Summary of LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL SA

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth above in Item 1A "Risk Factors," and below in Item 7A "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk."

Overview of Our Company

Logitech is a world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about. Spanning multiple computing, communication and entertainment platforms, we develop and market innovative hardware and software products that enable or enhance digital navigation, music and video entertainment, gaming, social networking, audio and video communication over the Internet, video security and home-entertainment control. We have two operating segments, peripherals and video conferencing.

Our peripherals segment encompasses the design, manufacturing and marketing of peripherals for PCs (personal computers), tablets and other digital platforms. Our products for home and business PCs include mice, trackballs, keyboards, interactive gaming controllers, multimedia speakers, headsets, webcams, and lapdesks. Our tablet accessories include keyboards, keyboard cases and covers, headsets, wireless speakers, and stands. Our Internet communications products include webcams, headsets, video communications services, and digital video security systems. Our digital music products include speakers, earphones, custom in-ear monitors and Squeezebox Wi-Fi music players. For home entertainment systems, we offer the Harmony line of advanced remote controls. For gaming consoles, we offer a range of gaming controllers and microphones, as well as other accessories.

Our peripherals research and product management teams are organized along product lines, and are responsible for product strategy, industrial design and development, and technological innovation. Our marketing and sales organization helps define product opportunities and bring our products to market, and is responsible for building the Logitech brand and consumer awareness of our products. This organization is comprised of retail sales and marketing groups. Our retail sales and marketing activities are organized into three geographic regions: Americas (including North and South America), EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa), and Asia Pacific (including, among other countries, China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Australia). In addition, at the start of fiscal year 2012 we established an organization focused on developing and selling products for enterprise markets, including peripherals for unified communications applications. This group combines product management and sales personnel for enterprise products, including our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sales team, into one organization.

We sell our peripheral products to a network of distributors, retailers, and OEMs. Our worldwide retail network includes wholesale distributors, consumer electronics retailers, mass merchandisers, specialty electronics stores, computer and telecommunications stores, value-added resellers, and online merchants. Sales of peripherals to our retail channels were 86% and 85% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011. The large majority of our revenues have historically been derived from sales of our peripheral products for use by consumers. Our OEM customers include the majority of the world's largest PC manufacturers. Sales to OEM customers were 8% and 9% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011.

Our video conferencing segment encompasses the design, manufacturing and marketing of LifeSize video conferencing products, infrastructure and services for the enterprise, public sector, and other business markets. LifeSize products include scalable HD (high-definition) video communication endpoints, HD video conferencing systems with integrated monitors, video bridges and other infrastructure software and hardware to support large-scale video deployments, and services to support these products. The

Table of Contents

LifeSize division maintains a separate marketing and sales organization, which sells LifeSize products and services worldwide. LifeSize product development and product management organizations are separate, but coordinated with our peripherals business, particularly our webcam and video communications groups. We sell our LifeSize products and services to distributors, value-added resellers, OEMs, and, occasionally, direct enterprise customers. Sales of LifeSize products were 6% of our net sales in the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011.

We seek to fulfill the increasing demand for interfaces between people and the expanding digital world across multiple platforms and user environments. The interface evolves as platforms, user models and our target markets evolve. As access to digital information has expanded, we have extended our focus to mobile devices, the digital home, and the enterprise as access points to the Internet and the digital world. All of these platforms require interfaces that are customized according to how the devices are used. We believe that continued investment in product research and development is critical to creating the innovation required to strengthen our competitive advantage and to drive future sales growth. We are committed to identifying and meeting current and future customer trends with new and improved product technologies, partnering with others where our strengths are complementary, as well as leveraging the value of the Logitech and LifeSize brands from a competitive, channel partner and consumer experience perspective. We believe innovation and product quality are important to gaining market acceptance and maintaining market leadership.

We are developing new categories of products, such as tablet accessories, expanding in emerging retail markets, such as China, Russia, India and Latin America, increasing our presence in digital music, and entering new product arenas, such as hosted video conferencing as a service, and peripherals and services for UC (unified communications). As we do so, we are confronting new competitors, many of which have more experience in the categories or markets and have greater marketing resources and brand name recognition than we have. In addition, because of the continuing convergence of the markets for computing devices and consumer electronics, we expect greater competition in the future from well-established consumer electronics companies in our new categories as well as future ones we might enter. Many of these companies have greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we have.

Our peripherals and video conferencing industries are intensely competitive. The peripherals industry is characterized by platform evolution, short product life cycles, continual performance enhancements, and rapid adoption of technological and product advancements by competitors in our retail markets, and price sensitivity in the OEM market. We experience aggressive price competition and other promotional activities from our primary competitors and from less established brands, including brands owned by some retail customers known as house brands, in response to declining consumer demand in both mature retail markets and OEM markets. We may also encounter more competition if any of our competitors in one or more categories decide to enter other categories in which we currently operate.

As we address the current and future market challenges we face, we are evaluating our current product portfolio and roadmap to align our resources, prioritize our investments, fill product gaps, and introduce more innovative, differentiated products. From time to time, we may seek to partner with or acquire, when appropriate, companies that have products, personnel, and technologies that complement our strategic direction. We continually review our product offerings and our strategic direction in light of our profitability targets, competitive conditions, changing consumer trends, and the evolving nature of the interface between the consumer and the digital world.

Table of Contents

Summary of Financial Results

Our total net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 decreased 2% compared with the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011. Growth in our Asia Pacific region, led by China, was offset by sales declines in our Americas and EMEA regions.

Retail sales in fiscal year 2012 decreased 1% and retail units increased 3% compared with fiscal year 2011. Our overall retail average selling price in fiscal year 2012 declined 4% compared with fiscal year 2011.

Retail sales in our Asia Pacific region increased 18% in fiscal year 2012 compared with fiscal year 2011. China continued to be the single biggest driver in the region, with sales up by 58% in fiscal year 2012. Retail sales in our Americas region decreased by 9%, due to lower sales from Logitech Revue and our Google TV peripherals, which were impacted by the price drop implemented in our second fiscal quarter of 2012 and our exit from the product line, and weak performance in the digital home and video categories. Lackluster economic conditions in Western Europe and product gaps in our video and remotes product categories led to the decrease in EMEA retail sales of 2% in fiscal year 2012. If foreign currency exchange rates had been the same in fiscal years 2012 and 2011, the percentage changes in our constant dollar retail sales would have been an increase of 15% in Asia Pacific, a decrease of 7% in the Americas, and a decrease of 4% in EMEA.

OEM sales decreased 17% in fiscal year 2012 compared with fiscal year 2011, and OEM units sold increased 1%, primarily due to increased pointing device sales.

Sales of LifeSize Communications products, which were 6% of total net sales in both fiscal years 2012 and 2011, increased by 10% in fiscal year 2012 compared with fiscal year 2011.

Our gross margin for fiscal year 2012 was 33.5% compared with 35.4% in the prior fiscal year, due to increased manufacturing and distribution costs, a $34.1 million inventory valuation adjustment related to Logitech Revue and related peripherals, and an unfavorable shift in retail product mix towards products with lower average selling prices. Operating expenses for fiscal year 2012 were 30.4% of net sales compared with 29.4% in fiscal year 2011. The increase in operating expenses was primarily due to the expansion of LifeSize, increased investment in areas of future growth opportunities, such as China, and new product development, offset by lower advertising, marketing, bonus and stock compensation expenses.

Net income for the year ended March 31, 2012 was $71.5 million, compared with net income of $128.5 million in fiscal year 2011. The decline in net income was due to lower net sales, lower gross margin, and increased operating expenses.

Trends in Our Business

Our sales of PC peripherals for use by consumers in the Americas and Europe have historically made up the large majority of our revenues. We believe Logitech's future sales growth will be determined by our ability to create innovative products across all digital platforms, and our ability to increase sales in emerging markets, digital music, products for enterprises, and LifeSize video conferencing.

The increasing popularity of smaller, mobile computing devices such as tablets and smartphones with touch interfaces and the declining popularity of desktop PCs have rapidly changed the market and usage model for PC peripherals. Logitech has begun to offer peripherals and accessories to augment the use of mobile devices. For example, consumers are optimizing their audio experiences on their tablets and smartphones with premium earphones and speakers that pair easily with their mobile devices. And they are enhancing their tablet experience with a range of accessories and peripherals such as the Logitech Keyboard Case that enable them to create, consume and share digital content more conveniently and comfortably. However, consumer acceptance and demand for our products for tablets and other mobile devices is still developing.

Table of Contents

In our traditional, mature markets, such as North America, Western and Nordic Europe, Japan, and Australia, although the installed base of PC users is large, consumer demand for PCs and peripherals is slowing and potentially may decline in future years. We believe there are continued growth opportunities for our PC peripherals outside the more mature markets of the Americas and Europe. We have invested significantly in growing the number of our sales, marketing and administrative personnel in China, with the result that China was our third-largest country in retail sales for fiscal year 2012. We are also expanding our presence and our sales in Russia, India and Latin America. We believe these markets offer high potential for us, but growing and conducting business in these markets will continue to require significant investment and management focus, and our return on investment is not certain due to, among other things, the challenges presented by potentially entrenched local competition, higher credit risks, and other factors that affect consumer trends in ways which may be substantially different from our current major markets.

We believe that digital music, the seamless consumption of audio content on home and mobile devices, presents a significant and natural growth opportunity for Logitech, based on our history of successful earphone, headset and speaker products. Today's consumers consider listening to music as a pervasive entertainment activity, fueled by the growth in smartphones, tablets, music services and Internet radio. Logitech has a solid foundation of audio solutions to satisfy consumers' needs for music consumption, including Logitech UE earphones and speakers, and Squeezebox Wi-Fi music players. As we have increased our focus on products for the consumption of digital music, we are encountering competitors with higher consumer recognition and retailer shelf space, which may challenge our success in the digital music arena.

We are also increasing our efforts on creating and selling products and services to enterprises. We believe the preferences of employees increasingly drive companies' choices in the information technologies they deploy to their employee base, and this consumerization of information technology has made the enterprise market open to embracing consumer technology and design. While our LifeSize division has extensive experience in developing and selling products for enterprises, we are still in the early stages of our enterprise market team's efforts for our productivity peripherals and related services. Growing our enterprise business will continue to require investment in creation of business-specific products, targeted product marketing, and sales channel development.

Our video conferencing segment represented 6% of our net sales for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011. The trend among businesses and institutions to use video conferencing offers a key growth opportunity for Logitech. However, the growth of our video conferencing segment depends in part on our ability to increase sales to enterprises with installed bases of competitor equipment, and to enterprises that may purchase competitor equipment in the future. We believe the ability of our LifeSize products to interoperate with the equipment of other telecommunications, video conferencing or telepresence equipment suppliers to be a key factor in purchasing decisions by current or prospective LifeSize customers. In addition, LifeSize has broadened its product portfolio to include infrastructure, cloud services and other offerings which require different approaches to developing customer solutions.

Sales of retail video products represented 11% and 13% of our total retail sales for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011. Future sales of tethered consumer webcams in the consumer market is unclear, as the embedded webcam experience appears to be sufficient to meet the needs of many retail consumers as the quality of embedded webcams improves. At the beginning of the quarter ended March 31, 2012, we launched the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920. This product is an example of how we intend to enhance our webcam product line-up by enabling experiences that cannot be easily achieved with an embedded webcam.

Sales in our digital home category have declined significantly. We believe the disappointing sales results for Harmony fiscal year 2012 reflect the aging of our Harmony products at the mid- and high-level price points as we previously directed significant digital home engineering and marketing resources towards our Logitech Revue and related peripherals for Google TV. We have exited the Google TV product category, and we plan to strengthen our Harmony line in fiscal year 2013.

Table of Contents

Sales of our OEM mice and keyboards have historically made up the bulk of our OEM sales. OEM sales accounted for 8% and 9% of total revenues during the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011. In recent years, the shift away from desktop PCs adversely affected our sales of OEM mice and keyboards, which are sold with name-brand desktop PCs. We expect this trend to continue and for OEM sales to comprise a smaller percentage of our total revenues in the future.

We continue to evaluate potential acquisitions to enhance the breadth and depth of our expertise in engineering and other functional areas, our technologies and our product offerings.

Our balance sheet includes goodwill of $220.9 million related to various past acquisitions which are part of our peripherals reporting unit, and $339.7 million related to our video conferencing reporting unit. We perform our annual goodwill impairment test annually as of December 31, or more frequently, if certain events or circumstances warrant. Events or changes in circumstances which might indicate potential impairment in goodwill include the company specific factors described in our Form 10-K, volatility in stock price, a sustained decline in market capitalization relative to net book value, and lower than projected revenue, market growth, or operating results. Management performed a goodwill impairment analysis, as described in Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements, of each of our reporting units as of December 31, 2011, and determined that the fair value of our peripherals reporting unit exceeded the carrying value of the reporting unit by more than 30% of the carrying value, and the fair value of our video conferencing reporting unit exceeded the carrying value of the reporting unit by more than 80% of the carrying value. Management continues to evaluate and monitor all key factors impacting the carrying value of our recorded goodwill, as well as other long lived assets. Adverse changes in the Company's expected operating results, market capitalization, business climate, or other negative events could result in a material non-cash impairment charge in the future.

Most of our revenue comes from sales to our retail channels, which resell to consumers, retailers and distributors. As a result, our customers' demand for our products depends in substantial part on trends in consumer confidence and consumer spending, as well as the levels of inventory which our customers, and their customers, choose to maintain. We use sell-through data, which represents sales of our products by our retailer customers to consumers, and by our distributor customers to their customers, along with other metrics to assess consumer demand for our products. Sell-through data is subject to limitations due to collection methods and the third party nature of the data and thus may not be an accurate indicator of actual consumer demand for our products. In addition, the customers supplying sell-through data vary by geographic region and from period to period, but typically represent a majority of our retail sales.

Although our financial results are reported in U.S. dollars, approximately 45% of our sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 were made in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, such as the euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar and Australian dollar. Our product costs are primarily in U.S. dollars and Chinese renminbi. Our operating expenses are incurred in U.S. dollars, Chinese renminbi, Swiss francs, euros, and, to a lesser extent, 29 other currencies. To the extent that the U.S. dollar significantly increases or decreases in value relative to the currencies in which our sales and operating expenses are denominated, the reported dollar amounts of our sales and expenses may decrease or increase

Our gross margins vary with the mix of products sold, competitive activity, product life cycle, new product introductions, unit volumes, commodity and supply chain costs, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, geographic sales mix, and the complexity and functionality of new product introductions. Changes in consumer demand affect the need for us to undertake promotional efforts, such as cooperative marketing arrangements, customer incentive programs or other pricing programs, which alter our product gross margins. Gross margins for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 were 33.5%, compared with 35.4% in fiscal year 2011, primarily due to increased manufacturing and distribution costs, a $34.1 million inventory valuation adjustment related to Logitech Revue and related peripherals, and an unfavorable shift in retail product mix towards products with lower average selling prices.

Table of Contents

Logitech is incorporated in Switzerland but operates in various countries with differing tax laws and rates. A portion of our income before taxes and the provision for income taxes are generated outside of Switzerland. Therefore, our effective income tax rate depends on the amount of profits generated in each of the various tax jurisdictions in which we operate. For the fiscal years ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, the income tax provisions were $19.8 million and $20.0 million based on effective income tax rates of 21.7% and 13.5% of pre-tax income. The change in the effective income tax rate for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 compared with 2011 was primarily due to the mix of income and losses in the various tax jurisdictions in which the Company operates, and a discrete tax benefit of $7.2 million in fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 for the closure of income tax audits in certain jurisdictions. The Company is under examination in various tax jurisdictions. The Company is not able to estimate the potential impact that these examinations may have on income tax expense. If the examinations are resolved unfavorably, there is a possibility they may have a material negative impact on our results of operations.

Critical Accounting Estimates

The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with U.S. GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America) requires the Company to make judgments, estimates and assumptions that affect reported amounts of assets, liabilities, net sales and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities.

We consider an accounting estimate critical if it: (i) requires management to make judgments and estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain; and
(ii) is important to an understanding of Logitech's financial condition and operating results.

We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Although these estimates are based on management's best knowledge of current events and actions that may impact the Company in the future, actual results could differ from those estimates. Management has discussed the development, selection and disclosure of these critical accounting estimates with the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.

We believe the following accounting estimates are most critical to our business operations and to an understanding of our financial condition and results of operations, and reflect the more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Accruals for Customer Programs

We record accruals for product returns, cooperative marketing arrangements, customer incentive programs and pricing programs. An allowance against accounts receivable is recorded for accruals and program activity related to our direct customers and those indirect customers who receive payments for program activity through our direct customers. An accrued liability is recorded for accruals and program activity related to our indirect customers who receive payments directly and do not have a right of offset against a receivable balance. The estimated cost of these programs is recorded as a reduction of revenue or as an operating expense, if we receive a separately identifiable benefit from the customer and can reasonably estimate the fair value of that benefit. Significant management judgment and estimates must be used to determine the cost of these programs in any accounting period.

Returns. The Company grants limited rights to return product. Return rights vary by customer, and range from just the right to return defective product to stock rotation rights limited to a percentage approved by management. Estimates of expected future product returns are recognized at the time of sale based on analyses of historical return trends by customer and by product, inventories owned by and located at distributors and retailers, current customer demand, current operating conditions, and other relevant customer and product information. Return trends are influenced by product life cycle status, new product introductions, market acceptance of products, sales levels, product sell-through, the type of customer, seasonality, product quality issues, competitive pressures, operational policies and procedures and other factors. Return rates can fluctuate over time, but are sufficiently predictable to allow us to estimate expected future product returns.

Table of Contents

Cooperative Marketing Arrangements. We enter into customer marketing programs with many of our distribution and retail customers, and with certain indirect partners, allowing customers to receive a credit equal to a set percentage of their purchases of the Company's products, or a fixed dollar credit for various marketing arrangements. The objective of these arrangements is to encourage advertising and promotional events to increase sales of our products. Accruals for these marketing arrangements are recorded at the time of sale, or time of commitment, based on negotiated terms, historical experience and inventory levels in the channel.

Customer Incentive Programs. Customer incentive programs include performance-based incentives and consumer rebates. We offer performance-based incentives to our distribution customers, retail customers and indirect partners based on pre-determined performance criteria. Accruals for performance-based incentives are recognized as a reduction of the sale price at the time of sale. Estimates of required accruals are determined based on negotiated terms, consideration of historical experience, anticipated volume of future purchases, and inventory levels in the channel. Consumer rebates are offered from time to time at the Company's discretion for the primary benefit of end-users. Estimated costs of consumer rebates and similar incentives are recorded at the time the incentive is offered, based on the specific terms and conditions. Certain . . .