Item 1A. Risk Factors
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
An investment in the Company’s common stock involves a high degree of risk. In determining whether to purchase the Company’s common stock, an investor should carefully consider all of the material risks described below, together with the other information contained in this report before deciding to purchase the Company’s securities. An investor should only purchase the Company’s securities if he or she can afford to suffer the loss of his or her entire investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
We are a young company with a limited operating history, making it difficult for you to evaluate our business and your investment.
KULR was formed in 2015 and KTC was formed in 2013. The Company, as a whole, has limited operating history. We have not yet demonstrated sales of products at a level capable of covering our fixed expenses. Since inception, we have not demonstrated the capability to produce sufficient materials to generate the ongoing revenues necessary to sustain our operations in the long-term. Nor have we demonstrated the ability to generate sufficient sales to sustain the business. There can be no assurance that the Company will ever produce a profit.
Many of the Company’s products represent new products that have not yet been fully tested in commercial product settings and for which manufacturing operations have not yet been fully scaled. This means that investors are subject to all the risks incident to the creation and development of multiple new products and their associated manufacturing processes, and each investor should be prepared to withstand a complete loss of their investment.
Because we are subject to these uncertainties, there may be risks that management has failed to anticipate and you may have a difficult time evaluating our business and your investment in our Company. Our ability to become profitable depends primarily on our ability to successfully commercialize our products in the future. Even if we successfully develop and market our products, we may not generate sufficient or sustainable revenue to achieve or sustain profitability, which could cause us to cease operations.
We have no sustainable base of products approved for commercial use by our customers, have never generated significant product revenues and may never achieve sufficient revenues for profitable operations, which could cause us to cease operations.
(KULR primarily sells bulk materials or products made with these materials to other companies for incorporation into their products). Although KULR’s technologies were previously used in numerous advanced space and industrial applications for NASA, there has been no significant incorporation of our materials or products into customer products that are released for commercial sale as of the date of this report. Because there is no demonstrated history of large-scale commercial success for our products, it is possible that such commercial success may never happen and that we will never achieve the level of revenues necessary to sustain our business.
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We will need to raise substantial additional capital in the future to fund our operations and we may be unable to raise such funds when needed and on acceptable terms, which could have a materially adverse effect on our business.
We anticipate that we will incur operating losses for the foreseeable future. Although we currently have adequate cash to fund operations over the next year, we may require additional funds for our anticipated operations and if we are not successful in securing additional financing, we may be required to delay significantly, reduce the scope of or eliminate one or more of our research or development programs, downsize our general and administrative infrastructure, or seek alternative measures to avoid insolvency, including arrangements with collaborative partners or others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain of our technologies, product candidates or products.
We could experience significant disruptions in supply from our current or future sources.
We could experience significant disruptions as a result of global supply chain issues and, in the event of a disruption, we cannot make any assurances that we would be able to locate alternative suppliers of materials of comparable quality at an acceptable price, or alternative purchasers of our products. Identifying suitable supplier and purchasers is a resource-intensive process that requires us to become satisfied with quality control, responsiveness and service, financial stability and labor and other ethical practices. In addition, any indirect supply chain disruptions due to United States trade policy with China or the recent military conflict in Ukraine may further complicate existing supply chain constraints and direct or indirect customers’ demand for our products. Interruption of our supplies and in demand of our products by our purchasers, or the loss of one or more key suppliers or purchasers, could have a negative effect on the Company’s business and operating results. Any delays, interruption or increased costs or manufacture of our products could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet customer demand for our products and result in lower net sales and operating income both in the short and long term, which could in turn negatively impact our business, financial condition and the price of our shares. In addition, we cannot adequately predict the effects of the global supply chain disruptions on our customers or potential customers and the indirect effects such disruptions could have on our operations both in the short and long term, which could in turn negatively impact our business, financial condition and the price of our shares.
We have limited experience in higher volume manufacturing that will be required to support profitable operations, and the risks associated with scaling to larger production quantities may be substantial.
We have limited experience manufacturing our products. We have established small-scale commercial or pilot-scale production facilities for our carbon-based thermal management products, but these facilities do not have the existing production capacity to produce sufficient quantities of materials for us to reach sustainable sales levels. At present, we rely on outsourced partners to produce high volume products. In order to develop internal capacity to produce much higher volumes, it will be necessary to produce multiples of existing processes or engineer new production processes in some cases. We have begun building up the scale of our automated battery cell facilities in our new leased facility in San Diego but there is no guarantee that we will be able to economically scale-up our production processes to the levels required. If we are unable to scale-up our production processes and facilities to support sustainable sales levels, the Company may be forced to curtail or cease operations.
We have a long and complex sales cycle and have not demonstrated the ability to operate successfully in this environment.
It has been our experience since our inception that the average sales cycle for our products can range from one to five years from the time a customer begins testing our products until the time that they could be successfully used in a commercial product. We have only demonstrated a limited track record of success in completing customer development projects, which makes it difficult for you to evaluate the likelihood of our future success. The sales and development cycle for our products is subject to customer budgetary constraints, internal acceptance procedures, competitive product assessments, scientific and development resource allocations, and other factors beyond our control. If we are not able to successfully accommodate these factors to enable customer development success, we will be unable to achieve sufficient sales to reach profitability. In this case, the Company may not be able to raise additional funds and may be forced to curtail or cease operations and you could lose all or a significant part of your investment.
We are dependent on customers and partners to design and test our solution into new applications which may not be brought to market successfully.
The Company targets its thermal management solution for new applications and devices that require high performance and unique features offered by its products. Developing new applications and devices involves a lengthy and complex process, and they may not be commercialized on a timely basis, or at all. The Company’s success is directly related to the success of these new products. Furthermore, because the Company’s solutions are relatively new to mass market consumer electronics, the design and testing time is longer than traditional solutions. Moreover, in transitioning to new technologies and products, we may not achieve design wins, our customers may delay transition to these new technologies, our competitors may transition more quickly than we do, or we may experience product delays, cost overruns or performance issues that could harm our operating results and financial condition.
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We could be adversely affected by our exposure to customer concentration risk.
We are subject to customer concentration risk as a result of our reliance on a relatively small number of customers for a significant portion of our revenues. For 2021, we had 3 customers whose purchases accounted for 84% of total revenues. Due to the nature of our business and the relatively large size of many of the applications our customers are developing, we anticipate that we will be dependent on a relatively small number of customers for the majority of our revenues for the next several years. It is possible that only one or two customers could place orders sufficient to utilize most or all of our existing manufacturing capacity.
In this case, there would be at risk of significant loss of future revenues if one or more of these customers were to stop ordering our materials, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on our business and on your investment.
We operate in an advanced technology arena where hypothesized properties and benefits of our products may not be achieved in practice, or in which technological change may alter the attractiveness of our products.
Because there is no sustained history of successful use of our products in commercial applications, there is no assurance that broad successful commercial applications may be technically feasible. Some of the scientific and engineering data related to our products has been generated in our own laboratories or in laboratory environments at our customers or third-parties. It is well known that laboratory data is not always representative of commercial applications.
Likewise, we operate in a market that is subject to rapid technological change. Part of our business strategy is to monitor such change and take steps to remain technologically current, but there is no assurance that such strategy will be successful. If the Company is not able to adapt to new advances in materials sciences, or if unforeseen technologies or materials emerge that are not compatible with our products and services or that could replace our products and services, our revenues and business prospects would likely be adversely affected. Such an occurrence may have severe consequences, including the potential for our investors to lose all of their investment.
Competitors that are larger and better funded may cause the Company to be unsuccessful in selling its products.
The Company operates in a market that is expected to have significant competition in the future. Global research is being conducted by substantially larger companies who have greater financial, personnel, technical, and marketing resources. There can be no assurance that the Company’s strategy of offering better thermal management solutions based on the Company’s proprietary carbon fiber-based products will be able to compete with other companies, many of whom will have significantly greater resources, on a continuing basis. In the event that we cannot compete successfully, the Company may be forced to cease operations.
Because of our small size and limited operating history, we are dependent on key employees.
The Company’s operations and development are dependent upon the experience and knowledge of Michael Mo, our Chief Executive Officer, Simon Westbrook our Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Timothy Knowles, our Chief Technical Officer, Keith Cochran, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and Michael Carpenter, our Vice President of Engineering. If the services of any of these individuals should become unavailable, the Company’s business operations might be adversely affected. If several of these individuals became unavailable at the same time, the ability of the Company to continue normal business operations might be adversely affected to the extent that revenue or profits could be diminished, and you could lose all or a significant amount of your investment.
Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, and our inability to enforce these rights could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position.
We rely on the patent, trademark, copyright and trade-secret laws of the United States and to protect our intellectual property rights. We may be unable to prevent third parties from using our intellectual property without our authorization. The unauthorized use of our intellectual property could reduce any competitive advantage we have developed, reduce our market share or otherwise harm our business. In the event of unauthorized use of our intellectual property, litigation to protect or enforce our rights could be costly, and we may not prevail.
Many of our technologies are not covered by any patent or patent application, and our issued and pending U.S. patents may not provide us with any competitive advantage and could be challenged by third parties. Our inability to secure issuance of our pending patent applications may limit our ability to protect the intellectual property rights these pending patent applications were intended to cover. Our competitors may attempt to design around our patents to avoid liability for infringement and, if successful, our competitors could adversely affect our market share. Furthermore, the expiration of our patents may lead to increased competition.
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Our pending trademark applications may not be approved by the responsible governmental authorities and, even if these trademark applications are granted, third parties may seek to oppose or otherwise challenge these trademark applications. A failure to obtain trademark registrations in the United States and in other countries could limit our ability to protect our products and their associated trademarks and impede our marketing efforts in those jurisdictions.
In addition, effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries. We also rely on unpatented proprietary manufacturing expertise, continuing technological innovation and other trade secrets to develop and maintain our competitive position. Although we generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees and third parties to protect our intellectual property, these confidentiality agreements are limited in duration and could be breached, and may not provide meaningful protection of our trade secrets or proprietary manufacturing expertise. Adequate remedies may not be available if there is an unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. In addition, others may obtain knowledge about our trade secrets through independent development or by legal means. The failure to protect our processes, apparatus, technology, trade secrets and proprietary manufacturing expertise, methods and compounds could have a material adverse effect on our business by jeopardizing critical intellectual property.
Where a product formulation or process is kept as a trade secret, third parties may independently develop or invent and patent products or processes identical to our trade-secret products or processes. This could have an adverse impact on our ability to make and sell products or use such processes and could potentially result in costly litigation in which we might not prevail.
We could face intellectual property infringement claims that could result in significant legal costs and damages and impede our ability to produce key products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If our technologies conflict with the proprietary rights of others, we may incur substantial costs as a result of litigation or other proceedings and we could face substantial monetary damages and be precluded from commercializing our products, which would materially harm our business and financial condition.
Patents in the thermal management solutions industry are numerous and may, at times, conflict with one another. As a result, it is not always clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover the multitude of product types. Ultimately, the courts must determine the scope of coverage afforded by a patent and the courts do not always arrive at uniform conclusions.
A patent owner may claim that we are making, using, selling or offering for sale an invention covered by the owner’s patents and may go to court to stop us from engaging in such activities. Such litigation is not uncommon in our industry. Patent lawsuits can be expensive and would consume time and other resources. There is a risk that a court would decide that we are infringing a third party’s patents and would order us to stop the activities covered by the patents, including the commercialization of our products. In addition, there is a risk that we would have to pay the other party damages for having violated the other party’s patents (which damages may be increased, as well as attorneys’ fees ordered paid, if infringement is found to be willful), or that we will be required to obtain a license from the other party in order to continue to commercialize the affected products, or to design our products in a manner that does not infringe a valid patent. We may not prevail in any legal action, and a required license under the patent may not be available on acceptable terms or at all, requiring cessation of activities that were found to infringe a valid patent. We also may not be able to develop a non-infringing product design on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.
We may not obtain U.S. Government contracts to further develop our technology.
We can give no assurances that we will be successful in obtaining government contracts. The process of applying for government contracts is lengthy, and we cannot be certain that we will be successful in complying with all requirements throughout such application process. Accordingly, we cannot be certain that we will be awarded any U.S. Government contracts utilizing our carbon fiber-based solutions.
Downturns in general economic conditions could adversely affect our profitability.
Downturns in general economic conditions can cause fluctuations in demand for our products, product prices, volumes and gross margins. Future economic conditions may not be favorable to our industry. A decline in the demand for our products or a shift to lower-margin products due to deteriorating economic conditions could adversely affect sales of our products and our profitability and could also result in impairments of certain of our assets.
Furthermore, any uncertainty in economic conditions may result in a slowdown to the global economy that could affect our business by reducing the prices that our customers may be able or willing to pay for our products or by reducing the demand for our products.
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An increase in the cost of raw materials or electricity might affect our profits.
Any increase in the prices of our raw materials or energy might affect the overall cost of our products. If we are not able to raise our prices to pass on increased costs to our customers, we would be unable to maintain our existing profit margins. Our major cost components include items such as production materials and electricity, which items are normally readily available industrial commodities. During our history as a business, we have not seen any material impact (as defined by GAAP) on our cost structure from fluctuations in raw material or energy costs, but this could change in the future.
Our results of operations could deteriorate if our manufacturing operations were substantially disrupted for an extended period.
Our manufacturing operations may be subject to disruption due to extreme weather conditions, floods and similar events, major industrial accidents, strikes and lockouts, adoption of new laws or regulations, changes in interpretations of existing laws or regulations or changes in governmental enforcement policies, civil disruption, riots, terrorist attacks, war, and other events. We cannot assure you that no such events will occur. If such an event occurs, it could have a material adverse effect on us.
We may become subject to liabilities related to risks inherent in working with hazardous materials.
Our development and manufacturing processes involve the controlled use of hazardous materials, such as acetone. We are subject to federal, provincial and local laws and EPA regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of such materials and certain waste products. Although we believe that our safety procedures for handling and disposing of such materials comply with the standards prescribed by such laws and regulations, the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials cannot be completely eliminated. In the event of such an accident, we could be held liable for any damages that result and any such liability could exceed our resources. We are not specifically insured with respect to this liability. Although we believe that we are in compliance in all material respects with applicable environmental laws and regulations and currently do not expect to make material capital expenditures for environmental control facilities in the near-term, if we fail to comply with these regulations substantial fines could be imposed on us and we could be required to suspend production, alter manufacturing processes or cease operations. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will not be required to incur significant costs to comply with environmental laws and regulations in the future, or that our operations, business or assets will not be materially adversely affected by current or future environmental laws or regulations.
Significant disruptions of information technology systems, breaches of data security and other incidents could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We maintain information in digital and other forms that is necessary to conduct our business, and we are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information. It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the privacy, security, confidentiality, and integrity of such confidential information. Our internal information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of any future collaborators and our contractors, consultants, vendors and other third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage or unauthorized access or use resulting from computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the Internet, denial or degradation of service attacks, ransomware, hacking, phishing schemes intended to cause an unauthorized transfer of funds and other social engineering attacks, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization or persons with access to systems inside our organization.
In December 2021 we were the subject of a phishing scheme involving a fraudulent email and wire instructions, resulting in the loss of approximately $138,000 in corporate funds. We took immediate action to contain and eradicate the security breach, including the implementation of control enhancements to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. We believe this was an isolated event and do not believe our technology systems have been compromised. While we have not experienced any other losses relating to cyber-attacks or other information security breaches such as the one that occurred in December 2021, there can be no assurance (i) that we will ever recover the funds lost, or (ii) that we will not suffer additional losses in the future.
Additionally, while we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and information technology systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service, negative publicity and other harm to our business and our competitive position. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our product development programs. Any security compromise affecting us, our partners or our industry, whether real or perceived, could harm our reputation, erode confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures and lead to regulatory scrutiny, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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Future adverse regulations could affect the viability of the business.
As a small generator of hazardous substances, we are subject to local governmental regulations relating to the storage, discharge, handling, emission, generation, manufacture and disposal of toxic or other hazardous substances, such as acetone that is used in very small quantities to manufacture our products. We are currently in compliance with these regulations. However, there can be no assurance that future regulations might not change or raise the compliance standards, of which the Company may become in violate or for which we may incur substantial costs to comply.
In most cases, as far as we are aware, there are no current regulations elsewhere in the world that prevent or prohibit the sale of the Company’s products. However, there is no assurance that any regulations will not be enacted in the future to require the Company’s products or production materials to be subject to test for toxicity or other health effects before they can be sold or used in the production process, if such regulations are enacted in the future, the Company’s business could be adversely affected because of the requirement for expensive and time-consuming tests or other regulatory compliance. There can be no assurance that future regulations might not severely limit or even prevent the sale of the Company’s products in major markets, in which case the Company’s financial prospects might be severely limited, causing investors to lose some or all of their investment.
Our directors and officers may be exposed to liability .
We currently maintain a policy for director and officer liability insurance, also known as “D&O Insurance.” However, the maximum coverage under our D&O Insurance policy may not be sufficient to cover all such liability exposure and, as a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers.
Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure will result in additional expenses and will divert time and attention away from revenue generating activities.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related SEC regulations, have created uncertainty for public companies and significantly increased the costs and risks associated with accessing the public markets and public reporting. Our management team will need to invest significant management time and financial resources to comply with both existing and evolving standards for public companies, which will lead to increased selling, general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue generating activities to compliance activities, which could have an adverse effect on our business.
If we fail to maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, the price of our common stock may be adversely affected.
Our management identified weaknesses in our internal controls, as described in Item 9A here within. Our internal control over financial reporting may still or could in the future have weaknesses and conditions that could require correction or remediation, the disclosure of which and continued existence of which may have an adverse impact on the price of our common stock. We are required to establish and maintain appropriate internal controls over financial reporting. Failure to establish those controls, or any failure of those controls once established, could adversely affect our public disclosures regarding our business, prospects, financial condition or results of operations. In addition, management’s assessment of internal controls over financial reporting may identify weaknesses and conditions that need to be addressed in our internal controls over financial reporting or other matters that may raise concerns for investors. Any actual or perceived weaknesses and conditions that need to be addressed in our internal control over financial reporting or disclosure of management’s assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting may have an adverse impact on the price of our common stock.
We are required to comply with certain provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and if we fail to comply in a timely manner, our business could be harmed and our stock price could decline.
Rules adopted by the SEC pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 require an annual assessment of internal controls over financial reporting, and for certain issuers an attestation of this assessment by the issuer’s independent registered public accounting firm. The standards that must be met for management to assess the internal controls over financial reporting as effective are evolving and complex, and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation to meet the detailed standards. We expect to incur significant expenses and to devote resources to Section 404 compliance on an ongoing basis. It is difficult for us to predict how long it will take or how costly it will be to complete the assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for each year and to remediate any deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting. As a result, we may not be able to complete the assessment and remediation process on a timely basis. In addition, although attestation requirements by our independent registered public accounting firm are not presently applicable to us, we could become subject to these requirements in the future and we may encounter problems or delays in completing the implementation of any resulting changes to internal controls over financial
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reporting. In the event that our Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer determine that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective as defined under Section 404, we cannot predict how regulators will react or how the market prices of our shares will be affected; however, we believe that there is a risk that investor confidence and share value may be negatively affected.
Risks Relating to Our Common Stock
An active, liquid and orderly market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained, and you may not be able to sell your common stock without adversely affecting the price, or at all depending on volume offered for sale at any time.
Our common stock trades on the NYSE American LLC Exchange (“NYSE American”). We cannot assure you that an active trading market for our common stock will develop or be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell the common stock at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling common stock and may impair our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies using our common stock as consideration, which, in turn, could materially adversely affect our business.
We are subject to the continued listing requirements of the NYSE American. If we are unable to comply with such requirements, our common stock would be delisted from the NYSE American, which would limit investors’ ability to effect transactions in our common stock and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our common stock is currently listed on the NYSE American. In order to maintain our listing, we must maintain certain share prices, financial and share distribution targets, including maintaining a minimum amount of shareholders’ equity and a minimum number of public shareholders. In addition to these objective standards, the NYSE American may delist the securities of any issuer if, in its opinion, the issuer’s financial condition and/or operating results appear unsatisfactory; if it appears that the extent of public distribution or the aggregate market value of the security has become so reduced as to make continued listing on the NYSE American inadvisable; if the issuer sells or disposes of principal operating assets or ceases to be an operating company; if an issuer fails to comply with the NYSE American’s listing requirements; if an issuer’s common stock sells at what the NYSE American considers a “low selling price” (generally trading below $0.20 per share for an extended period of time); or if any other event occurs or any condition exists which makes continued listing on the NYSE American, in its opinion, inadvisable.
If the NYSE American delists our common stock from trading on its exchange and we are not able to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect our common stock would qualify to be quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board ® or on the Pink Sheets ® (a quotation medium operated by Pink Sheets LLC). If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
● a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
● reduced liquidity for our securities;
● a determination that our common stock are a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
● a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
● a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. Our research coverage by industry and financial analysts is currently limited. Even if our analyst coverage increases, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
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Shares eligible for future sale may adversely affect the market.
From time to time, certain of our stockholders may be eligible to sell all or some of their shares of common stock by means of ordinary brokerage transactions in the open market pursuant to Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act, subject to certain limitations. In general, pursuant to amended Rule 144, non-affiliate stockholders may sell freely after six months subject only to the current public information requirement. Affiliates may sell after six months subject to the Rule 144 volume, manner of sale (for equity securities), and current public information and notice requirements. Any substantial sales of our common stock pursuant to Rule 144 may have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
We could issue additional common stock, which might dilute the book value of our common stock.
Our Board of Directors has the authority, without action or vote of our shareholders, to issue all or a part of our authorized but unissued shares. Such stock issuances could be made at a price that reflects a discount or a premium from the then-current trading price of our common stock. In addition, in order to raise capital, we have and may need to issue securities that are convertible into or exchangeable for a significant amount of our common stock. These issuances would dilute the percentage ownership interest, which would have the effect of reducing your influence on matters on which our shareholders vote and might dilute the book value of our common stock. You may incur additional dilution if holders of stock options, whether currently outstanding or subsequently granted, exercise their options, or if warrant holders exercise their warrants, whether currently outstanding or subsequently granted, to purchase shares of our common stock.
Our common stock could be further diluted as a result of the issuance of convertible securities, warrants or options.
In the past, we have issued convertible securities (such as convertible debentures and notes), warrants and options in order to raise money or as compensation for services and incentive compensation for our employees and directors. We have shares of common stock reserved for issuance upon the exercise of certain of these securities and may increase the shares reserved for these purposes in the future. Our issuance of these convertible securities, options and warrants could affect the rights of our stockholders, could reduce the market price of our common stock or could result in adjustments to exercise prices of outstanding warrants (resulting in these securities becoming exercisable for, as the case may be, a greater number of shares of our common stock), or could obligate us to issue additional shares of common stock to certain of our stockholders.
The outbreak of Coronavirus has led to restrictions on travel and public meetings and has disrupted markets and shipping schedules.
The COVID-19 virus pandemic has created global restrictions on travel and meetings, temporary and permanent closures of businesses and business activities, unemployment, loss of customers and suppliers, and reluctance of business management to make critical commitments and, instead, conserve cash. For example, we have experienced delays in customer acceptance of delivered products and shipment delays from our suppliers or customers’ suppliers, which delays have disrupted ours and our customers’ product development and testing processes. At this stage, the outlook appears to be improving, although there is no assurance as to when business conditions will return to normal, if at all.
Global economic uncertainty and financial market volatility caused by political instability, changes in international trade relationships and conflicts, such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, could make it more difficult for us to access financing and could adversely affect our business and operations.
Our ability to raise capital is subject to the risk of adverse changes in the market value of our stock. Periods of macroeconomic weakness or recession and heightened market volatility caused by adverse geopolitical developments could increase these risks, potentially resulting in adverse impacts on our ability to raise further capital on favorable terms. The impact of geopolitical tension, such as a deterioration in the bilateral relationship between the US and China or an escalation in conflict between Russia and Ukraine, including any resulting sanctions, export controls or other restrictive actions that may be imposed by the US and/or other countries against governmental or other entities in, for example, Russia, also could lead to disruption, instability and volatility in global trade patterns, which may in turn impact our ability to source necessary reagents, raw materials and other inputs for our research and development operations.
We do not intend to pay dividends.
We do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We may not have sufficient funds to legally pay dividends. Even if funds are legally available to pay dividends, we may nevertheless decide in our sole discretion not to pay dividends. The declaration, payment and amount of any future dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, and will depend upon, among other things, the results of our operations, cash flows and financial condition, operating and capital
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requirements, and other factors our board of directors may consider relevant. There is no assurance that we will pay any dividends in the future, and, if dividends are paid, there is no assurance with respect to the amount of any such dividend.
Voting power of our shareholders is highly concentrated by insiders.
Our officers, directors and affiliates currently beneficially own approximately 37% of our outstanding Common Stock eligible to vote. Such concentrated control of the Company may adversely affect the value of our Common Stock. If you acquire our Common Stock, you may have no effective voice in our management. Sales by our insiders or affiliates, along with any other market transactions, could affect the value of our Common Stock.
Our articles of incorporation allow for our board to create a new series of preferred stock without further approval by our stockholders, which could adversely affect the rights of the holders of our Common Stock.
Our Board of Directors has the authority to fix and determine the relative rights and preferences of preferred stock. Our Board of Directors have the authority to issue up to 20,000,000 shares of our preferred stock terms of which may be determined by the Board without further stockholder approval. As a result, our Board of Directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that would grant to holders the preferred right to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive dividend payments before dividends are distributed to the holders of Common Stock and the right to the redemption of the shares, together with a premium, prior to the redemption of our Common Stock.
In addition, our Board of Directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that has greater voting power than our Common Stock or that is convertible into our Common Stock, which could decrease the relative voting power of our Common Stock or result in dilution to our existing stockholders.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Smaller reporting companies such as us are not required to provide the information required by this item.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Our principal executive office is located at 4863 Shawline Street, San Diego, CA 92111, and the telephone number at such address is 408-663-5247.
Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.