impacts 
our performance of a program or contract could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those 
anticipated. 

9 

 
   
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
We rely on single sources for supply of certain components and our business may be seriously harmed if our supply of 

any of these components or other components is disrupted  

Several components used in our Systems products are currently obtained from sole-source suppliers. We are dependent 

on key vendors like Myricom, Inc. and Mellanox Technologies for our high-speed interconnect components, Freescale for 
many of our PowerPC line of processors and Intel for our microprocessors, and Wind River Systems, Inc. for VxWorks 
operating system software. Generally, suppliers may terminate their purchase order with us without cause upon 30 days' notice 
and may cease offering products to us upon 180 days' notice. Although we do not consider the risk of interruption of supply to 
be a significant risk in the near term, if in the future, Myricom or Freescale were to limit or reduce the sale of such components 
to us, or if these or other component suppliers to us, some of which are small companies, were to experience future financial 
difficulties or other problems which could prevent them from supplying us with the necessary components, such events could 
have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. These sole source and other 
suppliers are each subject to quality and performance issues, materials shortages, excess demand, reduction in capacity and 
other factors that may disrupt the flow of goods to us or our customers, which thereby may adversely affect our business and 
customer relationships. 

We have no guaranteed supply arrangements with our suppliers and there can be no assurance that our suppliers will 
continue to meet our requirements. If our supply arrangements are interrupted, there can be no assurance that we would be able 
to find another supplier on a timely or satisfactory basis. Any shortage or interruption in the supply of any of the components 
used in our products, or the inability to procure these components from alternate sources on acceptable terms, could have a 
material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that severe 
shortages of components will not occur in the future. Such shortages could increase the cost or delay the shipment of our 
products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Significant 
increases in the prices of these components would also materially adversely affect our financial performance since we may not 
be able to adjust product pricing to reflect the increase in component costs. We could incur set-up costs and delays in 
manufacturing should it become necessary to replace any key vendors due to work stoppages, shipping delays, financial 
difficulties or other factors and, under certain circumstances, these costs and delays could have a material adverse effect on our 
business, financial condition and results of operations.  

Our International Operations are Subject to a Number of Risks 

We market and sell our products in certain international markets and we have established operations in the U.K. and 
Germany.  Foreign-based revenue is determined based on the location to which the product is shipped or services are rendered 
and represented 44% and 41% of our total revenue for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively.  If 
revenues generated by foreign activities are not adequate to offset the expense of establishing and maintaining these foreign 
subsidiaries and activities, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.  In 
addition, there are certain risks inherent in transacting business internationally, such as changes in applicable laws and 
regulatory requirements, export and import restrictions, export controls relating to technology, tariffs and other trade barriers, 
longer payment cycles, problems in collecting accounts receivable, political instability, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, 
expatriation controls and potential adverse tax consequences, any of which could adversely impact the success of our 
international activities.  A portion of our revenues are from sales to foreign entities, including foreign governments, which are 
primarily paid in the form of foreign currencies.  There can be no assurance that one or more of such factors will not have a 
material adverse effect on our future international activities and, consequently, on our business, financial condition or results of 
operations. 

We depend on key personnel and skilled employees and face competition in hiring and retaining qualified employees. 

We are largely dependent upon the skills and efforts of our senior management, managerial, sales and technical 

employees.  None of our senior management personnel or other key employees are subject to any employment contracts except 
Victor Dellovo, our Chief Executive Officer and President.  The loss of services of any of our executives or other key personnel 
could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.  Our future success will 
depend to a significant extent on our ability to attract, train, motivate and retain highly skilled technical professionals.  Our 
ability to maintain and renew existing engagements and obtain new business depends, in large part, on our ability to hire and 
retain technical personnel with the skills that keep pace with continuing changes in industry standards and technologies.  The 
inability to hire additional qualified personnel could impair our ability to satisfy our growing client base, requiring an increase 
in the level of responsibility for both existing and new personnel.  There can be no assurance that we will be successful in 
retaining current or future employees. 

New regulations related to conflict minerals may force us to incur additional expenses, may make our supply chain more 

complex and may result in damage to our relationships with customers. 

10 

 
  
  
 
 
  
 
  
On August 22, 2012, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the SEC 

adopted new disclosure regulations for public companies that manufacture products that contain certain minerals and their 
derivatives, namely tin, tantalum, tungsten or gold, known as “conflict minerals,” if these minerals are necessary to the 
functionality or production of the company's products.  These regulations require such issuers to report annually whether or not 
such minerals originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and adjoining countries and in some cases to perform 
extensive due diligence on their supply chains for such minerals. 

The implementation of these new requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of conflict 
minerals used in the manufacture of  our products.  In addition, we may incur additional costs to comply with the disclosure 
requirements, including costs related to determining the source of any of the relevant minerals used in our products.  Because 
our supply chain is complex, the due diligence procedures that we implement may not enable us to ascertain the origins for 
these minerals or determine that these minerals are DRC conflict-free, which may harm our reputation.  We may also face 
difficulties in satisfying customers who may require that our products be certified as DRC conflict-free, which could harm our 
relationships with these customers and lead to a loss of revenue.  These new requirements also could have the effect of limiting 
the pool of suppliers from which we source these minerals, and we may be unable to obtain conflict-free minerals at 
competitive prices, which could increase our costs and adversely affect our manufacturing operations and our profitability. 

Systems failures may disrupt our business and have an adverse effect on our results of operations. 

Any systems failures, including network, software or hardware failures, whether caused by us, a third party service 

provider, unauthorized intruders and hackers, computer viruses, natural disasters, power shortages or terrorist attacks, could 
cause loss of data or interruptions or delays in our business or that of our clients.  Like other companies, we have experienced 
cyber security threats to our data and systems, our company sensitive information, and our information technology 
infrastructure, including malware and computer virus attacks, unauthorized access, systems failures and temporary disruptions.  
We may experience similar security threats at customer sites that we operate and manage as a contractual requirement.  Prior 
cyber attacks directed at us have not had a material adverse impact on our business or our financial results, and we believe that 
our continuing commitment toward threat detection and mitigation processes and procedures will avoid such impact in the 
future.  Due to the evolving nature of these security threats, however, the impact of any future incident cannot be predicted. 

In addition, the failure or disruption of our mail, communications or utilities could cause us to interrupt or suspend our 

operations or otherwise harm our business.  Our property and business interruption insurance may be inadequate to compensate 
us for all losses that may occur as a result of any system or operational failure or disruption and, as a result, our actual results 
could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated. 

The systems and networks that we maintain for our clients, although highly redundant in their design, could also fail.  If a 

system or network we maintain were to fail or experience service interruptions, we might experience loss of revenue or face 
claims for damages or contract termination.  Our errors and omissions liability insurance may be inadequate to compensate us 
for all the damages that we might incur and, as a result, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those 
anticipated. 

We face competition that could adversely affect our sales and profitability.  

The markets for our products are highly competitive and are characterized by rapidly changing technology, frequent 

product performance improvements and evolving industry standards.  Due to the rapidly changing nature of technology, new 
competitors may emerge of which we have no current awareness.  Competitors may be able to offer more attractive pricing or 
develop products that could offer performance features that are superior to our products, resulting in reduced demand for our 
products.  Such competitors could have a negative impact on our ability to win future business opportunities.  There can be no 
assurance that a new competitor will not attempt to penetrate the various markets for our products and services.  Their entry 
into markets historically targeted by us may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of 
operations. 

Our operating results may fluctuate significantly.  

Our operating results have fluctuated widely on a quarterly and annual basis during the last several years and we expect to 

experience significant fluctuations in future operating results.  Many factors, some of which are beyond our control, have 
contributed to these fluctuations in the past and may continue to do so.  Such factors include:  

• 

• 

sales in relatively large dollar amounts to a relatively small number of customers;  

competitive pricing programs and volume discounts;  

11 

 
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
• 

loss of customers;  

•  market acceptance of our products;  

• 

• 

• 

product obsolescence;  

general economic conditions;  

change in the mix of products sold;  

•  whether or not we are able to secure design wins for significant customer systems;  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

timing of significant orders;  

delays in completion of internal product development projects;  

delays in shipping our products;  

delays in acceptance testing by customers;  

production delays due to quality programs with outsourced components;  

shortages of components;  

timing of product line transitions;  

declines of revenues from previous generations of products following announcement of replacement products 
containing more advance technology; and  

• 

fixed nature of our expenditures on personnel, facilities and marketing programs.  

We believe that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations will not necessarily be meaningful and should 
not be relied upon as indicative of our future performance. It is also possible that in some periods, our operating results may be 
below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. In such circumstances, the price of our common stock may decline.   

To be successful, we must respond to the rapid changes in technology.  

Our future success will depend in part on our ability to enhance our current products and to develop new products on a 
timely and cost-effective basis in order to respond to technological developments and changing customer needs.  The defense 
market, in particular, demands constant technological improvements as a means of gaining military advantage.  Military 
planners historically have funded significantly more design projects than actual deployments of new equipment and those 
systems that are deployed tend to contain the components of the subcontractors selected to participate in the design process.  In 
order to participate in the design of new defense electronics systems, we must be able to demonstrate our ability to deliver 
superior technological performance on a timely and cost-effective basis.  There can be no assurance that we will be able to 
secure an adequate number of defense electronics design wins in the future, that the equipment in which our products are 
intended to function eventually will be deployed in the field, or that our products will be included in such equipment if it is 
eventually deployed.  

The design-in process is typically lengthy and expensive and there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to 

meet the product specifications of our customers in a timely and adequate manner.  In addition, if we fail to anticipate or to 
respond adequately to changes in technology and customer preferences, or if there is any significant delay in product 
developments or introductions, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of 
operations, including the risk of inventory obsolescence.  Because of the complexity of our products, we have experienced 
delays from time to time in completing products on a timely basis.  If we are unable to design, develop or introduce competitive 
new products on a timely basis, our future operating results would be adversely affected, particularly in our Systems segment.  
There can be no assurance that we will be successful in developing new products or enhancing our existing products on a 
timely or cost-effective basis, or that such new products or product enhancements will achieve market acceptance.  

 We need to continue to expend resources on research and development efforts to meet the needs of our customers.  

12 

 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
The industry in which our Systems segment competes is characterized by the need for continued investment in research 

and development.  If we fail to invest sufficiently in research and development, our products could become less attractive to 
potential customers and our business and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.  As a result of our need to 
maintain or increase our spending levels in this area and the difficulty in reducing costs associated with research and 
development, our operating results could be materially harmed if our revenues fall below expectations.  In addition, as a result 
of CSPI's commitment to invest in research and development, spending as a percent of revenues may fluctuate in the future. 

Our business could be adversely impacted if we have deficiencies in our disclosure controls and procedures or internal 

controls over financial reporting.  

Effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures are necessary in order for us to 

provide reliable financial and other reports and effectively prevent fraud. These types of controls are designed to provide 
reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the proper preparation of our financial statements, as 
well as regarding the timely reporting of material information. If we cannot maintain effective internal control or disclosure 
controls and procedures, or provide reliable financial statements or SEC reports or prevent fraud, investors may lose confidence 
in our reported financial information, our common stock could be subject to delisting on the stock exchange where it is traded, 
our operating results and the trading price of our common stock could suffer and we might become subject to litigation. 

While our management will continue to review the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and 
disclosure controls and procedures, there is no assurance that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over 
financial reporting will be effective in accomplishing all control objectives, including the prevention and detection of fraud, all 
of the time.  

Our Stock Price May Continue to be Volatile  

Historically, the market for technology stocks has been extremely volatile. Our common stock has experienced and may 
continue to experience, substantial price volatility. The following factors could cause the market price of our common stock to 
fluctuate significantly:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

loss of a major customer;  

loss of a major supplier;  

the addition or departure of key personnel;  

variations in our quarterly operating results;  

announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, new products or product enhancements;  

acquisitions, distribution partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments;  

regulatory changes;  

sales of our common stock or other securities in the future;  

changes in market valuations of technology companies; and  

fluctuations in stock market prices and volumes.  

In addition, the stock market in general and the NASDAQ Global Market and technology companies in particular, have 

experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating 
performance of such companies. These broad market and industry factors may materially adversely affect the market price of 
our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market 
price of a company's securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against such companies.  

Factors that may Affect Future Performance  

This document contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and 

uncertainties. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made and we 
undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such 
statement is made. As it is not possible to predict every new factor that may emerge, forward-looking statements should not be 
relied upon as a prediction of actual future financial condition or results. In response to competitive pressures or new product 
introductions, we may take certain pricing or marketing actions that could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, 
changes in the products and services mix may cause fluctuations in our gross margin. Due to the potential quarterly fluctuations 
in operating results, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our results of operations are not necessarily an indicator 
of future performance.  

13 

 
 
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
Markets for our products and services are characterized by rapidly changing technology, new product introductions and 
short product life cycles. These changes can adversely affect our business and operating results. Our success will depend upon 
our ability to enhance our existing products and services and to develop and introduce, on a timely and cost effective basis, new 
products that keep pace with technological developments and address increasing customer requirements. The inability to meet 
these demands could adversely affect our business and operating results. 

14 

 
  
 
Item 2. 

Properties  

Listed below are our principal facilities as of September 30, 2012. Management considers all facilities listed below to be 

suitable for the purpose(s) for which they are used, including manufacturing, research and development, sales, marketing, 
service and administration.  

Location 
Systems Segment Properties: 
CSP Inc. 
43 Manning Road 
Billerica, MA 

Owned o
r 
Leased 

Approximate 
Floor Area  

  Leased 

  11,450 S.F. 

Principal Use  

Corporate Headquarters 
Manufacturing, Sales, 
Marketing and 
Administration 

Service and Systems Integration Segment Properties:   
Modcomp, Inc. 
1500 S. Powerline Road 
Deerfield Beach, FL 

Division Headquarters 
Sales, Marketing and 
Administration 

  Leased 

  15,482 S.F. 

Modcomp, Inc. 
9155 South Dadeland Blvd, Suite 1112 
Miami, FL 

Modular Computer Systems GmbH 
Oskar-Jager-Strasse 50 
D-50825 Koln 
Germany 

Modcomp, Ltd. 
12a Oaklands Business Park, Fishponds Road 
Wokingham Berkshire 
United Kingdom 

Modcomp AG 
Gartenstr. 23-27 
D-61352 Bad Homburg 
Germany 

Item 3. 

Legal Proceedings 

Sales, Marketing and Service 

  Leased 

  1,356 S.F. 

Sales, Marketing, Service 
and Administration 

  Leased 

  12,443 S.F. 

Sales, Marketing and 
Administration 

  Leased 

  2,490 S.F. 

Sales, Marketing and Service 

  Leased 

  323 S.F. 

On September 4, 2011, the Company's U.S. Modcomp division (“Modcomp U.S.”), which is part of the Service and 

System Integration segment, received a summons entitled “Complaint to Avoid Preferential and Fraudulent Transfers and to 
Recover Property Transferred Pursuant to 11 U.S.C.§ 550” (the “Summons”).  The Summons is in regard to a former customer 
of Modcomp U.S. (the “Debtor”) who commenced a chapter 11 bankruptcy case on August 14, 2009. The Summons alleged 
that Modcomp U.S. received approximately $1.1 million in preferential transfers and approximately $0.2 million in otherwise 
avoidable transfers from the Debtor, in connection with the Debtor's bankruptcy petition. 

As of September 30, 2011, after reviewing this matter with counsel to assess the likelihood of a loss and estimate the 
amount of any loss, we determined that Modcomp U.S. had a strong defense against this complaint in that these payments were 
made to Modcomp U.S. from the Debtor in the ordinary course of business; therefore they were not in fact preferential or 
otherwise avoidable transfers. However, despite our strong defense, we estimated a loss contingency in connection with the 
Summons in the amount of approximately $0.1 million as of September 30, 2011. On June 28, 2012, we entered into a 
stipulation of settlement (the "Settlement") with the Debtor, and agreed to make a payment to the Debtor of approximately $0.2 
million in settlement of all claims in connection with the Summons.  Accordingly, we consider this matter closed. 

15 

 
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
   
   
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
   
   
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
   
   
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
   
   
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
We are currently not a party to any other material legal proceedings.  

Item 4. 

Mine Safety Disclosures 

Not Applicable. 

PART II  

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

Market  information.    Our  common  stock  is  traded  on  the  Nasdaq  Global  Market  under  the  symbol  CSPI.  The 
following table provides the high and low sales prices of our common stock as reported on the Nasdaq Global Market for the 
periods indicated.  

Fiscal Year:  
1st Quarter 
2nd Quarter 
3rd Quarter 
4th Quarter 

2012 

2011 

High   
$ 3.73
4.48
4.53
4.99

Low  
$ 3.15
3.04
3.82
3.84

High  
$ 5.25 
4.60 
4.95 
4.52 

 $ 

Low  
3.61
3.69
3.94
3.26

Stockholders.    We had approximately 68 holders of record of our common stock as of December 14, 2012. This number 
does not include stockholders for whom shares were held in a “nominee” or “street” name. We believe the number of beneficial 
owners of our shares of common stock (including shares held in street name) at that date was approximately 1,300. 

Dividends.        On January 12, 2012, our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.10 per share which was paid 

on February 3, 2012 to stockholders of record as of January 27, 2012, the record date. On August 7, 2012, our board of 
directors declared a cash dividend of  $0.12 per share payable on August 31, 2012 to stockholders of record as of August 23, 
2012, the record date.  On December 10, 2012, our board of directors declared a cash dividend of  $0.20 per share payable on 
December 28, 2012 to stockholders of record as of December 20, 2012, the record date.  Payment of these dividend should not 
be considered to mean that dividends will be paid in the future. 

16 

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers 

Share Repurchase Plans. The following table provides information with respect to shares of our common stock that we 

repurchased during the year ended September 30, 2012: 

Period 
October 1-31, 2011 
November 1-30, 2011 
December 1-31, 2011 
January 1-31, 2012 
February 1-29, 2012 
March 1-31, 2012 
April 1-30, 2012 
May 1-31, 2012 
June 1-30, 2012 
July 1-31, 2012 
August 1-31, 2012 
September 1-30, 2012 
Total 

Total Number of
Shares 
Purchased 

Average Price
Paid per Share

Total Number of 
Shares 
Purchased as 
Part of Publicly 
Announced Plans 
(1) 

Maximum 
Number of 
Shares that May 
Yet Be 
Purchased Under
the Plans 

6,914
1,500
8,413
5,895
—
700
—
900
3,778
200
—
—
28,300

3.47
3.50
3.44
3.34
—
3.84
—
4.17
4.11
4.20
—
—
3.56

6,914 
1,500 
8,413 
5,895 
— 
700 
— 
900 
3,778 
200 
— 
— 
28,300 

200,525

(1)  All shares were purchased under publicly announced plans. For additional information about these publicly announced 

plans, please refer to Note 11 of our financial statements.  

17 

 
  
  
 
 
 
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
Item 7. 

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

The discussion below contains certain forward-looking statements related to statements concerning future revenues and 

future business plans. Actual results may vary from those contained in such forward-looking statements.  

Overview of Fiscal 2012 Results of Operations  

CSP Inc. operates in two segments:  

• 

• 

Systems - the Systems segment consists of our MultiComputer Division which designs, commercially develops and 
manufactures signal processing computer platforms that are used primarily in military applications and the process 
control and data acquisition (“PCDA”) proprietary hardware business of our Modcomp subsidiary.  

Service and System Integration - the Service and System Integration segment includes the computer systems' 
maintenance and integration services and third-party computer hardware and software products businesses of our 
Modcomp subsidiary.  

Highlights include:  

•  Revenue increased by approximately $11.2 million, or 15%, to $84.8 million for the year ended September 30, 2012 

versus $73.6 million for the year ended September 30, 2011. 

• 

• 

For the year ended September 30, 2012, we had an operating profit of approximately $5.0 million versus an operating 
profit of approximately $0.8 million for the year ended September 30, 2011, for an increase of approximately $4.2 
million. 

For the year ended September 30, 2012, net income was approximately $6.6 million, which includes $1.7 million of 
tax benefit versus net income of approximately $0.4 million for the year ended September 30, 2011, for an increase of 
approximately $6.2 million. 

•  Net cash provided by operating activities was approximately $6.3 million for the year ended September 30, 2012 
compared to net cash provided by operating activities of $1.5 million for the year ended September 30, 2011. 

The increase in revenues of $11.2 million referred to above resulted from significant growth in revenues from both our 
Systems and our Service and System Integration segments. Revenues in the Systems segment increased from $7.8 million for 
fiscal 2011 to $11.1 million for fiscal 2012 for an increase of approximately $3.3 million, while, in our Service and System 
Integration segment revenues increased by approximately $7.8 million from $65.8 million the year ended September 30, 2011  
to $73.7 million for the year ended September 30, 2012. 

The revenue increase in the Systems segment was largely driven by higher royalty revenues which were $6.4 million for 

fiscal 2012 versus $1.7 million in fiscal 2011.  Royalty revenues are particularly significant because there is no cost of sales 
associated with royalty revenues, hence the profit margin is 100% on this revenue. This $4.7 million increase in royalty 
revenue was partially offset by lower product revenue in fiscal 2012 versus fiscal 2011 which decreased product revenue by 
$1.4 million. 

In the Service and System Integration segment we experienced significant growth in both product and service revenues. 

Product revenues for the segment increased by $6.3 million which was a 13% increase from $49.1 million in fiscal 2011 to 
$55.4 million in fiscal 2012.  Service revenue in the segment increased by $1.6 million which was a 9% increase from $16.7 
million in fiscal 2011 to $18.3 million in fiscal 2012.  The product revenue increase was derived in large part from our German 
operation, where product sales increased by $4.1 million.  This increase was due substantially to a significant contract with a 
large European telecommunications customer, pursuant to which we were engaged as a significant supplier for their global IT 
security infrastructure build out.  The increase in services revenue in the segment was derived entirely from our German 
operation and was also as a result of this telecommunications customer.  

In assessing the outlook for fiscal 2013, anticipating that we will not realize significant royalty revenue, we must assume 
a less optimistic view for the Systems segment for next year in comparison to the robust operating results we realized for fiscal 
2012.  In addition, based on the risks associated with the economic environment within the defense market, we plan to manage 
the Systems segment assuming relatively weak demand for fiscal 2013. In the Service and System Integration segment, we will 
continue to have a cautiously optimistic outlook for fiscal 2013, in terms of revenue, where much will depend upon the level of 
overall growth in the private sector economy both domestically and in our European markets.   We plan to focus our attention 
and resources in the Service and System Integration segment on higher-margin business and away from low margin business as 
we move forward. While this may put pressure on sales growth in fiscal 2013, we believe this strategy will achieve profitable 
growth for the long term. 

18 

 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
  
100% 

78% 
2% 
19% 
99% 
—

1% 

—

1% 

—

1% 

% of 
Total 

70%
30%
100%

The following table details our results of operations in dollars and as a percentage of sales for the years ended 

September 30, 2012 and 2011: 

September 30, 
2012 

% 
of sales 

September 30, 
2011 

% 
of sales 

Sales 
Costs and expenses: 

Cost of sales 
Engineering and development 
Selling, general and administrative 

Total costs and expenses 
Income from proceeds of officer life insurance settlement 
Operating income 
Other expense 
Income before income taxes 
Income tax expense (benefit) 
Net income 

$

$

Sales 

(Dollar amounts in thousands) 
100% 

 $ 

73,645

84,807

64,386
1,720
15,847
81,953
2,115
4,969
(100)
4,869
(1,740)
6,609

76% 
2% 
19% 
97% 
3% 
6% 
—  
6% 
(2)%   
8% 

 $ 

57,276
1,785
13,775
72,836
—
809
(94)
715
346
369

The following table details our sales by operating segment for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011: 

Service and
System 
Integration   
(Dollar amounts in thousands) 

Total 

55,369
18,297
73,666

 $ 

 $ 

59,583 
25,224 
84,807 

87%  

100%

Systems 

4,214
6,927
11,141

13%

Systems 

5,624
2,198
7,822

$

$

$

$

Service and
System 
Integration   

Total 

% of 
Total 

49,110
16,713
65,823

 $ 

 $ 

54,734 
18,911 
73,645 

74%
26%
100%

11%

89%  

100%

Service and
System 
Integration   

Systems 

Total 

% 
increase 

(1,410)  $
4,729
3,319

$

6,259
1,584
7,843

 $ 

 $ 

4,849 
6,313 
11,162 

42%

12%  

15%

9%
33%
15%

For the Year Ended September 30, 2012: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% of Total 

For the Year Ended September 30, 2011: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% of Total 

Increase (Decrease) 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% increase 

$

$

$

$

$

$

19 

 
 
 
  
 
  
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
   
  
 
  
 
  
 
   
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
   
 
 
 
  
As shown above, total revenues increased by approximately $11.2 million, or 15%, for the year  ended September 30, 

2012 compared to the year ended September 30, 2011.  Revenue in the Systems segment increased for the current year versus 
the prior year by approximately $3.3 million, while revenues in the Service and System Integration segment increased by 
approximately $7.8 million. 

Product revenues increased by approximately $4.8 million, or 9%, for the year ended September 30, 2012 compared to 

the comparable period of the prior fiscal year. Product revenues in the Service and System Integration segment increased by 
approximately $6.3 million while in the Systems segment product revenue decreased by approximately $1.4 million for the 
year ended September 30, 2012 versus the year ended September 30, 2011. 

In the US division of the Service and System Integration segment, product sales increased by approximately $0.8 
million, sales in this segment’s German division increased by of approximately $4.1 million and in the UK division sales 
increased by approximately $1.3 million. 

In the US division, product sales were bolstered by sales to several new customers in both the IT Infrastructure, Higher 

Education and Healthcare industry verticals. While we did experience decreases in sales to some of our prior year large 
customers across several industry verticals, the acquisition of new customers was enough to overcome the decreases in product 
sales to previously acquired customers. Therefore, while we experienced significant customer turnover, the pipeline for sales to 
new customers more than made up for the turnover. 

In Germany, the $4.1 million increase was net of an unfavorable foreign currency impact of approximately $1.3 million, 

which means on a volume basis in constant dollars the increase was approximately $5.4 million.  This sales volume increase 
was driven by increased sales to the division’s largest customer, a large UK-based wireless carrier, of approximately $4.6 
million, and sales to a newly acquired customer of $5.7 million.  There can be no assurance that there will be significant sales 
to either or both of these customers in the future.  These increases were offset by decreases to two of the divisions long-term 
customers.  The aggregate decrease in sales volume to these two customers amounted to approximately $3.3 million. 
Additionally, sales to all other customers in the German division decreased by an aggregate of approximately $1.6 million.   

The increase in sales in the UK division was the result of increased third party product sales versus the prior year.  This 

was the result of the Company's efforts to start up a third-party reseller business, offering a wider array of third-party 
technology products within the UK operation.   

The decrease in product revenues in the Systems segment of approximately $1.4 million was due to a decrease in sales to 

our Japanese defense department customer of approximately $0.2 million, and a decrease of $1.2 million in sales of parts, 
components and spares to existing US defense department customers. 

As shown in the table above, service revenues increased by approximately $6.3 million, or 33%.  This increase was 

made up of an increase in the Systems segment of $4.7 million and an increase in the Service and System Integration segment 
of approximately $1.6 million. The increase in the Systems segment service revenue was due to higher royalty income recorded 
in the year ended September 30, 2012 which was approximately $6.4 million versus $1.7 million for the year ended 
September 30, 2011. The increase in service revenues in the Service and System Integration segment was primarily from the 
German division, where service revenue increased by approximately $1.7 million.  In Germany, there was an unfavorable 
currency fluctuation impact to service revenues of approximately $1.0 million, which means sales volume in constant dollars 
increased by approximately $2.7 million.  This increase in sales volume was driven by increased service revenues to the 
German division's largest customer, a UK-based wireless carrier, of approximately $2.8 million, offset by decreases in service 
revenues of approximately $0.1 million of all other customers combined.  

20 

 
  
 
  
 
 
  
  
  
Our sales by geographic area, based on the location to which the products were shipped or services rendered, are as 

follows: 

Americas 
Europe 
Asia 

Totals 

For the Year ended, 

September 30, 
2012 

% 

September 30, 
2011 

% 

$ Increase 
(Decrease) 

% Increase
(Decrease) 

(Dollar amounts in thousands) 

 $ 

$ 

47,163 
34,053 
3,591 
84,807 

56% $
40%
4%
100% $

43,528
26,273
3,844
73,645

59% $
36%
5%
100% $

3,635 
7,780 
(253)   

11,162 

8% 
30% 
(7)%
15% 

The increase in Americas revenue for the year ended September 30, 2012 versus the year ended September 30, 2011 was 

primarily the result of the fluctuations described above in the Systems segment where combined product and service sales to 
US customers increased by an aggregate $3.6 million.  

The increase in sales in Europe was primarily the result of the higher sales described above from the German and UK 
divisions of the Service and System Integration segment. The decrease in Asia sales was the result of the decrease in sales to 
our existing customer that supplies a large Japanese defense program (see discussion above). 

Cost of Sales, Gross Profit and Gross Margins 

The following table details our cost of sales, gross profit and gross margins by operating segment for the fiscal years 

ended September 30, 2012 and 2011: 

For the Year Ended September 30, 2012: 
Cost of Sales: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% of Total 
% of Sales 
Gross Profit: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% of Total 
Gross Margins: 
Product 
Services 
Total 

For the Year Ended September 30, 2011: 
Cost of Sales: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% of Total 
% of Sales 
Gross Profit: 

Systems 

Service and
System 
Integration   
(Dollar amounts in thousands) 

Total 

% of 
Total 

2,508
283
2,791

4%
25% 

1,706
6,644
8,350

$

$

$

$

41%

40% 
96% 
75% 

47,718
13,877
61,595

 $ 

 $ 

50,226  
14,160 
64,386  

96%  
84% 

100% 
76% 

7,651
4,420
12,071

 $ 

 $ 

9,357  
11,064 
20,421  

59%  

100% 

14% 
24% 
16% 

16% 
44% 
24% 

2,391
330
2,721

$

$

42,419
12,136
54,555

 $ 

 $ 

44,810  
12,466 
57,276  

5%
35% 

95%  
83% 

100% 
78% 

$

$

$

$

$

$

21 

78% 
22% 
100% 

46% 
54% 
100% 

78% 
22% 
100% 

 
  
 
  
 
  
   
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% of Total 
Gross Margins: 
Product 
Services 
Total 

Increase (decrease) 
Cost of Sales: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% Increase (decrease) 
% of Sales 
Gross Profit: 
Product 
Services 
Total 
% increase (decrease) 
Change in Gross Margin percentage: 
Product 
Services 
Total 

$

$

$

$

$

$

Systems 
3,233
1,868
5,101

$

$

31%

57% 
85% 
65% 

117
(47) 
70

3%
(10)%

(1,527) 
4,776
3,249

64%

(17)%
11% 
10% 

$

$

$

$

Service and
System 
Integration   
6,691
4,577
11,268

 $ 

 $ 

Total 
9,924  
6,445 
16,369  

% of 
Total 

61% 
39% 
100% 

69%  

100% 

14% 
27% 
17% 

18% 
34% 
22% 

5,299
1,741
7,040

 $ 

 $ 

5,416  
1,694 
7,110  

13%  
1% 

12% 
(2)%

960
(157) 
803

 $ 

 $ 

(567 ) 
4,619 
4,052  

7%  

25% 

—  
(3)%  
(1)%  

(2)%
10% 
2% 

12% 
14% 
12% 

(6)%
72% 
25% 

Total cost of sales increased by approximately $7.1 million when comparing the year ended September 30, 2012 versus 

the year ended September 30, 2011.   This increase in cost of sales of 12% overall is consistent with the increase in sales of 
15% overall as described previously.  The resulting higher gross profit margin ("GPM") of 24% for the year ended 
September 30, 2012 versus 22% for 2011 was due to several factors which are discussed below. 

In the Service and System Integration segment, the overall GPM was 16% for the year ended September 30, 2012 versus 

17% for the prior year.  Product GPM in the segment remained unchanged at 14% when comparing the year ended 
September 30, 2012 to the year ended September 30, 2011, while the segment’s service GPM decreased from 27% to 
24%.  This decrease in service GPM was attributable primarily to increased costs of training new billable service engineer 
employees due to significant employee turnover in the German division of the segment.  Additionally, we experienced greater 
use of contractors versus in-house resources to provide billable  services in Germany.  

In the Systems segment, the overall GPM increased from 65% to 75% as shown in the table above.  This was because in 

the current year period, royalty revenue, which carries a 100% GPM, made up a much greater percentage of total Systems 
segment revenue (57%), versus the prior year royalty revenue which was 21% of total Systems segment revenue.  Offsetting 
the favorable GPM impact of the greater royalty revenue in the current year however, was the impact of significantly lower 
product GPM in the current year versus the prior year.  As shown in the table above, the GPM on product sales was  40% for 
the current  year versus the prior year product GPM of 57%.  This is due to the current year lower volume of production and 
product sales resulting in proportionately lower absorption of fixed factory overhead, therefore these fixed costs were 
proportionately higher versus production and sales volume, which resulted in the low GPM on product sales in the current year. 
In addition, we incurred significantly higher nonrecurring engineering charges for re-tooling and other services from our 
outside fabrication houses for the year ended September 30, 2012 versus the prior year. 

22 

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
Engineering and Development Expenses 

The following table details our engineering and development expenses by operating segment for the year ended 

September 30, 2012 and 2011: 

For the Year ended, 

September 30, 
2012 

% of 
Total 

September 30, 
2011 

% of 
Total 

$ Decrease 

  % Decrease

(Dollar amounts in thousands) 

By Operating Segment: 
Systems 
Service and System Integration 

Total 

$ 

$ 

1,720 
— 
1,720 

100% $
—
100% $

1,785
—
1,785

100% $ 
—
100% $ 

(65)   
— 
(65)   

(4)%
—
(4)%

The $0.1 million decrease in engineering and development expenses displayed above was due to lower engineering 

consulting expenditures in connection with the development of the next generation of MultiComputer products in the Systems 
segment. 

Selling, General and Administrative 

The following table details our selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expense by operating segment for the 

years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011: 

For the Year ended, 

September 30, 
2012 

% of 
Total 

September 30, 
2011 

% of 
Total 

$ Increase  % Increase 

(Dollar amounts in thousands) 

By Operating Segment: 
Systems 
Service and System Integration 

Total 

$ 

$ 

5,515
10,332
15,847

35% $
65%
100% $

3,908
9,867
13,775

28%  $ 
72%  
100%  $ 

1,607 
465 
2,072 

41%
5%
15%

The increase in SG&A expense in the Systems segment was was due in part to approximately $0.7 million in higher 

incentive compensation expense resulting from the higher revenues, gross profit and operating results for the year ended 
September 30, 2012, versus the prior year and a decrease in the cash surrender value of officer life insurance policies of 
approximately $1.0 million, related to a policy on our former chief executive, who became deceased in fiscal 2012.  The 
increase in the Service & System Integration segment was due to an increase in incentive compensation expense from the more 
favorable revenue, gross profit and overall operating results for the year ended September 30, 2012 versus the comparable 
period in the prior year. 

Proceeds from officer life insurance settlement 

We recognized approximately $2.1 million for the settlement from a life insurance policy for our former chief executive 

officer, who died during fiscal 2012.  We received the cash proceeds from this settlement subsequent to year end, in October 
2012.  

23 

 
 
 
  
 
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
 
  
  
  
 
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
Other Income/Expenses 

The following table details our other income/expenses for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011: 

Interest expense 
Interest income 
Foreign exchange gain (loss) 
Other income (expense), net 
Total other expense, net 

For the Year ended, 

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

Increase 
(Decrease) 

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
(86 )   $
44 
(16)   
(36)   
(94 )   $

(85) $
44
(60)
1
(100) $

1
—
(44)
37
(6)

Other income (expense), net, for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011was not significant nor was the change 

from the prior year period to that of the current year. 

Income Taxes 

The Company recorded an income tax benefit of approximately $1.7 million, which reflected an effective tax benefit 
rate of (36)% for the year ended September 30, 2012, compared to income tax expense of approximately $0.3 million for the 
year ended September 30, 2011, which reflected an effective tax rate of 48%. 

We realized a tax benefit for the year ended September 30, 2012, despite the fact that we had positive earnings before 

taxes for the year.  This was because we reduced the valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets, which had been 
accumulated over the past several years.  The recording and ultimate reversal of valuation allowances for our deferred tax asset 
requires significant judgment associated with past and projected performance.  In assessing the realizability of deferred tax 
assets, we consider our taxable future earnings and the expected timing of the reversal of temporary differences. In prior years, 
we recorded a valuation allowance which reduced the gross deferred tax asset to an amount that we believed was more likely 
than not to be realized because our inability to project future profitability beyond fiscal year 2012 in the U.S. and cumulative 
losses incurred in recent years in the United Kingdom represented sufficient negative evidence to record a valuation allowance 
against certain deferred tax assets. 

As of September 30, 2012, management assessed the positive and negative evidence in the U.S operations, and 
estimated we will have sufficient future taxable income to utilize the existing deferred tax assets. Significant objective positive 
evidence included the cumulative profits that we realized over the most recent years.  This evidence enhances our ability to 
consider other subjective evidence such as our projections for future growth. Other factors we considered are the likelihood for 
continued royalty income in future years, and our expectation that the Service and Systems Integration segment will continue to 
be profitable in future years. On the basis of this evaluation, as of September 30, 2012, we have concluded that our US deferred 
tax asset is more likely than not to be realized. Therefore, we reversed the U.S. valuation allowance of $3.0 million, resulting in 
an overall tax benefit for the year ended September 30, 2012.  It should be noted however, that the amount of the deferred tax 
asset realized could be adjusted in future years, if estimates of taxable income during the carryforward periods are reduced, or 
if objective negative evidence in the form of cumulative losses is present.  

We continue to  maintain a full valuation allowance against our United Kingdom deferred tax assets as we have 
experienced cumulative losses and do not have any indication that the operation will be profitable in the future to an extent that 
will allow us to utilize much of our net operating loss carryforwards. To the extent that actual experience deviates from our 
assumptions, our projections would be affected and hence our assessment of realizability of our deferred tax assets may change. 

Liquidity and Capital Resources 

Our primary source of liquidity is our cash and cash equivalents, which increased by approximately $4.6 million to 
$20.5 million as of September 30, 2012 from $15.9 million as of September 30, 2011. At September 30, 2012, cash equivalents 
consisted of money market funds which totaled $3.5 million. 

Significant sources of cash for the year ended September 30, 2012 included net income of approximately $6.6 million, 

an increase in A/P and accrued expenses of approximately $1.6 million,  an increase in deferred revenue of approximately $0.8 

24 

 
 
  
  
 
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
million, a decrease in inventories of approximately $0.5 million, a decrease in accounts receivable of approximately $0.8 
million, a decrease in cash surrender value of officers' life insurance of approximately $0.9 million and depreciation and 
amortization of approximately $0.4 million.  Offsetting these sources of cash, significant uses of cash were an increase in 
officer life insurance settlement receivable of approximately $2.2 million, a decrease in deferred tax assets of approximately 
$2.9 million, an increase in other assets of approximately $0.7 million, purchases of property and equipment of $0.6 million 
and payment of dividends of approximately $0.8 million. 

Cash held by our foreign subsidiaries located in Germany and the United Kingdom totaled approximately $9.8 million as 

of September 30, 2012 and $5.6 million as of September 30, 2011. This cash is included in our total cash and cash equivalents 
reported above. We consider this cash to be permanently reinvested into these foreign locations because repatriating it would 
result in unfavorable tax consequences.  Consequently, it is not available for activities that would require it to be repatriated to 
the U.S. 

If cash generated from operations is insufficient to satisfy working capital requirements, we may need to access funds 
through bank loans or other means. There is no assurance that we will be able to raise any such capital on terms acceptable to 
us, on a timely basis or at all. If we are unable to secure additional financing, we may not be able to complete development or 
enhancement of products, take advantage of future opportunities, respond to competition or continue to effectively operate our 
business. 

Based on our current plans and business conditions, management believes that the Company’s available cash and cash 

equivalents, the cash generated from operations and availability on our lines of credit will be sufficient to provide for the 
Company’s working capital and capital expenditure requirements for the foreseeable future. 

25 

 
  
  
  
Critical Accounting Policies  

Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial 

statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The 
preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, 
liabilities, revenues and expenses. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates, including those related to uncollectible 
receivables, inventory valuation, goodwill and intangibles, income taxes, deferred compensation, revenue recognition, 
retirement plans, restructuring costs and contingencies. We base our estimates on historical performance and on various other 
assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making 
judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may 
differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.  

We believe the following critical accounting policies affect our more significant judgments and estimates used in the 

preparation of our consolidated financial statements: revenue recognition; valuation allowances, specifically the allowance for 
doubtful accounts and net deferred tax asset valuation allowance; inventory valuation; intangibles; and pension and retirement 
plans.  

Revenue Recognition  

The Company recognizes product revenue from customers at the time of transfer of title and risk of loss which is 

generally at the time of shipment, provided that persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, the price is fixed or determinable 
and collectability of sales proceeds is reasonably assured. We include freight billed to our customers as sales and the related 
freight costs as cost of sales. The Company reduces revenue for estimated customer returns.  

The Company recognizes revenue from software licenses when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery of 

the product has occurred and the fee is fixed or determinable and collectability is probable. When delivery of services 
accompany software sales, and vendor specific objective evidence does not exist, and the only undelivered element is services 
that do not involve significant modification, or customization, of software, then the entire fee is recognized as the services are 
performed.  If no pattern of performance is discernible, the fee is recognized straight line over the service period. 

The Company also offers training, maintenance agreements and support services. The Company has established fair value 

on its training, maintenance and support services based on prices charged in separate sales to customers at prices established 
and published in its standard price lists. These prices are not discounted. Revenue from these service obligations under 
maintenance contracts is deferred and recognized on a straight-line basis over the contractual period, which is typically three to 
twelve months, if all other revenue recognition criteria have been met. Support services provided on a time and material basis 
are recognized as provided if all of the revenue recognition criteria have been met for that element and the support services 
have been provided. Training revenue is recognized when performed. 

In certain multiple-element revenue arrangements, the Company is obligated to deliver to its customers multiple products 

and/or services (“multiple elements”). In these transactions, the Company allocates the total revenue to be earned under the 
arrangement among the various elements based on the Company's best estimate of the standalone selling price. The allocation 
is based on vendor specific objective evidence, third party evidence or estimated selling price when that element is sold 
separately. The Company recognizes revenue related to the delivered products or services only if the above revenue recognition 
criteria are met and the delivered element has standalone value.  

In October 2009, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2009-13 -  “Multiple-Deliverable Revenue 

Arrangements-a Consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force” (“ASU 2009-13”)  and ASU 2009-14 - “Certain 
Revenue Arrangements that Contain Software Elements.” (“ASU 2009-14”).  ASU 2009-13 amended previously existing 
revenue recognition accounting principles regarding multiple-deliverable revenue arrangements. The consensus provides 
accounting principles and application guidance on whether multiple deliverables exist, how the arrangement should be 
separated, and how the consideration should be allocated. This guidance eliminates the requirement to establish verifiable, 
objective evidence of the fair value of undelivered products and services and also eliminates the residual method of allocating 
arrangement consideration. The new guidance provides for separate revenue recognition based upon management's estimate of 
the selling price for an undelivered item when there is no other means to determine the fair value of that undelivered item. 
Under the previous guidance, if the fair value of all of the elements in the arrangement was not determinable, then revenue was 
deferred until all of the items were delivered or fair value was determined. This pronouncement was effective prospectively for 
revenue arrangements entered into or materially modified in fiscal years beginning on or after June 15, 2010, with early 
adoption permitted. 

ASU 2009-14 removes the sale of tangible products containing software components and non-software components that 

function together to deliver the tangible product's essential functionality from the scope of software revenue recognition 
guidance.  The Company adopted these standards as of October 1, 2009. 

26 

 
  
  
 
  
  
  
 
Adoption of the new revenue recognition guidance has had an impact on the pattern and timing of revenue recognition.  

In some cases, revenue that would have been deferred pursuant to the previously existing multiple-element revenue recognition 
guidance, has been recognized pursuant to the newly issued guidance.  This is because in some cases we are not able to 
determine vendor-specific objective evidence (“VSOE”) or third-party evidence of the service element in our arrangements. 
Under the new guidance, because the requirement to determine fair value of undelivered elements has been eliminated, and we 
may use estimated selling price to allocate revenue to elements in an arrangement, we are now more likely to be able to 
separate arrangements into separate units of accounting, and thereby recognize the delivered elements (typically product 
revenue) without having delivered the other elements in the arrangements (typically services).    

Description of multiple-deliverable arrangements and Software Elements 

In many cases, our multiple-deliverable arrangements involve initial shipment of hardware (including tangible products 

that include software and non-software elements), software products and subsequent delivery of services which add value to the 
products that have been shipped.  In some instances, services are performed prior to product shipment, but more typically 
services are performed subsequent to shipment of the hardware products. The timing of the delivery and performance of 
deliverables may vary case-by-case.  We evaluate whether we can determine VSOE or third-party evidence to allocate revenue 
among the various elements in an arrangement. When VSOE or third-party evidence cannot be determined, we use estimated 
selling prices to allocate revenue to the various elements.  Estimated selling prices are determined using the targeted gross 
margin for each element and calculating the gross revenue for each element that would have been required to achieve the 
targeted gross margin, and allocating revenue to each element based on those relative values. 

Typically, product revenue which may consist of hardware (including tangible products that include software and non-

software elements) and/or software elements are recognized upon shipment, or when risk of loss passes to the customer.  
Services elements are typically recognized upon completion for fixed-price service arrangements, and as services are performed 
for time and materials service arrangements. For software elements that include services that do not involve significant 
production, modification or customization, and VSOE does not exist, the entire fee allocable to that element is recognized as 
the services are performed. If no pattern of performance is discernible, the fee is recognized straight line over the service 
period.  The period over which services are delivered typically ranges from approximately sixty to ninety days, or longer in 
some cases. 

For tangible products containing software components and non-software components, we determine whether these 
elements function together to deliver the tangible product essential functionality.  If the software and non-software components 
of the tangible product function together to deliver the tangible product's essential functionality, software revenue recognition 
guidance is not applied, but rather other appropriate revenue recognition guidance as described above. 

The following policies are applicable to the Company's major categories of segment revenue transactions:  

Systems Segment Revenue  

Revenue in the Systems segment consists of product and service revenue. Generally, product revenue is recognized when 

product is shipped, provided that all revenue recognition criteria are met. Service revenue consists principally of royalty 
revenue related to the licensing of certain of the Company's proprietary system technology and repair services. The Company 
recognizes royalty revenues upon notification by the customer of shipment of the systems produced pursuant to the royalty 
agreement. Repair service revenue is generally based upon a fixed price and is recognized upon completion of the repair.  

From time to time we enter into multiple element arrangements in the Systems segment. We follow the accounting 

policies described above for such arrangements.  

The Company's standard sales agreements generally do not include customer acceptance provisions. However, in certain 

instances when arrangements include a customer acceptance provision or there is uncertainty about customer acceptance, 
revenue is deferred until the Company has evidence of customer acceptance. Customers generally do not have the right of 
return, once customer acceptance has occurred.  

Service and System Integration Segment Revenue  

Revenue in the Service and System Integration segment consists of product and service revenue.  

Revenue from the sale of third-party hardware and third-party software is recognized when the revenue recognition 
criteria are met. The Company's standard sales agreements generally do not include customer acceptance provisions. However, 
in certain instances when arrangements include a customer acceptance provision or there is uncertainty about customer 
acceptance, revenue is deferred until the Company has evidence of customer acceptance. Customers do not have the right of 
return.  

27 

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Service revenue is comprised of information technology consulting development, installation, implementation and 
maintenance services. We follow the accounting policies described above for service transactions. For arrangements that 
include a customer acceptance provision, or if there is uncertainty about customer acceptance of services rendered, revenue is 
deferred until the Company has evidence of customer acceptance. 

 For sales that are financed by customers through leases with a third party, when risk of loss does not pass to the customer 

until the lease is executed, revenue is recognized upon cash receipt and execution of the lease. 

We sell certain third party service contracts, which are evaluated to determine whether the sale of such service revenue 

should be recorded as gross sales or net sales in accordance with the sales recognition criteria as required by accounting 
principles generally accepted in the U.S. We must determine whether we act as a principal in the transaction and assume the 
risks and rewards of ownership or if we are simply acting as an agent or broker. Under gross sales recognition, the entire selling 
price is recorded in sales and our cost to the third-party service provider or vendor is recorded in cost of goods sold. Under net 
sales recognition, the cost to the third-party service provider or vendor is recorded as a reduction to sales resulting in net sales 
equal to the gross profit on the transaction and there are no costs of goods sold. We use the net sales recognition method for the 
third party service contracts that we sell when we are not the primary obligor on the contract. We use the gross sales 
recognition for the third party service contracts that we sell when we act as principal and are the primary obligor. 

Product Warranty Accrual  

Our product sales generally include a 90-day to one-year hardware warranty. At time of product shipment, we accrue for 

the estimated cost to repair or replace potentially defective products. Estimated warranty costs are based upon prior actual 
warranty costs for substantially similar products.  

Engineering and Development Expenses  

Engineering and development expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation and other 
headcount-related expenses associated with product development.  Engineering and development expenses also include third-
party development and programming costs. We consider technological feasibility for our software products to be reached upon 
the release of the software, accordingly, no internal software development costs have been capitalized. 

Income Taxes  

We use the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes whereby deferred tax assets and liabilities are 
recognized for the estimated future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying 
amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using 
enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect 
on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment 
date. We also reduce deferred tax assets by a valuation allowance if, based on the weight of available evidence, it is more likely 
than not that some portion or all of the recorded deferred tax assets will not be realized in future periods. This methodology 
requires estimates and judgments in the determination of the recoverability of deferred tax assets and in the calculation of 
certain tax liabilities. Valuation allowances are recorded against the gross deferred tax assets that management believes, after 
considering all available positive and negative objective evidence, historical and prospective, with greater weight given to 
historical evidence, that it is more likely than not that these assets will not be realized.  

In addition, we are required to recognize in the consolidated financial statements, those tax positions determined to be 
more-likely-than-not of being sustained upon examination, based on the technical merits of the positions as of the reporting 
date. If a tax position is not considered more-likely-than-not to be sustained based solely on its technical merits, no benefits of 
the position are recognized.  

In addition, the calculation of the Company's tax liabilities involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of 

complex tax regulations in a multitude of jurisdictions. The Company records liabilities for estimated tax obligations in the 
U.S. and other tax jurisdictions. These estimated tax liabilities include the provision for taxes that may become payable in the 
future. 

 Intangible Assets  

Intangible assets that are not subject to amortization are also required to be tested annually, or more frequently if events 

or circumstances indicate that the asset may be impaired. We did not have intangible assets with indefinite lives other than 
goodwill at any time during the two years ended September 30, 2012. Intangible assets subject to amortization are amortized 
over their estimated useful lives, generally three to ten years, and are carried at cost, less accumulated amortization. The 
remaining useful lives of intangible assets are evaluated on an annual basis. Intangible assets subject to amortization are also 
tested for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that their carrying amount may not be 

28 

 
  
 
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
 
  
recoverable. If the fair value of an intangible asset subject to amortization is determined to be less than its carrying value, then 
an impairment charge is recorded to write down that asset to its fair value.  

Inventories  

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or market, with cost determined using the first-in, first-out method. The 
recoverability of inventories is based upon the types and levels of inventories held, forecasted demand, pricing, competition 
and changes in technology. We write down our inventory for estimated obsolescence or unmarketable inventory equal to the 
difference between the cost of inventory and the estimated market value based upon assumptions about future demand and 
market conditions. If actual market conditions are less favorable than those projected by management, additional inventory 
write-downs may be required. 

Pension and Retirement Plans  

The funded status of pension and other post-retirement benefit plans is recognized prospectively on the balance sheet. 

Gains and losses, prior service costs and credits and any remaining transition amounts that have not yet been recognized 
through pension expense will be recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income, net of tax, until they are amortized as 
a component of net periodic pension/post-retirement benefits expense. Additionally, plan assets and obligations are measured 
as of our fiscal year-end balance sheet date (September 30).  

We have defined benefit and defined contribution plans in the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”), Germany and in the U.S. In 
the U.K. and Germany, the Company provides defined benefit pension plans for certain employees and former employees and 
defined contribution plans for the majority of the employees. The defined benefit plans in both the U.K. and Germany are 
closed to newly hired employees and have been for the two years ended September 30, 2012. In the U.S., the Company also 
provides defined contribution plans that cover most employees and supplementary retirement plans to certain employees and 
former employees who are now retired. These supplementary retirement plans are also closed to newly hired employees and 
have been for the two years ended September 30, 2012. These supplementary plans are funded through whole life insurance 
policies. The Company expects to recover all insurance premiums paid under these policies in the future, through the cash 
surrender value of the policies and any death benefits or portions thereof to be paid upon the death of the participant. These 
whole life insurance policies are carried on the balance sheet at their cash surrender values as they are owned by the Company 
and not assets of the defined benefit plans. In the U.S., the Company also provides for officer death benefits and post-
retirement health insurance benefits through supplemental post-retirement plans to certain officers. The Company also funds 
these supplemental plans' obligations through whole life insurance policies on the officers.  

Pension expense is based on an actuarial computation of current future benefits using estimates for expected return on 

assets, expected compensation increases and applicable discount rates. Management has reviewed the discount rates and rates 
of return with our consulting actuaries and investment advisor and concluded they were reasonable.  A decrease in the expected 
return on pension assets would increase pension expense. Expected compensation increases are estimated based on historical 
and expected increases in the future. Increases in estimated compensation increases would result in higher pension expense 
while decreases would lower pension expense. Discount rates are selected based upon rates of return on high quality fixed 
income investments currently available and expected to be available during the period to maturity of the pension benefit. A 
decrease in the discount rate would result in greater pension expense while an increase in the discount rate would decrease 
pension expense.  

The Company funds its pension plans in amounts sufficient to meet the requirements set forth in applicable employee 

benefits laws and local tax laws. Liabilities for amounts in excess of these funding levels are accrued and reported in the 
consolidated balance sheets. 

New Accounting Pronouncements  

In June 2011, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2011-05, Comprehensive Income (Topic 220) - 

Presentation of Comprehensive Income (“ASU 2011-05”), which requires all non-owner changes in stockholders' equity to be 
presented either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements.  ASU 
2011-05 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods within those years beginning after December 15, 2011.  

Inflation and Changing Prices  

Management does not believe that inflation and changing prices had significant impact on sales, revenues or income 

(loss) during fiscal 2012 or 2011. There is no assurance that the Company's business will not be materially and adversely 
affected by inflation and changing prices in the future.  

Item 8. 

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data  

The consolidated financial statements are included herein.  

29 

 
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm 

Consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2012 and 2011 

Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 

Consolidated Statements of Shareholders' Equity and Comprehensive income (loss) for the years ended September 30, 2012 
and 2011 

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 

Item 9.  Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosures 

None. 

Page  
36

37

38

39

40

41

30 

 
 
  
  
 
 
Item 9A. 

Controls and Procedures  

Evaluation of Controls and Procedures  

Disclosure Controls and Procedures. The Company evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of our 
disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2012. Our chief executive officer, our chief financial officer and other 
members of our senior management team supervised and participated in this evaluation. The term “disclosure controls and 
procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, means controls and other procedures of a 
company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or 
submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the 
SEC's rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to 
ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is 
accumulated and communicated to the company's management, including its principal executive and principal financial 
officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.  Management recognizes that any controls and 
procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and 
management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. 
Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2012, the Company's chief executive 
officer and chief financial officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.  

Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. 

The Company's management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial 
reporting. As defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act, internal control over financial reporting is a process designed 
by or under the supervision of a company's principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by a company's 
board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial 
reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally 
accepted in the United States of America. It includes those policies and procedures that:  

•  pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and 

dispositions of the assets of a company;  

•  provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements 

in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and that receipts and expenditures of a company are being 
made only in accordance with authorizations of management and the board of directors of a company; and  

•  provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition 

of a company's assets that could have a material effect on its financial statements.  

Management has assessed the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of 

September 30, 2012. In making its assessment of internal control, management used the criteria described in “Internal Control-
Integrated Framework” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (“COSO”) of the Treadway Commission. As a 
result of its assessment, management has concluded that the Company's internal control over financial reporting was effective 
as of September 30, 2012. 

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. 

Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become 
inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.  

This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include an attestation report of the Company's independent registered public 

accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting. Management's assessment of the effectiveness of the 
Company's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2012 was not subject to attestation by the Company's 
independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to rules of the SEC that call for the Company to provide only 
management's report in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 

 Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting.  

During the quarter ended September 30, 2012, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that 

have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. 

Item 9B. 

Other Information 

None. 

31 

 
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
Item 10. 

Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance  

PART III 

We incorporate the information required by this item by reference to the sections captioned “Nominees for Election”, “Our 

Board of Directors”, “Our Executive Officers”, “Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance” and “Corporate 
Governance” in our Schedule 14A Proxy Statement for our 2013 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be filed with the SEC 
within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended September 30, 2012.  

Item 11. 

Executive Compensation  

We incorporate the information required by this item by reference to the sections captioned “Compensation of Executive 
Officers” and “Compensation of Non-Employee Directors” in our Schedule 14A Proxy Statement for our 2013 Annual Meeting 
of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended September 30, 2012.  

Item 12. 

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

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans.  

The equity compensation plans approved by our stockholders consist of the CSP, Inc. 1991 Incentive Stock Option Plan, 

1997 Incentive Stock Option Plan, 2003 Stock Incentive Plan and 2007 Stock Incentive Plan.  The equity compensation plan 
not approved by our stockholders is a stock option plan for certain employees of Modcomp. Stock options issued under this 
plan were granted at the fair market value of our common stock on the date of grant, have a term of ten years and vest at the 
rate of 25% per year starting one year from the date of grant. In fiscal 2012 and 2011, the Company granted certain officers 
including its Chief Executive Officer and non-employee directors shares of non-vested common stock instead of stock options. 
The vesting periods for the officers', the Chief Executive Officer's and the directors' non-vested stock awards are four years, 
three years and one year, respectively. The following table sets forth information as of September 30, 2012 regarding the total 
number of securities outstanding under these stock option and stock purchase plans.  

Plan Category 

(a)  

(b) 

(c)  

Number of securities to
 be 
issued upon exercise of
outstanding options, w
arrants 
and rights, and non-
vested shares issued 

Weighted-
average 
exercise price of 
outstanding 
options, 
warrants and 
rights 

Number of securities 
remaining available fo
r future 
issuance under equity
compensation plans (e
xcluding 
securities reflected in 
column 
(a)) 

Equity compensation plans approved by 
security holders (1)  
Equity compensation plans not approved 
by security holders 

Total 

306,392

40,000
346,392

$

$
$

5.37  

141,283

2.70  
5.06  

—
141,283

(1)   Includes  99,967 non-vested shares issued. 

We incorporate additional information required by this Item by reference to the section captioned “Security Ownership 

of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” in our Schedule 14A Proxy Statement for our 2013 Annual Meeting of 
Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended September 30, 2012. 

Item 13. 

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence  

We incorporate the information required by this item by reference to the section captioned “Corporate Governance” in 

our Schedule 14A Proxy Statement for our 2013 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days 
after the end of our fiscal year ended September 30, 2012.  

Item 14. 

Principal Accountant Fees and Services  

We incorporate the information required by this item by reference to the section captioned “Fees for Professional 
Services” and “Pre-approval Policies and Procedures” in our Schedule 14A Proxy Statement for our 2013 Annual Meeting of 
Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended September 30, 2012.  

32 

 
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
   
 
  
 
  
PART IV 

Item 15. 

Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules  

(a)   (1)   Financial statements filed as part of this report: 

Consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2012 and 2011  

Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011  

Consolidated Statements of Shareholders' Equity and Comprehensive income (loss) for the years ended September 30, 
2012 and 2011  

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011  

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements  

(2)   Financial Statement Schedules  

All other financial statements and schedules not listed have been omitted since the required information is included in the 

consolidated financial statements or the notes thereto included in Item 8, or is not applicable, material or required.  

33 

 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
(3)   Exhibits  

Exhibit 
No. 

3.1 
3.2 
10.1 

10.2 

10.4* 

10.6* 
10.7* 

10.8* 

10.9* 
10.10* 

10.12* 

10.13* 

10.14* 

21.1 

23.1 

31.1 

31.2 

32.1 

101.INS** 

  Description  
  Articles of Organization and amendments thereto
  By-laws, as amended December 13, 2012
  Form of Employee Invention and Non-Disclosure 
Agreement 
  CSPI Supplemental Retirement Income Plan

  1991 Incentive Stock Option Plan

  1997 Incentive Stock Option Plan, as amended
  1997 Employee Stock Purchase Plan

  2003 Stock Incentive Plan 

  2007 Stock Incentive Plan 
  2012 Variable Compensation (Executive Bonus) and 
Base Programs dated November 8, 2011 

  Form of Change of Control Agreement with Gary W. 
Levine, Walter Pastucha and  William E. Bent Jr. each 
dated January 11, 2008 

  Form of Change of Control Agreement with Robert A. 
Stellato, Andrew Shieh, Robert Gove, Joseph Parent, 
William M. Newbanks, Ronald Cook, Michael 
Schumacher, Peter Haebler, Kevin Magee and Stephen 
Pfeil each dated January 11, 2008 
  Employment Agreement with Victor Dellovo dated 
April 11, 2003 

  Subsidiaries 

  Consent of McGladrey LLP, Independent Registered 
Public Accounting Firm 

  Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to 
Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 

  Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 
Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 

  Certification of Chief Executive Officer and  Chief 
Financial Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 
  XBRL Instance 

101.SCH** 

  XBRL Taxonomy Schema 

101.CAL** 

  XBRL Taxonomy  Extension Calculation 

101.DEF** 

  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition 

101.LAB** 

  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels 

101.PRE** 
*  Management contract or compensatory plan. 

  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation 

Filed w
ith 
this 
Form 
10-K 

X

Incorporated by Reference 

Form 

Filing Date 

Exhibit 
No.. 

10-K   December 26, 2007

3.1

10-K   November 22, 1996

10.3

10-K   December 29, 2008

10-K   December 29, 2008

10.2

10.4

DEF 14A   December 1, 1997
DEF 14A   December 1, 1997

DEF 14A   December 23, 2003

DEF 14A  

March 30, 2007

A
B

B

B

10-K   December 22, 2009

10.11

10-K   December 22, 2009

10.11

10-K   December 22, 2009

10.11

X

X

X

X

X

X

**  XBRL information is furnished and not filed or a part of a registration statement or prospectus for purposes of sections 11 
or 12 or the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, is deemed not filed for purposes of section 18 of the Securities Exchange 
Act of 1934, as amended, and otherwise is not subject to liability under these sections. 

34 

 
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly 

caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.  

SIGNATURES  

CSP INC. 

By: 

/s/ Victor Dellovo 
Victor Dellovo 
Chief Executive Officer and President 

Date: December 17, 2012  

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the 

following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.  

Name 

 Title  

 Date  

  /s/ Victor Dellovo   
Victor Dellovo 

Chief Executive Officer, President 
and Director 

December 17, 2012 

/s/ Gary W. Levine 
Gary W. Levine 

Chief Financial Officer 
(Principal Financial Officer) 

December 17, 2012 

   /s/Robert A. Stellato 
Robert A. Stellato 

Vice President of Finance 
(Chief Accounting Officer) 

December 17, 2012 

        /s/ J. David Lyons 
J. David Lyons 

        /s/ C. Shelton James 
C. Shelton James 

Director 

December 17, 2012 

Director 

December 17, 2012 

        /s/ Robert M. Williams 
Robert M. Williams 

Director 

December 17, 2012 

        /s/ Christopher J. Hall 
Christopher J. Hall 

Director 

December 17, 2012 

35 

 
  
  
 
 
   
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM  

To the Board of Directors and Shareholders 
CSP, Inc. 

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of CSP Inc. and subsidiaries as of September 30, 2012 and 
2011, and the related consolidated statements of operations, other comprehensive income (loss), shareholders' equity, and cash 
flows for the years then ended.  These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management.  Our 
responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements 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.  The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit 
of its internal control over financial reporting.  Our audits included consideration of internal control over financial reporting as 
a basis for designing audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an 
opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting.  Accordingly, we express no such 
opinion.  An audit also includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial 
statements, 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 consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial 
position of CSP, Inc. and subsidiaries as of September 30, 2012 and 2011, and the results of their operations and their cash 
flows for the years then ended in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.  

/s/ McGladrey LLP  

Boston, Massachusetts 
December 17, 2012  

36 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
CSP INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS 
(Amounts in thousands, except par value)  

September 30,  
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

Current assets: 

ASSETS

Cash and cash equivalents 
Accounts receivable, net of allowances of $243 and $302 
Officer life insurance settlement receivable 
Inventories 
Refundable income taxes 
Deferred income taxes 
Other current assets 

Total current assets 
Property, equipment and improvements, net 

Other assets: 

Intangibles, net 
Deferred income taxes 
Cash surrender value of life insurance 
Other assets 

Total other assets 
Total assets 

LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 

Current liabilities: 

Accounts payable and accrued expenses 
Deferred revenue 
Pension and retirement plans 
Income taxes payable 

Total current liabilities 

Pension and retirement plans 
Other long term liabilities 
Total liabilities 

Commitments and contingencies 

Shareholders’ equity: 

Common stock, $.01 par value per share; authorized, 7,500 shares; issued and 
outstanding 3,399 and 3,417 shares, respectively 
Additional paid-in capital 
Retained earnings 
Accumulated other comprehensive loss 
Total shareholders’ equity 
Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity

$

$

$

$

 $

 $

 $

20,493 
12,145  
2,172  
6,276  
121  
1,284  
2,215  
44,706  
991  

492  
2,373  
2,181  
323  
5,369  
51,066 

13,574 
3,693  
717  
184  
18,168  
9,431  
426  
28,025  

15,874
13,148
—
6,777
231
158
1,690
37,878
833

574
663
2,918
242
4,397
43,108

12,103
2,937
709
121
15,870
9,056
286
25,212

34  
10,875  
18,744  
(6,612 )   
23,041  
51,066 

 $

34
10,880
12,885
(5,903)
17,896
43,108

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements. 

37 

 
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
CSP INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS 
(Amounts in thousands, except for per share data) 

For the Year ended 

September 30, 
2012 

September 30,  
2011 

$

$

59,583
25,224
84,807

Sales: 

Product 
Services 

Total sales 

Cost of sales: 
Product 
Services 

Total cost of sales 

Gross profit 

Operating expenses: 

Engineering and development 
Selling, general and administrative 
Total operating expenses 

Income from proceeds of officer life insurance 
settlement 
Operating income 

Other (expense): 

Foreign exchange (loss) 
Other (expense), net 

Total other (expense), net 

Income before income taxes 
Income tax expense (benefit) 

Net income 

$

Net income attributable to common stockholders  $
$

Net income per share – basic 
Weighted average shares outstanding – basic 
Net income per share – diluted 
Weighted average shares outstanding – diluted 

$

54,734 
18,911 
73,645 

44,810 
12,466 
57,276 

16,369 

1,785 
13,775 
15,560 

— 
809 

(16) 
(78) 
(94) 
715 
346 
369 

363 
0.11 
3,439 
0.10 
3,482 

50,226
14,160
64,386

20,421

1,720
15,847
17,567

2,115
4,969

(59)
(41)
(100)
4,869
(1,740)
6,609

6,496
1.93
3,362
1.91
3,405

$

$
$

$

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements. 

38 

 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
CSP INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 
For the Year Ended September 30, 2012:  
(Amounts in thousands) 

Shares 

Amount 

Additional 
Paid-in 
Capital 

Retained 
Earnings 

Accumulated 
other 
comprehensive
loss 

Total 
Shareholders’
Equity 

Comprehensive
Income 

3,520  $

35

$

11,280

$

12,516  $ 

(5,352) $

18,479

— 

— 

— 

25 
37 
(165)
3,417 

— 

— 

— 

— 
(28)
10 

— 
3,399  $

—

—

—

—
1
(2)
34

—

—

—

—
—
—

—
34

—

—

68

75
100
(643)
10,880

—

—

—

17
(97)
75

369  

—

369

$

369

(95)

(456)
(182)

—  

—  

—  

(95)

(456)

—

—

12,885  

(5,903)

(95)

(456)

$

68

75
101
(645)
17,896

6,609  

—

6,609

$

6,609

—  

—  

—  
—  
—  

(45)

(664)

—
—
—

(45)

(664)

17
(97)
75

$

(45)

(664)
5,900

—
10,875

$

(750)  
18,744  $ 

$

—
(6,612) $

(750)
23,041

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements. 

39 

Balance September 30, 2010 
Comprehensive loss: 
Net income 

Other comprehensive losses from: 
Effect of foreign currency 
translation 
Increase in minimum pension 
liability 
Total comprehensive loss 
Stock-based compensation 
Issuance of shares under employee 
stock purchase plan 
Restricted stock shares issued 
Purchase of common stock 
Balance as of September 30, 2011 
Comprehensive income (loss): 

Net income 

Other comprehensive losses from: 
Effect of foreign currency 
translation 
Increase in minimum pension 
liability 
Total comprehensive income 

Stock-based compensation 
Purchase of common stock  
Restricted stock issuance 
Cash dividends on common stock 
($0.22 per share) 
Balance as of September 30, 2012 

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CSP INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS 
(Amounts in thousands) 

For the Year ended 

September 30,  
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

Cash flows from operating activities: 
Net income 
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash used in operating activities: 

$

6,609 

 $

Depreciation and amortization 
Amortization of intangibles 
Loss on disposal of fixed assets, net 
Foreign exchange loss 
Non-cash changes in accounts receivable 
Stock-based compensation expense on stock options and restricted stock awards 
Deferred income taxes 
Increase (decrease) in cash surrender value of life insurance 
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: 

(Increase) decrease in accounts receivable 
Increase in officer life insurance settlement receivable 
Decrease in inventories 
Decrease in refundable income taxes 
Increase in other current assets 
Decrease in other assets 
Increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses 
Increase (decrease) in deferred revenue 
Increase (decrease) in pension and retirement plans liability 
Increase (decrease) in income taxes payable 
Increase in other long term liabilities 

Net cash provided by operating activities 

Cash flows from investing activities: 
Life insurance premiums paid 
Purchases of property, equipment and improvements 

Net cash used in investing activities 

Cash flows from financing activities: 

Dividends paid 
Proceeds from issuance of shares under employee stock purchase plan 
Purchase of common stock 
Capital Lease Obligations 
Net cash used in financing activities 
Effects of exchange rate on cash 
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 

Supplementary cash flow information: 
Cash paid for income taxes 
Cash paid for interest 

$

$
$

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements. 

40 

378 
82 
— 
59 
(54)   
92 
(2,855)   
881 

825 
(2,172)   
496 
101 
(674)   
22 
1,604 
824 
(116)   
63 
141 
6,306 

(143)   
(551)   
(694)   

(750)   
— 
(97)   
— 
(847)   
(146)   
4,619 
15,874 
20,493 

 $

369

370
113
4
16
16
169
179
(86)

(1,150)
—
(938)
497
(189)
56
2,199
(103)
(7)
(258)
286
1,543

(143)
(339)
(482)

—
74
(645)
(25)
(596)
(122)
343
15,531
15,874

1,056 
85 

 $
 $

220
85

 
 
  
  
 
  
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
  
CSP INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 
FOR THE YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2012 AND 2011 

Organization and Business 

CSP Inc. (“CSPI” or “the Company” or “we” or “our”) was founded in 1968 and is based in Billerica, Massachusetts. 

To meet the diverse requirements of its industrial, commercial and defense customers worldwide, CSPI and its subsidiaries 
develop and market IT integration solutions and high-performance cluster computer systems. The Company operates in two 
segments, its Systems segment and its Service and System Integration segment.  

1.         Summary of Significant Accounting Policies 

Principles of Consolidation  

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its subsidiaries. All significant inter-

company accounts and transactions have been eliminated. 

 Reclassifications 

Certain reclassifications have been made to the 2011 financial statements, with no effect on net income, to conform to 

the classifications used in 2012.  In note 12 - Segment Information, an item for $103 thousand contingency loss expense for the 
year ended September 30, 2011, was reclassified as a reduction to profit from operations from other expense to conform to the 
financial statement presentation. 

Foreign Currency Translation  

The U.S. Dollar is the reporting currency for all periods presented. The financial information for entities outside the 

United States is measured using the local currency as the functional currency. Assets and liabilities of the Company's foreign 
operations are translated into U.S. dollars at the exchange rates in effect at the balance sheet date. Revenue and expenses are 
translated at average rates in effect during the period. The resulting translation adjustment is reflected as accumulated other 
comprehensive income (loss), a separate component of shareholders' equity on the consolidated balance sheets. The translation 
adjustment for intercompany foreign currency loans that are of a long-term-investment nature is also reflected as accumulated 
other comprehensive income (loss). Currency transaction gains and losses are recorded as other income (expense) in the 
statements of operations.  

Cash Equivalents  

For purposes of the consolidated statement of cash flows, highly liquid investments with original maturities of three 

months or less at the time of acquisition are considered cash equivalents. 

Research and Development Expense 

For the year ended September 30, 2012, our expenses for research and development were approximately $1.7 million 

compared to approximately $1.8 million for fiscal year 2011. Expenditures for research and development are expensed as they 
are incurred.  

Fair Value Measurements  

We follow current accounting standards for fair value measurements, which define fair value as “the price that would be 
received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement 
date” and establish a fair value hierarchy that requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use 
of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. A financial instrument's categorization within the fair value hierarchy is 
based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement. There are three levels of inputs that may 
be used to measure fair value:  

Level 1  

Level 1 applies to assets or liabilities for which there are quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.  

Level 2  

Level 2 applies to assets or liabilities for which there are inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are 

observable for the asset or liability such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets; quoted prices for 

41 

 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
identical assets or liabilities in markets with insufficient volume or infrequent transactions (less active markets); or model-
derived valuations in which significant inputs are observable or can be derived principally from, or corroborated by, observable 
market data.  

Level 3  

Level 3 applies to assets or liabilities for which there are unobservable inputs to the valuation methodology that are 

significant to the measurement of the fair value of the assets or liabilities.  

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets  

The Company reviews its long-lived assets, including intangible assets subject to amortization, for impairment whenever 
events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. Management assesses 
the recoverability of the long-lived assets (other than goodwill) by comparing the estimated undiscounted cash flows associated 
with the related asset or group of assets against their respective carrying amounts. The amount of impairment, if any, is 
calculated based on the excess of the carrying amount over the fair value of those assets.  

 Intangible Assets  

Intangible assets that are not subject to amortization are also required to be tested annually, or more frequently if events 

or circumstances indicate that the asset may be impaired. We did not have intangible assets with indefinite lives at any time 
during the two years ended September 30, 2012. Intangible assets subject to amortization are amortized on a straight-line basis 
over their estimated useful lives, generally three to ten years, and are carried at cost, less accumulated amortization. The 
remaining useful lives of intangible assets are evaluated on an annual basis. Intangible assets subject to amortization are also 
tested for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that their carrying amount may not be 
recoverable. If the fair value of an intangible asset subject to amortization is determined to be less than its carrying value, then 
an impairment charge is recorded to write down that asset to its fair value.  

Inventories  

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or market, with cost determined using the first-in, first-out method. The 
recoverability of inventories is based upon the types and levels of inventories held, forecasted demand, pricing, competition 
and changes in technology. We write down our inventory for estimated obsolescence or unmarketable inventory equal to the 
difference between the cost of inventory and the estimated market value based upon assumptions about future demand and 
market conditions. If actual market conditions are less favorable than those projected by management, additional inventory 
write-downs may be required.  

Property, Equipment and Improvements  

The components of property, equipment and improvements are stated at cost. The Company provides for depreciation by 

use of the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the related assets (three to seven years). Leasehold 
improvements are amortized by use of the straight-line method over the lesser of the estimated useful life of the asset or the 
lease term. Repairs and maintenance costs are expensed as incurred. Property, equipment and improvements are tested for 
recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that its carrying amount may not be recoverable. If the fair 
value of property, equipment and improvements is determined to be less than their carrying value, then an impairment charge is 
recorded to write down that asset to its fair value.  

Trade Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts  

Trade accounts receivable are stated at amounts that have been billed to customers less an allowance for doubtful 
accounts. Allowances for doubtful accounts are recorded for the estimated losses resulting from the inability of our customers 
to make required payments. The estimates for the allowance for doubtful accounts are based on the length of time the 
receivables are past due, current business environment and our historical experience. If the financial condition of our customers 
were to deteriorate, resulting in impairment of their ability to make payments, additional allowances may be required. Accounts 
receivable are charged off against the reserve when management has determined they are uncollectible.  

Pension and Retirement Plans  

The funded status of pension and other postretirement benefit plans is recognized on the balance sheet. Gains and losses, 
prior service costs and credits and any remaining transition amounts that have not yet been recognized through pension expense 
will be recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income, net of tax, until they are amortized as a component of net 
periodic pension/postretirement benefits expense. Additionally, plan assets and obligations are measured as of our fiscal year-
end balance sheet date (September 30).  

42 

 
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
We have defined benefit and defined contribution plans in the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”), Germany and in the U.S. In 
the U.K. and Germany, the Company provides defined benefit pension plans for certain employees and former employees and 
defined contribution plans for the majority of the employees. The defined benefit plans in both the U.K. and Germany are 
closed to newly hired employees and have been for the two years ended September 30, 2012. In the U.S., the Company also 
provides defined contribution plans that cover most employees and supplementary retirement plans to certain employees and 
former employees who are now retired. These supplementary retirement plans are also closed to newly hired employees and 
have been for the two years ended September 30, 2012. These supplementary plans are funded through whole life insurance 
policies. The Company expects to recover all insurance premiums paid under these policies in the future, through the cash 
surrender value of the policies and any death benefits or portions thereof to be paid upon the death of the participant. These 
whole life insurance policies are carried on the balance sheet at their cash surrender values as they are owned by the Company 
and not assets of the defined benefit plans. In the U.S., the Company also provides for officer death benefits and post-
retirement health insurance benefits through supplemental post-retirement plans to certain officers. The Company also funds 
these supplemental plans' obligations through whole life insurance policies on the officers.  

Pension expense is based on an actuarial computation of current future benefits using estimates for expected return on 

assets, expected compensation increases and applicable discount rates. Management has reviewed the discount rates and rates 
of return with our consulting actuaries and investment advisor and concluded they were reasonable.  A decrease in the expected 
return on pension assets would increase pension expense. Expected compensation increases are estimated based on historical 
and expected increases in the future. Increases in estimated compensation increases would result in higher pension expense 
while decreases would lower pension expense. Discount rates are selected based upon rates of return on high quality fixed 
income investments currently available and expected to be available during the period to maturity of the pension benefit. A 
decrease in the discount rate would result in greater pension expense while an increase in the discount rate would decrease 
pension expense.  

The Company funds its pension plans in amounts sufficient to meet the requirements set forth in applicable employee 

benefits laws and local tax laws. Liabilities for amounts in excess of these funding levels are accrued and reported in the 
consolidated balance sheets. 

Revenue Recognition  

The Company recognizes product revenue from customers at the time of transfer of title and risk of loss which is 

generally at the time of shipment, provided that persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, the price is fixed or determinable 
and collectability of sales proceeds is reasonably assured. We include freight billed to our customers as sales and the related 
freight costs as cost of sales. The Company reduces revenue for estimated customer returns.  

The Company recognizes revenue from software licenses when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery of 

the product has occurred and the fee is fixed or determinable and collectability is probable. When delivery of services 
accompany software sales, and vendor specific objective evidence does not exist, and the only undelivered element is services 
that do not involve significant modification, or customization, of software, then the entire fee is recognized as the services are 
performed.  If no pattern of performance is discernible, the fee is recognized straight line over the service period. 

The Company also offers training, maintenance agreements and support services. The Company has established fair value 

on its training, maintenance and support services based on prices charged in separate sales to customers at prices established 
and published in its standard price lists. These prices are not discounted. Revenue from these service obligations under 
maintenance contracts is deferred and recognized on a straight-line basis over the contractual period, which is typically three to 
twelve months, if all other revenue recognition criteria have been met. Support services provided on a time and material basis 
are recognized as provided if all of the revenue recognition criteria have been met for that element and the support services 
have been provided. Training revenue is recognized when performed. 

In certain multiple-element revenue arrangements, the Company is obligated to deliver to its customers multiple products 

and/or services (“multiple elements”). In these transactions, the Company allocates the total revenue to be earned under the 
arrangement among the various elements based on the Company's best estimate of the standalone selling price. The allocation 
is based on vendor specific objective evidence, third party evidence or estimated selling price when that element is sold 
separately. The Company recognizes revenue related to the delivered products or services only if the above revenue recognition 
criteria are met and the delivered element has standalone value.  

Description of Multiple-Deliverable Arrangements and Software Elements 

In many cases, our multiple-deliverable arrangements involve initial shipment of hardware (including tangible products 

that include software and non-software elements), software products and subsequent delivery of services which add value to the 
products that have been shipped.  In some instances, services are performed prior to product shipment, but more typically 

43 

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
    
services are performed subsequent to shipment of the hardware products. The timing of the delivery and performance of 
deliverables may vary case-by-case.  We evaluate whether we can determine VSOE or third-party evidence to allocate revenue 
among the various elements in an arrangement. When VSOE or third-party evidence cannot be determined, we use estimated 
selling prices to allocate revenue to the various elements.  Estimated selling prices are determined using the targeted gross 
margin for each element and calculating the gross revenue for each element that would have been required to achieve the 
targeted gross margin, and allocating revenue to each element based on those relative values. 

Typically, product revenue which may consist of hardware (including tangible products that include software and non-

software elements) and/or software elements are recognized upon shipment, or when risk of loss passes to the customer.  
Services elements are typically recognized upon completion for fixed-price service arrangements, and as services are performed 
for time and materials service arrangements. For software elements that include services that do not involve significant 
production, modification or customization, and VSOE does not exist, the entire fee allocable to that element is recognized as 
the services are performed. If no pattern of performance is discernible, the fee is recognized straight line over the service 
period.  The period over which services are delivered typically ranges from approximately sixty to ninety days, or longer in 
some cases. 

For tangible products containing software components and non-software components, we determine whether these 
elements function together to deliver the tangible product essential functionality.  If the software and non-software components 
of the tangible product function together to deliver the tangible product's essential functionality, software revenue recognition 
guidance is not applied, but rather other appropriate revenue recognition guidance as described above. 

The following policies are applicable to the Company's major categories of segment revenue transactions:  

Systems Segment Revenue  

Revenue in the Systems segment consists of product and service revenue. Generally, product revenue is recognized when 

product is shipped, provided that all revenue recognition criteria are met. Service revenue consists principally of royalty 
revenue related to the licensing of certain of the Company's proprietary system technology and repair services. The Company 
recognizes royalty revenues upon notification by the customer of shipment of the systems produced pursuant to the royalty 
agreement. Repair service revenue is generally based upon a fixed price and is recognized upon completion of the repair.  

From time to time we enter into multiple element arrangements in the Systems segment. We follow the accounting 

policies described above for such arrangements.  

The Company's standard sales agreements generally do not include customer acceptance provisions. However, in certain 

instances when arrangements include a customer acceptance provision or there is uncertainty about customer acceptance, 
revenue is deferred until the Company has evidence of customer acceptance. Customers generally do not have the right of 
return, once customer acceptance has occurred.  

Service and System Integration Segment Revenue  

Revenue in the Service and System Integration Segment consists of product and service revenue.  

Revenue from the sale of third-party hardware and third-party software is recognized when the revenue recognition 
criteria are met. The Company's standard sales agreements generally do not include customer acceptance provisions. However, 
in certain instances when arrangements include a customer acceptance provision or there is uncertainty about customer 
acceptance, revenue is deferred until the Company has evidence of customer acceptance. Customers do not have the right of 
return.  

Service revenue is comprised of information technology consulting development, installation, implementation and 
maintenance services. We follow the accounting policies described above for service transactions. For arrangements that 
include a customer acceptance provision, or if there is uncertainty about customer acceptance of services rendered, revenue is 
deferred until the Company has evidence of customer acceptance. 

 For sales that are financed by customers through leases with a third party, when risk of loss does not pass to the customer 

until the lease is executed, revenue is recognized upon cash receipt and execution of the lease. 

We sell certain third party service contracts, which are evaluated to determine whether the sale of such service revenue 

should be recorded as gross sales or net sales in accordance with the sales recognition criteria as required by accounting 
principles generally accepted in the U.S. We must determine whether we act as a principal in the transaction and assume the 
risks and rewards of ownership or if we are simply acting as an agent or broker. Under gross sales recognition, the entire selling 
price is recorded in sales and our cost to the third-party service provider or vendor is recorded in cost of goods sold. Under net 
sales recognition, the cost to the third-party service provider or vendor is recorded as a reduction to sales resulting in net sales 
equal to the gross profit on the transaction and there are no costs of goods sold. We use the net sales recognition method for the 

44 

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
third party service contracts that we sell when we are not the primary obligor on the contract. We use the gross sales 
recognition for the third party service contracts that we sell when we act as principal and are the primary obligor. 

Product Warranty Accrual  

Our product sales generally include a 90-day to one-year hardware warranty. At time of product shipment, we accrue for 

the estimated cost to repair or replace potentially defective products. Estimated warranty costs are based upon prior actual 
warranty costs for substantially similar products.  

Engineering and Development Expenses  

Engineering and development expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation and other 
headcount-related expenses associated with product development.  Engineering and development expenses also include third-
party development and programming costs. We consider technological feasibility for our software products to be reached upon 
the release of the software, accordingly, no internal software development costs have been capitalized.  

Income Taxes  

We use the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes whereby deferred tax assets and liabilities are 
recognized for the estimated future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying 
amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using 
enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect 
on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment 
date. We also reduce deferred tax assets by a valuation allowance if, based on the weight of available evidence, it is more likely 
than not that some portion or all of the recorded deferred tax assets will not be realized in future periods. This methodology 
requires estimates and judgments in the determination of the recoverability of deferred tax assets and in the calculation of 
certain tax liabilities. Valuation allowances are recorded against the gross deferred tax assets that management believes, after 
considering all available positive and negative objective evidence, historical and prospective, with greater weight given to 
historical evidence, that it is more likely than not that these assets will not be realized.  

In addition, we are required to recognize in the consolidated financial statements, those tax positions determined to be 
more-likely-than-not of being sustained upon examination, based on the technical merits of the positions as of the reporting 
date. If a tax position is not considered more-likely-than-not to be sustained based solely on its technical merits, no benefits of 
the position are recognized.  

In addition, the calculation of the Company's tax liabilities involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of 

complex tax regulations in a multitude of jurisdictions. The Company records liabilities for estimated tax obligations in the 
U.S. and other tax jurisdictions. These estimated tax liabilities include the provision for taxes that may become payable in the 
future.  

Earnings per Share of Common Stock  

Basic net income per common share is computed by dividing net income available to common shareholders by the 

weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted net income per common share reflects the 
maximum dilution that would have resulted from the assumed exercise and share repurchase related to dilutive stock options 
and is computed by dividing net income by the assumed weighted average number of common shares outstanding. 

We are required to present earnings per share, or EPS, utilizing the two class method because we had outstanding, non-

vested share-based payment awards that contain non-forfeitable rights to dividends or dividend equivalents, which are 
considered participating securities.   

Basic and diluted earnings per share computations for the Company's reported net income attributable to common 

stockholders are as follows: 

45 

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Net income 
Less: Net income attributable to nonvested common stock 
Net income attributable to common stockholders 

Weighted average total shares outstanding - basic 
Less: weighted average non-vested shares outstanding 

Weighted average number of common shares outstanding - basic
Potential common shares from non-vested stock awards and the 
assumed exercise of stock options 
Weighted average common shares outstanding - diluted 
Net income per share - basic 
Net income per share - diluted 

$
$

For the year ended   

$

September 30, 2012    September 30, 2011
(Amounts in thousands except per share data) 
369
6
363

6,609
113
6,496

 $ 

 $ 

$

3,421
59

3,362

43
3,405
1.93   $ 
1.91   $ 

3,491
52

3,439

43
3,482
0.11
0.10

All anti-dilutive securities, including stock options, are excluded from the diluted income per share computation. For the 

year ended September 30, 2012, 197 thousand options were excluded from the diluted income per share calculation because 
their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive.  For the year ended September 30, 2011, approximately 204 thousand options 
were excluded from the diluted income per share calculation because their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive. 

Use of Estimates  

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the 

United States requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities 
and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues 
and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results may differ from those estimates under different assumptions or 
conditions.  

Stock-Based Compensation  

We measure and recognize compensation expense for all stock-based payment awards made to employees and directors 
including stock options and nonvested shares of common stock based on estimated fair values of stock-based payment awards 
on the date of grant. The Company uses the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to calculate the fair value of stock option 
grants. The fair value of nonvested share awards is equal to the quoted market price of our common stock as quoted on the 
Nasdaq Global Market on the date of grant. The value of the portion of the award that is ultimately expected to vest is 
recognized as expense over the requisite service periods in the Company's Consolidated Statement of Operations.  

Because stock-based compensation expense recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the fiscal years 

ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 is based on awards ultimately expected to vest, it has been reduced for estimated 
forfeitures and will be revised, if necessary, in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates.  

Stock-based compensation expense recognized for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 consisted of 

stock-based compensation expense related to options and nonvested stock granted pursuant to the Company's stock incentive 
and employee stock purchase plans of approximately $92 thousand and $169 thousand, respectively.  

Concentrations of Credit Risk  

Cash and cash equivalents are maintained with several financial institutions in the US, Germany and in the UK. Deposits 

held with banks may exceed the amount of insurance on such deposits. Generally, these deposits may be redeemed upon 
demand. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts and believes it is not exposed to any significant credit 
risk on cash and cash equivalents. 

Subsequent Events  

The Company recognizes in the consolidated financial statements the effects of all subsequent events that provide 

additional evidence about conditions that existed at the date of the statement of financial position, including the estimates 
inherent in the process of preparing financial statements.  

New Accounting Pronouncements  

46 

 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
In June 2011, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2011-05, Comprehensive Income (Topic 220) - 

Presentation of Comprehensive Income (“ASU 2011-05”), which requires all non-owner changes in stockholders' equity to be 
presented either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements.  ASU 
2011-05 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods within those years beginning after December 15, 2011. The Company 
will adopt this standard for the quarter ending December 31, 2012.  The adoption of this standard will not have an impact to the 
consolidated financial statements aside from presentation. 

2.         Inventories 

Inventories consist of the following: 

Raw materials 
Work-in-process 
Finished goods 
Total 

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

(Amounts in thousands) 
 $ 

941 
1,407 
3,928 
6,276 

 $ 

886
539
5,352
6,777

$

$

Finished goods includes inventory that has been shipped, but for which all revenue recognition criteria has not been met, 

of approximately $1.4 million and $3.4 million as of September 30, 2012 and September 30, 2011, respectively. 

Total inventory balances in the table above are shown net of reserves for obsolescence of approximately $4.4 million 

and $4.3 million as of September 30, 2012 and September 30, 2011, respectively. 

47 

 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
  
  
3.        Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss 

 The components of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss are as follows: 

Balance as of September 30, 2010 
Change in Period 
Tax effect of change in period 
Balance as of September 30, 2011 
Change in Period 
Tax effect of change in period 
Balance as of September 30, 2012 

Effect of 
Foreign 
Currency 
Translation 

Minimum 
Pension 
Liability 

Accumulated 
Other 
Comprehensive 
Loss 

$

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
(3,219) $
(439)
(17)
(3,675) $
(591)
(73)
(4,339) $

(2,133) $
(95)
—
(2,228) $
(45)
—
(2,273) $

(5,352) 
(534) 
(17) 
(5,903) 
(636) 
(73) 
(6,612) 

The changes in the minimum pension liability are net of amortization of net loss of $182 thousand in 2012 and $147 

thousand in 2011 included in net periodic pension cost.  

4. 

Income Taxes 

 The components of income before income tax and income tax expense (benefit) are comprised of the following:  

Income before income tax: 
U.S. 
Foreign 

Income tax expense (benefit): 
Current: 
Federal 
State 
Foreign 

Deferred: 
Federal 
State 
Foreign 

For the Years Ended 
September 30, 

2012 

2011 

(Amounts in thousands) 

$

$

$

$

 $ 

 $ 

 $ 

4,382 
487 
4,869 

1,088 
58 
40 
1,186 

(2,734)   
(274)   
82 
(2,926)   
(1,740)   $ 

501
214
715

157
39
(12)
184

(16)
19
159
162
346

 We realized a tax benefit for the year ended September 30, 2012, despite the fact that we had positive earnings before 

taxes for the year.  This was because we reduced the valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets, which had been 
accumulated over the past several years.  The recording and ultimate reversal of valuation allowances for our deferred tax asset 
requires significant judgment associated with past and projected performance.  In assessing the realizability of deferred tax 
assets, we consider our taxable future earnings and the expected timing of the reversal of temporary differences. In prior years, 
we recorded a valuation allowance which reduced the gross deferred tax asset to an amount that we believed was more likely 
than not to be realized because our inability to project future profitability beyond fiscal year 2012 in the U.S. and cumulative 
losses incurred in recent years in the United Kingdom represented sufficient negative evidence to record a valuation allowance 
against certain deferred tax assets. 

48 

 
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
    
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
As of September 30, 2012, management assessed the positive and negative evidence in the U.S operations, and estimated 
we will have sufficient future taxable income to utilize the existing deferred tax assets. Significant objective positive evidence 
included the cumulative profits that we realized over the most recent years.  This evidence enhances our ability to consider 
other subjective evidence such as our projections for future growth. Other factors we considered are the likelihood for 
continued royalty income in future years, and our expectation that the Service and Systems Integration segment will continue to 
be profitable in future years. On the basis of this evaluation, as of September 30, 2012, we have concluded that our US deferred 
tax asset is more likely than not to be realized. Therefore, we reversed the U.S. valuation allowance of $3.0 million, resulting in 
an overall tax benefit for the year ended September 30, 2012.  It should be noted however, that the amount of the deferred tax 
asset realized could be adjusted in future years, if estimates of taxable income during the carryforward periods are reduced, or 
if objective negative evidence in the form of cumulative losses is present.  

We continue to  maintain a full valuation allowance against our United Kingdom deferred tax assets as we have 

experienced cumulative losses and do not have any indication that the operation will be profitable in the future to an extent that 
will allow us to utilize much of our net operating loss carryforwards. To the extent that actual experience deviates from our 
assumptions, our projections would be affected and hence our assessment of realizability of our deferred tax assets may change. 

Reconciliation of “expected” income tax expense (benefit) to “actual” income tax expense (benefit) is as follows:  

For the Years Ended September 30, 

2012 

2011 

Computed “expected” tax expense 
Increases (reductions) in taxes resulting from: 
State income taxes, net of federal tax benefit 
Foreign operations 
Change in valuation allowance 
Permanent differences 
Stock-based compensation 
Foreign net operating loss 
Uncertain tax liability adjustment 
Other items 
Income tax expense 

$

1,656

(236)
(176)
(2,762)
(388)
4
107
37
18
$ (1,740)

(Dollar amounts in thousands) 
243 

34.0% 

 $ 

(4.9)%   
(3.6)%   
(56.8)%   
(8.0)%   
0.1% 
2.2% 
0.8% 
0.4% 
(35.8)%   $ 

38 
(85) 
(46) 
8 
11 
163 
14 
— 
346 

34.0% 

5.2% 
(11.9)%
(6.4)%
1.1% 
1.6% 
22.8% 
2.0% 
—
48.4% 

The Company recorded a consolidated income tax benefit of $1.7 million in fiscal year 2012 reflecting an effective tax 

benefit rate of (36)% compared to a tax expense of $0.3 million in fiscal year 2011 with an effective tax rate of 48%.  

49 

 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
For the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, temporary differences, which give rise to deferred tax assets 

(liabilities), are as follows:  

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

(Amounts in thousands) 

Deferred tax assets: 
Pension 
Goodwill 
Other reserves and accruals 
Inventory reserves and other 
State credits, net of federal benefit 
Federal and state net operating loss carryforwards 
Foreign net operating loss carryforwards 
Foreign tax credits 
Depreciation and amortization 
Gross deferred tax assets 
Less: valuation allowance 
Realizable deferred tax asset 
Gross deferred tax liabilities 
Net deferred tax assets 

$

$

 $ 

1,911 
723 
625 
713 
79 
30 
1,815 
7 
61 
5,964 
(2,307)   
3,657 
— 
3,657 

 $ 

2,142
821
483
566
86
54
1,898
7
111
6,168
(5,347)
821
—
821

The deferred tax valuation allowance decreased by $3.0 million, from $5.3 million at September 30, 2011, to $2.3 million 

at September 30, 2012. In assessing the realizability of deferred tax assets, the Company considers its taxable future earnings 
and the expected timing of the reversal of temporary differences. Accordingly, the Company has recorded a valuation 
allowance which reduces the gross deferred tax asset to an amount which management believes will more likely than not be 
realized. The valuation allowance was determined by assessing both positive and negative evidence whether it is more likely 
than not that deferred tax assets are realizable. Such assessment is done on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis. The Company's 
inability to project future profitability beyond fiscal year 2013 and the cumulative losses incurred in recent years in the U.K. 
represent sufficient negative evidence to record a valuation allowance against certain deferred tax assets.  

As of September 30, 2012 and 2011, the Company had U.S. net operating loss carryforwards for state tax purposes of 

approximately $ 1.2 million and $1.5 million, respectively which are available to offset future taxable income through 2030.  

As of September 30, 2012, the Company had U.K. net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $8.9 million that 

have an indefinite life with no expiration.  

Undistributed earnings of the Company's foreign subsidiaries amounted to approximately $3.4 million and $3.0 million at 

September 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively. The Company's policy is that its undistributed foreign earnings are indefinitely 
reinvested and, accordingly, no U.S. federal and state deferred tax liabilities have been recorded.  

In addition, the calculation of the Company's tax liabilities involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of 

complex tax regulations in a multitude of jurisdictions. The Company records liabilities for estimated tax obligations in the 
U.S. and other tax jurisdictions. These estimated tax liabilities include the provision for taxes that may become payable in the 
future.  

As of September 30, 2012, the total amount of uncertain tax liabilities was $0.6 million, all of which would affect our 
effective tax rate if recognized. We recognize interest and potential penalties accrued related to unrecognized tax benefits in our 
provision for income taxes. 

50 

 
 
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
   
  
  
  
A reconciliation of the beginning and ending balances of the total amounts of gross unrecognized tax benefits is as 

follows: 

For the Year Ended 
September 30, 2012 

For the Year Ended 
September 30, 2011 

(Amounts in thousands) 

Balance, beginning of year 
Increases in tax positions in the current year 
Settlements 
Lapse in statute of limitations 
Accrued penalties and interest 
Balance, end of period 

$

$

472   $
104  
—  
(2)  
37  
611   $

—
458
—
—
14
472

We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdictions and various state and foreign jurisdictions.  The Company has 
reviewed the tax positions taken on returns filed domestically and in its foreign jurisdictions for all open years, generally fiscal 
2009 through 2012, and believes that tax adjustments in any audited year will not be material, except for the uncertain tax 
position described above. 

5.    Property, Equipment and Improvements, Net  

  Property, equipment and improvements, net consist of the following:  

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

Leasehold improvements 
Equipment 
Automobiles 

Less accumulated depreciation and amortization 
Property, equipment and improvements, net 

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
 $ 

370 
7,178 
118 
7,666 
(6,675)   
991 

 $ 

364
6,717
118
7,199
(6,366)
833

The Company uses the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets to record depreciation expense. 
Depreciation expense was $378 thousand and $370 thousand for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively.  

51 

 
  
  
 
  
 
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
6.    Acquired Intangible Assets  

 As of September 30, 2012 and 2011, intangible assets are as follows: 

September 30, 2012 

September 30, 2011 

Weighted 
Average 
Remaining 
Amortization 
Period 

  Gross   

Accumulated 
Amortization 

Net 

Weighted 
Average 
Remaining 
Amortization 
Period 

Gross 

Accumulated 
Amortization 

Net 

Customer list 
Non-Compete 
agreements 
Total 

6 years  $  820 

 $ 

— 

93 
6 years  $  913 

 $ 

(Amounts in thousands) 
$ 492

7 years $ 820 

—
$ 492

—

93 
7 years $ 913 

328

93
421

 $ 

 $ 

246

$

574

93
339

$

—
574

Amortization expense on these intangible assets was $82 thousand and $113 thousand for fiscal 2012 and 2011, 

respectively.  

Annual amortization expense related to intangible assets for each of the following successive fiscal years is as follows: 

Fiscal year ending September 30:  
2013 
2014 
2015 
2016 
2017 
Thereafter 
Total 

7.    Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses  

Accounts payable and accrued expenses consist of the following: 

Accounts payable 
Commissions 
Compensation and fringe benefits 
Professional fees and shareholders' reporting costs 
Taxes, other than income 
Warranty 
Current portion of capital lease 
Other 

8.    Stock Options and Awards  

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
82
$ 
82
82
82
82
82
492

$ 

September 30, 

2012 

2011 

 $ 

(Amounts in thousands) 
9,458 
225  
2,593  
572  
316  
146  
13  
251  
13,574 

 $ 

8,974
155
1,719
501
174
150
24
406
12,103

In 1991, the Company adopted the 1991 Stock Option Plan (the “1991 Plan”), and authorized 332,750 shares of common 
stock to be reserved for issuance pursuant to the 1991 Plan. The 1991 Plan expired on October 23, 2001. In 1997, the Company 
adopted the 1997 Stock Option Plan (the “1997 Plan”), and authorized 199,650 shares of common stock to be reserved for 
issuance pursuant to the 1997 Plan. The 1997 plan expired in 2007. Because the 1991 Plan and the 1997 Plan have expired, no 
further awards will be issued under these plans. In 2003, the Company adopted the 2003 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2003 Plan”) 
and authorized 200,000 shares of common stock to be reserved for issuance pursuant to the 2003 Plan. As of September 30, 
2012, there were 12,000 shares available to be granted under the 2003 Plan. In 2007, the Company adopted the 2007 Stock 
Incentive Plan (the “2007 Plan”) and authorized 250,000 shares of common stock to be reserved for issuance pursuant to the 
2007 Plan. As of September 30, 2012, there were 129,283 shares available to be granted under the 2007 Plan. In 2003, the 

52 

 
   
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
   
Company issued non-qualified stock options to non-officer employees hired as part of the Technisource acquisition. These 
options were granted at their fair value on the date of grant. These options vested over a period of four years and expire ten 
years from the date of grant. Under all of the stock incentive plans, both incentive stock options and non-qualified stock options 
may be granted to officers, key employees and other persons providing services to the Company. The 2003 Plan and 2007 Plan 
also provide for awards of nonvested shares of common stock. All of the Company's stock incentive plans have a ten year life. 
The total number of available shares under all plans for future awards was 141,283 as of September 30, 2012.  

Options issued under any of the stock option plans are not affected by termination of the plan. The Company issues stock 

options at their fair market value on the date of grant. Vesting of stock options granted pursuant to the Company's stock 
incentive plans is determined by the Company's compensation committee. Generally, options granted to employees vest over 
four years and expire ten years from the date of grant. Options granted to non-employee directors have historically included 
cliff vesting after six months from the date of grant and expire three years from the date of grant. In fiscal 2010, 2011 and 2012, 
the Company granted certain officers including its Chief Executive Officer and non-employee directors shares of nonvested 
common stock instead of stock options. The vesting periods for the officers', the Chief Executive Officer's and the directors' 
nonvested stock awards are four years, three years and one year, respectively.  

We measure and recognize compensation expense for all stock-based payment awards made to employees and directors 
including employee stock options and awards of nonvested stock based on estimated fair values, as described in note 1. Stock-
based compensation expense incurred and recognized for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 related to stock options 
and nonvested stock granted to employees and non-employee directors under the Company's stock incentive and employee 
stock purchase plans totaled approximately $92 thousand and $169 thousand, respectively. The classification of the cost of 
share-based compensation, in the statements of operations, is consistent with the nature of the services being rendered in 
exchange for the share based payment. The following table summarizes stock-based compensation expense in the Company's 
consolidated statements of operations:  

Year ended 

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

Cost of sales 
Engineering and development 
Selling, general and administrative 
Total 

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
 $ 

— 
5 
87 
92 

 $ 

1
12
156
169

For the year ended September 30, 2012, the Company granted 1,750 share options to certain key employees, 28,000 

nonvested shares to certain officers including the Chief Executive Officer and 10,000 nonvested shares to its non-employee 
directors. For the year ended September 30, 2011, the Company granted 1,750 share options to certain key employees, 27,000 
nonvested shares to certain officers including its Chief Executive Officer and 10,000 nonvested shares to its non-employee 
directors.  

The Company measures the fair value of nonvested stock awards based upon the market price of its common stock as of 
the date of grant. The Company uses the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to value stock options. The Black-Scholes model 
requires the use of a number of assumptions including volatility of the Company's stock price, the weighted average risk-free 
interest rate and the weighted average expected life of the options, at the time of grant. The expected dividend yield is equal to 
the divided per share declared, divided by the closing share price on the date the options were granted.  Because the Company 
had never paid a dividend until fiscal year 2012, the dividend rate variable in the Black-Scholes was zero for the fiscal year 
2011. The table below summarizes the assumptions used to value these options:  

Expected volatility 
Expected dividend yield 
Risk-free interest rate 
Expected term (in years) 

Year ended 

September 30, 
2012 
52% 
2.92% 
1.32% 
7.25 

September 30, 
2011 
57% 
— 
2.88% 
6.88 

The volatility assumption is based on the historical weekly price data of the Company's stock over a period equivalent to 
the weighted average expected life of the Company's options. Management evaluated whether there were factors during those 

53 

 
  
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
periods which would distort the volatility figures if used to estimate future volatility and concluded that there were no such 
factors.  

The risk-free interest rate assumptions are based on U.S. Treasury rates determined at the date of option grant.  

The expected terms of employee stock options represent weighted-average periods that the stock options are expected to 
remain outstanding. They are based upon the historical average of the actual terms that stock options were outstanding, or are 
expected to be outstanding. Management believes this historical data is representative of the expected term of options granted 
for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011.  

As stock-based compensation expense recognized in the consolidated statements of operations is based on awards 
ultimately expected to vest, expense for grants beginning upon adoption on October 1, 2005 has been reduced for estimated 
forfeitures. Forfeitures are estimated at the time of grant and revised, if necessary, in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures 
differ from those estimates. The forfeiture rates for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 were based on actual 
forfeitures.  

No cash was used to settle equity instruments granted under share-base payment arrangements in any of the years in the 

two-year period ended September 30, 2012.  

The following tables provide summary data of stock option award activity:  

Weighted
average 
exercise 
price 

Weighted 
Average 
Remaining 
Contractual 
Term 

Aggregate 
Intrinsic 
Value 
(in thousands) 

Number 
of Shares 

Outstanding at September 30, 2010 
Granted 
Expired 
Forfeited 
Exercised 
Outstanding at September 30, 2011 
Granted 
Expired 
Forfeited 
Exercised 
Outstanding at September 30, 2012 
Exercisable at September 30, 2012 
Vested and expected to vest at September 30, 2012 

$
274,775
1,750
$
(31,100) $
—
—
$
245,425
1,750
$
(750) $
—
—
246,425
239,174
246,425

$
$
$

6.95
3.85
5.05
—
—
7.13
3.43
4.79
—
—
7.11
7.23
7.11

— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 

2.18 Years  $ 
2.02 Years  $ 
2.18 Years  $ 

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
94
86
94

The weighted average grant date fair value of share options granted during the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 

was $3.43 and $2.27, respectively. The aggregate intrinsic value of stock options exercised during the years ended 
September 30, 2012 and 2011 was zero (there were no stock options exercised in fiscal 2012 and 2011). 

54 

 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
The following table provides summary data of nonvested stock award activity:  

Weighted
Average 
grant date
Fair 
Value 

Weighted 
Average 
Remaining 
Contractual 
Term  

Aggregate 
Intrinsic 
Value  
(in thousands)

Number of
nonvested 
shares 

Nonvested shares outstanding at September 30, 2010 
Activity in 2011: 
Granted 
Vested 
Forfeited 
Nonvested shares outstanding at September 30, 2011 
Activity in 2012: 
Granted 
Vested 
Forfeited 
Nonvested shares outstanding at September 30, 2012 
Vested at September 30, 2012 
Vested and expected to vest at September 30, 2012 

39,866

$

3.61

37,000
$
(21,017) $
—
55,849

$

38,000
$
(27,766) $
(29,333)
36,750
63,217
99,967

$
$
$

3.97
3.58
—
3.86

3.56
3.87
—
3.68
3.64
3.66

— 

— 
— 
— 
— 

— 
— 
— 

   2.11 Years  $ 
0.32 Years  $ 
0.98 Years  $ 

—

—
—
—
—

—
—
—
165
283
448

As of September 30, 2012 there was $95 thousand of total unrecognized compensation cost related to nonvested share-
based compensation arrangements (including share option and nonvested share awards) granted under the company's stock 
incentive plans. This cost is expected to be expensed over a weighted average period of approximately 2.37 years. The total fair 
value of shares vested during the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 was $141 thousand and $154 thousand, 
respectively. 

9.    Pension and Retirement Plans  

We have defined benefit and defined contribution plans in the U.K., Germany and in the U.S. In the U.K. and Germany, 

the Company provides defined benefit pension plans for certain employees and former employees and defined contribution 
plans for the majority of the employees. The defined benefit plans in both the U.K. and Germany are closed to newly hired 
employees and have been for the two years ended September 30, 2012. In the U.S., the Company also provides defined 
contribution plans that cover most employees and supplementary retirement plans to certain employees and former employees 
who are now retired. These supplementary retirement plans are also closed to newly hired employees and have been for the two 
years ended September 30, 2012. These supplementary plans are funded through whole life insurance policies. The Company 
expects to recover all insurance premiums paid under these policies in the future, through the cash surrender value of the 
policies and any death benefits or portions thereof to be paid upon the death of the participant. These whole life insurance 
policies are carried on the balance sheet at their cash surrender values as they are owned by the Company and not assets of the 
defined benefit plans. In the U.S., the Company also provides for officer death benefits and post-retirement health insurance 
benefits through supplemental post-retirement plans to certain officers. The Company also funds these supplemental plans' 
obligations through whole life insurance policies on the officers.  

Defined Benefit Plans  

The Company funds its pension plans in amounts sufficient to meet the requirements set forth in applicable employee 

benefits laws and local tax laws. Liabilities for amounts in excess of these funding levels are accrued and reported in the 
consolidated balance sheet.  

The German Plan does not have any assets and therefore all costs and benefits of the plan are funded annually with cash 

flow from operations.  

The domestic supplemental retirement plans have life insurance policies which are not considered plan assets but were 

purchased by the Company as a vehicle to fund the costs of the plan. These insurance policies are included in the balance sheet 
at their cash surrender value, net of policy loans, aggregating $1.8 million and $1.8 million as of September 30, 2012 and 2011, 
respectively. The loans against the policies have been taken out by the Company to pay the premiums. The costs and benefit 
payments for these plans are paid through operating cash flows of the Company to the extent that they can not be funded 

55 

 
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
through the use of the cash values in the insurance policies. The Company expects that the recorded value of the insurance 
policies will be sufficient to fund all of the Company's obligations under these plans.  

Assumptions:  

The following table provides the weighted average actuarial assumptions used to determine the actuarial present value of 

projected benefit obligations at: 

Discount rate: 
Expected return on plan assets: 
Rate of compensation increase: 

Domestic  
September 30,  

International  
September 30,  

2012 

2011 

2012 

2011 

4%

—
—

4.75%
—
—

4.05 % 
4.70 % 
1.00 % 

5.04%
5.40%
1.12%

The following table provides the weighted average actuarial assumptions used to determine net periodic benefit cost for 

years ended:  

Discount rate: 
Expected return on plan assets: 
Rate of compensation increase: 

Domestic  

International  

September 30,  

September 30,  

2012 

4.75%
—
—

2011 
5.25%
—
—

2012 

2011 

5.04%   
5.40%   
1.12%   

4.66%
6.20%
1.20%

For domestic plans, the discount rate was determined by comparison against the Citigroup Pension Discount Curve and 

Liability Index for AA rated corporate instruments. The Company monitors other indices to assure that the pension obligations 
are fairly reported on a consistent basis. The international discount rates were determined by comparison against country 
specific AA corporate indices, adjusted for duration of the obligation.  

The periodic benefit cost and the actuarial present value of projected benefit obligations are based on actuarial 
assumptions that are reviewed on an annual basis. The Company revises these assumptions based on an annual evaluation of 
long-term trends, as well as market conditions that may have an impact on the cost of providing retirement benefits.  

56 

 
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
The components of net periodic benefit costs related to the U.S. and international plans are as follows:  

Years Ended September 30  

2012 

2011 

Foreign 

U.S. 

Total 

Foreign     U.S.   Total 

(amounts in thousands) 

Pension: 
Service cost 
Interest cost 
Expected return on plan assets 
Amortization of: 
Prior service gains 
Amortization of net (gain)/loss 
Net periodic benefit cost 
Post Retirement: 
Service cost 
Interest cost 
Expected return on plan assets 
Amortization of: 
Prior service costs/(gains) 
Amortization of net (gain)/loss 
Net periodic benefit cost 
Pension: 
Increase (decrease) in minimum liability included in other 
comprehensive income (loss) 
Post Retirement: 
Increase (decrease) in minimum liability included in other 
comprehensive income (loss) 
Total: 
Increase (decrease) in minimum liability included in 
comprehensive income (loss) 

$

$

$

$

61
708
(462)

$

71
$ 10
84
792
— (462)

$ 

73 
688  
(503 ) 

 $  10
99
  —

$

83
787
(503)

—
82
389

—
30
$ 124

—
112
$ 513

$ 

—  
69  
327 

  —
31
 $  140

—
100
$ 467

— $ — $ — $ 
—
—

71
—

71
—

—
—
70
—
— $ 141

—
70
$ 141

$ 

— 
—  
—  

—  
—  
— 

$

 $  20
68
  —

20
68
—

  —
47
 $  135

—
47
$ 135

$ 1,367

$ (14) $

1,35
3

$ 

373 

 $ 

(3) $ 370

— (762)

(762)

—  

69

69

(77

$ 1,367

$

6) $ 591

$ 

373 

 $  66

$ 439

57 

 
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
    
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
The following table presents an analysis of the changes in 2012 and 2011 of the benefit obligation, the plan assets and the 

funded status of the plans:  

Years Ended September 30  

2012 

2011 

Foreign 

U.S.  

Total   Foreign     U.S.  

Total  

(Amounts in thousands) 

Pension: 
Change in projected benefit obligation (“PBO”)    
Balance beginning of year 
Service cost 
Interest cost 
Changes in actuarial assumptions 
Foreign exchange impact 
Benefits paid 
Projected benefit obligation at end of year 
Changes in fair value of plan assets: 
Fair value of plan assets at beginning of year 
Actual gain (loss) on plan assets 
Company contributions 
Foreign exchange impact 
Benefits paid 
Fair value of plan assets at end of year 
Funded status 
Unamortized net loss 
Net amount recognized 
Post Retirement: 

$ 14,107
61
708
1,863
271
(435)
$ 16,575

$ 1,759
10
84
13
—
(261)
$ 1,605

$ 15,86
6
71
792
1,876
271
(696)
$ 18,18
0

$ 14,118 
73 
687 
(294)   
(154)   
(324)   

$ 14,106 

 $  1,895
10
99
28
—
(273)
 $  1,759

$ 16,013
83
786
(266)
(154)
(597)
$ 15,865

$ 7,937 

—
261
—
(261)

$ — $ 7,598
1,004
702
306
(696)
$ — $ 8,914

 $  — $ 7,937
$ 7,598
1,004
(270)
582
441
306
(55)
(596)
(435)
$ 8,914
— $ 7,598
$ (7,661) $ (1,605) $ (9,266) $ (6,508)   $ (1,759) $ (8,267)
—
$ (7,661) $ (1,605) $ (9,266) $ (6,508)   $ (1,759) $ (8,267)

(270)   
309 
(55)   
(323)   

—
273
—
(273)

$ 7,598 

— 

—

—

—

—

Change in projected benefit obligation (“PBO”):
Balance beginning of year 
Service cost 
Interest cost 
Changes in actuarial assumptions 
Foreign exchange impact 
Benefits paid 
Projected benefit obligation at end of year 
Changes in fair value of plan assets: 
Fair value of plan assets at beginning of year 
Actual gain/(loss) on plan assets 
Company contributions 
Foreign exchange impact 
Benefits paid from plan assets 
Fair value of plan assets at end of year 
Funded status 
Unamortized net loss 
Net amount recognized 

$ — $ 1,498
—
71
(687)
—
—
882

—
—
—
—
—
$ — $

$ 1,498
—
71
(687)
—
—
882

$

$ — 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
$ — 

 $  1,293
20
68
116
—
—
 $  1,497

$ 1,293
20
68
116
—
—
$ 1,497

—
—
—
—
—

—
—
—
—
—

—
—
—
—
—

— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
$ — $ — $ — $ — 
(882) $ — 
$ — $
— 
—
(882) $ — 
$ — $

(882) $
—
(882) $

—

—
—
—
—
—

—
—
—
—
—
 $  — $ —
 $ (1,497) $ (1,497)
—
 $ (1,497) $ (1,497)

—

58 

 
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
The amounts recognized in the consolidated balance sheet consist of:  

Years Ended September 30  

Foreign  

2012 

U.S.  

Total  
(Amounts in thousands) 

Foreign    

2011 

U.S.  

Total  

Pension: 
Accrued benefit liability 
Deferred tax 
Accumulated other comprehensive 
income 
Net amount recognized 

Post Retirement: 
Accrued benefit liability 
Deferred tax 
Accumulated other comprehensive 
income 
Net amount recognized 

Total pension and post retirement: 
Accrued benefit liability 
Deferred tax 
Accumulated other comprehensive 
income 
Net amount recognized 

Accumulated Benefit Obligation: 
Pension 
Post Retirement 
Total accumulated benefit obligation 

(8,267)
31

3,465
(4,771)

(1,497)
—

$  (7,661) $ (1,605) $ (9,266) $ (6,508)   $  (1,759)  $

(233)

6

(227)

31 

— 

4,540

4,622
$  (3,354) $ (1,517) $ (4,871) $ (3,101)   $  (1,670)  $

3,376 

89 

82

$ 

$ 

— $
—

—
— $

(882) $
269

(882) $
269

(283)
(896) $

(283)
(896) $

— 
— 

— 
— 

 $  (1,497)  $

— 

210 
 $  (1,287)  $

210
(1,287)

$  (7,661) $ (2,487) $ (10,148) $ (6,508)   $  (3,256)  $

(233)

275

42

31 

— 

4,540

4,339
$  (3,354) $ (2,413) $ (5,767) $ (3,101)   $  (2,957)  $

3,376 

(201)

299 

(9,764)
31

3,675
(6,058)

$  (16,469) $ (1,605) $ (18,074) $ (14,029)   $  (1,759)  $ (15,788)
(1,498)
$  (16,469) $ (2,487) $ (18,956) $ (14,029)   $  (3,257)  $ (17,286)

(1,498) 

(882)

(882)

— 

—

Plans with projected benefit obligations in excess of plan assets are attributable to unfunded domestic supplemental 

retirement plans, our German plans which are legally not required to be funded and our U.K. retirement plan.  

Accrued benefit liability reported as:  

Current accrued benefit liability 
Noncurrent accrued benefit liability 
Total accrued benefit liability 

September 30,  

2012 
2011 
(Amounts in thousands) 

$

$

717 
9,431 
10,148 

 $ 

 $ 

709
9,056
9,765

As of September 30, 2012 and 2011 the amounts included in accumulated other comprehensive income, consisted of 

deferred net losses totaling approximately $4.3 million and $3.7 million, respectively.  

The amount of net deferred gain expected to be recognized as a component of net periodic benefit cost for the year 

ending September 30, 2013, is approximately $15 thousand.  

Contributions  

The Company expects to contribute $0.7 million to its pension plans for fiscal 2013.  

59 

 
 
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
  
  
  
Estimated Future Benefit Payments  

The following benefit payments, which reflect expected future service, as appropriate, are expected to be paid (amounts 

in thousands):  

Fiscal year ending September 30:  
2013 
2014 
2015 
2016 
2017 
Thereafter 

Plan Assets 

(Amounts in thousands) 
669
$
725
777
805
797
4,557

At September 30, 2012, our pension plan in the U.K. was the only plan with assets, holding investments of approximately 
$8.9 million.  Pension plan assets are managed by a fiduciary committee.  The Company's investment strategy for pension plan 
assets is to maximize the long-term rate of return on plan assets within an acceptable level of risk while maintaining adequate 
funding levels.  Local regulations, local funding rules, and local financial and tax considerations are part of the funding and 
investment process.   In deciding on the investments to be held, the trustees take into account the risk of possible fluctuations in 
income from, and market values of, the assets as well as the risk of departing from an asset profile which broadly matches the 
liability profile.  The committee has invested the plan assets in a single pooled fund with an authorized investment company 
(the “Fund”).  The Fund selected by the trustees is consistent with the plan's overall investment principles and strategy 
described herein.  There are no specific targets as to asset allocation other than those contained within the Fund that is managed 
by the authorized investment company. 

The fair value of the assets held by the UK pension plan by asset category are as follows: 

September 30, 2012 
Fair Value Measurements Using Inputs 
Considered as 

September 30, 2011 
Fair Value Measurements Using Inputs 
Considered as 

Fair Values as of 

Asset Category 

Total 

  Level I 

  Level II  Level III

Total 

Level I 

  Level II 

  Level III 

(Thousands)

392 
Cash on deposit  $ 
Pooled Funds 
8,522 
Total Plan Assets  $  8,914 

 $ 

—  $ —  $

392  $
— 
392  $ 8,522  $ —  $

8,522

— 

375  $

7,223 
7,598  $

375 
— 
375 

 $  —  $
  7,223 
 $  7,223  $

— 
— 
— 

The expected long-term rates of return on plan assets are equal to the yields to maturity of appropriate indices for 
government and corporate bonds and by adding a premium to the government bond return for equities.  The expected rate of 
return on cash is the Bank of England base rate in force at the effective date.  The Fund is not exchange traded. The Fund is not 
subject to any redemption notice periods or restrictions and can be redeemed on a daily basis. No gates or holdbacks or dealing 
suspensions are being applied to the Fund. The Fund is of perpetual duration. 

Defined Contribution Plans  

The Company has defined contribution plans in domestic and international locations under which the Company matches 
a portion of the employee's contributions and may make discretionary contributions to the plans. The Company's contributions 
were $172 thousand and $170 thousand for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively.  

10.    Lines of Credit  

As of September 30, 2012 and September 30, 2011, the Company maintained lines of credit notes that allow for 
borrowings of up to $2.5 million.  Availability under these facilities is reduced by outstanding borrowings thereunder. The 
interest rates on outstanding borrowings range from Prime plus 1% to London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (“LIBOR”) plus 2.5%, 

60 

 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
with a floor of 4%.  Borrowings under the credit agreements are required to be repaid on demand by the lender in some cases, 
upon termination of the agreements or may be prepaid by the Company without penalty.  The credit agreements contain various 
covenants including financial covenants which require the Company to maintain various financial ratios at prescribed levels. 
The Company is in compliance with all covenants as of September 30, 2012. 

The Company had no borrowings outstanding under its lines of credit as of September 30, 2012 and September 30, 2011. 

11.    Commitments and Contingencies  

Leases  

The Company occupies office space under lease agreements expiring at various dates during the next five years. The 

leases are classified as operating leases and provide for the payment of real estate taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance.  

The Company was obligated under non-cancelable operating leases as follows:  

Fiscal year ending September 30:  
2013 
2014 
2015 
2016 
2017 
Thereafter 

(Amounts in thousands) 
824
729
375
21
4
—
1,953

$

$

Occupancy expenses under the operating leases approximated $1.1 million in 2012 and $1.2 million in 2011.  

Common Stock Repurchase  

On November 13, 2007, the Board of Directors authorized the Company to purchase 250 thousand shares of its 

outstanding common stock.  On February 3, 2009, the Board of Directors authorized the Company to purchase up to 350 
thousand additional shares of the Company's outstanding common stock at market price.  On February 8, 2011, the Board of 
Directors authorized the Company to purchase up to 250 thousand additional shares of the Company's outstanding common 
stock at market price.  Pursuant to the aforementioned authorizations, the Company repurchased approximately 28 thousand 
shares of its outstanding common stock during the year ended September 30, 2012.  As of September 30, 2012, approximately 
201 thousand shares remain authorized to repurchase under its stock repurchase program. 

61 

 
 
 
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
 
12.        Segment Information 

The following table presents certain operating segment information. 

For the Years Ended September 30, 

Systems 
Segment 

Germany 

United 
Kingdom 

U.S. 

Total 

Consolidated
Total 

(Amounts in thousands) 

Service and System Integration Segment 

2012 

Sales: 
Product 
Service 

Total sales 

Profit from operations 
Assets 
Capital expenditures 
Depreciation and amortization 

2011 

Sales: 

Product 
Service 

Total sales 

Profit (loss) from operations 
Assets 
Capital expenditures 
Depreciation and amortization 

 $ 

 $ 

$

$

$

$

4,214
6,927
11,141
3,230
18,451
222
111

5,624
2,198
7,822
(592)
12,819
148
89

16,846
13,730
30,576
598
14,058
197
167

12,703
12,025
24,728
386
12,662
95
183

$

$

$

$

1,484
1,434
2,918
57
3,504
27
26

200
1,429
1,629
(24)
3,632
20
27

 $ 

 $ 

37,039 
3,133 
40,172 
1,084 
15,053 
105 
156 

36,207 
3,259 
39,466 
1,039 
13,995 
76 
184 

55,369
18,297
73,666
1,739
32,615
329
349

49,110
16,713
65,823
1,401
30,289
191
394

59,583
25,224
84,807
4,969
51,066
551
460

54,734
18,911
73,645
809
43,108
339
483

Profit (loss) from operations is sales less cost of sales, engineering and development, selling, general and 
administrative expenses but is not affected by either non-operating charges/income or by income taxes. Non-operating 
charges/income consists principally of investment income and interest expense.  All intercompany transactions have 
been eliminated. 

The following table details the Company's sales by operating segment for fiscal years September 30, 2012 and 
2011. The Company's sales by geographic area based on the location of where the products were shipped or services 
rendered are as follows:  

2012 

Americas 

Europe  

Asia  

(Amounts in thousands) 

Total  

 $  11,141
73,666
 $  84,807

$

7,584
39,579
$ 47,163

$

— $ 3,557 
34 
$ 3,591 

34,053
$ 34,053

56%

40%

4% 

100%

$

4,012
39,517
$ 43,529

$

— $ 3,810 
33 
$ 3,843 

26,273
$ 26,273

 $  7,822
65,823
 $  73,645

59%

36%

5% 

100%

% of 
Total  

13%
87%
100%

11%
89%
100%

Systems 
Service and System Integration 
Total 
% of Total 

2011 

Systems 
Service and System Integration 
Total 
% of Total 

Substantially all Americas amounts are United States.  

62 

 
  
 
  
   
  
 
 
  
 
   
   
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
  
 
Long-lived assets by geographic location at September 30, 2012 and 2011 were as follows:  

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

North America 
Europe 
Totals 

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
 $ 

994 
489 
1,483 

 $ 

934
473
1,407

Deferred tax assets by geographic location at September 30, 2012 and 2011 were as follows:  

North America 
Europe 
Totals 

September 30, 
2012 

September 30, 
2011 

$

$

(Amounts in thousands) 
3,106 
 $ 
551 
3,657 

 $ 

374
447
821

The following table lists customers from which the Company derived revenues in excess of 10% of total 

revenues for the years ended September 30, 2012 and 2011. 

For the Year ended 

September 30, 2012  
% of 

Amount   

September 30, 2011
% of 
Revenues

Revenues  Amount 
(Amounts in millions)

Customer A 
Customer B 

$ 
$ 

14.7 
12.6 

17% $
15% $

9.0
10.2

12%
14%

13.        Fair Value Measures 

Assets and Liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis are as follows: 

Fair Value Measurements Using 

Quoted Prices in
Active 
Markets for 
Identical 
Instruments 
(Level 1) 

Significant 
Other 
Observable 
Inputs 
(Level 2) 

Significant 
Unobservable
Inputs 
(Level 3) 

Total 
Balance 

Gain 
or 
(loss) 

As of September 30, 2012 

(Amounts in thousands) 

Assets: 
Money Market funds 
Total assets measured at fair value 

$ 
$ 

3,498
3,498

$
$

— $
— $

— $ 
— $ 

3,498  $
3,498  $

—
—

63 

 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
As of September 30, 2011 

(Amounts in thousands) 

Assets: 
Money Market funds 
Total assets measured at fair value 

$ 
$ 

3,493
3,493

$
$

— $
— $

— $ 
— $ 

3,493  $
3,493  $

—
—

These assets are included in cash and cash equivalents in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets.  All other 

monetary assets and liabilities are short-term in nature and approximate their fair value.  The Company did not have any 
transfers between Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 measurements. 

The Company had no liabilities measured at fair value as of September 30, 2012 or September 30, 2011. The Company 

had no assets or liabilities measured at fair value on a non recurring basis as of September 30, 2012 or September 30, 2011. 

14. 

Dividend 

On January 12, 2012, our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.10 per share which was paid on February 
3, 2012 to stockholders of record as of January 27, 2012, the record date. On August 7, 2012, our board of directors declared a 
cash dividend of  $0.12 per share which was paid on August 31, 2012 to stockholders of record as of August 23, 2012, the 
record date.  On December 10, 2012, our board of directors declared a cash dividend of  $0.20 per share payable on December 
28, 2012 to stockholders of record as of December 20, 2012, the record date. 

64