IMPACT BIOMEDICAL INC. 10-K

ITEM 1A – RISK FACTORS An investment in our securities is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. In determining whether to purchase the Company’s securities, an investor should carefully consider all of the material risks described below, together with the other information contained in this annual report. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed below will not occur. These events could have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If that were to happen, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. 9 Risks Related to Liquidity, the Company’s Business and Industry If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property rights, our operations may be materially harmed. We rely on and expect to continue to rely on agreements with parties with whom we have relationships, as well as patent, trademark and trade secret protection laws, to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. We cannot assure you that we can adequately protect our intellectual property or successfully prosecute potential infringement of its intellectual property rights. Also, we cannot assure you that others will not assert rights in, or ownership of, trademarks and other proprietary rights of ours or that we will be able to successfully resolve these types of conflicts to our satisfaction. Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may result in a loss in potential revenue and could materially harm our operations and financial condition. New legislation, regulations or rules related to obtaining patents or enforcing patents could significantly increase our operating costs and decrease any potential revenue we might otherwise make. We spend a significant amount of resources on our patent assets. If new legislation, regulations or rules are implemented either by Congress, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) or the courts that impact the patent application process, the patent enforcement process or the rights of patent holders, these changes could negatively affect its expenses, potential revenue and could negatively impact the value of our assets. Safety and effectiveness concerns can have significant negative impacts on sales and results of operations, lead to litigation and cause reputational damage. Concerns about product safety, whether raised internally or by litigants, regulators or consumer advocates, and whether or not based on scientific evidence, can result in safety alerts, product recalls, governmental investigations, regulatory action on the part of the FDA (or its counterpart in other countries), private claims and lawsuits, payment of fines and settlements, declining sales and reputational damage. These circumstances can also result in damage to brand image, brand equity and consumer trust in products. Product recalls could in the future prompt government investigations and inspections, the shutdown of manufacturing facilities, continued product shortages and related sales declines, significant remediation costs, reputational damage, possible civil penalties and criminal prosecution. Significant challenges or delays in our innovation and development of new products, technologies and indications could have an adverse impact on our long-term success. Our continued growth and success depend on our ability to innovate and develop new and differentiated products and services that address the evolving health care needs of patients, providers and consumers. Development of successful products and technologies may also be necessary to offset revenue losses should our products lose market share due to various factors such as competition and loss of patent exclusivity. We cannot be certain when or whether we will be able to develop, license or otherwise acquire companies, products and technologies, whether particular product candidates will be granted regulatory approval, and, if approved, whether the products will be commercially successful. We pursue product development through internal research and development as well as through collaborations, acquisitions, joint ventures and licensing or other arrangements with third parties. In all of these contexts, developing new products, particularly biotechnology products, requires a significant commitment of resources over many years. Only a very few biopharmaceutical research and development programs result in commercially viable products. The process depends on many factors, including the ability to discern patients’ and healthcare providers’ future needs; develop new compounds, strategies and technologies; achieve successful clinical trial results; secure effective intellectual property protection; obtain regulatory approvals on a timely basis; and, if and when they reach the market, successfully differentiate its products from competing products and approaches to treatment. New products or enhancements to existing products may not be accepted quickly or significantly in the marketplace for healthcare providers, and there may be uncertainty over third-party reimbursement. Even following initial regulatory approval, the success of a product can be adversely impacted by safety and efficacy findings in larger patient populations, as well as market entry of competitive products. 10 We are subject to risks related to corporate social responsibility and reputational matters. Our reputation and the reputation of our brands, including the perception held by our customers, end-users, business partners, investors, other key stakeholders and the communities in which we do business are influenced by various factors. There is an increased focus from our stakeholders on ESG practices and disclosure - and if we fail, or are perceived to have failed, in any number of ESG matters, such as environmental stewardship, inclusion and diversity, workplace conduct and support for local communities, or to effectively respond to changes in, or new, legal or regulatory requirements concerning climate change or other sustainability concerns, our reputation or the reputation of our brands may suffer. Such damage to our reputation and the reputation of our brands may negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, negative or inaccurate postings or comments on social media or networking websites about the Company or our brands could generate adverse publicity that could damage our reputation or the reputation of our brands. If we are unable to effectively manage real or perceived issues, including concerns about product quality, safety, corporate social responsibility or other matters, sentiments toward the Company or our products could be negatively impacted, and our financial results could suffer. We may not have adequate funds to implement our business plan . Although we have received capital from our parent company to meet our working capital and financing needs in the past, additional financing may be required in order to meet our current and projected cash requirements for operations. We cannot be assured that we will secure all or any of the funding we anticipate. If our entire original capital is fully expended and additional costs cannot be funded from borrowings or capital from other sources, then our financial condition, results of operations and business performance would be materially adversely affected. We cannot assure you that we will have adequate capital or financing to conduct our business or to grow. Our ability to resell and/or license our products will depend upon successful clinical trials. Only a small number of research and development programs result in the development of a product that obtains FDA approval. Success in preclinical work or early stage clinical trials does not ensure that later stage or larger scale clinical trials will be successful. Conducting clinical trials is a complex, time-consuming and expensive process. Our ability to complete our clinical trials in a timely fashion depends in large part on a number of key factors including protocol design, regulatory and institutional review board approval, the rate of patient enrollment in clinical trials, and compliance with extensive current Good Clinical Practices. If we fail to adequately manage the design, execution and regulatory aspects of our clinical trials, our studies and ultimately our regulatory approvals may be delayed, or we may fail to gain approval for our product candidates. Clinical trials may indicate that our product candidates have harmful side effects or raise other safety concerns that may significantly reduce the likelihood of regulatory approval, result in significant restrictions on use and safety warnings in any approved label, adversely affect placement within the treatment paradigm, or otherwise significantly diminish the commercial potential of the product candidate. Also, positive results in a registrational trial may not be replicated in any subsequent confirmatory trials. Even if later stage clinical trials are successful, regulatory authorities may disagree with our view of the data or require additional studies and may fail to approve or delay approval of our product candidates or may grant marketing approval that is more restricted than anticipated, including indications for a narrower patient population than expected and the imposition of safety monitoring or educational requirements or risk evaluation and mitigation strategies. In addition, if another company is the first to file for marketing approval of a competing drug candidate, that company may ultimately receive marketing exclusivity for its drug candidate, thereby reducing the value of our product. We face significant competition from other biopharmaceutical and consumer product companies. While we believe that our technology, development experience and scientific knowledge provide competitive advantages, we face potential competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and governmental agencies, and public and private research institutions. Many of our existing or potential competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources than we do and significantly greater experience in the development of drug candidates as well as in obtaining regulatory approvals of those drug candidates in the United States and in foreign countries. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries could result in even more resources being concentrated among a small number of our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing, on an exclusive basis, drug candidates that are more effective or less costly than any drug candidate that we may develop. 11 Our ability to compete successfully will depend largely on our ability to: ● attract qualified scientific, product development and commercial personnel; ● obtain patent or other proprietary protection for our drugs and technologies; ● obtain required regulatory approvals; successfully collaborate with pharmaceutical companies in the discovery, development and commercialization of new drugs; and ● negotiate competitive pricing and reimbursement with third party payors The availability of our competitors’ technologies could limit the demand, and the price we are able to charge for our services and for any drug candidate we develop. The inability to compete with existing or subsequently introduced drug development technologies would have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. Established pharmaceutical companies and research institutions may invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel compounds or to in license novel compounds that could make our products less competitive, which would have a material adverse impact on our business. We are dependent on our collaborative agreements for the development of products and business development, which exposes us to the risk of reliance on the viability of third parties. In conducting our research and development activities, we currently rely, and will in the future rely, on collaborative agreements with third parties such as manufacturers, contract research organizations, commercial partners, universities, governmental agencies and not-for-profit organizations for both strategic and financial resources. The loss of, or failure to perform by us or our partners under, any applicable agreements or arrangements, or our failure to secure additional agreements for other products in development, would substantially disrupt or delay our research and development and commercialization activities. Any such loss would likely increase our expenses and materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operation. We are a human healthcare and consumer wellness company with no significant revenue. We have incurred operating losses since our inception, and we expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve profitability. We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception. To date, we have not generated any revenue and we may not generate any revenue from sales of our clinical analytics services or drug candidates for the foreseeable future. We expect to continue to incur significant operating losses and we anticipate that our losses may increase substantially as we expand our drug development programs. To achieve profitability, we must successfully develop, register and commercialize multiple technologies in biopharmaceuticals and over the counter consumer products. Even if we succeed in developing and commercializing one or more technologies, we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue and we may never be able to achieve or sustain profitability. We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems to operate our business and a cyber-attack or other breach of our systems, or those of third parties on whom we may rely, could subject us to liability or interrupt the operation of our business. We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems to operate our business. A breakdown, invasion, corruption, destruction or interruption of critical information technology systems by employees, others with authorized access to our systems or unauthorized persons could negatively impact operations. In the ordinary course of business, we collect, store and transmit confidential information and it is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such information. Additionally, we outsource certain elements of our information technology systems to third parties. As a result of this outsourcing, our third party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information, making such systems vulnerable. Data breaches of our information technology systems, or those of our third party vendors, may pose a risk that sensitive data may be exposed to unauthorized persons or to the public. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing clinical trials or preclinical studies could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. While we believe that we have taken appropriate security measures to protect our data and information technology systems and have been informed by our third party vendors that they have as well, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent breakdowns or breaches in our systems, or those of our third party vendors, that could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition. 12 If we are unable to obtain U.S. and/or foreign regulatory approval, we will be unable to resell or license our drug candidates. Our drug candidates will be subject to extensive governmental regulations relating to, among other things, research, testing, development, manufacturing, safety, efficacy, record keeping, labeling, marketing and distribution of drugs. Rigorous preclinical testing and clinical trials and an extensive regulatory approval process are required in the U.S. and in many foreign jurisdictions prior to the commercial sale of drug candidates. Satisfaction of these and other regulatory requirements is costly, time-consuming, uncertain and subject to unanticipated delays. It is possible that no drug candidate that we present to the FDA will obtain marketing approval which will significantly diminish the value and desirability of our product candidates. In connection with the clinical trials for our drug candidates, we face risks that: ● the drug candidate may not prove to be efficacious; ● the drug candidate may not prove to be safe; ● the drug candidate may not be readily co-administered or combined with other drugs or drug candidates; ● the results may not confirm the positive results from earlier preclinical studies or clinical trials; ● the results may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or other ● regulatory agencies; and ● the FDA or other regulatory agencies may require us to carry out additional studies. We have limited experience in conducting and managing later stage clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approvals, including approval by the FDA. However, this risk would be mitigated in the event the Company is successful entering into a co-development agreement with a pharma partner for late stage clinical development. The time required to complete clinical trials and for the FDA and other countries’ regulatory review processes is uncertain and typically takes many years. Our analysis of data obtained from preclinical and clinical trials is subject to confirmation and interpretation by regulatory authorities, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. We may also encounter unanticipated delays or increased costs due to government regulation from future legislation or administrative action or changes in FDA policy during the period of product development, clinical trials, and FDA regulatory review. We will rely on third parties for manufacturing of our clinical drug supplies; our dependence on these manufacturers may impair the development of our drug candidates. We have no ability to internally manufacture the drug candidates that we need to conduct our clinical trials for the products that we acquire. For the foreseeable future, we expect to continue to rely on third-party manufacturers and other third parties to produce, package and store sufficient quantities of our drug candidates and any future drug candidates for use in our clinical trials. We may face various risks and uncertainties in connection with our reliance on third-party manufacturers, including: ● reliance on third-party manufactures for regulatory compliance and quality assurance; ● the possibility of breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third-party manufacturer because of factors beyond our control; ● the possibility of termination or nonrenewal of our manufacturing agreement by the third-party manufacturer at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us; ● the potential that third-party manufacturers will develop know-how owned by such third-party ● manufacturer in connection with the production of our drug candidates that is necessary for the manufacture of our drug candidates; and ● reliance on third-party manufacturers to assist us in preventing inadvertent disclosure or theft of our proprietary knowledge. Our drug candidates may be complicated and expensive to manufacture. If our third-party manufacturers fail to deliver our drug candidates for clinical use on a timely basis, with sufficient quality, and at commercially reasonable prices, we may be required to delay or suspend clinical trials or otherwise discontinue development of our drug candidates. While we may be able to identify replacement third-party manufacturers or develop our own manufacturing capabilities for these drug candidates, this process would likely cause a delay in the availability of our drug candidates and an increase in costs. In addition, third-party manufacturers may have a limited number of facilities in which our drug candidates can be manufactured, and any interruption of the operation of those facilities due to events such as equipment malfunction or failure or damage to the facility by natural disasters could result in the cancellation of shipments, loss of product in the manufacturing process or a shortfall in available drug candidates. 13 Risks Related to Intellectual Property Rights We rely on various intellectual property rights, including patents and licenses, in order to operate our business. Our intellectual property rights may not be sufficiently broad or otherwise may not provide us a significant competitive advantage. In addition, the steps that we have taken to maintain and protect our intellectual property may not prevent it from being challenged, invalidated, circumvented or designed-around, particularly in countries where intellectual property rights are not highly developed or protected. In some circumstances, enforcement may not be available to us because an infringer has a dominant intellectual property position or for other business reasons, or countries may require compulsory licensing of our intellectual property. Our failure to obtain or maintain intellectual property rights that convey competitive advantage, adequately protect our intellectual property or detect or prevent circumvention or unauthorized use of such property, could adversely impact our competitive position and results of operations. We also rely on nondisclosure and noncompetition agreements with employees, consultants and other parties to protect, in part, trade secrets and other proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that these agreements will adequately protect our trade secrets and other proprietary rights and will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or that third parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or other proprietary rights. As we expand our business, protecting our intellectual property will become increasingly important. The protective steps we have taken may be inadequate to deter our competitors from using our proprietary information. In order to protect or enforce our patent rights, we may be required to initiate litigation against third parties, such as infringement lawsuits. Also, these third parties may assert claims against us with or without provocation. These lawsuits could be expensive, take significant time and could divert management’s attention from other business concerns. The law relating to the scope and validity of claims in the technology field in which we operate is still evolving and, consequently, intellectual property positions in our industry are generally uncertain. We cannot assure you that we will prevail in any of these potential suits or that the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, would be commercially valuable. The Company could be negatively impacted if found to have infringed on intellectual property rights. Technology companies frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of patent infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, patent holding companies seek to monetize patents they have purchased or otherwise obtained. As the Company grows, the intellectual property rights claims against it will likely increase. The Company intends to vigorously defend infringement actions in court and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. The plaintiffs in these actions frequently seek injunctions and substantial damages. Regardless of the scope or validity of such patents or other intellectual property rights, or the merits of any claims by potential or actual litigants, the Company may have to engage in protracted litigation. If the Company is found to infringe one or more patents or other intellectual property rights, regardless of whether it can develop non-infringing technology, it may be required to pay substantial damages or royalties to a third-party, or it may be subject to a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting the Company from marketing or selling certain products. In certain cases, the Company may consider the desirability of entering into licensing agreements, although no assurance can be given that such licenses can be obtained on acceptable terms or that litigation will not occur. These licenses may also significantly increase the Company’s operating expenses. Regardless of the merit of particular claims, litigation may be expensive, time-consuming, disruptive to the Company’s operations and distracting to management. In recognition of these considerations, the Company may enter into arrangements to settle litigation. If one or more legal matters were resolved against the Company’s consolidated financial statements for that reporting period could be materially adversely affected. Further, such an outcome could result in significant compensatory, punitive or trebled monetary damages, disgorgement of revenue or profits, remedial corporate measures or injunctive relief against the Company that could adversely affect its financial condition and results of operations. We rely heavily on our technology and intellectual property, but we may be unable to adequately or cost-effectively protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, thereby weakening our competitive position and increasing operating costs. To protect our rights in our services and technology, we rely on a combination of copyright and trademark laws, patents, trade secrets, confidentiality agreements and protective contractual provisions. We also rely on laws pertaining to trademarks and domain names to protect the value of our corporate brands and reputation. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may copy aspects of our services or technology, obtain and use information, marks, or technology that we regard as proprietary, or otherwise violate or infringe our intellectual property rights. In addition, it is possible that others could independently develop substantially equivalent intellectual property. If we do not effectively protect our intellectual property, or if others independently develop substantially equivalent intellectual property, our competitive position could be weakened. 14 Effectively policing the unauthorized use of our services and technology is time-consuming and costly, and the steps taken by us may not prevent misappropriation of our technology or other proprietary assets. The efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective, and unauthorized parties may copy aspects of our services, use similar marks or domain names, or obtain and use information, marks, or technology that we regard as proprietary. We may have to litigate to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, or to determine the validity and scope of others’ proprietary rights, which are sometimes not clear or may change. Litigation can be time consuming and expensive, and the outcome can be difficult to predict. We rely on agreements with third parties to provide certain services, goods, technology, and intellectual property rights necessary to enable us to implement some of our applications. Our ability to implement and provide our applications and services to our clients depends, in part, on services, goods, technology, and intellectual property rights owned or controlled by third parties. These third parties may become unable to or refuse to continue to provide these services, goods, technology, or intellectual property rights on commercially reasonable terms consistent with our business practices, or otherwise discontinue a service important for us to continue to operate our applications. If we fail to replace these services, goods, technologies, or intellectual property rights in a timely manner or on commercially reasonable terms, our operating results and financial condition could be harmed. In addition, we exercise limited control over our third-party vendors, which increases our vulnerability to problems with technology and services those vendors provide. If the services, technology, or intellectual property of third parties were to fail to perform as expected, it could subject us to potential liability, adversely affect our renewal rates, and have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. If any third-party owners of intellectual property we may license in the future do not properly maintain or enforce the patents underlying such licenses, our competitive position and business prospects will be harmed. We may enter into licenses for third-party intellectual property in the future. Our success will depend in part on the ability of our licensors to obtain, maintain and enforce patent protection for their intellectual property, in particular, those patents to which we have secured exclusive rights. If applicable, our licensors may not successfully prosecute the patent applications to which we are licensed. Even if patents issue in respect of any such patent applications, our licensors may fail to maintain these patents, may determine not to pursue litigation against other companies that are infringing these patents, or may pursue such litigation less aggressively than we would. In addition, our licensors may terminate their agreements with us in the event we breach the applicable license agreement and fail to cure the breach within a specified period of time. Without protection for the intellectual property we license, other companies might be able to offer substantially identical products for sale, which could materially adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects and financial condition. Because our research and development of drug candidates often incorporates compounds and other information that is the intellectual property of third parties, we depend on continued access to such intellectual property to conduct and complete our preclinical and clinical research and commercialize the drug candidates that result from this research. We expect that future licenses would impose, numerous obligations on us. For example, under our existing and future license agreements, we may be required to pay (i) annual maintenance fees until a drug candidate is sold for the first time, (ii) running royalties on net sales of drug candidates, (iii) minimum annual royalties after a drug candidate is sold for the first time, and (iv) one-time payments upon the achievement of specified milestones. We may also be required to reimburse patent costs incurred by the licensor, or we may be obligated to pay additional royalties, at specified rates, based on net sales of our drug candidates that incorporate the licensed intellectual property rights. We may also be obligated under some of these agreements to pay a percentage of any future sublicensing revenues that we may receive. Future license agreements may also include payment obligations such as milestone payments or minimum expenditures for research and development. We expect that any future licenses will contain reporting, insurance and indemnification requirements. We are actively reviewing and preparing additional patent applications to expand our patent portfolio, but there can be no assurances that patents related to our existing patent applications or any applications we may file in the future will be issued or that any issued patents will provide meaningful protection for our drug candidates, which could materially adversely affect our competitive business position, business prospects and financial condition. 15 Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information and may not adequately protect our intellectual property. We rely on trade secrets to protect our technology, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. In order to protect our proprietary technology and processes, we also rely in part on confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements with our corporate partners, employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators and sponsored researchers and other advisors. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information nor result in the effective assignment to us of intellectual property and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or other breaches of the agreements. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such case, we could not assert any trade secret rights against such party. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the U.S. may be less willing to protect trade secrets. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to seek to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition. Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities The market price of our common stock may be highly volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile. Our stock has a relatively small public float, and the concentrated ownership of our common stock among our executive officers and directors, and greater than 5% stockholders. As a result of our small public float, our common stock may be less liquid and have greater stock price volatility than the common stock of companies with broader public ownership. Our stock price could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of other factors, which include: ● whether we achieve our anticipated corporate objectives; ● changes in financial or operational estimates or projections; ● termination of the lock-up agreement or other restrictions on the ability of our stockholders and other security holders to sell shares after this offering; and ● general economic or political conditions in the United States or elsewhere. In addition, the stock market in general has recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Such rapid and substantial price volatility, including any stock run-up, may be unrelated to our actual or expected operating performance and financial condition or prospects, making it difficult for prospective investors to assess the rapidly changing value of our stock. This volatility may prevent you from being able to sell your securities at or above the price you paid for your securities upon our initial public offering. We do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Consequently, any gains from an investment in our common stock will likely depend on whether the price of our common stock increases. To date we have not paid any dividends, and we currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. In addition, the terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could preclude us from paying dividends. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain from an investment in our common stock for the foreseeable future. Consequently, in the foreseeable future, you will likely only experience a gain from your investment in our common stock if the price of our common stock increases. 16 Our certificate of incorporation grants our Board of Directors the power to designate and issue additional shares of common and/or preferred stock. Our authorized capital consists of 4,000,000,000 shares of common stock and 100,000,000 shares of preferred stock. Our preferred stock may be designated into series pursuant to authority granted by our certificate of incorporation, and on approval from our Board. The Board, without any action by our stockholders, may designate and issue shares in such classes or series as the Board deems appropriate and establish the rights, preferences and privileges of such shares, including dividends, liquidation and voting rights. The rights of holders of other classes or series of stock that may be issued could be superior to the rights of holders of our common stock. The designation and issuance of shares of capital stock having preferential rights could adversely affect other rights appurtenant to shares of our common stock. We are an “emerging growth company” under the federal securities laws and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors. We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are not applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. In addition, an “emerging growth company” may take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We are choosing to take advantage of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of our common stock pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act, although we will lose that status sooner if our revenues exceed $1.235 billion, if we issue more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt in a three year period, or if the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter. Investors may be unable to compare our business with other companies in our industry if they believe that our financial accounting is not as transparent as other companies in our industry. If we are unable to raise additional capital as and when we need it, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. 17