Non-GAAP operating income and operating margin. Non-GAAP operating income and operating margin exclude share-based compensation expense, amortization of intangible assets, acquired inventory step-up and revaluation, impairment of intangibles, restructuring and disposal costs, acquisition and integration related costs, intellectual property rights (IPR) litigation costs, loss (gain) on assets and start-up costs. We believe that presentation of a measure of operating income and operating margin that excludes amortization of intangible assets and share-based compensation expense is useful to both management and investors for the same reasons as described above with respect to our use of non-GAAP gross profit and gross margin. We believe that acquired inventory step-up and revaluation, impairment of intangibles, restructuring and disposal costs, acquisition and integration related costs, IPR litigation costs, loss (gain) on assets and start-up costs do not constitute part of Qorvo's ongoing operations and therefore, the exclusion of these costs provides management and investors with better visibility into the actual costs required to generate revenues over time and gives management and investors a more effective means of evaluating our historical and projected performance. We believe disclosure of non-GAAP operating income and operating margin has economic substance because the excluded expenses are either unrelated to operations or do not represent current cash expenditures.
Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share exclude the effects of share-based compensation expense, amortization of intangible assets, acquired inventory step-up and revaluation, impairment of intangibles, restructuring and disposal costs, acquisition and integration related costs, IPR litigation costs, loss (gain) on assets, start-up costs, gain on investment and also reflect an adjustment of income taxes for cash basis. We believe that presentation of measures of net income and net income per diluted share that exclude these items is useful to both management and investors for the reasons described above with respect to non-GAAP gross profit and gross margin and non-GAAP operating income and operating margin. We believe disclosure of non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share has economic substance because the excluded expenses are either unrelated to operations or do not represent current cash expenditures.
Non-GAAP research and development, marketing and selling and general and administrative expenses. Non-GAAP research and development, marketing and selling and general and administrative expenses exclude share-based compensation expense, amortization of intangible assets, and IPR litigation costs. We believe that presentation of measures of these operating expenses that exclude amortization of intangible assets and share-based compensation expense is useful to both management and investors for the same reasons as described above with respect to our use of non-GAAP gross profit and gross margin. We believe that IPR litigation costs do not constitute part of Qorvo's ongoing operations and therefore, the exclusion of these costs provides management and investors with better visibility into the actual costs required to generate revenues over time and gives management and investors a more effective means of evaluating our historical and projected performance. We believe disclosure of these non-GAAP operating expenses has economic substance because the excluded expenses are either unrelated to operations or do not represent current cash expenditures.
Free cash flow. Qorvo defines free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities during the period minus property and equipment expenditures made during the period. We use free cash flow as a supplemental financial measure in our evaluation of liquidity and financial strength. Management believes that this measure is useful as an indicator of our ability to service our debt, meet other payment obligations and make strategic investments. Free cash flow should be considered in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, net income as a measure of our performance and net cash provided by operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. Additionally, our definition of free cash flow is limited, in that it does not represent residual cash flows available for discretionary expenditures due to the fact that the measure does not deduct the payments required for debt service and other contractual obligations. Therefore, we believe it is important to view free cash flow as a measure that provides supplemental information to our entire statement of cash flows.
EBITDA. Qorvo defines EBITDA as earnings before interest expense and interest income, income tax expense (benefit), depreciation and intangible amortization. Management believes that this measure is useful to evaluate our ongoing operations and as a general indicator of our operating cash flow (in conjunction with a cash flow statement which also includes among other items, changes in working capital and the effect of non-cash charges).
Non-GAAP ROIC. Return on invested capital (ROIC) is a non-GAAP financial measure that management believes provides useful supplemental information for management and the investor by measuring the effectiveness of our operations' use of invested capital to generate profits. We use ROIC to track how much value we are creating for our shareholders. Non-GAAP ROIC is calculated by dividing annualized non-GAAP operating income, net of cash taxes, by average invested capital. Average invested capital is calculated by subtracting the average of the beginning balance and the ending balance of current liabilities (excluding the current portion of long-term debt and other short-term financings) from the average of the beginning balance and the ending balance of net accounts receivable, inventories, other current assets, net property and equipment and a cash amount equal to seven days of quarterly revenue.
Net debt or positive net cash. Net debt or positive net cash is defined as unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments minus any borrowings under our credit facility and the principal balance of our senior unsecured notes. Management believes that net debt or positive net cash provides useful information regarding the level of Qorvo's indebtedness by reflecting cash and investments that could be used to repay debt.
With respect to the TriQuint financial results included herein, this earnings release provides financial measures for non-GAAP net income (loss), diluted earnings (loss) per share, gross profit, gross margin, operating expenses and operating income (loss) that exclude equity compensation expense, non-cash tax expense (benefit), certain entries associated with mergers and acquisitions including expenses associated with the merger with RFMD and other specifically identified non-routine items, and are therefore not calculated in accordance with GAAP. The charges associated with mergers and acquisitions reflect the amortization of intangible and tangible assets, transaction costs and changes to the earnout liability estimates recorded in connection with acquisition accounting and charged to the income statement. The charges associated with the merger with RFMD include professional fees and other costs. The non-cash tax expense (benefit) excludes certain deferred tax charges and benefits that do not currently result in a tax payment or tax refund. Each of these non-GAAP financial measures and the adjustments from GAAP results are outlined in the “Supplemental Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results" table, attached.
Limitations of non-GAAP financial measures. The primary material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP gross profit and gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income and operating margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per diluted share, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, free cash flow, EBITDA, non-GAAP ROIC and net debt or positive net cash, as an analytical tool compared to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures of gross profit and gross margin, operating expenses, operating income, net income, net income per diluted share, diluted earnings per share and net cash provided by operating activities are (i) they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies in our industry, and (ii) they exclude financial information that some may consider important in evaluating our performance, thus limiting their usefulness as a comparative tool. We compensate for these limitations by providing full disclosure of the differences between these non-GAAP financial measures and the corresponding GAAP financial measures, including a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP financial measures, to enable investors to perform their own analysis of our gross profit and gross margin, operating expenses, operating income, net income, net income per diluted share and net cash provided by operating activities. We further compensate for the limitations of our use of non-GAAP financial measures by presenting the corresponding GAAP measures more prominently.
Qorvo will conduct a conference call at 5:00 p.m. EST today to discuss today’s press release. The conference call will be broadcast live over the Internet and can be accessed by any interested party at www.qorvo.com (under “Investors”). A telephone playback of the conference call will be available approximately two hours after the call's completion and can be accessed by dialing 719-457-0820 and using the passcode 1343711. The playback will be available through the close of business February 11, 2016.
About Qorvo
