Basis of Presentation

9 Months Ended

Oct. 02, 2011

Basis of Presentation [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation

Note 1 — Basis of Presentation

For financial reporting purposes, LSI Corporation (“LSI” or the “Company”) reports on a 13- or 14-week quarter with the year ending December 31. The third quarter of 2011 and 2010 consisted of 13 weeks each and ended on October 2, 2011 and on October 3, 2010, respectively. The first nine months of 2011 and 2010 consisted of approximately 39 weeks each. The results of operations for the three and nine months ended October 2, 2011 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year.

On May 6, 2011, the Company completed the sale of substantially all of its external storage systems business to NetApp, Inc. (“NetApp”). The results of the external storage systems business are presented as discontinued operations in the Company’s statements of operations and, as such, have been excluded from all line items other than “income from discontinued operations” for all periods presented. Since the first quarter of 2011, the Company operates in one reportable segment. Before it was sold, the external storage systems business was part of the Storage Systems segment. The results of the redundant array of independent disks (“RAID”) adapter business, which were formerly included in the Storage Systems segment, are now included in the Company’s remaining reportable segment.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) in the United States of America 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 periods. Actual results could differ significantly from these estimates.

In management’s opinion, the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements contain all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair statement of the Company’s financial position, results of operations, and cash flows for the interim periods presented. While the Company believes that the disclosures are adequate to make the information not misleading, these financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Pronouncements not yet effective:

In May 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued additional guidance on fair value measurements and related disclosures. The new guidance clarifies the application of existing guidance on fair value measurement for non-financial assets and requires the disclosure of quantitative information about the unobservable inputs used in a fair value measurement. This guidance is effective on a prospective basis for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2011. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have any impact on the Company’s results of operations or financial position.

In June 2011, the FASB issued amended guidance regarding the presentation of comprehensive income. The amended guidance gives an entity the option to present the total of comprehensive income, the components of net income, and the components of other comprehensive income either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements. The amended guidance eliminates the option to present the components of other comprehensive income as part of the statement of changes in stockholders’ equity. This guidance is effective on a retrospective basis for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2011. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have any impact on the Company’s results of operations or financial position.

In September 2011, the FASB amended the goodwill impairment guidance to provide an option for entities to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. After assessing the totality of events and circumstances, if an entity determines that it is not more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, performance of the two-step impairment test is no longer required. This guidance is effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011, with early adoption permitted. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have any impact on the Company’s results of operations or financial position.

Pronouncements adopted during the nine months ended October 2, 2011:

In October 2009, the FASB amended revenue recognition guidance on multiple-deliverable arrangements to address how to separate deliverables and how to measure and allocate arrangement consideration. The new guidance requires the use of management’s best estimate of selling price for the deliverables in an arrangement when a vendor does not have specific objective evidence of selling price or third party evidence of selling price. In addition, excluding specific software revenue guidance, the residual method of allocating arrangement consideration is no longer permitted, and an entity is required to allocate arrangement consideration using the relative selling price method. This guidance also expands the disclosure requirements to include both quantitative and qualitative information. The Company adopted this guidance in the first quarter of 2011. The adoption did not impact the Company’s results of operations or financial position.

In October 2009, the FASB issued guidance to clarify that tangible products containing software components and non-software components that function together to deliver a product’s essential functionality will be considered non-software deliverables and will be scoped out of the software revenue recognition guidance. The Company adopted this guidance in the first quarter of 2011. The adoption did not impact the Company’s results of operations or financial position.

In December 2010, the FASB issued guidance to clarify that, when presenting comparative financial statements for business combinations that occurred during the current year, a public entity should disclose revenue and earnings of the combined entity as though the business combinations had occurred as of the beginning of the comparable prior annual reporting period. The update also expands the supplemental pro forma disclosures to include a description of the nature and amount of material, nonrecurring pro forma adjustments directly attributable to the business combination included in the reported pro forma revenue and earnings. The Company adopted this guidance in the first quarter of 2011. The adoption did not impact the Company’s results of operations or financial position.