Basis of Presentation and New Accounting Standards

Overview

Cree, Inc. (the Company) is an innovator of wide bandgap semiconductor products for power and radio-frequency (RF) applications, lighting-class light emitting diode (LED) products, and lighting products. The Company's products are targeted for applications such as transportation, power supplies, inverters, wireless systems, indoor and outdoor lighting, electronic signs and signals, and video displays.

The Company's Wolfspeed segment's products consists of silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) materials, power devices and RF devices based on silicon (Si) and wide bandgap semiconductor materials. The Company's materials products and power devices are used in solar, electric vehicles, motor drives, power supplies and transportation applications. The Company's materials products and RF devices are used in military communications, radar, satellite and telecommunication applications.

The Company's LED Products segment's products consist of LED chips and LED components. The Company's LED products enable its customers to develop and market LED-based products for lighting, video screens, automotive and specialty lighting applications.

The Company's Lighting Products segment's products primarily consist of LED lighting systems and lamps. The Company designs, manufactures and sells lighting fixtures and lamps for the commercial, industrial and consumer markets.

The majority of the Company's products are manufactured at its production facilities located in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas, California and China. The Company also uses contract manufacturers for certain products and aspects of product fabrication, assembly and packaging. The Company operates research and development facilities in North Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Wisconsin, India, Italy and China (including Hong Kong).

Cree, Inc. is a North Carolina corporation established in 1987 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

The Company's three reportable segments are:


•	Wolfspeed


•	LED Products


•	Lighting Products

For financial results by reportable segment, please refer to Note 13, "Reportable Segments."

Basis of Presentation

The consolidated financial statements presented herein have been prepared by the Company and have not been audited. In the opinion of management, all normal and recurring adjustments necessary to fairly state the consolidated financial position, results of operations, comprehensive loss and cash flows at September 23, 2018, and for all periods presented, have been made. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. The consolidated balance sheet at June 24, 2018 has been derived from the audited financial statements as of that date.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) for interim information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for annual financial statements. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 24, 2018 (fiscal 2018). The results of operations for the three months ended September 23, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of the operating results that may be attained for the entire fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 (fiscal 2019).

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Actual amounts could differ materially from those estimates.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Adopted

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2014-09: Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606). The FASB has subsequently issued multiple ASUs which amend and clarify the guidance in Topic 606. The ASU establishes a principles-based approach for accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes existing revenue recognition guidance. The ASU provides that an entity should apply a five-step approach for recognizing revenue, including (1) identify the contract with a customer; (2) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (3) determine the transaction price; (4) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (5) recognize revenue when, or as, the entity satisfies a performance obligation. Also, the entity must provide various disclosures concerning the nature, amount and timing of revenue and cash flows arising from contracts with customers. The Company adopted this standard on June 25, 2018. The cumulative effect of this adjustment recorded to beginning retained earnings as of June 25, 2018 was $10.3 million, and the Company did not recognize a discrete tax impact related to the opening deferred tax balance as of June 25, 2018 due to the full U.S. valuation allowance. The Company recognized a loss of revenue of approximately $1.6 million for the three months ended September 23, 2018 and expects the ongoing effect to be immaterial to the consolidated financial statements. See Note 2, "Revenue Recognition," for discussion of the impacted financial statement line items.

Goodwill Impairment Testing

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-04: Intangibles-Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. The ASU simplifies the manner in which an entity is required to test for goodwill impairment by eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test. Additionally, the ASU removes the requirement for any reporting unit with a zero or negative carrying amount to perform a qualitative assessment and, if it fails such qualitative test, to continue to perform Step 1 of the goodwill impairment test. The Company early adopted this standard in the third quarter of fiscal year ending June 24, 2018.

Fair Value Measurement Disclosure

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-13: Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement. The ASU modifies the disclosure requirements required for fair value measurements. The Company early adopted this standard in the first quarter of fiscal 2019.

Cloud Computing Arrangements

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-15: Intangibles - Goodwill and Other - Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer's Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement that is a Service Contract. The ASU allows companies to capitalize implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract over the term of the hosting arrangement, including periods covered by renewal options that are reasonably certain to be exercised. The Company early adopted this standard in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. There was no significant impact on the financial statements.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Pending Adoption

Leases

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02: Leases (Topic 842) and ASU 2018-10: Codification Improvements to Topic 842, Leases. The FASB has subsequently issued multiple ASUs which amend and clarify the guidance in Topic 842. These ASUs requires that a lessee recognize in its statement of financial position a liability to make lease payments (the lease liability) and a right-of-use asset representing its right to use the underlying asset for the lease term. The asset will be based on the liability, subject to adjustment, such as for initial direct costs. For leases with a term of 12 months or less, a lessee is permitted to make an accounting policy election by class of underlying asset not to recognize lease assets and lease liabilities. For income statement purposes, leases are still required to be classified as either operating or finance. Operating leases will result in straight-line expense while finance leases will result in a front-loaded expense pattern. The effective date will be the first quarter of the Company's fiscal year ending June 28, 2020, using the modified retrospective method. The Company is currently analyzing the impact of this new pronouncement.