Business Description

Development of Business Gentex Corporation (the "Company") was incorporated as a Michigan corporation in 1974. The Company designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and supplies digital vision, connected car, premium audio, dimmable glass, fire protection technologies, medical devices, and consumer electronics, including: automatic-dimming rearview and non-dimming mirrors and electronics for the automotive industry; premium quality sound equipment and products, and other electronic products and accessories for the consumer electronics industry; dimmable aircraft windows for the aviation industry; and smoke alarms for the residential and commercial fire protection industry and signaling devices for the commercial fire protection industry. The Company’s largest business segment involves designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing interior and exterior automatic-dimming automotive rearview mirrors that utilize proprietary electrochromic technology to dim in proportion to the amount of headlight glare from trailing vehicle headlamps. Within this business segment, the Company also designs, develops and manufactures various electronics that are value added features to the interior and exterior automotive rearview mirrors, as well as electronics for interior visors, overhead consoles, and other locations in the vehicle. The Company ships its products to all of the major automotive producing regions worldwide, which it supports with numerous sales, engineering and distribution locations worldwide. At its inception, the Company manufactured smoke detectors, a product line that has since evolved to include a variety of fire protection technologies. In the 1980's, the Company introduced an interior electromechanical automatic-dimming rearview mirror as an alternative to the manual day/night rearview mirrors for automotive applications, and later an interior electrochromic automatic-dimming rearview mirror for automotive applications. In the 1990's, the Company introduced an exterior electrochromic automatic-dimming rearview mirror for automotive applications and began making volume shipments of three new exterior mirror sub-assembly products: thin glass flat; convex; and aspheric. In 2005, the Company began making volume shipments of its bezel-free exterior automatic dimming mirror. In 2010, the Company began delivering electrochromic dimmable aircraft windows for the aviation industry. In 2013, the Company acquired HomeLink ® , a wireless vehicle/home communications product that enables drivers to remotely activate garage door openers, entry door locks, home lighting, security systems, entry gates and other radio frequency convenience products for automotive applications, wherein the Company had previously been a licensee of HomeLink ® and had been, since 2003, integrating HomeLink ® into its interior automatic-dimming rearview mirrors. In 2015, the Company began making shipments of the Full Display Mirror ® ("FDM ® "), which is an on-demand, mirror-borne LCD display that streams live, panoramic video of the vehicle's rearward view in order to improve driver rear vision. In 2017, the Company announced an agreement entered into during the ordinary course of business with VOXX International Corporation ("VOXX ® ") to become the exclusive aftermarket distributor of the Gentex Aftermarket Full Display Mirror ® in North America. The Company also developed a three-camera rear vision system that streams rear video – in multiple composite views – to a rearview-mirror-integrated display. Further, the Company announced an embedded biometric solution for vehicles that leverages iris scanning technology to create a secure environment in the vehicle. There are many use cases for authentication, which range from vehicle security to start functionality to personalization of mirrors, music, seat location and temperature, to the ability to control transactions. The Company believes iris recognition is among the most secure forms of biometric identification, with a false acceptance rate as low as one in 10 million, far superior to facial, voice, and other biometric systems. The Company's future plans include integrating biometric authentication with many of its other electronic features. The biometric system allows for added security and convenience for multiple drivers by adding an additional factor of authentication for increased security, when a driver (or passenger) enters a vehicle.…