8. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

We lease office space and certain office equipment to conduct our business. Annual rent expense relating to these operating leases was $5.6 million, $4.9 million, and $4.7 million for the years ended March 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. As of March 31, 2017, the future minimum lease payments are due as follows (in thousands):

Contractual Obligations	(in thousands)

Year ending March 31, 2018	$	4,715
2019		2,460
2020		1,155
2021		595
2022 and thereafter		124
Operating lease obligations (1)	$	9,049

(1)

Excluding taxes, insurance and common area maintenance charges.

Legal Proceedings

We are not currently a party to any legal proceedings with loss contingencies that are expected to be material. From time to time, we may be a plaintiff, or may be named as a defendant, in legal actions arising from our normal business activities, none of which to date has had a material effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition. Legal proceedings which may arise in the ordinary course of business including preference payment claims asserted in customer bankruptcy proceedings, government, tax or customer audits, claims of alleged infringement of patents, trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property rights, claims of alleged non-compliance with contract provisions, employment-related claims, claims by competitors, vendors or customers, claims related to alleged violations of laws and regulations, and claims relating to alleged security or privacy breaches. We attempt to ameliorate the effect of potential litigation through insurance coverage and contractual protections such as rights to indemnifications and limitations of liability. We do not expect that the outcome in any of these matters, individually or collectively, will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations, however, litigation is inherently unpredictable. Therefore, judgments could be rendered or settlements entered that could adversely affect our results of operations or cash flows in a particular period. We accrue for costs related to contingencies when a loss is probable and the amount is reasonably estimable.

During the year ended March 31, 2017, we received $380 thousand related to the dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”) class action lawsuit, which claimed that manufacturers fixed the price for DRAM, which was included within other income on our consolidated statement of operations.

We filed a claim in a class action suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit alleged that ten groups of companies conspired to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize prices of certain flat panels used in many flat screen televisions, monitors and notebook computers. On August 6, 2014, the Claims Administrator issued to us a Notice of Claim Final Determination. On October 20, 2014, the court issued an order directing that approved claims be paid, and on October 31, 2014, we received a payment of $6.2 million, which is presented within other income in our consolidated statement of operations.

Employment Contracts and Severance Plans

We have employment contracts with, and plans covering certain members of management under which severance payments would become payable in the event of specified terminations without cause or terminations under certain circumstances after a change in control. In addition, vesting of outstanding nonvested restricted stock awards would accelerate following a change in control. If severance payments under the current employment agreements or plan payments were to become payable, the severance payments would generally range from twelve to twenty-six months of salary.