We report our financial results in accordance with GAAP. However, management believes that, in order to more fully understand our short-term and long-term financial and operational trends, and to aid in comparability with our competitors, investors and financial analysts may wish to consider the impact of certain items resulting from our acquisitions which have an infrequent or non-recurring impact on operations or assist in understanding our operations pre-acquisition. Accordingly, we present non-GAAP financial measures as a supplement to the financial measures we present in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures provide management, investors and financial analysts with additional means to understand and evaluate the operating results and trends in our ongoing business by adjusting for certain expenses and other items. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures also provide additional means of evaluating period-over-period operating performance. In addition, management understands that some investors and financial analysts find this information helpful in analyzing our financial and operational performance and comparing this performance to our peers and competitors. The company’s 2023 diluted earnings per common share guidance is also presented on a non-GAAP basis.

The non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered superior to, or a substitute for, our financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are material limitations associated with non-GAAP financial measures because they exclude charges that have an effect on our reported results and, therefore, should not be relied upon as the sole financial measures by which to evaluate our financial results. Management compensates and believes that investors should compensate for these limitations by viewing the non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with the GAAP financial measures. In addition, the non-GAAP financial measures included in this earnings announcement may be different from, and therefore may not be comparable to, similar measures used by other companies. The non-GAAP financial measures are also used by our management to evaluate our operating performance and benchmark our results against our historical performance and the performance of our peers.

Our non-GAAP measures are as follows:

Non-GAAP income before income taxes, net income and diluted earnings per common share

These non-GAAP measures provided a supplemental view of income before taxes, net income, and diluted earnings per common share. These non-GAAP measures exclude certain costs related to the FLIR acquisition, such as acquired intangible asset amortization, amortization of inventory step-up, bridge loan and debt extinguishment fees, and transaction costs such as advisory, legal and other consulting fees, filing fees, employee separation costs and other costs. These non-GAAP measures also exclude acquired intangible asset amortization from prior acquisitions, the remeasurement of deferred taxes related to acquired intangible assets due to changes in tax laws, and the tax benefits or costs related to the settlement or other resolution of the FLIR tax reserves. We adjust for any income tax impact related to these items to take into account the tax treatment and related tax rate and changes in tax rates that apply to each adjustment in the applicable tax jurisdiction. Generally, this results in the tax impact at the U.S. marginal tax rate for certain adjustments, including the majority of amortization of intangible assets, whereas the tax impact of other adjustments, including transaction expenses, depend on whether the amounts are deductible in the respective tax jurisdictions and the applicable tax rates in those jurisdictions. We also adjust for any post-acquisition interest on certain income tax reserves related to FLIR. We believe these measures provide investors and management with additional means to understand and evaluate the operating results of our business by adjusting for certain expenses and other items and present an alternative view of our performance compared to prior periods.

Non-GAAP operating income and operating margin

We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating income divided by net sales. These non-GAAP measures exclude certain costs related to the FLIR acquisition, such as acquired intangible asset amortization, amortization of inventory step-up, and transaction costs such as advisory, legal and other consulting fees, filing fees, employee separation costs and other costs. These non-GAAP measures also exclude acquired intangible asset amortization from prior acquisitions. We believe these measures provide investors and management with additional means to understand and evaluate the operating results of our business by adjusting for certain expenses and other items and present an alternative view of our performance compared to prior periods.

Non-GAAP total debt and net debt

We define non-GAAP total debt as the sum of current portion of long-term debt and other debt and long-term debt. We define net debt as the difference between non-GAAP total debt less cash and cash equivalents. The company believes that this supplemental non-GAAP information is useful to assist investors and management in analyzing the company’s liquidity.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per common share outlook

These non-GAAP measures represent our earnings per common share outlook for the first quarter 2023 and total year 2023 on a fully diluted basis, excluding acquired intangible asset amortization for all acquisitions and acquisition-related tax matters.

Non-GAAP cash provided by operations and free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow

We define free cash flow as cash provided by operating activities (a measure prescribed by GAAP) less capital expenditures for property, plant and equipment. Adjusted free cash flow eliminates the impact of cash paid for transaction related expenses for the FLIR acquisition on a net of tax basis as well as the payment of a pre-acquisition 2018 tax reassessment issued to a FLIR subsidiary in Sweden. We believe that this supplemental non-GAAP information is useful to assist management and the investment community in analyzing the company’s ability to generate cash flow.

Non-GAAP line items used in previous tables

Management excludes the effect of each of the acquisition related items identified below to arrive at the applicable non-GAAP financial measure referenced in the previous tables for the reasons set forth below with respect to that item:

• FLIR transaction and integration costs – Included in our GAAP presentation of cost of sales and selling, general and administrative expenses are expenses incurred in connection with our acquisition of FLIR and primarily include legal, accounting, other professional fees as well as integration-related costs such as employee separation costs and facility lease impairments. Employee separation costs include required change-in-control payments, cash settlement of FLIR employee and director stock awards, as well as other employee severance amounts. We exclude these costs from our non-GAAP measures because we believe it does not reflect our ongoing financial performance.
• FLIR inventory step-up expense – The purchase accounting entries associated with our acquisition of FLIR require us to record inventory at its fair value, which is sometimes greater than the previous book value of inventory. Included in our GAAP presentation, the increase in inventory value is amortized to cost of sales over the period that the related inventory is sold. We exclude inventory step-up amortization from our non-GAAP measures because it is a non-cash expense that we do not believe is indicative of our ongoing operating results.
• Acquired intangible asset amortization – We believe that excluding the amortization of acquired intangible assets, which primarily represents purchased technology and customer relationships, as well as purchase order and contract backlog, provides an alternative way for investors to compare our operations pre-acquisition to those post acquisition and to those of our competitors that have pursued internal growth strategies. However, we note that companies that grow internally will incur costs to develop intangible assets that will be expensed in the period incurred, which may make a direct comparison more difficult.
• Bridge loan and debt extinguishment fees – Included in our GAAP presentation of interest and debt expense are expenses incurred in connection with the financing activities to fund the FLIR acquisition. We exclude these acquisition related expenses, many of which are one-time costs, from our non-GAAP measures because we believe it does not reflect our ongoing financial performance.
• Acquisition-related tax matters – Included in our tax provision is post-acquisition interest on certain income tax reserves related to FLIR, as well as the tax benefits or costs related to the settlement or other resolution of the FLIR tax reserves. Also, in June 2021, the United Kingdom Parliament enacted legislation to increase the corporate tax rate to 25% effective April 2023. Accordingly, the tax rate changes required us to remeasure our deferred taxes related to acquired intangible assets. We exclude these impacts from our non-GAAP measures because we believe it does not reflect our ongoing financial performance.