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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

Commission File Number: 000-31121

AVISTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant's telephone number, including area code: (650) 610-2900

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
Common Stock, $0.001 par value

        Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ý    No o

        Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ý

        Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes o    No ý

        Aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold on June 30, 2003 was $4,656,141. Shares of Common Stock held by each executive officer and director and by each person who owns 5% or more of the outstanding Common Stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

        As of December 31, 2003, the registrant had outstanding 30,210,758 shares of Common Stock.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

        The Registrant has incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K specific portions of its Proxy Statement for its 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

AVISTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2003

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Forward Looking Statements

        This Annual Report on Form 10-K, the exhibits hereto and the information incorporated by reference herein contain "forward looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and such forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. When used in this Report, the words "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "plans," "intends" and "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed below and those discussed in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" or incorporated by reference herein. Avistar Communications Corporation (the "Company," "we," or "us") undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date this Annual Report is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

PART I

Item 1.    Business

        We were founded as a Nevada limited partnership in 1993. We filed our articles of incorporation in Nevada in December 1997 under the name Avistar Systems Corporation. We reincorporated in Delaware in March 2000 and changed our name to Avistar Communications Corporation in April 2000. The operating assets and liabilities of the business were then contributed to our wholly owned subsidiary, Avistar Systems Corporation, a Delaware corporation. In July 2001, our Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of Avistar Systems approved the merger of Avistar Systems with and into Avistar Communications Corporation. The merger was completed in July 2001.

        Our principal executive offices are located at 555 Twin Dolphin Drive, Suite 360, Redwood Shores, California, 94065. Our telephone number is (650) 610-2900. Our trademarks include Avistar and the Avistar logo, AvistarVOS, Shareboard and The Enterprise Video Company. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also includes our and other organizations' product names, trade names and trademarks. Our website is www.Avistar.com and we post a link to our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on our website (see "Company—Investor Relations—SEC Information"). Information contained on our website is not part of this Annual Report.

Overview

        We develop, market and support an integrated suite of vBusiness—video-enabled eBusiness—applications, all powered by the AvistarVOS™ software. From the desktop, we deliver TV-quality interactive video calling, content creation and publishing, broadcast origination and distribution, video-on-demand, and integrated data sharing. The Avistar video and data collaboration applications are all managed by the AvistarVOS video operating system. By integrating video tightly into the way they work, our customers can use our system to save costs and improve productivity and communications within the enterprise and between enterprises to enhance relationships with customers, suppliers and partners. Using AvistarVOS software and leveraging video, telephony and Internet networking standards, Avistar applications are designed to be scalable, reliable, cost effective, easy to use, and capable of evolving with communications networks as bandwidth increases and as new standards and protocols emerge. We sell our system directly to enterprises in selected strategic vertical markets, and have focused initially on the financial services and manufacturing industries. Our objective is to establish our technology as the standard for networked video.

        We operate in two segments. Avistar Communications Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, sale and marketing of networked video communications products and

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associated support services, and Collaboration Properties, Inc., or CPI, our wholly owned subsidiary, engages in the prosecution, maintenance, support and licensing of our software and the intellectual property that we have developed, some of which is used in our products. As of December 31, 2003, CPI had not entered into any third party licensing agreements.

Industry Background

        Globalization, supported by the near ubiquity of communications networks such as the Internet, has allowed companies to lower costs, reach new markets, change business processes (e.g., eBusiness) and distribute and outsource operations. It also has meant increased competition, a faster business pace and less differentiation. These factors, coupled with the difficulty and cost of travel, are causing businesses to look for new tools that will help them increase productivity, take advantage of revenue opportunities and differentiate themselves. Enterprises of all sizes stand to benefit from new and advanced communication tools that enable their employees, partners, suppliers and customers to collaborate more effectively within and across buildings and over disparate geographies and time zones, recognizing that speed in decision-making is becoming even more critical in today's business environment.

        For years, enterprises have relied on communication tools used principally in a point-to-point manner, such as telephone and fax. More recently, businesses have also embraced network-based collaboration applications, such as teleconferencing, voicemail and email. The emergence of the Internet has accelerated the adoption of these network-based collaboration applications. The increasing availability and affordability of bandwidth on communication networks is further driving businesses to utilize new tools of communication, such as web conferencing, to enhance collaboration among users. For example, an August 2003 study from Collaborative Strategies, Inc. forecasted a 28% compound four-year growth rate for the electronic video and data collaboration market.

        As technology advances and becomes more affordable and modes of communication expand, enterprises are seeking widely deployable and cost effective technology to replicate, at the desktop, the integration of audio and visual communication and document or project collaboration that occurs in a face-to-face meeting. Individuals generally prefer face-to-face encounters to less personal forms of communication because they can see one another and benefit from the non-verbal cues that speed communication and deepen understanding. This is particularly true for more complex interactions such as negotiations, sales, product development, project management and decision making across geography/functions. However, in today's globalized, fast-paced business environment, face-to-face interactions are often forgone due to the difficulty and time required for travel and the need to act quickly. These time and distance challenges become increasingly difficult to deal with as the number of potential participants increases. Beyond traditional teleconferencing and data sharing communications, attempts to conduct virtual meetings as an alternative to face-to-face meetings have generally been limited to conference room-based video conferencing and web-based data teleconferences. Most individuals do not have immediate access to these video technologies, and the reservation and set-up time make them unlikely to be used on a spontaneous basis.

Limitations of Current Means of Collaboration

        To address the growing need for collaboration across distance and time, organizations have resorted to using a patchwork of discrete technologies, including video conferencing and teleconferencing, fax, email, Internet audio and video delivery and data sharing applications. Many of these technologies have been widely adopted, and collectively indicate the need for collaboration tools including networked video. However, these discrete technologies are not good substitutes by themselves for face-to-face meetings and presentations because they do not provide an integrated communications solution that fosters team interaction and delivers critical, time-sensitive information quickly and reliably. By providing face-to-face collaboration in an integrated communications solution, video can

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speed problem resolution and motivate action, trust and understanding. Users want to be able to create and publish video content from their desktops either spontaneously, as with email or voicemail, or in a more formal manner for broader distribution through the Internet or corporate data network.

        Although limited video technologies are already in use at many enterprises, businesses and other organizations require increasingly comprehensive, integrated and scalable video-enabled communication capabilities. For example, video conferencing is often limited to point-to-point communication from designated rooms or through the use of "roll-about" products, where call set-up procedures, lack of networking, bandwidth requirements and room availability greatly constrain functionality, usability, reliability and efficiency, as well as access by individuals.

        Similarly, broadcasting of stored video or television programming at a desktop or in a conference room is of highly varying quality and generally cannot be added on a real-time basis to a live videoconference. Some products are limited to exclusively using the enterprise data network or the Internet to carry two-way desktop video conferencing or to transmit video one-way. As a result, they are unable to deliver television quality video in normal corporate settings, and are limited in their ability to create, publish and broadcast these videoconferences. In addition, it is difficult to expand these existing products within an enterprise, and even more difficult to do so among enterprises because of bandwidth, security, functionality and quality limitations of current enterprise networks.

Elements of a Complete Collaboration Solution

        To become a critical tool in the enterprise, a communications solution must first and foremost provide application functionality that boosts worker productivity. It also has to provide high quality at scale, high reliability, low total cost of ownership and be available to people where and when they do most of their work, which typically means at their desks. It must also effectively utilize existing and evolving network infrastructure. We believe a complete collaboration solution must provide the following:

Applications and functionality

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support the applications people use, in the way they use them, to deliver real-time and non real-time personal collaboration and data communication



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provide ease of use

Quality

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approximate the video and audio quality of television for natural and easy interaction



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make interactions as realistic as possible by minimizing the artifacts when transmitting and receiving video calls such as latency, jitter, freeze-frame, stutter and small frame size



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seamlessly integrate all forms of audio, video and data communication including interactive video calling, content creation and publishing, broadcast video and video-on-demand retrieval

Scalability

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like the Internet and public telephone networks, the communications solution must be designed for size independence and should scale cost-effectively to support a very large numbers of users

Reliability

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operate dependably and reliably to avoid user frustration, while minimizing support costs

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provide to video communications the ease of use, speed, quality, functionality, flexibility and global access of the telephone, while easily supporting more complex applications and situations

Adaptability

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offer an upgradeable architecture that can evolve as bandwidth availability, protocols, standards and compression technologies change



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include powerful software to manage an integrated suite of collaborative applications, relying on networked infrastructure



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leverage current and future business investments in local and wide area networks, Internet protocol and standards-based infrastructures

Affordability

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operate and scale cost effectively



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utilize standard, low cost and widely available hardware components



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be cost-effective compared to other pervasive forms of enterprise communication such as email



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deliver cost savings through innovations in support, network and resource management

        We believe high quality networked video communication allows businesses to improve collaboration and thereby offers them the opportunity to increase productivity, enhance customer service and revenue generation, and facilitate business-to-business interactions that reduce costs, all on an accelerated basis. We also believe that, just as every organization now relies on a telephone network and most businesses increasingly rely on the Internet, a market is emerging in which businesses and other organizations will choose to rely on fully integrated video, audio and data collaboration networks.

The Avistar Solution

        Avistar delivers a networked video system enabled by a unique architecture and a powerful software platform: the AvistarVOS video operating system. This software provides a comprehensive, integrated suite of video applications that include on-demand access to interactive video calling and conferencing, content creation and publishing, broadcast video, and video-on-demand, as well as data sharing, directory services and network management. These applications support users within and amongst enterprises and over data networks, telephony networks and the Internet. Our system architecture is open and flexible in order to embrace continued technological innovation and standardization. Our system is designed to use existing and emerging communication and video standards such as session initiation protocol, or SIP, to deliver the quality and ease of use of the telephone system.

        Avistar has built a complete video collaboration solution that today is delivering TV-quality video to thousands of desktops across hundreds of buildings. Each of our applications can be used, integrated and managed in conjunction with one another. People often conceive of video in the enterprise only as two-way, real-time conferencing. Our system allows broadcast video to be included in a video call and allows the entire session to be recorded simultaneously, and made available as stored video. Our system joins users in a high-quality video network to improve their ability to solve complex problems, connect to co-workers, customers and suppliers, manage large projects and quickly act together on opportunities. Our system does this cost effectively and reliably and is designed to be able to serve a wide range of businesses from a single office operation to global corporations with branch offices and/or widely dispersed operations.

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        Interactive video calling.    Our system allows users to participate in spontaneous interactive video collaborations from their desktops. Users can simultaneously see and hear multiple participants in windows on their workstations. Additionally, our system provides full duplex audio, which allows multiple users to speak and hear each other clearly at the same time. The desktop window can be divided into four quadrants, to permit up to three other video sources. These sources can include other participants in real-time, broadcast content or recorded video. The participants can include individual users or conference-room groups located at multiple sites and/or various enterprises, all without requiring advance reservations or conferencing services. Each participant has the full ability to utilize all the call functions of the system, such as adding or removing participants. The system supports the communications needs of users by allowing them to add a third or fourth participant into a call spontaneously for a quick conference, and then revert back to a two party call. This ability helps speed decision-making and leverages the knowledge of experts. As an example, a sales trader can be on a video call with a client portfolio manager and spontaneously add a research analyst to the call for added insight on a particular security, then drop the analyst and add a trader to review execution strategy.

        Video content creation and publishing.    With our solution, users can create and publish video content from their desktops by recording themselves, recording a multi-point conference or adding commentary to a broadcast and recording the entire session. Recorded content can be played back on demand and can be published in various forms inside and outside the enterprise. This includes video emails, called vBriefs, which allow users to easily create video messages which recipients, with common mail clients and browsers, can watch. This helps differentiate and highly personalize the sender's email. As an example, research analysts can record introductory commentary and distribute their research reports in a way that cuts through the email clutter of their audiences' inbox. Similarly, video can be simply and quickly be published to web sites from a user's desk.

        Broadcast video.    Sales meetings, training seminars, analyst reports, management presentations and live news broadcasts can be delivered real-time to every user's workstation and streamed to browser-based users. For example, a customer employed its Avistar video network to maximize the reach and impact of an educational seminar. The customer broadcast the seminar to an estimated 300 desktops and meeting rooms with more than 2,000 employees and clients watching in the United States and Europe. As another example, one customer has shifted its international sales meetings to broadcasts and recorded presentations on its Avistar system, thereby saving travel time and costs, while expanding the broadcast to a wider audience.

        Video-on-demand.    Users anywhere on the Avistar network can easily retrieve stored videos. For example, a corporation uses our system to record its sales training seminars. Salespeople who are unable to attend these face-to-face presentations are now able to watch the seminars by retrieving and playing the stored videos on their desktops when it is convenient for them. Another customer uses our system to record and broadcast their daily morning meetings so colleagues in other time zones around the world can be updated on the issues of the day when they report to work.

        Integrated data sharing.    In addition to viewing the four quadrants of our video window, multiple users can simultaneously create and annotate a shared document using text or drawing tools color-coded specifically for each user. All participants can access the contents of any shared window and save the marked changes for later reference. Our system can also be utilized in conjunction with other application sharing programs that utilize data networks or the Internet. While participating in an interactive video call, users can access Microsoft NetMeeting's application sharing capabilities through a button on our tool bar and jointly view and edit a document. As an example, multiple design engineers can share a technical drawing in order to resolve an issue with a defective part.

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        Our system has the following key features necessary to make integrated video collaboration effective:

        Easy to use interface.    Our applications bring the rich interaction of a face-to-face meeting and the quality and ease of use of the telephone to our systems through:

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Click-to-connect simplicity. To initiate calls or add another user to a session already underway, a user simply clicks on either a direct connect button or a name in the directory. Standard telephone-like features such as hold, hang-up, forward, leave message or begin another call are all completed with the click of a mouse, or keyboard shortcuts. Additionally, anyone on an Avistar network can initiate a video call to the desktop of colleagues, customers, suppliers and others on other Avistar networks. If the person being called is logged-in but unavailable, users can leave a personalized call back message that allows the person to automatically return the video call without having to look up the address.



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"Find Me, Follow Me." Avistar video calling is built on directories and presence-based features referred to as "Find Me, Follow Me." Using this feature, our system is able to determine the presence and location of any user on an Avistar network at any time. To call any user in the Avistar network, it is not necessary to know their number or current location. As long as the Avistar user is logged into his or her Avistar application, the Find Me, Follow Me application automatically registers where that user is logged in, regardless of site or geography, and routes all calls to the user's location. Using this Find Me, Follow Me technology, Avistar's system makes video calling a one-click process and enables what we call "Video Instant Messaging."



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Comprehensive directory. The Avistar network directory is a comprehensive list of Avistar numbers that can be called with a click. All users currently logged into an enterprise's Avistar network will be shown, providing immediate 'presence' information as to availability. The global directory can be tailored to include only a business' community of users. In addition, a private directory feature allows users to create their own directory and reach frequently called parties with a one-click "direct connect" tool. Both global and private directories can also include other non-Avistar sites that use standards-based video conferencing systems. Through the Avistar Community Exchange and AvistarVOS Proxy products, presence information can be shared across participating organizations. The result is one-click, presence-based calling which helps form a community of users.



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Consistency across locations. The Avistar user interface is consistent across desktops and conference rooms. Thus, a user who is familiar with the functionality at the desktop requires no additional training or set up to utilize an Avistar system in a conference room setting. This allows conference room systems to be "self-service," thereby avoiding the support logistics and expense of traditional room based systems.

        Seamless integration of system applications.    All of our applications are seamlessly integrated with one user interface. As a user adds an additional video source during an ongoing video call—such as an additional live participant, a one-way broadcast or a stored video clip—there is virtually no delay in launching another application or downloading data. In addition, each application is synchronized with the others so that all participants in a video call see and hear the same content simultaneously. Thus, recorded or broadcast video can be added to a live session and shown to all participants. The entire session can also be recorded. Our system enables common network and application management, so the same directory can be used for two-way calls, one-way broadcasts and data sharing in the same session. Usage can be determined with our integrated call-reporting tool that provides summary data for analysis and cost justification.

        Network management.    Our network architecture provides system administrators with the ability to flexibly and proactively manage each of the various components of the network. Within our system, the

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most costly and complex equipment and software applications are shared as networked resources. This arrangement allows for redundancy and dynamic allocation of these resources to users who need them, and ensures that users experience the best video quality possible at the highest reliability and lowest cost of use. Servers and switches can be maintained, installed and repaired centrally, and many network support functions can be performed remotely over the data network, thereby limiting the disruption of service to an individual user. Similarly, additional desktops and meeting rooms can be easily and inexpensively added to the Avistar network, with those new users concurrently added to the Avistar directory. Additionally, our software makes call routing decisions to minimize communications costs.

        We believe our solution includes the following benefits to our customers:

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Speed business processes. We provide a fully integrated Internet protocol-based video collaboration solution that seamlessly allows individuals to make video calls, view broadcasts and create, store and access video content or other forms of data from the desktop. This can speed business processes by enhancing collaboration and communication.



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Increased availability of knowledge within the enterprise. At many businesses, individuals who possess valuable knowledge often cannot effectively distribute their knowledge to the rest of the organization. Our system enables these businesses to access these individuals and disseminate their knowledge more efficiently and effectively by offering them the ability to call, broadcast or record from their desktops, and offering other users the ability to receive this information real-time, or access video recordings at a convenient time and location. In addition, our system gives every desktop the ability to create and publish valuable visual content, which can be distributed inside and outside the organization to support employee and customer needs worldwide. The ability to spontaneously add additional participants to a call encourages personal communications between individuals who otherwise might not enjoy this access.



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Improved productivity and revenue generation. Our system helps companies increase the productivity of their employees and speed up time critical decision-making. By creating a network of Avistar users, our customers can have face-to-face meetings within the enterprise and with customers and partners, without the costs and time delays of travel. Negotiations, sales, advisory services, decision-making and other persuasive communications are more effective when done face-to-face. Our solution allows interactions to happen in real-time, speeding up the manner in which business is done, freeing up time for employees, enhancing business-to-business communications, and potentially increasing revenue generation.



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Enhanced customer and partner relationships. Our system helps companies to be more responsive to and develop stronger business relationships with their customers, partners and suppliers. An Avistar call is generally as easy and reliable as a telephone call, while being more personal. One of our customers provides Avistar networks to their clients and business partners in order to facilitate interactions and improve relationships.



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Opportunity to leverage existing and future communication infrastructures. We provide an open architecture that uses existing standards and is designed to take advantage of emerging standards. Our system integrates into our customers' existing network communications infrastructure, and supports the protocols a company may choose to use for video broadcasts, data sharing and transport of information. However, video quality varies depending on the protocol selected. Our system utilizes existing data networks for transporting stored video, and is designed to support real-time digital networking and video transmission. We have designed our system to continue to work with Internet protocol-based technologies as standards evolve and quality of service improves. We expect this flexibility, together with simplified software and hardware at the desktop, to allow companies to make effective use of their existing local area and wide area networks, as well as their next generation networks.

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Better communication to face new business challenges such as globalization and distributed locations. Within global corporations, professionals collaborate daily with customers, partners and associates who are often located in different offices and/or different time zones. This has increasingly become the case as firms, due to economic and security concerns, have restricted travel and have begun decentralizing their personnel across a more distributed set of locations, taking advantage of lower costs of real estate. In this context, critical information must be delivered on a timely basis and without confusion as smoothly as if colleagues were working together in person. By offering a combination of conference room and desktop systems, Avistar's video product suite enables companies that are reducing travel and/or distributing their operations to easily and quickly connect small, remote offices to the central organization, and still benefit from face-to-face interaction. Based on our experience in helping existing customers choose their optimal configurations, we are able to advise new customers on the setups or configurations that will be most effective for a large central office, a small branch office or other remote locations.

System Architecture and Technology

        Our networked video system is based on our fifth major release of our open architecture, which enables users to communicate visually using various networking protocols and transport media, including the Internet. We developed our architecture to address the necessary elements of a complete video-enabled collaboration solution.

        We believe that the following technical factors will transform and consolidate the existing video collaboration applications marketplace, creating a strong need for a software platform that will support this consolidation and evolution:

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improved compression technologies;



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widespread proliferation of broadband infrastructure and virtual private networks, or VPNs;



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developing availability of converged audio, video and data networks;



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improved computer processing speeds; and



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adoption of critical digital video and multimedia standards.

        Our software platform supports this consolidation and evolution by integrating industry standards for audio, video and data transport, but separating them from application functionality and system management. This allows the video operating system to manage the interoperation and transcoding of various standards to seamlessly integrate video, audio and data into complex applications, and not be limited by the functionality built into one particular, application-specific standard. It also allows the system to accommodate new and evolving standards with minimal disruption. Current industry and widely accepted proprietary standards supported include H.320, H.323, NTSC, PAL, MPEG, Microsoft Windows Media Video and Real Networks RealMedia.

        We believe our AvistarVOS video operating system positions us to lead the transformation described above. Further, we provide a suite of collaboration applications that seamlessly operate with the AvistarVOS system allowing users to access this functionality in an easy and intuitive manner. We expect to make this platform more accessible to developers and to allow integration with other applications and network hardware.

        Our system uses TCP/IP, the standard Internet protocol, for initiating video calls, scheduling and starting broadcast presentations, and managing the creation and access of stored video materials. In addition, we use TCP/IP for overall systems and network management throughout our software platform. This approach allows us to deliver connectivity throughout an enterprise and allows us to leverage existing Internet infrastructure. For delivery of live local area network high-quality video

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streams with low delays, we use traditional circuit switched technologies, including our own Avistar network technology. We use our gateways to translate between the various network technologies used in our system. These gateways are managed and controlled by our systems software with TCP/IP-based protocols.

        Each Avistar desktop functions as a node on the network, like personal computers, printers or file servers on a local area network. Just as color printers and file servers are often shared network resources on the local area network, the more costly equipment in an Avistar system, such as servers, switches, and the compression and decompression equipment components of our gateways, are centralized and made available to multiple users. Network nodes and resources, like those of a data network, are managed through centralized, Internet protocol-based applications and administration tools, such as Internet-based reports of video call activity.

        Because of the tight integration of various video network components, namely, the Avistar Switch, Media Server, Conference Center, Broadcast Podium and gateways, our architecture has the following key features:

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Switched services: Our video network today employs a switched architecture to ensure that our system can scale to support large numbers of users. At the center of the network is an Avistar switch, which functions for video networking like the local area network switch functions for data networks. With our switch, bandwidth for video-enabled communication is available on demand so that two or more users participating in a video call automatically have the bandwidth required for continuous video and audio, with virtually no delay.



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Network management: The AvistarVOS system utilizes open protocols for call set-up, call control and directory services. It also complies with standards and interfaces and connects with video networks through shared Avistar gateways, which are further connected via private or public telephony or TCP/IP networks. Servers communicate through our signaling system for video protocol, SSV, which is based on TCP/IP, the standard Internet protocol. Through this signaling system, servers exchange configuration information and allocate call resources during call set-up, and exchange network status information. The signaling system selects the optimal route for all video calls, helping to minimize call costs and performance demands on wide area network resources. Most videoconferencing equipment using industry standard compression technologies also can communicate with an Avistar network.



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Transport standard independence: Our system automatically selects the appropriate transport standards for transmitting information over the network to help deliver the highest quality video possible and full duplex audio in the most efficient manner. For example, the AvistarVOS software automatically exchanges information among servers and switches to determine the best network route for video calls. For the transport of video over a local area network, our system currently uses existing spare Ethernet wires to deliver standards-compliant television quality signals. This method of transport keeps video signals clear without interfering with traffic on the data network, and provides for local area network calls with no incremental communications cost. In a wide area network, we deliver only slightly lower-than-television quality for real-time calls and broadcasts, because we use industry video compression standards across the public telephony network or a customer's private IP networks or VPN's. For the transmission of recorded content on corporate data networks or via the Internet, our system uses standard digital storage formats and transport technologies.



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Expandable to thousands of users: Because shared resources, such as servers, are attached to the Avistar switch and are managed through the data network, new users and new capabilities can be added without replacing existing infrastructure, but rather, by simply adding video software and hardware at each desktop. Just as local area network switches and public telephony networks can be linked together without the use of routers, Avistar switches can be similarly

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linked without the use of video network gateways. As a result, customers can easily add capacity as their needs grow.

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Evolves with digital technology: Our AvistarVOS software is designed to facilitate utilization of all-digital, local area networks, including Internet protocol video transmission, when sufficient bandwidth, quality of service and digital endpoints are available. We expect that our system will also maintain compatibility with existing networks. Our AvistarVOS system is designed to enable us to adopt additional Internet protocol-based standards, allowing evolution of the transport of audio and video to the customer's local area data network.

System Products and Applications

        Our system products and applications consist of shared resources accessible to an entire Avistar network from desktop and conference room users.

Shared Resources

        Like the architecture of most data networks, our system is designed to maximize the use of shared resources on the network. This configuration results in a thin client, or a desktop that is not burdened with memory or processor intensive software and hardware. Each user can access higher quality software, gateways, multi-point conference centers, media servers and video broadcasts with lower per user acquisition and management costs than is possible with non-networked video solutions. These shared resources consist of the following products and applications:

Local Area Network and Wide Area Network Products

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Avistar Switch. At the center of each of our local area network systems is an Avistar switch that supports up to 120 desktop users and/or conference rooms. The switch connects video calls placed among Avistar desktop and conference room users, and allows those users to access shared resources such as Avistar conference centers, media servers and gateways, as well as television broadcasts and VCRs. Each Avistar switch includes server software (the AvistarVOS Server) that provides application services and network management. Additional switches can be connected together in a building or campus to scale to many hundreds or even thousands of users.



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Avistar Gateways. Connectivity to the wide area network is provided via our gateways. The gateways support various protocol standards, using public telephony, TCP/IP networks or customer's private networks. With our gateways, users across the wide area network can communicate with another Avistar network or with third-party desktop or room systems that are H.320 and H.323 compliant. Our new, multi-channel IP gateway, introduced in February 2003, significantly reduces the cost of wide area connectivity as compared to previous generations of our gateway products.

Server and Software Products

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Avistar Conference Center. Our conference center enables multi-point conferences for up to four video sources, with continuous presence that allows all participants to see and hear one another continuously and simultaneously. Multiple conference centers can be installed on each switch to support a corresponding number of simultaneous multi-party calls.



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Avistar Media Server. Our media server allows users to create, publish and view video content from any desktop or conference room. Any form of video, including a four-way video call, can be saved on the media server in high quality, digital MPEG format. Any user can retrieve and replay video at any time from the media server using the desktop Avistar interface or any

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industry standard MPEG player. The Avistar Media Server also has a publishing capability allowing Avistar users to publish video content on intranets, extranets or the Internet, including web servers, video servers or content distribution networks. Publishing to vBrief™ video email messages is one example. The Media Server software manages format plug-ins to simplify transcoding to other video standards and formats, such as Real Networks and Microsoft Windows Media Video.

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Avistar Broadcast Podium. Our broadcast podium allows Avistar desktop or conference room users to broadcast one-way, real-time presentations to an audience of other Avistar users at both local and remote sites. The broadcast podium allows an individual or a conference call to be broadcast to thousands of users, and, via third party products, to be streamed simultaneously over the Internet.

Internet Protocol-Based Applications

•

Avistar Directory Software. Our directories allow a user to place a video call by simply clicking on a name in the user's directory of local and remote Avistar users. If the other party is logged-on, our system will route the call to the correct location over the local area network, or the wide area as appropriate. The user can look up addresses in private and global address books, utilize browser style type-in boxes, and access speed-dial direct connect buttons. This server-based directory integrates with LDAP directories, simplifies administration and allows users to get started quickly without having to manually enter many video phone numbers into their desktop directory.



•

Avistar Community Exchange and AvistarVOS Proxy. These products, introduced in February 2003, provide secure, cross-enterprise communications between independent Avistar systems. This provides directory and presence information and system resource reservation for easy and fast connections between firms. These products will facilitate the building of communities of video-enabled users.



•

Shareboard® Software. Our Shareboard application allows users to collaborate on graphics, data or text during a video call. By clicking on the "share" button, users are linked to the Shareboard data sharing application. Users can share any application window or image with all conference participants, see all users' color-keyed pointers and text and paintbrush annotations, and save or print shared images from any desktop or conference room.



•

Avistar Call Reporting System. With our web-based call reporting system, our customers can track local and wide area network calls logged by each of our servers. Reports show call details, device usage and calls by user, all viewable from any Web browser. Reports can be customized and stored for future or specialized analysis.

Desktop and Conference Room Client Products

        Avistar Conference.    We deliver a complete system that includes all hardware and software components required to video-enable desktops and conference rooms. The standard Avistar two-way desktop system consists of the following hardware components:

•

A high resolution camera with built-in directional microphone;



•

A video overlay card for a desktop or conference room that allows video to be viewed from a computer; and



•

A video network interface unit with ports for camera, microphone, speakers, auxiliary video and audio, headset and telephone sets, built in echo-cancellation circuitry and full duplex audio, without requiring a headset.

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•

AvistarVOS Client software and Client Access License to the AvistarVOS Server software.

        Avistar Room Systems.    We deliver complete video systems for a wide range of room sizes and layouts. We believe that the key advantages of our system are that the interface used in a conference room system is consistent with the interface used on individual desktops, allowing for all forms of video-enabled communications: interactive video calling, content creation and publishing, broadcasting and video-on-demand. Therefore, desktop users are familiar with the controls used in Avistar room systems and do not need additional training to operate the room system, nor do they need an additional technician to set-up and connect conference room calls (as is common with traditional room systems).

        Video Turrets.    Through partnerships with the top two voice trading platform (turret) providers, Avistar provides traders with an integrated voice and video turret system. The video turret combines call-control functionality and turret audio with video. This enhances the functionality of the turret while tying audio-only participants on phones and turrets into video calls and broadcasts.

        Avistar Digital Viewer.    The Digital Viewer allows users to view streaming presentations from any Avistar presentation, Avistar broadcast source or other RealNetworks/RealVideo-format video source. Active presentations can be easily viewed by clicking on a list of available presentations. Users can also view streaming content available over the Internet through their Avistar Digital Viewer.

Customers

        As of December 31, 2003, we have licensed and recognized revenue with respect to over 9,000 end-users at approximately 423 customer sites in 143 cities and 42 countries. Because many of our customers operate on a decentralized basis, decisions to purchase our systems are often made independently by individual business units. As such, a single company may represent several separate accounts. The following is a list of some of the customers that, together with their affiliates, have generated the largest portion of our revenue since our inception:

Deutsche Bank AG
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
JP Morgan Chase & Company
UBS Warburg LLC

        Deutsche Bank AG and its affiliates accounted for 62% of our total revenue for 2003.

        International revenue, which consists of sales to customers with operations principally in Western Europe and Asia comprised 58%, 49% and 47% of total revenue for 2003, 2002 and 2001, respectively. For 2003, 2002 and 2001, revenues to customers in the United Kingdom accounted for 40%, 26% and 21%, respectively, of total revenues.

Segment Information

        We operate through two segments:

•

Avistar Communications Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacturing, sale and marketing of networked video communications products.



•

Collaboration Properties, Inc., our wholly owned subsidiary, engages in the development, prosecution, maintenance, support and licensing of the intellectual property used in our video communications system.

        Financial information regarding these segments is provided in Note 11 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. To date, CPI has not signed any material licensing agreements.

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Sales and Marketing

        Sales.    We have a direct sales force in the United States and Europe consisting of regional sales managers and account managers located in New York, New York and London, England. Regional sales managers have direct responsibility for selling and account management, while account managers are responsible for system utilization and expansion at existing customer sites.

        Marketing.    Our marketing efforts are directed towards select vertical markets, with a current emphasis on financial services and, to a lesser degree, manufacturing. We have identified specific collaboration needs for enterprises in each of these vertical markets. We then help our customers understand how our system can satisfy these needs, thereby increasing the number of users. We emphasize initiatives to develop market awareness of our system and services as well as increased usage of our installed systems. We also use marketing programs to build recognition of our corporate brand.

Installation, Maintenance, Training and Support Services

        We provide a wide variety of services for installation and design of our video communications products, including workflow analysis to identify patterns of collaboration between workgroups to determine the best configuration of networked resources for the enterprise. We generally install our systems for new customers. In an increasing number of cases, our customer's information technology group or services partner install follow-on orders. In the future, we expect our customers or their services partners will increasingly perform installation of additional systems.

        Our maintenance services ensure that customers benefit from the latest networked video technology through software upgrades and expedited repair and replacement services. Our customer support center provides voice and video call assistance to Avistar users and administrators throughout the world. On-site support is also available from each of our major regional offices for a separate fee. In addition, training for users is available onsite or at an Avistar facility and for system administrators at an Avistar facility on a for-fee basis.

Backlog

        The estimated backlog of product orders believed to be firm was $600,000 at December 31, 2003 and $700,000 at December 31, 2002. We expect most of the orders as of December 31, 2003 will be shipped in the first two quarters of 2004. Backlog is not necessarily indicative of past or future operating results.

Research and Development

        We believe that strong system development capabilities are essential to our strategy. Our research and development efforts focus on enhancing our core technology, developing additional applications, addressing emerging technologies, standards and protocols, and engaging in patent and licensing activities. Our system development team consists of engineers and software developers with experience in video and data networking, voice communications, video and data compression, email and Internet technologies. We believe that our diverse technical expertise contributes to the highly integrated functionality of our system. Research and development expenses were $2.4 million in 2003, $3.7 million in 2002 and $5.3 million in 2001. We expect to devote a significant amount of our resources to research and development in the foreseeable future.

Manufacturing

        We use contract manufacturers to produce components and perform component purchasing and some material assembly. Our operations staff develops manufacturing strategies and qualifies and audits manufacturing processes and suppliers. We work with our contract manufacturers to reduce

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manufacturing costs and to resolve quality control issues, as well as performing final assembly and testing of our standard products. We believe our manufacturing strategy enables us to utilize the manufacturing capabilities of our contract manufacturers, while allowing us to focus on rapid system development and deployment, software architecture and development of video communication applications. We use third party, commercially available camera components, microphones, speakers and monitors for desktop and room systems, as well as third party compression and decompression components for our gateways.

Intellectual Property and Proprietary Rights

        Our ability to compete, and continue to provide technological innovation depends substantially upon internally developed technology. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as licensing, non-disclosure and other agreements with our consultants, suppliers, customers and employees, to protect our technology. We believe that other factors such as the technological and creative skills of our personnel, new system developments, frequent system and feature enhancements and reliable system support and maintenance are also essential to maintaining our leadership position in technology.

        We have pursued registration of our key trademarks and service marks in the United States, the United Kingdom and certain other European countries, and intend to pursue additional registration in additional countries where we plan to establish a significant business presence. We own several United States, Canadian and United Kingdom trademarks, including Avistar and the Avistar logo, AvistarVOS, Shareboard and The Enterprise Video Company.

        Through Collaboration Properties, Inc., our wholly owned subsidiary, as of December 31, 2003, we held 20 United States patents and 40 non-United States patents. Four additional United States and non-United States patents had been allowed. The patents that have been issued expire at varying dates between 2013 and 2015. In addition, numerous patent applications are pending in the United States and several other jurisdictions. Specifically, these patent applications, most of which relate to and claim priority from an application originally filed in 1993, include both method and apparatus claims. These patents and pending patent applications disclose and/or claim aspects of our analog or digital desktop video conferencing technology, video and multimedia storage technology for messaging and publishing, directory services, and public wide area networking access, switching and architecture. A portion of these technologies is currently utilized in our system. To date, we have focused on expanding our patent portfolio and expediting patent issuance. We plan to continue these efforts and to seek to license our patents to reinforce the adoption of our technology.

        We generally enter into confidentiality, license and nondisclosure agreements with our employees, consultants, prospective customers, licensees, and partners that seek to limit the use and distribution of our proprietary materials and prohibit reverse-engineering of our proprietary technologies. In addition, we control access to and distribution of our software, documentation and other proprietary information. Several of our license agreements with our customers require us to place our software source code into escrow. In these cases, these agreements provide that these customers may be entitled to retain copies of the software and will have a limited non-exclusive right to use and/or reproduce, maintain, update, enhance and produce derivative works of the software source code under the terms of the agreements if we fail to cure a contractual breach by us on a timely basis, or if we become the subject of a bankruptcy or similar proceeding.

        We maintain a strong working relationship with vendors whom we identify as key suppliers and assign preferred provider status to these vendors under agreements that secure ordering and extended warranty rights for us. These agreements also generally include both marketing provisions under which these vendors promote our system and development forums under which we have an opportunity to participate in the vendor's development plans to include features and functions that are favorable to us.

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Competition

        The market for video collaboration products and systems is highly competitive and fragmented. As a result of advances in technology, increases in communications capability and reductions in communications costs in the past several years, the market is now characterized by many competitors, rapidly changing technology, evolving user needs, developing industry standards and protocols and the frequent introduction of new products and services. Within the market for video collaboration products and systems, we compete primarily with Polycom Inc., Tandberg Inc. and VCON Telecommunications Ltd.

        We believe we may face increasing competition in the future from alternative video communications solutions that employ new technologies or new combinations of technologies from companies such as Cisco Systems, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, RealNetworks, Inc. and WebEx Communications, Inc., that enable web-based or network-based video communications with low-cost digital camera systems.

        We believe that the principal factors affecting competition in our markets include:

•

product features, functionality and scalability;



•

product quality and performance;



•

product reliability and ease of installation;



•

use of open standards;



•

quality of service and support;



•

company reputation, size and financial stability;



•

price and overall cost of ownership; and



•

document sharing, including internet-based collaboration.

        Currently, our principal competitors are companies that provide products and services in specific areas where we offer our integrated system, such as:

•

room-based point-to-point video communication products;



•

desktop video communications products;



•

broadcast video products;



•

video retrieval and viewing products;



•

desktop content creation products; and



•

web-based data collaboration products.

        While a number of companies have marketed applications that enable users to use individual features similar to our system, we do not believe that any single competitor currently offers a fully integrated system that provides all the features of our system. We believe these companies in many cases can also represent complementary opportunities to extend the reach of our system by potentially expanding the market for video networking.

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        We expect competition to increase significantly in the future from existing providers of specialized video communications products and companies that may enter our existing or future markets, possibly including major telephone companies or communications equipment providers. These companies may develop similar or substitute solutions, which may be less costly or provide better performance or functionality than our systems. A number of our existing and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, marketing, service, support, technical and other resources, significantly greater name recognition and a larger installed base of customers than we do. In addition, many of our current or potential competitors have well-established relationships with our current and potential customers, and have extensive knowledge of our industry. It is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and acquire significant market share. To be successful, we must continue to respond promptly and effectively to the challenges of developing customer requirements, technological change and competitors' innovations. Accordingly, we cannot predict what our relative competitive position will be as the market evolves for video collaboration products and services.

Employees

        As of December 31, 2003, we had 54 employees, including personnel dedicated to research and development, customer services, including installation and support services, sales and marketing and finance and administration. Our future performance depends in significant part upon the continued service of our key technical, sales and marketing, and senior management personnel, none of whom is obligated to remain with us by an employment agreement. The loss of the services of one or more of our key employees could harm our business.

Executive Officers

        Our officers and their ages as of December 31, 2003 were as follows:

        Gerald J. Burnett is one of our founders and has been Chairman of our Board of Directors and our Chief Executive Officer since March 2000. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Avistar Systems from December 1998 until March of 2000. From 1993 to 1997, he was a director of Avistar Systems or a principal of its predecessor limited partnership. He is a member of the Corporation (Board of Trustees) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Burnett holds a B.S. and an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and computer science and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in computer science and communications.

        William L. Campbell is one of our founders and has been a member of our Board of Directors and our Executive Vice President since March 2000. He has been our Corporate Secretary since June 2001 and served as our interim Chief Financial Officer from April 2001 to May 2001. He has been President and Chief Executive Officer of CPI since December 1997. Mr. Campbell holds a B.S. in general

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engineering from the U.S. Military Academy and an M.S. in management from the Sloan School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

        Robert J. Habig has been our Chief Financial Officer since May 2001. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Think3, Inc., a private computer-aided design software company from March 1999 to February 2001, as Chief Financial Officer at CrossWorlds Software, an enterprise software company from July 1998 to February 1999, as Executive Vice President at First Data Corporation, a financial transactions processing company, from May 1997 to June 1998, as a business unit Chief Financial Officer at Allied Signal Corporation, an automotive, aerospace and chemical manufacturing company from 1994 to 1997 and held various positions with PepsiCo from 1979 to 1994. Mr. Habig holds a B.A. in economics and business from Lafayette College and an M.B.A. from the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester.

        J. Chris Lauwers has been our Chief Technology Officer since February 2000. He served as Vice President of Engineering of Avistar Systems from 1994 to 2000. He previously served as Principal Software Architect at Vicor Inc., a private e-business product solutions and engineering consulting company, from 1990 to 1994, and as a research associate at Olivetti Research Center from 1987 to 1990. Mr. Lauwers holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven of Belgium. Mr. Lauwers also holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Stanford University.

        Stephen F. Arisco has been our Vice President of Operations and Customer Service since February 2000. He previously served as Director of Operations and Customer Service of Avistar Systems from December 1997 to January 2000. From 1987 through December 1997, he was Director of Customer Service and Operations at TRW Financial Systems, a systems integration company. Mr. Arisco holds a B.S. in Business from the University of Phoenix.

Item 2.    Properties

        Our corporate headquarters are located in Redwood Shores, California, where we occupy approximately 14,000 square feet under a lease that expires in March 2007. We believe that our current leased facilities, together with facilities that are available to us or are being negotiated, will be sufficient to meet our needs for the next twelve months. In addition, we lease a combined total of approximately 9,000 square feet of office space in New York, New York, Dallas, Texas and London, England. As of December 31, 2003, approximately 750 square feet of our corporate headquarters was being utilized by CPI, our wholly-owned subsidiary.

Item 3.    Legal Proceedings

        On September 23, 2002, CPI, our wholly-owned subsidiary, commenced a patent infringement lawsuit against Polycom, Inc. alleging that several Polycom videoconferencing products infringe four patents held by CPI. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The four patents involved are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,867,654, 5,896,500, 6,212,547 and 6,343,314. These patents cover technologies relating to video and data conferencing over unshielded twisted pair (UTP) networks, distributed call-state management, separate monitors for simultaneous computer-based data sharing and videoconferencing and remote participant hold and disconnect functions in multi-party conferencing. Polycom responded to CPI's claims on November 14, 2002, at which time it both answered the complaint and asserted counterclaims against CPI for non-infringement, invalidity and unenforceability. On January 31, 2003, Polycom filed a motion with the court, which was subsequently granted by the court on March 7, 2003, requesting permission to amend its counterclaims to incorporate claims of alleged infringements by Avistar Communications of four PictureTel patents that Polycom has told us it has had assigned to it. Three of the four counterclaims involved a third party, and these three counterclaims were dropped by Polycom on June 23, 2003, subsequent to an agreement

19

between Polycom and the third party. On August 9, 2003, CPI and Polycom filed motions for summary judgment with the court, seeking judgment as a matter of law concerning CPI's ability to qualify for "small entity status" in the filing of its four patents being asserted against Polycom. On October 17, 2003, the court denied Polycom's motion for summary judgment and granted CPI's motion for summary judgment, thereby negating Polycom's defense of unenforceablity concerning CPI's having filed these patents as a "small entity."

        Briefings on claims construction issues and a hearing before the presiding judge (Markman hearing) took place on March 8, 2004. A trial date for CPI's claims against Polycom and Polycom's counterclaims has been set for January 10, 2005. The prosecution of this lawsuit and the defense of the proposed Polycom counterclaim may require us to expend significant financial and managerial resources and therefore may have a material negative impact on our business. The duration and ultimate outcome of this litigation are uncertain. In addition, an adverse judgment, if entered against CPI or Avistar, could require CPI or Avistar to pay substantial compensation and/or damages to Polycom, which could harm our business, financial position and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline substantially. Litigation such as this suit can take years to resolve and can be expensive to prosecute. Regardless of the outcome, the prosecution of our claims in this lawsuit may require us to obtain additional financing.

Item 4.    Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

        None.

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PART II

Item 5.    Market for Registrant's Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters

        Our common stock traded on the NASDAQ National Market from August 17, 2000 to October 29, 2002 and has traded on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market since October 30, 2002 under the symbol "AVSR." Prior to August 17, 2000, there was no public market for our Common Stock. The following table sets forth for the period indicated the high and low closing sale prices for our common stock, as reported by the NASDAQ Stock Market.

        On December 31, 2003, the last reported sale price of our common stock on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market was $1.52 per share. According to the records of our transfer agent, as of December 31, 2003 there were 70 holders of record of our common stock and we believe there are a substantially greater number of beneficial holders.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

        On October 15, 2003, we issued and sold 4,615,385 shares of our common stock at a purchase price of $1.30 per share to Gerald J. Burnett, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and other members of Dr. Burnett's family, each of whom are accredited investors. The aggregate offering price was $6.0 million. The fees and expenses for this transaction were approximately $300,000, resulting in net proceeds to us of approximately $5.7 million. Pursuant to the foregoing sale, we agreed to register the shares under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, in the event that we determine to register any of our securities either for our own account or the account of our other stockholders. Under the terms of the private placement, Dr. Burnett agreed to certain restrictions on 1,602,847 of the 3,661,539 shares purchased by him. These restrictions require Dr. Burnett to vote such shares in the same proportion as our outstanding common stock not beneficially owned by him.

        The foregoing transaction did not involve any public offering, and we believe that the transaction was exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act by virtue of Section 4(2) thereof or Regulation D promulgated thereunder. The purchasers in the foregoing transaction represented their intention to acquire the securities for investment only and not with a view to or for resale in connection with any distribution thereof, and appropriate legends were affixed to the share certificates and instruments issued in the foregoing transaction. All purchasers had adequate access, through their relationships with Avistar, to information about us.

        We used a portion of the net proceeds of the private placement to repay the $1.5 million outstanding balance under our line of credit from Comerica Bank. We have used and intend to continue to use the remaining net proceeds of the financing for working capital purposes.

Dividend Policy

        We have never paid any cash dividends on our common stock, and we do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

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Item 6.    Selected Financial Data

        The selected consolidated financial data below should be read in conjunction with "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto. The selected statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001 and the selected balance sheet data as of December 31, 2003 and 2002 are derived from, and are qualified by reference to, the audited financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selected statement of operations data for the year ended December 31, 2000 and 1999 and the selected balance sheet data as of December 31, 2001, 2000 and 1999 is derived from our financial statements not included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K. The historical results presented below are not necessarily indicative of future results.

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Item 7.    Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

        The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Certain statements in this "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" are forward looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. These risks and other factors include those listed under "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results" elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expects", "intends", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "predicts", "potential", "continue" or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider various factors, including the risks outlined under "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results." These factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from any forward looking statement.

        Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to conform our prior statements to actual results.

Overview

        We develop, market and support an integrated suite of video-enabled vBusiness applications, all powered by our AvistarVOS (video operating system) software. From the desktop, we deliver TV-quality interactive video calling, content creation and publishing, broadcast origination and distribution, video-on-demand and integrated data sharing. Our customers use our system to improve productivity and communication within their enterprise, and between enterprises to enhance relationships with colleagues, customers, suppliers and partners. Using AvistarVOS software and leveraging video, telephony and Internet networking standards, our applications are designed to be scalable, reliable, cost effective, easy to use and capable of evolving with communications networks as bandwidth increases and as new standards and protocols emerge. We sell our system directly to enterprises in selected strategic vertical markets and have focused primarily on the financial services, and to a lesser degree, manufacturing industries. Our objective is to establish our technology as the standard for networked video.

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        We operate in two segments. We engage in the design, development, manufacturing, sale and marketing of networked video communications products, and associated support services, and CPI, our wholly-owned subsidiary, engages in the prosecution, maintenance, support and licensing of the intellectual property that we have developed, some of which is used in our products. As of December 31, 2003, CPI had not entered into any such third party licensing agreements.

        We operate on a 52-week fiscal year ending December 31. Our Consolidated Financial Statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, which require us to make certain estimates and assumptions (see Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements).

Critical Accounting Policies

        The preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

        We believe the following critical accounting policies, among others, affect our more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements:

•

Revenue recognition;



•

Valuation of accounts receivable; and



•

Valuation of inventories.

Revenue Recognition

        We derive product revenue principally from the sale and licensing of our video-enabled networked communications system, consisting of a suite of Avistar-designed software and hardware products, including third party components. In addition, we derive revenue from fees for installation, maintenance, support, training services and software development. Product revenue as a percentage of total revenue was 43% for 2003 and 50% for 2002.

        We recognize revenue from product sales when all of the following conditions are met: the product has been shipped, an arrangement exists with the customer at a fixed price and we have the right to invoice the customer, collection of the receivable is probable, and we have fulfilled all of our material contractual obligations to the customer. When we provide installation services, the product and installation revenue is recognized upon completion of installation and receipt of customer confirmation, subject to the satisfaction of the revenue recognition criteria described above. When the customer or a third party provides installation services, the product revenue is recognized upon shipment, subject to satisfaction of the revenue recognition criteria described above. Payment for product is due upon shipment, subject to specific payment terms. The price charged for maintenance and/or support is defined in the contract, and is based on a percentage of product list prices as stipulated in the customer agreement. Customers have the option to renew the maintenance and/or support services in subsequent periods at the same rate as paid in the initial year. Revenue from maintenance and support is recognized pro-rata over the maintenance and/or support term, which is typically one year in length. Training services are offered independently of the purchase of product. The value of these training services is determined based on the price charged when such services are sold separately and training revenue is recognized upon performance of the service. We recognize service revenue from software development contracts using the percentage of completion method, when all of the following conditions

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are met: a contract exists with the customer at a fixed price, we have fulfilled all of our material contractual obligations to the customer for a deliverable of the contract, verification of completion of the deliverable has been received, and collection of the receivable is probable. Reimbursements received for out-of-pocket expenses incurred during installation and support services, which have not been significant to date, are recognized as revenue in accordance with Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) Issue No. 01-14, "Income Statement Characterization of Reimbursements Received for "Out of Pocket" Expenses Incurred."

        To date, a significant portion of our revenue has resulted from sales to a limited number of customers, particularly Deutsche Bank AG and their affiliates. For 2003, we recorded revenue of approximately $4.1 million, or 62% of total revenue from Deutsche Bank AG and their affiliates. No other customers individually accounted for greater than 10% of our total revenue for 2003. For 2002, we recorded revenue of approximately $5.8 million, or 66% of total revenue, from Deutsche Bank AG and JP Morgan Chase & Company and their affiliates, each of whom generated more than 10% of our total revenue. We anticipate that our revenue, and therefore, our operating results for any given period, will continue to depend to a significant extent on a limited number of customers. As a result, the loss of or a reduction in sales to any one of these customers would have a significant adverse impact on our operations and financial performance.

        International revenue, which consists of sales to customers with operations principally in Western Europe and Asia, comprised 58% of total revenue for 2003, 49% for 2002 and 47% for 2001.

Valuation of Accounts Receivable

        Estimates are used in determining our allowance for doubtful accounts and are based on our historical collection experience, historical write-offs, current trends and the credit quality of our customer base and the characteristics of our accounts receivable by aging category. If the allowance for doubtful accounts was understated, our operating income could be significantly reduced. The impact of any such change or deviation may be increased by our reliance on a relatively small number of customers for a large portion of our total revenue. As of December 31, 2003, approximately 89% of our accounts receivable balance was concentrated with one customer. As of December 31, 2002, approximately 65% of our accounts receivable were concentrated with one customer.

Valuation of Inventories

        We record a provision for obsolete or excess inventory for models that are no longer manufactured or are at risk of being replaced with new versions of our product. In determining the allowance for obsolete or excess inventory, we look at our forecasted demand versus quantities on hand and commitments. Any significant unanticipated changes in demand or technological developments could have a significant impact on the value of our inventory and commitments and our reported results. If actual market conditions are less favorable than those projected, additional inventory write-downs, provision for purchase commitments and charges against earnings may be required, which would negatively affect our operating income for such period.

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Results of Operations

        The following table sets forth data expressed as a percentage of total revenue for the periods indicated.

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COMPARISON OF 2003, 2002 AND 2001

Revenue

        Total revenue decreased by 25% in 2003 to $6.6 million from $8.8 million for 2002. The decrease in total revenue in 2003 relative to 2002 was due to flat product sales and the timing of revenue recognition from 2001 business in 2002. Flat product sales in 2003 were due in large part to stagnant demand for enterprise information technology experienced in the economy and in the financial services industry in particular, resulting in constrained budgets and delayed procurement decisions by existing and potential customers. For 2003, one customer accounted for 62% of our total revenue. For 2002, two customers accounted for 66% of our total revenue. The level of sales to any customer may vary from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our revenue will continue to depend on a limited number of major customers for the foreseeable future, although the companies considered to be major customers and the percentage of revenue represented by each major customer may vary from period to period. The loss of any one of those customers would have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.

        Total revenue decreased by 46% in 2002 to $8.8 million from $16.2 million for 2001. The decrease in total revenue in 2002 relative to 2001 was due primarily to lower product sales and the general slowdown experienced in the economy.

Cost of Revenue

        Cost of revenue declined by 21% in 2003 to $3.5 million from $4.5 million for 2002. The decrease in cost of revenue in 2003 relative to 2002 was primarily due to the reduction in direct product costs caused by the decreased product volume and, to a lesser extent, due to the reduction in maintenance and support costs caused by the consolidation of our support center operations at our corporate headquarters.

        Cost of revenue declined by 41% in 2002 to $4.5 million from $7.6 million for 2001. The decrease in cost of revenue in 2002 relative to 2001 was primarily due to the reduction in direct product costs caused by the decline in product volume.

Gross Margin

        Gross margin as a percentage of revenue decreased in 2003 to 46% from 49% for 2002. The decrease in gross margin as a percentage of revenue for 2003 relative to 2002 was due in large part to the reduced product revenue, which resulted in less coverage of the fixed component of the cost of product sales. In addition, the decrease in gross margin as a percentage of revenue for 2003 relative to 2002 was due to higher service revenue as a percentage of total revenue for 2003, which generally carries a lower margin than product revenue.

        Gross margin as a percentage of revenue decreased in 2002 to 49% from 53% for 2001. The decrease in gross margin as a percentage of revenue for 2002 relative to 2001 was due to higher service revenue as a percentage of total revenue for 2002, which generally carries a lower margin than product revenue, as well as the lower overall revenue base, which provided less coverage of the fixed component of the cost of sales.

Operating Expenses

        Research and development.    Research and development expenses decreased by 35% in 2003 to $2.4 million from $3.7 million for 2002. The decrease in research and development expenses in 2003 relative to 2002 was primarily due to the reduction in personnel and personnel related expense as a result of a 12% decline in average staffing levels and a reduction in outside services and external consulting expenses, as well as reduced capital expenditures and associated depreciation. Research and

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development expenses decreased by 30% in 2002 to $3.7 million from $5.3 million for 2001. The decrease in research and development expenses in 2002 relative to 2001 was primarily due to the reduction in personnel and personnel related expense as a result of a 10% decline in staffing levels and a reduction in outside service costs.

        Sales and marketing.    Sales and marketing expenses remained relatively flat in 2003 at $3.6 million compared to $3.7 million for 2002. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 39% in 2002 to $3.7 million from $6.1 million for 2001. The decrease in sales and marketing expenses in 2002 relative to 2001 was due to decreased personnel and personnel related costs as a result of a 10% decline in staffing levels, decreased commission expense due to lower product sales, reductions in marketing program expenditures and reductions in outside service costs.

        General and administrative.    General and administrative expenses increased by 31% in 2003 to $6.0 million from $4.6 million for 2002. The increase in general and administrative expenses in 2003 relative to 2002 was due primarily to an increase in legal fees. General and administrative expenses decreased by 8% in 2002 to $4.6 million from $5.0 million for 2001. The decrease in general and administrative expenses in 2002 relative to 2001 was a result of decreased personnel and external labor costs, offset by increased outside professional services expenses.

        Amortization of deferred stock compensation.    Amortization of deferred stock compensation decreased by 62% in 2003 to $135,000 from $358,000 for 2002. The decrease in amortization of deferred stock compensation in 2003 relative to 2002 was due to the completion of option amortization, as well as forfeitures of stock options by employees no longer with our company. Amortization of deferred stock compensation decreased by 60% in 2002 to $358,000 from $898,000 for 2001. The decrease in amortization of deferred stock compensation in 2002 relative to 2001 was due to the completion of option amortization for certain option grants, as well as forfeitures of stock options by employees no longer with our company.

        Other income (expense), net.    Other income (expense), net increased by 6% in 2003 to $525,000 from $496,000 for 2002. The increase in other income (expense), net in 2003 relative to 2002 was due primarily to net insurance proceeds of $570,000 received in satisfaction of a business interruption claim for losses incurred by our New York City office following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, offset by lower interest income associated with a declining balance of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and lower interest rates. Other income (expense), net decreased by 34% in 2002 to $496,000 from $756,000 for 2001. The decrease in other income (expense), net in 2002 relative to 2001 was due to lower interest income associated with a declining balance of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and lower interest rates, partially offset by $0.2 million in net grant proceeds received in 2002 from the New York City disaster relief program associated with the events of September 11, 2001.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

        We have funded our operations since inception primarily from product and services revenue, the net proceeds of $31.3 million from our August 2000 initial public offering of common stock, lines of credit with related parties and financial institutions, the proceeds of approximately $6.4 million from the sale of Series B preferred stock in December 1999 and the proceeds of approximately $5.7 million from the private sale of our common stock in October 2003.

        We had cash and cash equivalents of $5.4 million as of December 31, 2003 and $4.8 million as of December 31, 2002. For 2003, we had a net cash inflow of $0.7 million resulting primarily from net cash proceeds from issuance of common stock of $6.0 million and proceeds from net sales of short-term investments of $2.4 million, offset by net cash used in operations of $7.5 million. The net cash proceeds from issuance of common stock are primarily due to the private sale of 4,615,385 shares

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of our common stock to Gerald J. Burnett, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and other members of his family at a price per share of $1.30, resulting in net proceeds of this private financing, after deducting expenses of the financing, of $5.7 million. The net cash used in operations primarily reflected a net loss of $8.6 million and a decrease in deferred revenue and customer deposits of $0.3 million, but was partially offset by an increase in accounts payable of $0.4 million, an increase in accrued liabilities and other of $0.2 million, a decrease in inventories of $0.2 million and a decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $0.1 million. The cash outflows associated with the net loss, along with the slight decrease in inventories and prepaid expenses reflect the smaller scale of our business in 2003 relative to 2002. The increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities and other reflect the timing of disbursements relative to 2002.

        For 2002, we had a net cash outflow of $2.7 million resulting primarily from net cash used in operations of $5.9 million, which was offset by proceeds from net sales of short-term investments of $3.4 million. The net cash used in operations primarily reflected a net loss of $7.6 million, a decrease in accrued liabilities and other of $1.3 million and a decrease in deferred revenue and customer deposits of $0.2 million, partially offset by a decrease in accounts receivable of $2.0 million, a decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $0.5 million and non-cash stock compensation expense of $0.4 million. The cash outflows associated with the net loss, reduced accrued liabilities and reduced accounts receivable reflect the smaller scale of our business in 2002 relative to 2001.

        For 2001, we had a net cash outflow of $14.2 million resulting primarily from net cash used in operations of $8.0 million, net purchases of short-term investments of $5.8 million and purchases of property and equipment of $0.8 million. The net cash used in operations primarily reflected a net loss of $7.9 million, a decrease in accounts payable of $1.4 million and a decrease in deferred revenue and customer deposits of $0.9 million, partially offset by non-cash stock compensation expense of $0.9 million, a decrease in accounts receivable of $0.9 million and a decrease in inventories of $1.1 million. The cash outflows associated with the net loss, reduced inventories and reduced accounts receivable reflect the smaller scale of our business in 2001 relative to 2000.

        Expenditures for property and equipment for 2003 were approximately $0.2 million. At December 31, 2003, we did not have any material commitments for future capital expenditures. We anticipate spending approximately $0.4 million in capital expenditures in the next 12 months.

        The following table summarizes our known contractual obligations and commitments as of December 31, 2003 (in thousands) for the periods presented.

        On February 27, 2002, we entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with a financial institution to borrow up to $4.5 million under a revolving line of credit. On December 15, 2002, we entered into an amendment to the Loan and Security Agreement to increase the maximum funds available under the line of credit to $6.0 million and extend the term of the agreement. The amended Loan and Security Agreement, as further amended in March 2003, had an expiration date of February 27, 2004. The agreement, as amended, includes a first priority security interest in all our assets, excluding

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intellectual property. Gerald Burnett, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has provided a collateralized guarantee to the financial institution, assuring payment of our obligations under the agreement and as a consequence, a number of restrictive covenants from the original Loan and Security Agreement have been deleted, except for quick ratio and loan to value covenants, allowing us greater access to the full amount of the facility. In addition to the guarantee provided to the financial institution, Dr. Burnett provided a personal guarantee to Avistar, assuring the provision of $6.0 million to Avistar in the event the line of credit from the financial institution was unavailable for any reason.

        On October 15, 2003, we completed the private sale of 4,615,385 shares of our common stock to Dr. Burnett and other members of his family at a price per share of $1.30. The net proceeds of this private financing, after deducting expenses of the financing, were approximately $5.7 million. Under the terms of the private placement, Dr. Burnett agreed to certain restrictions on 1,602,847 of the 3,661,539 shares purchased by him. These restrictions require Dr. Burnett to vote such shares in the same proportion as our outstanding common stock not beneficially owned by Dr. Burnett. As a result of this private placement, Dr. Burnett's previous commitment to provide us with up to $6.0 million in funds in the event that we were not able to borrow at least $6.0 million under the Loan and Security Agreement was terminated by its terms.

        During 2003, we borrowed $1.5 million under the Loan and Security Agreement. These outstanding borrowings were repaid in October 2003 using a portion of the proceeds from the private sale of common stock to Dr. Burnett and other members of his family. As of December 31, 2003, we did not have any borrowings outstanding under the line of credit.

        On February 27, 2004, the Loan and Security Agreement was amended to change the maximum borrowings thereunder to $3.5 million, subject to certain quick ratio and loan to value covenants, and to extend the term of the Loan and Security Agreement to February 27, 2005. In connection with this amendment, Dr. Burnett's collateralized guarantee was amended to reduce the amount of such guarantee to $3.5 million. In addition to the guarantee provided to the financial institution, Dr. Burnett has also provided a personal guarantee to Avistar assuring the provision of up to $2.0 million to Avistar in the event that at least $2.0 million is not available to us under the line of credit, or an alternate financing arrangement, for any reason. As of the date of the filing of this report, we had no outstanding borrowings under the line of credit and were eligible to borrow up to $3.5 million.

        We currently believe that existing cash and cash equivalents balances, short-term investments and available borrowings under the Loan and Security Agreement, as amended, and the commitment from our CEO will provide us with sufficient funds to finance our operations for the next 12 months.

        We intend to continue to invest in the development of new products and enhancements to our existing products. We may need to arrange for the availability of additional funding upon the expiration of the Loan and Security Agreement on February 27, 2005, either through the execution of an extension of the Loan and Security Agreement or through other means, in order to meet our future business requirements for the following 12 months. Additional funds and additional financing may not be available on favorable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain additional funding on acceptable terms, we may not be able to develop or enhance our products, take advantage of future opportunities, or respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated requirements, which could seriously harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and ability to continue operations. Furthermore, any additional equity financing may be dilutive to our stockholders and such equity securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of the holders of our common stock, and debt financing, if available, may involve significant fees, interest payment obligations and restrictive covenants. Strategic arrangements, if necessary to raise additional funds, may require us to relinquish our rights to certain of our technologies or products. Our future liquidity and capital requirements will depend upon numerous factors, including without limitation, general economic conditions and conditions in the financial services industry in particular, the level and timing of revenue, the costs and

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timing of our product development efforts and the success of these development efforts, the costs and timing of our sales and marketing activities, the extent to which our existing and new products gain market acceptance, competing technological and market developments, the costs involved in maintaining and enforcing patent claims and other intellectual property rights including, without limitation, the costs and result of CPI's litigation with Polycom and other factors, all of which may impact our ability to achieve and maintain profitability.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

        In December 2002, the FASB issued SFAS 148, "Summary of Statement No. 148 Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation-Transition and Disclosure-an Amendment of FASB Statement No. 123." SFAS 148 amends SFAS 123, "Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation," to provide alternative methods of transition for a voluntary change to the fair value based method of accounting for stock-based employee compensation. In addition, SFAS 148 amends the disclosure requirements of SFAS 123 to require prominent disclosures in both annual and interim financial statements about the method of accounting for stock-based employee compensation and the effect of the method used on reported results. We have adopted the disclosure requirements of SFAS 148.

        In May 2003, the FASB issued SFAS No. 150, "Accounting for Certain Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Both Liabilities and Equity," which establishes standards for how an issuer classifies and measures certain financial instruments with characteristics of both liabilities and equity. Financial instruments that are within the scope of the statement, which previously were often classified as equity, must now be classified as liabilities. This statement is effective for financial instruments entered into or modified after May 31, 2003, and otherwise became effective at the beginning of the first interim period beginning after June 15, 2003. The adoption of SFAS No. 150 did not have a material impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements.

Factors Affecting Future Operating Results

        Our market is in the early stages of development, and our system may not be widely accepted.

        Our ability to achieve profitability depends in part on the widespread adoption of networked video communications systems. If the market for our system fails to grow or grows more slowly than we anticipate, we may not be able to increase revenue or achieve profitability. The market for our system is relatively new and evolving. We have to devote substantial resources to educating prospective customers about the uses and benefits of our system. Our efforts to educate potential customers may not result in our system achieving market acceptance. In addition, businesses that have invested or may invest substantial resources in other video products may be reluctant or slow to adopt our system. Similarly, customers using existing information systems in which they have made significant investments may refuse to adopt our system if they perceive that our offerings will not complement their existing systems. Consequently, the conversion from traditional methods of communication to the extensive use of networked video may not occur as rapidly as we wish.

        We have incurred substantial losses in the past and may not be profitable in the future.

        We incurred net losses of $8.6 million for 2003, $7.6 million for 2002 and $7.9 million for 2001. As of December 31, 2003, our accumulated deficit was $80.8 million. Our revenue may not increase, or even remain at its current level. In addition, our operating expenses may increase as we continue to develop our business in the future. As a result, to become profitable, we will need to increase our revenue by increasing sales to existing customers and by attracting additional customers. If our expenses increase more rapidly than our revenue, or if revenue and expense levels remain the same, we may never become profitable. If we fail to achieve our plan of generating positive cash flow from operations over the next 12 months, we may be required to raise additional funds, and additional financing may not be available on favorable terms, if at all. Although our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer has

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guaranteed our Loan and Security Agreement, we cannot be certain that he will continue to do so. We cannot predict whether or when we will become profitable. If we do become profitable, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. In addition, if we fail to reach profitability or to sustain or grow our profits within the time frame expected by investors, the market price of our common stock may be adversely impacted.

        General economic conditions have and may continue to reduce our revenues and harm our business.

        The international economic slowdown and the downturn in the investment banking industry that began in the year 2000 has negatively affected our business in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and may continue to do so in the future. During this period, the investment banking industry suffered a sharp decline, which caused many of our existing and potential customers to cancel or delay orders for our products. If our customers and potential customers continue to delay ordering our products, we will fall short of our revenue expectations for 2004 and beyond. The outlook for the video communications industry is uncertain. Slower growth among our customers, tightening of customers' operating budgets, retrenchment in the capital markets and other general economic factors all have had and could in the future have a materially adverse effect on our revenue, capital resources, financial condition and results of operations.

        We have filed a complaint alleging patent infringement against Polycom, Inc. The prosecution of this lawsuit could require us to expend significant financial and managerial resources and may have a material negative impact on our business. If we do not prevail, we may be required to pay monetary damages.

        On September 23, 2002, CPI, our wholly-owned subsidiary, commenced a patent infringement lawsuit against Polycom, Inc. alleging that several Polycom videoconferencing products infringe four patents held by CPI. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The four patents involved are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,867,654, 5,896,500, 6,212,547 and 6,343,314. These patents cover technologies relating to video and data conferencing over unshielded twisted pair (UTP) networks, distributed call-state management, separate monitors for simultaneous computer-based data sharing and videoconferencing and remote participant hold and disconnect functions in multi-party conferencing. Polycom responded to CPI's claims on November 14, 2002, at which time it both answered the complaint and asserted counterclaims against CPI for non-infringement, invalidity and unenforceability On January 31, 2003, Polycom filed a motion with the court, which was subsequently granted by the court on March 7, 2003, requesting permission to amend its counterclaims to incorporate claims of alleged infringements by Avistar Communications of four PictureTel patents that Polycom has told us it has had assigned to it. Three of the four counterclaims involved a third party, and Polycom dropped these three counterclaims on June 23, 2003, subsequent to an agreement between Polycom and the third party. On August 9, 2003, CPI and Polycom filed motions for summary judgment with the court, seeking judgment as a matter of law concerning CPI's ability to qualify for "small entity status" in the filing of its four patents being asserted against Polycom. On October 17, 2003 the court denied Polycom's motion for summary judgment and granted CPI's motion for summary judgment, thereby negating Polycom's defense of unenforceability concerning CPI's having filed these patents as a "small entity."

        Briefings on claims construction issues and a hearing before the presiding judge (Markman hearing) took place on March 8, 2004. A trial date for CPI's claims against Polycom and Polycom's counterclaims has been set for January 10, 2005. The prosecution of this lawsuit and the defense of the Polycom counterclaim may require us to expend significant financial and managerial resources and therefore may have a material negative impact on our business. The duration and ultimate outcome of this litigation are uncertain. In addition, an adverse judgment, if entered against CPI or Avistar, could require CPI or Avistar to pay substantial compensation and/or damages to Polycom, which could harm

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our business, financial position and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline substantially. Litigation such as this suit can take years to resolve and can be expensive to prosecute and defend. Regardless of the outcome, the prosecution of CPI's claims and defense of the counterclaims in this lawsuit may require us to obtain additional financing.

        Our expected future working capital needs may require that we seek additional debt or equity funding which, if not available, could cause our business to suffer.

        Our future liquidity and working capital requirements will depend upon numerous factors, including:

•

general economic conditions and conditions in the financial services industry in particular;



•

the level and timing of our revenue;



•

the costs and timing of product development efforts and the success of these development efforts;



•

the costs and timing of sales and marketing activities;



•

the extent to which our existing and new products gain market acceptance;



•

competing technological and market developments;



•

the costs involved in maintaining and enforcing patent claims and other IP rights, including the costs associated with CPI's litigation with Polycom; and



•

available borrowings under line of credit arrangements and other factors.

        We may need to arrange for the availability of additional funding in order to meet our future business requirements. If we are unable to obtain additional funding when needed on acceptable terms, we may not be able to develop or enhance our products, take advantage of future opportunities, respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated requirements, or finance our litigation with Polycom, which could seriously harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and ability to continue operations. There can be no assurance that such funding will be available on terms attractive to us, or at all. Furthermore, any additional equity financing may be dilutive to stockholders and such equity securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of the holders of our common stock, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants. Strategic arrangements, if necessary to raise additional funds, may require us to relinquish our rights to certain of our technologies or products.

        Our lengthy sales cycle to acquire new customers or large follow-on orders may cause our operating results to vary significantly and make it more difficult to forecast our revenue.

        We have generally experienced a product sales cycle of four to nine months for new customers or large follow-on orders due to the time needed to educate customers about the uses and benefits of our system, and the significant investment decisions that our prospective customers must make when they decide to buy our system. Many of our prospective customers have neither budgeted expenses for networked video communications systems, or for personnel specifically dedicated to the procurement, installation or support of these systems. As a result, our customers spend a substantial amount of time before purchasing our system in performing internal reviews and obtaining capital expenditure approvals. Recent economic conditions have contributed to additional deliberation, and an associated delay in the sales cycle.

        Our lengthy sales cycle is one of the factors that has caused, and may in the future continue to cause, our operating results to vary significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. This makes it difficult for us to forecast revenue, and could cause volatility in the market price of our common stock. A lost or delayed order could result in lower revenue than expected in a particular quarter or year.

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        Since a majority of our revenue has come from follow-on orders, our financial performance could be harmed if we fail to obtain follow-on orders in the future.

        Our customers typically place limited initial orders for our networked video communications system, as they seek to evaluate its usefulness and value. Our strategy is to pursue additional and larger follow-on orders after these initial orders. Revenue generated from follow-on orders accounted for approximately 96% of our revenue in 2003 and 95% in 2002. Economic conditions have contributed to decreases in our clients' capital spending in the past, and we have experienced a decrease in the size and number of follow-on orders. Our future financial performance depends on successful initial installations of our system and successful generation of follow-on orders as the Avistar network expands within a customer organization. If our system does not meet the needs and expectations of customers, we may not be able to generate follow-on orders.

        Because we depend on a few customers for a majority of our revenue, the loss of one or more of them could cause a significant decrease in our revenue.

        We have historically derived the majority of our revenue from a limited number of customers, particularly Deutsche Bank and their affiliates. Collectively, this customer accounted for 62% of our revenue for 2003. This contribution reflects the acquisition by Deutsche Bank of other financial services firms that were previously Avistar customers, as well as the purchase of Avistar technology by Deutsche Bank for new accounts as part of Deutsche Bank's client connectivity program. No other customers individually accounted for greater than 10% of our total revenue for 2003. For 2002, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase & Company and their affiliates accounted for 66% of our revenue, each of whom generated more than 10% of our total revenue. We expect to continue to depend upon a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenue. As of December 31, 2003, approximately 89% of our accounts receivable were concentrated with one customer. As of December 31, 2002, approximately 65% of our accounts receivable were concentrated with two customers, each of whom represented more than 10% of our total accounts receivable balance.

        The loss of a major customer or the reduction, delay or cancellation of orders from one or more of our significant customers could cause our revenue to decline and our losses to increase. Because we currently depend on a limited number of customers with lengthy budgeting cycles and unpredictable buying patterns, our revenue from quarter to quarter or year to year may be volatile. Adverse changes in our revenue or operating results as a result of these budgeting cycles or any other reduction in capital expenditures by our large customers could substantially reduce the trading price of our common stock.

        We may not be able to modify and improve our products in a timely and cost effective manner to respond to technological change and customer demands.

        Future hardware and software platforms embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards and customer requirements could render our system non-competitive or even obsolete. The market for our system is characterized by:

•

rapid technological change;



•

significant development costs;



•

changes in the requirements of our customers and their communities of users;



•

evolving industry standards; and



•

transition to Internet protocol connectivity for video at the desktop, with increasing availability of bandwidth.

        Our system is designed to work with a variety of hardware and software configurations and data networking infrastructures used by our customers. The majority of these customer networks rely on

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Microsoft Windows servers. However, our software may not operate correctly on other hardware and software platforms or with other programming languages, database environments and systems that our customers use. Also, we must constantly modify and improve our system to keep pace with changes made to our customers' platforms, data networking infrastructures, and their evolving ability to transport video and other applications. This may result in uncertainty relating to the timing and nature of our new release announcements, introductions or modifications, which in turn may cause confusion in the market, with a potentially harmful effect on our business. If we fail to promptly modify or improve our system in response to evolving industry standards or customers' demands, our system could become obsolete, which would harm our financial condition and reputation.

        Difficulties or delays in installing our products could harm our revenue and margins.

        We recognize revenue upon the installation of our system in those cases where we are responsible for installation, which often entails working with sophisticated software and computing and communications systems. If we experience difficulties with installation or do not meet deadlines due to delays caused by our customers or ourselves, we could be required to devote more customer support, technical and other resources to a particular installation. If we encounter delays in installing our products for new or existing customers or installation requires significant amounts of our professional services support, our revenue recognition could be delayed, our costs could increase and our margins could suffer.

Competition could reduce our market share and decrease our revenue.

        Currently, our competition comes from many other kinds of companies, including communication equipment, integrated solution, broadcast video and stand-alone point solution providers. Within the video-enabled network communications market, we compete primarily against Polycom, Tandberg Inc. and VCON Telecommunications Ltd. We believe we may face increasing competition in the future from alternative video communications solutions that employ new technologies or new combinations of technologies from companies such as Cisco Systems, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, RealNetworks, Inc. and WebEx Communications, Inc., that enable web-based or network-based video communications with low-cost digital camera systems. The market in which we operate is highly competitive. In addition, because our industry is relatively new and one which is characterized by rapid technological change, evolving user needs, developing industry standards and protocols and the frequent introduction of new products and services, it is difficult for us to predict whether or when new competing technologies or new competitors will enter our market.

        We expect competition to increase in the future from existing competitors and from new market entrants with products that may be less expensive than ours or that may provide better performance or additional features not currently provided by our products. Many of our current and potential competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and other resources, greater name recognition and market presence, longer operating histories, lower cost structures and larger customer bases than we do. As a result, they may be able to adapt more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements.

        We may be required to reduce prices or increase spending in response to competition in order to retain or attract customers, pursue new market opportunities or invest in additional research and development efforts. As a result, our revenue, margins and market share may be harmed. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors, or that competitive pressures faced by us will not harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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        Infringement of our proprietary rights could affect our competitive position, harm our reputation or cost us money.

        We regard our system as open but proprietary. In an effort to protect our proprietary rights, we rely primarily on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as licensing, non-disclosure and other agreements with our consultants, suppliers, customers and employees. However, these laws and agreements provide only limited protection of our proprietary rights. In addition, we may not have signed agreements in every case and the contractual provisions that are in place and the protection they produce may not provide us with adequate protection in all circumstances. Although CPI holds patents and has filed patent applications covering some of the inventions embodied in our systems, our means of protecting our proprietary rights may not be adequate. It may be possible for a third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our technology without authorization and without our detection. In the event that we believe a third party is infringing our intellectual property rights, an infringement claim brought by us could, regardless of the outcome, result in substantial cost to us, divert our management's attention and resources, be time consuming to prosecute and result in unpredictable damage awards. A third party may also develop similar technology independently, without infringing upon our patents and copyrights. In addition, the laws of some countries in which we sell our system may not protect our software and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Unauthorized copying, use or reverse engineering of our system could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

        Infringement claims could require us to expend significant financial and managerial resources.

        A third party could claim that our technology infringes upon its proprietary rights. As the number of software systems in our target market increases and the functionality of these systems overlap, we believe that the number of infringement suits filed by software developers may increase. At a hearing held on March 7, 2003, the judge in the existing lawsuit in which CPI is claiming that Polycom infringes four CPI patents granted Polycom's motion to amend its counterclaims to include claims of alleged infringements by Avistar Communications of four PictureTel patents that Polycom has told us it has had assigned to it. Three of the four counterclaims for patent infringement related to equipment provided to Avistar by a third-party. These three counterclaims involving the third party were dropped on June 23, 2003, subsequent to an agreement between Polycom and the third party.

        Briefings on claims construction issues and a hearing before the presiding judge (Markman hearing) took place on March 8, 2004. A trial date for CPI's claims against Polycom and Polycom's remaining counterclaim has been set for January 10, 2005. Prosecuting and defending against any infringement claims, even those that are not meritorious, could result in the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources, could take years to resolve and may require us to obtain additional financing. In addition, if we are found liable for infringement, it could require CPI or Avistar to pay substantial compensation and/or damages to Polycom and we may not be able to continue offering that portion of our system that is found to be infringing. Redesigning our system components to avoid alleged or actual infringement could result in the expenditure of significant and managerial resources and diminish the value of our system, which could harm our business, financial position and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline substantially.

        Our system could have defects for which we could be held liable for, and which could result in lost revenue, increased costs, loss of our credibility or delay in the further acceptance of our system in the market.

        Our system may contain errors or defects, especially when new products are introduced or when new versions are released. Despite internal system testing, we have in the past discovered software errors in some of the versions of our system after their introduction. Errors in new systems or versions could be found after commencement of commercial shipments, and this could result in additional development costs, diversion of technical and other resources from our other development efforts or

36

the loss of credibility with current or future customers. Any of these events could result in a loss of revenue or a delay in market acceptance of our system and could harm our reputation.

        In addition, we have warranted to some of our customers that our software is free of viruses. If a virus infects a customer's computer software, the customer could assert claims against us, which, regardless of their merits, could be costly to defend and could require us to pay damages and potentially harm our reputation.

        Our license agreements with our customers typically contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to potential product liability and certain contract claims. Our license agreements also typically limit a customer's entire remedy to either a refund of the price paid or modification of our system to satisfy our warranty. However, these provisions vary as to their terms and may not be effective under the laws of some jurisdictions. Although we maintain product liability ("errors and omissions") insurance coverage, we cannot assure you that such coverage will be adequate. A product liability, warranty or other claim could harm our business, financial condition and/or results of operations. Performance interruptions at a customer's site could negatively affect the demand for our system or give rise to claims against us.

        The third party software we license with our system may also contain errors or defects for which we do not maintain insurance. Typically, our license agreements transfer any warranty from the third party to our customers to the extent permitted. Product liability, warranty or other claims brought against us with respect to such warranties could, regardless of their merits, harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

        The loss of any of our outside contract manufacturers or third party equipment suppliers that produce key components of our system could significantly disrupt our manufacturing and new product development process.

        We depend on outside contract manufacturers to produce components of our systems. A significant portion of our compression and decompression product, or gateway product, is currently supplied by a single source, Tandberg, Inc. In addition, we depend on various third party suppliers for the cameras, microphones, speakers and monitors that we install at desktops and in conference rooms as a part of each video communications network system. Two of these contract manufacturers, SAE Materials Inc. and Pacific Corporation, are single source suppliers for key components of our products. Another supplier, Equator Technologies Inc., is our only current source of a component used in products recently introduced to the marketplace. Our reliance on these third parties involves a number of risks, including:

•

the possible unavailability of critical services and components on a timely basis, on commercially reasonable terms or at all;



•

if the components necessary for our system were to become unavailable, the need to qualify new or alternative components for our use or reconfigure our system and manufacturing process could be lengthy and expensive;



•

the likelihood that, if particular components were not available, we would suffer an interruption in the manufacture and shipment of our systems until these components or alternatives become available;



•

reduced control by us over the quality and cost of our system and over our ability to respond to unanticipated changes and increases in customer orders, and conversely, price changes from suppliers if committed volumes are not met; and



•

the possible unavailability of, or interruption in, access to some technologies due to infringement claims, production/supply issues or other hindrances.

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        If these manufacturers or suppliers cease to provide us with the assistance or the components necessary for the operation of our business, we may not be able to identify alternate sources in a timely fashion. Any transition to alternate manufacturers or suppliers would likely result in operational problems and increased expenses and could cause delays in the shipment of or otherwise limit our ability to provide our products. We cannot assure you that we would be able to enter into agreements with new manufacturers or suppliers on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any disruption in product flow may limit our revenue, delay our product development, seriously harm our competitive position and/or result in additional costs or cancellation of orders by our customers.

        If we are unable to expand our direct sales force and/or add distribution channels, our business will suffer.

        To increase our revenue, we must increase the size of our direct sales force and add indirect distribution channels, such as systems integrators, product partners and/or value-added resellers, and/or effect sales through our customers. If we are unable to maintain or increase our direct sales force or add indirect distribution channels due to our own cost constraints, limited availability of qualified personnel or other reasons, our future revenue growth may be limited and our future operating results may suffer. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in attracting, integrating, motivating and retaining sales personnel. Furthermore, it can take several months before a new hire becomes a productive member of our sales force. The loss of existing direct and/or indirect salespeople, or the failure of new salespeople and/or indirect sales partners to develop the necessary skills in a timely manner, could reduce our revenue growth.

        We may not be able to retain our existing key personnel, or hire and retain the additional personnel that we need to sustain and grow our business.

        Our products and technologies are complex, and to successfully implement our business strategy and manage our business, an in-depth understanding of video communication and collaboration technologies and their potential uses is required. We depend on the continued services of our executive officers and other key personnel. We do not have long-term employment agreements with our executive officers or other key personnel and we do not carry any "key man" life insurance. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or key personnel could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        We need to attract and retain highly skilled technical and managerial personnel for whom there is intense competition. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified technical and managerial personnel due to our own cost constraints, limited availability of qualified personnel or other reasons, our results of operations could suffer and we may never achieve profitability. The failure of new personnel to develop the necessary skills in a timely manner could harm our business.

        Our plans call for growth in our business, and our inability to achieve or manage growth could harm our business.

        Failure to achieve or manage growth effectively will harm our business, financial condition and operating results. Furthermore, in order to remain competitive or to expand our business, we may find it necessary or desirable in the future to acquire other businesses, products or technologies. If we identify an appropriate acquisition candidate, we may not be able to negotiate the terms of the acquisition successfully, to finance the acquisition or to integrate the acquired businesses, products or technologies into our existing business and operations. In addition, completing a potential acquisition and integrating an acquired business may strain our resources and require significant management time.

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        Our international operations expose us to potential tariffs and other trade barriers, unexpected changes in foreign regulatory requirements and laws and economic and political instability, as well as other risks that could adversely affect our results of operations.

        International revenue, which consists of sales to customers with operations principally in Western Europe and Asia, comprised 58% of total revenue for 2003 and 49% for 2002. Some of the risks we may encounter in conducting international business activities include the following:

•

tariffs and other trade barriers;



•

unexpected changes in foreign regulatory requirements and laws;



•

economic and political instability;



•

increased risk of infringement claims;



•

restrictions on the repatriation of funds;



•

potentially adverse tax consequences;



•

timing, cost and potential difficulty of adapting our system to the local language standards in those foreign countries that do not use the English language;



•

fluctuations in foreign currencies; and



•

limitations in communications infrastructures in some foreign countries.

        International political instability may increase our cost of doing business and disrupt our business.

        Increased international political instability, evidenced by the threat or occurrence of terrorist attacks, enhanced national security measures and/or sustained military action may halt or hinder our ability to do business, may increase our costs and may adversely affect our stock price. This increased instability has had and may continue to have negative effects on financial markets, including significant price and volume fluctuations in securities markets. If this international political instability continues or escalates, our business and results of operations could be harmed and the market price of our common stock could decline.

        If our customers do not perceive our system or services to be effective or of high quality, our brand and name recognition would suffer.

        We believe that establishing and maintaining brand and name recognition is critical for attracting and expanding our targeted customer base. We also believe that the importance of reputation and name recognition will increase as competition in our market increases. Promotion and enhancement of our name will depend on the success of our marketing efforts, and on our ability to continue to provide high quality systems and services, neither of which can be assured. If our customers do not perceive our system or services to be effective or of high quality, our brand and name recognition will suffer, which would harm our business.

        We may not meet the continued listing criteria for the NASDAQ SmallCap Market, which could materially adversely affect the price and liquidity of our stock, our business and our financial condition.

        For continued listing of our common stock on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market, we are required to, among other things (i) maintain stockholders' equity of at least $2.5 million, and (ii) maintain a minimum closing bid price of our common stock of at least $1.00. As of December 31, 2003, we had stockholders' equity of $5.5 million and the closing price of our common stock on March 1, 2004 was $1.36. If our stockholders' equity declines below $2.5 million or the closing bid price of our common stock remains below $1.00 for 30 or more consecutive trading days, our common stock could be subject

39

to delisting from trading on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market. There can be no assurance that we will continue to meet all requirements for continued listing on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market, including the minimum bid price requirement, the requirement for a minimum stockholder's equity of $2.5 million or the other continued listing standards of such market.

        If we are unable to continue to list our common stock for trading on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market, there may be adverse impact on the market price and liquidity of our common stock, and our stock may be subject to the "penny stock rules" contained in Section 15(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the rules promulgated there under. Delisting of our common stock from The NASDAQ SmallCap Market could also materially adversely affect our business, including, among other things: our ability to raise additional financing to fund our operations; our ability to attract and retain customers; and our ability to attract and retain personnel, including management personnel. In addition, if we were unable to list our common stock for trading on NASDAQ, many institutional investors would no longer be able to retain their interests in and/or make further investments in our common stock because of their internal rules and protocols.

        Our common stock has been and will likely continue to be subject to substantial price and volume fluctuations due to a number of factors, many of which will be beyond our control, that may prevent our stockholders from reselling our common stock at a profit.

        The trading price of our common stock has in the past been and could in the future be subject to significant fluctuations in response to:

•

quarterly variations in our results of operations;



•

announcements regarding our product developments;



•

announcements of technological innovations or new products by us, our customers or competitors;



•

announcements of competitive product introductions by our competitors or our customers;



•

sales or the perception in the market of possible sales of a large number of shares of our common stock by our directors, officers, employees or principal stockholders; and



•

developments or disputes concerning patents or proprietary rights, including our litigation with Polycom, or other events.

        If our revenue and results of operations are below the expectations of public market securities analysts or investors, then significant fluctuations in the market price of our common stock could occur. In addition, the securities markets have, from time to time, experienced significant price and volume fluctuations, which have particularly affected the market prices for high technology companies, and which often are unrelated and disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions, may negatively affect the market price of our common stock.

        If our share price is volatile, we may be the target of securities litigation, which is costly and time-consuming to defend.

        In the past, following periods of market volatility in the price of a company's securities, security holders have often instituted class action litigation. Many technology companies have been subject to this type of litigation. Our share price has, in the past, experienced price volatility, and may continue to do so in the future. If the market value of our common stock experiences adverse fluctuations and we become involved in this type of litigation, regardless of the merits or outcome, we could incur substantial legal costs and our management's attention could be diverted, causing our business, financial condition and operating results to suffer.

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        Provisions of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and Delaware law may make it difficult for a third party to acquire us, despite the possible benefits to our stockholders.

        Our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that may inhibit changes in our control that are not approved by our Board of Directors. For example, the Board of Directors has the authority to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock and to determine the terms of this preferred stock, without any further vote or action on the part of the stockholders.

        These provisions may have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in our control despite possible benefits to our stockholders, may discourage bids at a premium over the market price of our common stock, and may adversely affect the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of our stockholders.

        Our principal stockholders can exercise a controlling influence over our business affairs and they may make business decisions with which you disagree that will affect the value of your investment.

        Our executive officers, directors and entities affiliated with them, in the aggregate, beneficially owned approximately 72% of our common stock as of December 31, 2003. If they were to act together, these stockholders would be able to exercise control over most matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. These actions may be taken even if they are opposed by other investors. This concentration of ownership may also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company, which could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

Item 7a.    Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

        We develop products primarily in the United States and sell those products primarily in North America, Europe and Asia. International revenue, which consists of sales to customers with operations principally in Western Europe and Asia, comprised 58% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2003 and 49% for the year ended December 31, 2002. As a result, our financial condition could be affected by factors such as changes in foreign currency exchange rates or weak economic conditions in foreign markets. As all of our sales are currently made in United States dollars, a strengthening of the United States dollar could make our products less competitive in foreign markets. We do not use derivative financial instruments for speculative or trading purposes, nor do we engage in any foreign currency hedging transactions.

        Our interest income is sensitive to changes in the general level of United States interest rates, particularly since the majority of our investments are in short-term instruments. We expect that our interest income will be negatively affected by declines in short-term interest rates.

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments

        Cash equivalents consist primarily of commercial paper and money market and municipal bond funds acquired with remaining maturity periods of three months or less and are stated at cost, plus accrued interest that approximates market value. Short-term investments consist of corporate notes that are classified as available for sale and are stated at fair value. We would not expect our operating results or cash flow to be significantly impacted by the effect of sudden changes in market interest rates given the nature of our short-term investments.

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        The following table provides information about our investment portfolio. For investment securities, the table presents cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments and related weighted average interest rates by category at December 31, 2003.

Item 8.    Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

        Our consolidated financial statements and the independent auditors' report appear on pages F-1 through F-21 of this Report.

Item 9.    Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

        On May 3, 2002, we dismissed Arthur Andersen LLP as our independent public accountants, and on such date also selected KPMG LLP to replace Arthur Andersen in this role. This change in our independent accountants was the subject of our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 8, 2002.

Item 9a.    Controls and Procedures

        (a)   Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures: Our management evaluated, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act)) are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms. It should be noted that the design of any system of controls is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions, regardless of how remote.

        (b)   Changes in internal control over financial reporting: There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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PART III

Item 10.    Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant

        The information required by this item concerning our directors is incorporated by reference to the sections captioned "Election of Directors" and "Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance" contained in the Company's Proxy Statement related to the 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the end of 2003 pursuant to General Instruction G(3) of Form 10-K (the "Proxy Statement"). Certain information required by this item concerning executive officers is set forth in Part I of this Report in "Business—Management" and certain other information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the section captioned "Principal Stockholders" contained in the Proxy Statement.

        We have adopted a code of ethics that applies to our principal executive officer and all members of our finance department, including the principal financial officer and principal accounting officer. This code of ethics, which also applies to employees generally, is posted on our Internet website. The Internet address for our website is http://www.avistar.com, and the code of ethics may be found as follows:

1.

From our main Web page, first click on "Company."



2.

Next, click on "Investor Relations."



3.

Next, click on "Code of Business Conduct and Ethics."

        We intend to satisfy the disclosure requirement under Item 10 of Form 8-K regarding an amendment to, or waiver from, a provision of this code of ethics by posting such information on our website, at the address and location specified above.

Item 11.    Executive Compensation

        The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the section captioned "Executive Compensation and Other Matters" contained in the Proxy Statement.

Item 12.    Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management

        The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the sections captioned "Principal Stockholders" and "Record Date and Principal Share Ownership" and the table captioned "Equity Compensation Plan Information" contained in the Proxy Statement.

Item 13.    Certain Relationships and Related Transactions

        The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the sections captioned "Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation" and "Certain Transactions" contained in the Proxy Statement.

Item 14.    Principal Accountant Fees and Services

        The information required by this section is incorporated by reference from the information in the section entitled "Ratification of Appointment of Independent Accountants" in the Proxy Statement.

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PART IV

Item 15.    Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules and Reports on Form 8-K

(a)(1) Financial Statements

        The following financial statements are incorporated by reference in Item 8 of this Report:

(a)(2) Financial Statement Schedules

        Schedule II—Valuation and Qualifying Accounts and Reserves (see page S-1)

        Schedules not listed above have been omitted because the information required to be set forth therein is not applicable or is shown in the financial statements or notes thereto.

(a)(3) Exhibits

44

*

Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement required to be filed an exhibit pursuant to Item 14(c) of Form 10-K.

†

Portions of the exhibit have been omitted pursuant to a request for confidential treatment and the omitted portions have been separately filed with the Commission.

(1)

Filed as an exhibit to the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-39008) as declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 16, 2000.

(2)

Filed as an exhibit to the Registrant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2002 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 30, 2002.

(3)

Filed as an exhibit to the Registrant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2003 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2003.

(4)

Filed as an exhibit to the Registrant's Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 16, 2000.

(5)

Filed as an exhibit to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 21, 2002.

45

(6)

Filed as an exhibit to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 8, 2001.

(7)

Filed as an exhibit to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 25, 2003.

(8)

Filed as an exhibit to the Registrant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2003 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 23, 2003.

        (b)   Reports on Form 8-K.    On October 24, 2003, the Company furnished a Current Report on Form 8-K relating to the Company's announcement of its earnings for the three months ended September 30, 2003. On October 20, 2003, the Company filed a Current Report on Form 8-K relating to the Company's announcement that it had entered into a common stock purchase agreement with certain investors and completed the private sale of its common stock to such investors.

        (c)   Exhibits.    See Item 14(a)(3) above.

        (d)   Financial Statement Schedules.    See Item 14(a)(2) above.

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SIGNATURES

        Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form 10K to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

        KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Gerald J. Burnett and Robert J. Habig, his true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, with full power of substitution and resubstitution, to sign any and all amendments (including post-effective amendments) to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorney-in-fact and agent, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as he or she might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorney-in-fact and agent, or his substitute or substitutes, or any of them, shall do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

        Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated:

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48

INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

F-1

Independent Auditors' Report

The Board of Directors and Stockholders
Avistar Communications Corporation:

        We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Avistar Communications Corporation and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2003 and 2002 and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the years in the two-year period ended December 31, 2003. In connection with our audits of the consolidated financial statements, we also have audited the financial statement schedule. These consolidated financial statements and financial statement schedule are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and financial statement schedule based on our audits. The 2001 financial statements and financial statement schedule of Avistar Communications Corporation were audited by other auditors who have ceased operations. Those auditors expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements and financial statement schedule in their report dated January 23, 2002 (except with respect to a certain matter as to which the date is February 27, 2002).

        We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

        In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002 referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Avistar Communications Corporation and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2003 and 2002, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the years in the two-year period ended December 31, 2003 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the related 2003 and 2002 financial statement schedule, when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole, presents fairly, in all material respects, the information set forth therein.

Mountain View, California
January 16, 2004, except as to
Note 3, which is as of
February 27, 2004

F-2

AVISTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

as of December 31, 2003 and 2002

(in thousands, except share and per share data)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

F-3

AVISTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001

(in thousands, except per share data)