Item 1. Business.
Overview
Mohawk Group Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Mohawk”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, and “our”), is a rapidly growing technology-enabled consumer products platform (“CPG”) that uses machine learning, natural language processing, and data analytics to design, develop, market and sell products. Mohawk was founded on the premise that if a company selling consumer packaged goods was founded today, it would apply artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning, the synthesis of massive quantities of data and the use of social proof to validate high caliber product offerings as opposed to over-reliance on brand value and other traditional marketing tactics. Today, we predominantly operate through online retail channels such as Amazon and Walmart.
We have launched and sold hundreds of SKUs on e-commerce platforms. Through the success of a number of those products we have incubated our own brands. We also have recently started to acquire brands and products in product categories when we believe it is more advantageous than developing our own brands and products. Today, we own and operate eleven brands that sell products in multiple categories, including home and kitchen appliances, heating, cooling and air quality, health and beauty, cookware, kitchen tools and gadgets and personal protective equipment.
Our eleven brands include, hOmeLabs; Vremi, Xtava; RIF6; Aussie Health; Holonix; Truweo; Mueller; Pursteam; Pohl and Schmitt; and Spiralizer. On February 2, 2021, we acquired the assets of Healing Solutions, LLC, an online seller of essential oils.
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hOmeLabs Dehumidifier
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Vremi Kitchen Set
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Xtava Infrared Hair Straightener
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Mueller Blender
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Holonix Hand Sanitizer
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Truweo Posture Corrector
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Spiralizer Vegetable Slicer
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RIF6 Desk
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We believe we are reinventing how to rapidly and successfully identify new product and market opportunities, and to launch, autonomously market and sell products in the rapidly growing global e-commerce market by leveraging our proprietary software technology platform, known as AIMEE. AIMEE combines large quantities of data, AI, machine learning and other automation algorithms, at scale, to allow rapid opportunity identification and automated online sales and marketing of consumer products.
AIMEE sources data from various e-commerce platforms, the internet and publicly available data, allowing us to estimate and determine trends, performance and consumer sentiment on products and searches within e-commerce platforms. This functionality allows us to help determine which products to market, manufacture through contract manufacturers, import and sell on e-commerce marketplaces. AIMEE is also connected, through application program interfaces (“APIs”), to multiple e-commerce platforms. This allows us to automate the purchase of marketing, automate various parts of our fulfillment and logistics operations and to automate pricing changes on product listings. We generate revenue primarily through the online sales of our various digital native consumer products and substantially all of our sales are made through the Amazon U.S. marketplace.
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See the sections contained within this Annual Report on Form 10-K entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” for further information.
Our History and Corporate Information
We were incorporated in Delaware under the name Mohawk Group Holdings, Inc. in March 2018. We have a single direct operating subsidiary, Mohawk Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, which was incorporated in Delaware in April 2014. As of December 31, 2020, we have multiple operating subsidiaries located in the United States, Canada, Ireland and China and conduct various aspects of our business in a number of other geographic locations including Philippines, Israel, Poland, France and Ukraine.
Our principal executive offices are located at 37 East 18th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003, and our telephone number is (347) 676-1681. Our website address is www.mohawkgp.com. We do not incorporate the information on, or accessible through, our website into this Annual Report, and you should not consider any information on, or accessible through, our website as part of this Annual Report. We have included our website address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K solely as an inactive textual reference.
Our Platform
AIMEE, our proprietary technology platform, allows us to identify product and market opportunities and to execute and manage online marketing strategies. In addition, AIMEE’s innovative data analytics platform provides real-time inventory visibility allowing us to automate and manage the life-cycle of our consumer product portfolio.
Using data and analysis provided by AIMEE, we determine which products to market, manufacture through contract manufacturers, import and sell on e-commerce marketplaces. We contract manufacturers, through purchase orders, predominately in China, to manufacture our consumer products. We have employees in China that perform sourcing, product testing, manufacturer qualification, quality assurance and control and purchasing, among other things. We take ownership and import these goods from China through various transportation methods via third-party transporters. We use a combination of Amazon warehouses, other third-party warehouses and logistics partners to fulfill direct-to-consumer orders through agreements or terms of services. Our scalable fulfillment services are integrated with AIMEE and are Amazon Prime Certified. We believe we can deliver products within two days of order through ground shipment across 99% of the U.S. market. Further, we have expanded our third-party warehouse network to add fulfillment by merchant (“FBM”) One Day Prime delivery for sales through Amazon, for approximately 76% of the U.S., based on our sales history. We believe that the increase in warehouse costs associated with this expansion will be more than offset by the decrease in shipping costs to customers, as the average last mile shipping zones will decrease due to our increased reach. Our sales, marketing and fulfillment are substantially integrated into AIMEE, which allows us to automate price, media buying, search engine optimization and shipping.
AIMEE is being developed to be product agnostic and we believe it can help us identify opportunities in most product categories and its other lifecycle capabilities can be applied to most consumer products. To date, we have primarily focused more on products that require limited research and development, where small but meaningful data-driven adjustments to the product can be leveraged to address customer needs. We make initial marketing investments in our products at launch to capture highly visible virtual shelf space. We believe that our marketing strategies, when combined with social proof for our products, can create longer term revenue streams for our business that will require limited human touch as AIMEE’s functionality continues to be developed to autonomously optimize certain proprietary online marketing strategies for the product. Our large and growing data set provides the foundation for proprietary algorithms that AIMEE is being developed to execute throughout our business, including algorithms that predict purchase behavior, forecast demand and optimize inventory. We believe that in the long term, technology will play a key factor in creating and sustaining our advantage in the mass market CPG industry. With the commoditization of product manufacturing and brand advertising, efficiency of supply chain through technology will be a significant differentiator. CPG companies that can harness large amounts of data and apply analytics, automation and machine learning to better understand consumer needs, automate marketing processes and reduce fixed costs will prevail.
AIMEE’s functionality is comprised of three modules that are in various stages of development and that operate today in combination with human judgment and oversight:
Market Research. AIMEE’s idea generator functionality quickly analyzes and filters millions of shopping-related data points to identify product opportunities, including relevant product specifications, based on consumer sentiment, product trends and attributes and competitive landscape analysis, among other things.
Financial Planning & Analysis. AIMEE’s financial planning and analysis functionality is being developed to perform product cash flow projections at the individual product level to provide visibility into the product pipeline and to compare projections against real-time results.
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Automated Marketing Strategy Execution. AIMEE’s algorithms select and execute online marketplace trading strategies to optimize product sales and contribution margin. These algorithms run at intervals of approximately twenty minutes to two hours to assist in evalutating price, media buying, product listing health, SEO and inventory levels. AIMEE’s architecture continues to be developed to learn new skills and to execute complex tactics and strategies.
We continue to develop AIMEE’s capabilities, including with respect to forecasting, inventory management, online marketing and other aspects, which today involve human judgment and oversight. We believe that AIMEE can be applied to other non-competing products and have launched pilot programs for our PaaS (“Platform as a Service”) business with third-party brands.
Our Business Model
We believe the digital disruption of retail, namely the consumer shift to e-commerce, will continue for decades to come. As this digital disruption continues, we believe the products consumers purchase, and the places they purchase them, will index more towards function, value, and ease / speed of delivery and less towards the historical dominance of brand recognition. The ubiquity of data on the internet has empowered consumers to make data driven choices when it comes to nearly every consumer choice. In this data rich world, we believe that digital marketplaces offer both brands and consumers the best value when it comes to buying and selling consumer products.
For the consumer, digital marketplaces offer nearly endless product choice, competitive pricing and easy delivery options. For brands and manufacturers, digital marketplaces not only offer the ability to instantly connect with millions of customers across the world, but also provide a real-time data stream of purchase behavior to decide against. The data that digital marketplaces provide, in addition to consumer trends data that exists outside of these marketplaces, creates an opportunity for software to change the way products are ideated, merchandised, marketed, analyzed and fulfilled.
AIMEE, our software platform, infuses technology throughout the entire consumer product value chain, allowing us to create and sell products and brands with superior value propositions versus the legacy incumbents products.
We believe our platform makes it possible for us to launch and automates the sales of evergreen products with features that customers have indicated are the most important to them and with profitable unit economics. With scale, we gain purchasing power both at the product level and at the overall fulfillment level, which improves our operating results. We also believe that our platform provides us with substantial leverage such that we can acquire already existing products and utilize AIMEE to optimize “make” versus “buy” decisions.
Core to our identity is the continuous automation and optimization of every aspect of our business through technology so that our overhead remains modest in relation to the number of products on our platform. In short, we desire to become the most efficient and scalable consumer product company in the world. Our AIMEE platform gives us the ability to track unit economics on an individual SKU basis, which we believe, combined with the automation of our fixed costs, will allow us to disrupt and scale the business model of CPG.
Our product lifecycle can be summarized as follows:
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We use AIMEE to analyze shopping-related data points, assist in performing product cash flow projections at the product level and to detect product opportunities in e-commerce markets on which we sell, primarily the US Amazon marketplace.
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We contract manufacture products under our owned and operated brands based on the data analyzed by AIMEE and aim to commercially launch such products roughly within six to eight months after an idea has been identified.
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Each of our products then typically goes through the Launch phase and depending on its level of success is moved to one of the other phases as further described below:
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Launch phase: During this phase, we leverage our technology to target opportunities identified using AIMEE. During this period of time, and due to the combination of discounts and investment in marketing, our net margin for a product could be as low as approximately negative 35%. Net margin is calculated by taking net revenue less cost of goods sold, less fulfillment, online advertising and selling expenses. These costs primarily reflect the estimated variable costs related to the sale of a product.
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Sustain phase: Our goal is for every product we launch is to enter the sustain phase and become profitable, with a target average of positive 15% net margin and within three months of launch on average. Net margin reflects a combination of manual and automated adjustments in price and marketing spend. Over time, our products benefit from economies of scale stemming from purchasing power both with manufacturers and with fulfillment providers.
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Milk phase or Liquidate phase: If a product does not enter the sustain phase or if the customer satisfaction of the product (i.e., ratings) is not satisfactory, then it will go to the liquidate phase and we will sell the remaining inventory. In order to enter the milk phase, we believe that a product must be well received and become a strong leader in its category in both customer satisfaction and volume sold as compared to its competition. Products in the milk phase that have achieved profitability should benefit from pricing power and we expect their profitability to increase accordingly. As of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, none of our products have achieved the milk phase and we can provide no assurance that any of our products will do so in the future.
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To date, our operating results have included a mix of products in the launch and sustain phases, and we expect such results to include a mix of products in all phases at any given period. Product mix can affect our gross profit and the variable portion of our sales and distribution expenses. Ultimately, we believe that the future cash flow generated by our products in the sustain phase will outpace the amount that we will reinvest into launching new products, driving profitability at the company level while we continue to invest in growth and technology.
Time to Market Advantage vs Incumbents
Market Opportunity & Industry
The e-Commerce Industry is Experiencing Massive Growth and Technology is Driving Transformation Across Consumer Product Industries and Marketplaces
According to eMarketer’s December 2020 publication the global e-commerce market is forecasted to grow to approximately $6.4 trillion by the year 2024, up from $3.4 trillion in 2019, and increase as a percentage of overall retail sales from 13.6% to 21.8% during the same time period. Digital marketplaces specifically have been, and we believe will continue to be, integral in fueling this shift to e-commerce, with nearly one-third of all e-commerce purchases coming from Amazon alone according to a recent DigitalCommerce360 report.
This shift in consumer behavior has enabled technological innovation that has profoundly impacted how consumers discover and purchase products. Consumer product companies must in turn adapt their businesses in order to engage effectively with this new crop
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of digital-first customers. We believe that a brand’s ability to drive margin accretion in this digital / data-first world will be a function of a brand’s ability to use machine learning and automation to optimize a product’s cost of sales. Paramount will be a brand’s ability to quickly synthesize massive quantities of data that can be considered to inform everything from a product’s aesthetic and functionality to its marketing strategy and inventory planning.
We believe that new, highly powered data driven business models that embrace these changes and deeply focus on the consumer will be the winners in this rapidly changing environment. We also believe that human beings cannot accurately and efficiently process the massive quantities of various data points required to address real-time dynamic marketplace changes. We believe that AIMEE’s ability to ingest, synthesize, and make decisions against the massive amount of data the internet and digital marketplaces in particular offer, positions us for success to address these structural shifts as consumers move to digital marketplaces to satisfy their needs.
Many CPG Companies Have Failed to Adapt to Changing Consumer Behavior in the e-Commerce Market
The development of selling tools and software like Shopify and Amazon’s Seller Central have materially reduced the barrier to entry for new brands to launch and quickly connect with millions of customers across the globe. This democratization of the consumer product space has produced headwinds for legacy CPG companies that have historically relied upon consumer brand recognition and predictable physical retail shelf space to maintain category dominance. We believe the traditional brick-and-mortar CPG industry lacks the dynamism and technological innovation needed to succeed in this new paradigm offering consumers nearly infinite choice. We believe digitally native brands will continue to take market share from these legacy incumbents by offering more competitive pricing and product features, and will supplant traditional brand awareness by instead focusing on creating direct relationships with consumers that ultimately manifest in durable social-proof moats across the largest e-commerce channels. We believe newer, more agile, data driven CPG companies, like Mohawk, have the ability to better understand what consumers are looking for in real time and to make our products visible to consumers on the right virtual shelves and at efficient costs.
The Consumer Journey is Data-Driven and No Longer Relies Primarily on Brand Value to Drive Buying Decisions
We believe the increase in consumer choice as it relates to brands, products and channels has lessened the importance of brand recognition and perception in dictating consumer product preferences. Indeed, Amazon search data reflects this shift, with only 22% of Amazon product searches including a brand name, according to a 2019 Marketplace Pulse report.
We believe our platform addresses these changes in shopping behavior in a precise and scalable way. AIMEE has the ability to synthesize large quantities of data relating to relevant features and trends in consumer preferences, which allows us to quickly develop products that delight consumers. AIMEE also allows us to manage the other component parts of successfully scaling a consumer product on marketplaces, including merchandising, marketing, sales forecasting, and fulfillment.
Consumer Products - Make versus Buy
We have used AIMEE to make (internally develop) our products portfolio of five owned and operated consumer product brands and have hundreds of SKUs available for sale. AIMEE’s idea generator has been developed to be product agnostic and we believe can generate product opportunities in most product categories. We have also leveraged AIMEE to buy (acquire through acquisition) consumer product brands and related products. During 2020, we acquired the brands Truweo, Mueller, Pursteam, Pohl and Schmitt, and Spriralizer and their related products and during 2019, we acquired the brand Aussie Health.
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Acquisitions
While we intend to pursue growth from our existing product portfolio and from new product launches, we also intend to pursue growth through strategic acquisitions of digital native brands that have the potential to be quickly on-boarded onto our AIMEE platform. When looking at new potential product categories and potential acquisition targets, we typically apply a make-or-buy analysis based on the data provided from our AIMEE technology platform combined with our assessment of the risks and costs of successfully launching products in the new product category. We intend to pursue acquisitions when the target meets our financial and other criteria, including potential cost saving synergies, revenue sustainability and risk mitigation. Cost saving synergies are derived primarily from reduced labor costs because we expect that we will not hire many of the target company’s employees, if any. We expect that these consumer product businesses will typically have built a significant presence on at least one e-commerce marketplace around one or more product categories. We expect that the products of these businesses will have strong unit economics, high product quality and stable supply chains, have developed significant social proof in the form of customer reviews and high search ranking for relevant keywords and are in product categories where frequent product improvement is not required. They also tend to have significant concentration risk due to limited product categories, have limited ability to scale as they do not have a technology platform enabling automation and have limited working capital to further enable growth.
Our ability to complete any acquisition typically depends on a number of factors including the successful completion of confirmatory due diligence, negotiation of definitive agreements, the seller providing seller financing, our ability to use debt and equity financing, and permission from our existing lenders.
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Platform as a Service (PaaS)
We believe that many brands have under-invested in their marketplace strategy due to the inherent complexities of managing businesses on Amazon and a fundamental misunderstanding of the accretive relationship between Amazon and other sales channels. Moreover, we believe a number of macro-environmental factors, including the rising costs of customer acquisition on traditional digital channels, the growth of the Amazon Prime program, and the continued proliferation of third-party sellers across the largest e-commerce channels, will push many brands to more fully embrace the Amazon marketplace as a critical component of an omni-channel distribution strategy. We believe AIMEE is uniquely equipped to add value to brands and manufacturers in this emerging paradigm, leveraging real-time analytics and sales automation to help brands more effectively manage their marketplace strategy.
We believe that our PaaS solution, which includes combined access to our team’s expertise and the AIMEE platform, could provide a significant advantage over other competitors in this industry. We believe this is because many incumbent CPG companies have historically operated as business-to-businesses and have not invested sufficiently to succeed on online marketplaces. With a PaaS solution, we believe we can bridge this operational gap by offering our technology combined with our substantial know-how in managing business-to-consumer supply chains, marketing, and customer service, among other things.
We continue to offer our Platform as a Service solution through pilot programs to brands and manufacturers. Our offering provides substantially the same capabilities utilized for our owned and operated portfolio of products. We currently structure our offering as a standalone PaaS service or, in cases where the client’s third-party’s logistics do not allow for fulfillment direct-to-consumer, as a PaaS service suite which includes a standard reseller agreement that leverages our integrated direct-to-consumer fulfillment program.
Follow-on Equity Offering
On August 26, 2020, we completed an underwritten public offering (the “Follow-On Offering”) of 3,860,710 shares of common stock, which included the exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares of common stock solely to cover over-allotments, at a public offering price of $7.00 per share, less underwriting discounts and commissions. We received net proceeds of approximately $23.4 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions of approximately $2.2 million and other offering expenses payable by us of approximately $1.4 million.
Debt Refinancing
On November 30, 2020, we entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “Securities Purchase Agreement”) with High Trail Investments SA LLC (“High Trail”), pursuant to which, among other things, we issued and sold to High Trail in a private placement transaction (the “Private Placement”), in exchange for the payment by High Trail of $38.0 million, (i) a 0% coupon senior secured promissory note in an aggregate principal amount of $43.0 million (the “Note”), and (ii) a warrant to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,864,133 shares of our common stock (the “Warrant”). On December 1, 2020, we closed the transactions contemplated by the Securities Purchase Agreement and used a portion of the proceeds to pay off all obligations under the $15.0 million term loan (the “Horizon Term Loan”) previously provided pursuant to that certain Venture Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of December 31, 2018, by and among us, Mohawk Group, Inc. and our subsidiaries from time to time party thereto and Horizon Technology Finance Corporation (“Horizon”) as a lender and collateral agent, as amended (such Venture Loan and Security Agreement, as amended, the “Horizon Loan Agreement”), for $15.0 million and terminated the Horizon Term Loan.
Intellectual Property
We rely primarily on a combination of trade secrets, trademarks, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements and licensing arrangements (including open source software) to protect our intellectual property in the United States and internationally. We generally do not pursue patent applications as a means of protecting our intellectual property. We have applied to register or have registered certain of our trademarks in the United States and other jurisdictions, and we will pursue additional trademark registrations to the extent we believe they would be beneficial and cost-effective.
Customers
Our customers are primarily individual online consumers who purchase our products primarily on Amazon US, and to a lesser extent on our owned and operated websites and other marketplaces. In 2019, approximately 95% of our revenue was through or with the Amazon sales platform and in 2020, 88% of our revenue was through or with the Amazon sales platform. Customers in our PaaS business consist of third-party consumer product companies who are primarily engaged in pilot programs.
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Seasonality
Our individual product categories are typically affected by seasonal sales trends primarily resulting from the timing of the summer season for certain of our environmental appliance products and the fall and holiday season for our small kitchen appliances and accessories. With our current mix of environmental appliances, the sales of those products tend to be significantly higher in the summer season. Further, our small kitchen appliances and accessories tend to have higher sales during the fourth quarter, which includes Thanksgiving and the December holiday season. As a result, our operational results, cash flows, cash and inventory positions may fluctuate materially in any quarterly period depending on, among other things, weather conditions, shifts in the timing of certain holidays and changes in our product mix.
Sales and Marketing
Our sales and marketing strategy and approach is substantially integrated into AIMEE and also involves human judgment. AIMEE is being developed to allow us to automate price, media buying, search engine optimization and a/b testing leveraging our proprietary technology software and algorithms we have built into AIMEE. We believe this automation will bring significant competitive advantages for our products and PaaS customers alike. For our SKUs, our advertising investment is focused on online channels and e-commerce platforms. Currently our primary focus on advertising spend is online across Amazon, Google and Facebook. Our spend and approach on advertising is different depending on the life cycle of products on our platform. We view and classify products into categories such as launch, sustain, milk or liquidate.
The launch phase is where we classify new products being introduced into the marketplace. The advertising spend during this stage is aggressive and can last for three months on average to ensure the product launch is successful, with a focus on search optimization and the development of social proof that our products are meeting customer needs. Once our products reach the sustain phase, our sales and marketing strategy then focuses on managing price and pay-per-click optimization, along with a corresponding reduction in spending on search optimization and social proof.
Third-Party Manufacturing & Logistics
As of December 31, 2020, we contract, through purchase orders, with approximately 94 manufacturers, predominately in China, for substantially all of our consumer products. As of December 31, 2020, we have an operations team of approximately 31 people in Shenzhen, China that performs sourcing, product testing, manufacturer qualification, quality assurance and control and purchasing, among other things. In general, we do not use master agreements with vendors and aim to have flexibility in our supply chain to match our forecasting needs.
We use a combination of Amazon warehouses, other third-party warehouse and logistics partners to fulfill direct-to-consumer orders, through agreements or terms of services. In addition to fulfillment by Amazon warehouses, in 2018 we began utilizing three geographically distributed third-party warehouses to allow us to deliver orders within two days through ground shipment to approximately 99% of the U.S. market. Warehouse selection for any particular product depends on the size and other aspects of the products to be warehoused, with a focus on optimizing storage and fulfillment costs. We are focused on driving manufacturing and logistics costs down as we grow, scale and improve our purchasing power. We have expanded our third-party warehouse network to provide FBM One Day Prime delivery. This expansion covered approximately 76% of the U.S. market in 2020, based on our sales history. We believe that the increase in warehouse costs associated with this expansion will be more than offset by the decrease in shipping costs to customers as the average last mile shipping zones will decrease due to our increased reach.
Competition
The consumer goods and e-commerce markets are highly competitive, including the market for potential M&A opportunities where there are many aggregators with substantial access to capital focused on acquiring Amazon third party sellers. Our competitors include traditional and non-traditional consumer good companies, discount stores, traditional retailers, the online platforms of these traditional retail competitors, independent retail stores and e-commerce companies. The market for PaaS services relating to e-commerce, and the U.S. Amazon marketplace in particular, is also very competitive with a variety of well-funded entrants in the space. The market landscape is diverse, with competitors selling into brands, agencies, manufacturers and retailers alike. The services offered by these competitors vary, with some offering point solutions for specific aspects related to selling on Amazon, including research and business intelligence, Amazon services and listing management, while others focus on a more holistic approach. Some of these competitors leverage proprietary software to execute their services, while others offer personnel with relevant expertise. In addition, Amazon also offers its sellers a variety of tools that are generally free.
We believe that our owned and operated products business and our PaaS business give us an advantage as we are able to quickly develop new algorithms and test them on our own products to ensure their efficacy before delivering them to PaaS clients. By having
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our owned and operated businesses, we are able to better predict and develop features that we believe will deliver results for PaaS clients.
With regard to our CPG business, we believe our competitors are Amazon, Helen of Troy, Newell Brands, Frigidaire, Trademark Global and any CPG company that sells products similar to ours in the e-commerce space. There has also been an increase in the number of sellers who are based in China that sell products similar to ours. For our acquisition growth strategy, we believe our include competitors are Thrasio, HeyDay, SellerX, Perch, Boosted Commerce, and Heroes, among numerous other aggregators in the U.S and in Europe. For our PaaS business, we believe our competitors are Feedvisor, CommerceIQ, Channel Advisor, Teikametrics, Jungle Scout, and Helium10. We believe that we are able to compete effectively because of our expertise, platform, data science, and other automation.
Regulatory Matters/Governmental Regulations
We are subject to a variety of U.S. federal, state and local laws and international laws, including but not limited to those governing the processing of payments, consumer protection, the privacy of consumer information and other laws regarding unfair and deceptive trade practices. We are also subject to various environmental laws, rules and regulations, such as California’s Proposition 65.
The products sold by us are also subject to regulation by United States governmental agencies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, United States Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy and similar state and international regulatory authorities, such as the California Energy Commission. We do not estimate any significant capital expenditures for environmental control matters either in the current fiscal year or in the near future.
We are also subject to regulations relating to our supply chain. For example, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act requires retail sellers that do business in California to disclose their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains. As part of our vendor qualification process, we review suppliers’ operations for compliance with applicable labor and workplace standards and other applicable laws, including laws prohibiting child labor, forced labor and unsafe working conditions.
Substantially all of our products are currently manufactured in China, which may result in additional costs, if international trade negotiations result in adverse tariffs on our products.
Although we have not suffered any material restrictions from doing business in the past due to government regulations, significant impediments may arise in the future as we expand product offerings.
From time to time, we dispose of obsolete inventory, which is disposed of or destroyed in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
People
The human capital objectives we focus on in managing our business include attracting, developing, and retaining key personnel. Our employees are critical to the success of our organization and the Company is committed to supporting our employees’ professional development. We believe our management team has the experience necessary to effectively implement our growth strategy and continue to drive shareholder value. We provide competitive compensation, which includes a focus on stock-based compensation, and benefits to attract and retain key personnel, while also providing a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace. We continue to develop and grow in-house learning and development for its employees which is primarily performed online on a variety of topics, including topics that advance leadership skills.
As of December 31, 2020, we had 121 employees, of which 120 were full-time, and 30 independent contractors. Of our employees and contractors, 39 are engaged in research and development, 93 are engaged in sales, marketing and operations and 19 are in general corporate and administrative positions.
As of December 31, 2020, our employees and contractors are based in five offices, including shared workspaces, in seven countries, including 30 in research and development, sales, marketing, operations, general corporate and administration in New York, four in operations and revenue across remote roles in United States, 31 in China where we perform operations and manufacturers inspections, four in Israel where we perform certain sale operations and research and development functions, 59 in the Philippines where we perform customer service, sales and marketing and other logistics functions and 19 in Poland where we perform research and development. We also contract four consultants predominately for research and development functions in Ukraine and France.
Our employees are not represented by any collective bargaining agreements or labor unions.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Summary of Risk Factors
Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in shares of our common stock speculative or risky. These factors, along with other general risk factors, are described in further detail under the heading “Risk Factors” below.
Risks Relating to Our Business
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We have a short operating history in an evolving industry.
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We have significant operational exposure relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact from this risk could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
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We may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate.
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We continue to invest in new businesses and develop new products and services that may disrupt our current operations and negatively impact our financial condition and operating results.
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Our current acquisition strategy may be limited by our ability to raise the funding we need to continue to support our growth strategy.
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We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available or may be available only by diluting existing stockholders.
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Substantially all of our revenues are from sales of products on Amazon’s U.S. Marketplace and any change, limitation or restriction, even if temporary, on our ability to operate on Amazon’s platform could have a material adverse impact to our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
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We may not be able to manage our growth effectively, and our failure to do so may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition, business, and culture.
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Shipping is a critical part of our business and any changes in our shipping arrangements or any interruptions in shipping could adversely affect our operating results.
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We are dependent on third-party manufacturers, which are located in China, and any inability to obtain products from any such manufacturers, such as changes to trade policies or delayed production schedules, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
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We rely on AIMEE and other information technologies and systems to operate our business and to maintain our competitiveness, and any failure to invest in and adapt to technological developments and industry trends could harm our business.
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Our business depends on our ability to build and maintain strong product listings on e-commerce platforms. We may not be able to maintain and enhance our product listings if we experience illegal “black hat” tactics from other sellers, receive unfavorable customer complaints, negative publicity or otherwise fail to live up to consumers’ expectations, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and growth prospects.
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Expansion of our operations internationally requires management attention and resources, involves additional risks and may be unsuccessful.
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Our operating results are subject to seasonal and quarterly variations in our net revenue and operating income and, as a result, our quarterly results may fluctuate and could be below expectations.
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The terms of our revolving credit facility and other debt contain restrictive covenants that may limit our operating flexibility.
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We may acquire other companies or technologies, which could divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results. A failure to successfully evaluate acquisition targets and integrate our acquired businesses may adversely affect our business or operations.
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As we continue to acquire and invest in new businesses, our ability to acquire companies at accretive multiples may not be viable.
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Risks Relating to Intellectual Property
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Our use of open source software may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and systems.
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Assertions by third parties of infringement or misappropriation by us of their intellectual property rights or confidential know how could result in significant costs and substantially harm our business and results of operations.
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The laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property and other proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States.
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The inability to acquire, use or maintain our marks and domain names for our sites could substantially harm our business and operating results.
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Risks Relating to Litigation and Government Regulation
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We may be subject to general litigation, regulatory disputes and government inquiries which could have a material adverse impact to our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
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A failure to comply with current laws, rules and regulations or changes to such laws, rules and regulations and other legal uncertainties may adversely affect our business, financial performance, results of operations or business growth.
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If our products experience any recalls, product liability claims, or government, customer or consumer concerns about product safety, our reputation and operating results could be harmed.
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Any failure by us or our vendors to comply with product safety, consumer protection or other laws, or our standard vendor terms and conditions, or to provide safe factory conditions for our or their workers may damage our reputation and brand and harm our business.
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In Europe, the data privacy and information security regime recently continues to evolve and is subject to increasing regulatory scrutiny.
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We are subject to stringent privacy regulations in China that are broader than those of our other operations.
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We are subject to customs and international trade laws that could require us to modify our current business practices and incur increased costs or could result in a delay in getting products through customs and port operations, which may limit our growth and cause us to suffer reputational damage.
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If significant tariffs or other restrictions are placed on imports from China or any retaliatory trade measures are taken by China, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
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Risks Relating to the Ownership of our Common Stock
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We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors.
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The estimates of market opportunity, market size and forecasts of market growth included in our publicly-filed documents may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.
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The concentration of our stock ownership will likely limit your ability to influence corporate matters, including the ability to influence the outcome of director elections and other matters requiring stockholder approval.
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General Risk Factors
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If securities or industry analysts either do not publish research about us, discontinue research coverage, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our common stock adversely, the trading price or trading volume of our common stock could decline.
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We will incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of operating as a public company.
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We have a short operating history in an evolving industry.
We have a short operating history in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive industry that may not develop in a manner favorable to our business. Our relatively short operating history makes it difficult to assess our future performance. You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and difficulties we may encounter.
Our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to, among other things:
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manage our inventory effectively;
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successfully develop, retain and expand our consumer product offerings and geographic reach;
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successfully acquire, operate and efficiently integrate third-party Amazon sellers;
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anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes;
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effectively manage our growth;
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hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization;
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avoid interruptions in our business from information technology downtime, cybersecurity breaches or labor stoppages;
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maintain the quality of our technology infrastructure and the quality of our consumer products;
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develop new features to enhance AIMEE’s functionality; and
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retain our existing manufacturing vendors and attract new manufacturing vendors.
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We have launched numerous products over the last several quarters and have experienced a lower than expected success rate of products reaching the sustain phase. In addition, in certain instances, even when a product has reached the sustain phase, our forecasts, at times, have resulted in inventory overages. During 2020, we launched our Holonix Health brand, which was developed to address the personal protective equipment and wellness product category in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our marketing strategy relies to a significant extent on our ability to sell such products on the Amazon marketplace and we can provide no assurances that we will be allowed to sell any such products on the Amazon marketplace or that we will be successful in selling our products in other sales channels. In addition, we have recently acquired several Amazon third-party sellers and we may be unable to sustain the level of financial performance relating to these acquisitions due to a variety of factors including changes in the competitive landscape of the product category and adverse actions of competing sellers.
In addition, our Platform as a Service (“PaaS”) business is still nascent and we may be unable to successfully maintain or grow our PaaS business. We can provide no assurance that we will be successful in growing or retaining this business which would result in the loss of PaaS and associated revenues. If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described in the “PaaS” section and elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition and our operating results will be adversely affected.
We have significant operational exposure relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact from this risk could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
Although we have seen an increase in our net revenue since March 2020 and through the date of this Annual Report, the future impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on our personnel, business and global operations, and on our suppliers, logistics providers, marketplaces and other business partners is uncertain and cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible that any and every aspect of our value chain could be disrupted, and such impact could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects. For example, we may be unable to launch new products, replenish inventory for existing products, ship into or receive inventory in our third-party warehouses or ship or sell products to customers, in each case on a timely basis or at all. During the fourth quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021, we have experienced production and shipment delays for certain of our products that could result in stock outs on the Amazon marketplace resulting in a decrease of net revenue. We also may be unable to forecast demand for our products during the pendency of this pandemic and we may experience a substantial decrease in the demand for our products, most of which are considered not essential. In addition, the majority of our personnel are currently working remotely which creates challenges in the way we operate our business, including with respect to the manner in which we ensure the quality of our products and meet our reporting obligations. Our ability to execute our operations could be impacted if any of our key personnel contracts COVID-19. While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, COVID-19 may be difficult to assess or predict, the continued widespread pandemic could result in significant
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disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. Due to the uncertainty as to the severity and duration of the pandemic, the impact on our future revenues, profitability, liquidity, financial condition, business and results of operations is uncertain at this time.
While we have been preserving our liquidity and capital resources through various actions which include delaying and negotiating the delay of payments to certain vendors, the effect of such actions could have an adverse impact on our business, including our relationships with these vendors. For example, payment delays to certain of our manufacturing vendors in China during April 2020 had resulted in a temporary loss of availability of export credit insurance from the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (“Sinosure”), a Chinese state-owned enterprise, that provides export credit insurance to our manufacturing vendors. As of the date of this Annual Report, Sinosure has reinstated this insurance to levels that we believe are sufficient to fund our operations. In the future, we may not be able to maintain this insurance on a timely basis or at all, which would have a material impact on our working capital and our ability to fund our operations. In addition, our operations rely on third-parties to manufacture our products, to provide logistics and warehousing services and to facilitate sales of our products, and, accordingly, we rely on the business continuity plans of these third parties to operate during the pandemic and have limited ability to influence their plans. In light of the uncertainty as to the severity and duration of the pandemic, we may be unable to remain in compliance with the terms of our existing loan agreements and may be unable to secure a waiver which could have an adverse impact on our business, prospects and financial condition and we may seek additional financing options. Any financing, if successful may be expensive and/or dilutive.
We may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate.
Our recent revenue growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. Specifically, our net revenue increased by 62.3% in 2020 compared to 2019, and 56.2% in 2019 compared to 2018. As we grow our business, our revenue growth rates may slow in future periods due to a number of reasons, which may include our inability to successfully launch new products that reach our sustain phase and to keep those products in the sustain phase or to grow our PaaS business, as well as the maturation of our business. We can provide no assurance that we will continue to be able to maintain or sustain the same levels of historic revenue growth.
We believe that during 2019 investors placed significant focus on the ability of certain private and newly public companies to demonstrate sustained profitability instead of continuing higher levels of revenue growth at the expense of profitability. We may decide to delay certain investments in order to more quickly achieve profitability, and while such decisions may accelerate profitability on a sustained basis, we can provide no assurance that we will continue to be able to maintain or sustain the same levels of historic revenue growth. In addition, we may reduce the number of new product launches in order to focus on product opportunities that have larger addressable markets but require increased levels of marketing investment and we can provide no assurances that such a shift will be successful.
In addition, in 2020, we experienced an increase in net revenue in part due to the shift by consumers to online shopping as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we expect this shift to continue, we can provide no assurance that this shift will continue in the near or longer term or continue with respect to the products we offer.
We continue to invest in new businesses and develop new products and services that may disrupt our current operations and negatively impact our financial condition and operating results.
We are continuing to rapidly and significantly expand our operations, including increasing our product offerings across categories. Our investments in new businesses and development of new products and services may expose our business operations to inherent risks. The investments reflect our ongoing interest to further diversify our e-commerce portfolio of brands and build a leading e-commerce consumer brands platform. While we continue to invest in new businesses and develop new products, we may face significant competition from experienced and well-funded competitors that may hinder our ability to attain sufficient scale and achieve our business objectives. In order to compete successfully, we must accurately anticipate new technologies and develop useful and innovative products in a timely manner.
Failing to effectively compete may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. Further, our growth strategy may place significant strain on our management, technical performance, and financial resources. Failure to manage our growth effectively may adversely affect our reputation, limit our growth, and negatively impact our operating results.
Our current acquisition strategy may be limited by our ability to raise the funding we need to continue to support our growth strategy.
We may not be able to continue to acquire the financing needed in order to pursue our current acquisition strategy. The success of our business depends, in part, on our ability to invest significant resources in research, development of our proprietary technology platform, and product development, including through acquisitions. As we continue to make investments to grow our business, we may require additional funds from investors secured through issuances of equity or convertible debt securities. The debt we incur, at
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times, in order to retain these funds may negatively impact our financial conditions or operating results and may require the use of warrants and contain other terms such as the payment of stock instead of cash in the event of a default, that could be dilutive to stockholders. Consequently, investors or lenders may determine that our debt to equity ratio is unfavorable to their lending strategy and decide to forego financing, which could adversely affect our future operating results and ability to sustain profitability.
We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available or may be available only by diluting existing stockholders.
As we continue to make investments, while balancing the need to achieve profitability, to support our business growth we may require additional funds to maintain, grow and respond to business challenges. Accordingly, we need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, we expect our existing stockholders to suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. In addition, we may not be able to raise sufficient equity or equity-like capital without first seeking shareholder approval which could limit our ability to complete such transaction, or to complete such transaction on a timely basis. We intend to hold a Special Meeting of shareholders in April 2021 in order to ensure compliance with Nasdaq rules relating to dilutive financings and we may not complete any discounted financings until we receive such approval. Any debt financing secured by us in the future would require the consent of our existing lenders, and also could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities. In addition, we may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to maintain, grow and respond to business challenges would be significantly limited, and our business and prospects could fail or be adversely affected. If we require additional borrowings in order to achieve continued growth, but are unable to satisfy conditions required by MidCap Financial Trust (“MidCap”), High Trail Investments SA LLC (“High Trail SA”) or High Trail Investments ON LLC (“High Trail ON” and, together with High Trail SA, “High Trail”), we can provide no assurance that we will be able to access borrowings in excess of the $25.0 million cap available under the MidCap revolving credit facility, or on terms that will be acceptable to us, or that we would be able to refinance the MidCap facility or High Trail term loans, on terms acceptable to us, or at all. In addition, if we were to breach our existing credit facility, either or both lenders could exercise remedies against us which could result in our having to prepay our existing loans earlier than required, could result in reduced availability under the MidCap credit facility and could result in significant dilution to stockholders.
We currently have an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 filed with the SEC. However, as further discussed in the risk factor “As a result of our failure to timely file certain financial statements relating to the Smash Assets, we are currently ineligible to file new short form registration statements on Form S-3, which may impair our ability to raise capital on terms favorable to us, in a timely manner or at all.”, we are not currently permitted to use our existing registration statements on Form S-3, including our shelf registration statement on Form S-3. Absent a waiver of the Form S-3 eligibility requirements and assuming we continue to timely file our required reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) after the Smash Financial Statements (as defined below) are filed, the earliest we would regain the ability to use Form S-3 is 12 months from the date we file the Smash Financial Statements. At that time, we may use the shelf registration statement on Form S-3 to offer from time to time any combination of debt securities, common and preferred stock and warrants. In the interim, the Company intends complete public offerings through the use of a Form S-1 registration statement and through privately placed financings and as a result the Company could experience a higher cost of capital and shareholders may experience increased dilution.
We intend to refinance all of our currently outstanding debt, including the High Trail Loan, the MidCap Credit Facility and subsequent debt issued to High Trail related to the Healing Solution acquisition (the “Refinancing”). The new senior secured note is expected to have an 8% annual interest rate payable in cash on a quarterly basis with a three-year maturity and will provide for the issuance to the institutional lender of a warrant to purchase additional shares of our common stock in an amount to be determined at the closing of the Refinancing. The Refinancing is expected to close in April 2021, and is subject to entry into definitive documentation and other customary closing conditions. We can provide no assurances that the transaction will close on these terms or at all.
Substantially all of our revenues are from sales of products on Amazon’s U.S. Marketplace and any change, limitation or restriction, even if temporary, on our ability to operate on Amazon’s platform could have a material adverse impact to our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We sell substantially all of our products on Amazon’s U.S. marketplace and are subject to Amazon’s terms of service and various other Amazon seller policies and services that apply to third parties selling products on Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon has the right to terminate or suspend its agreement with us at any time and for any reason. Amazon may take other actions against us such as suspending or terminating a seller account or product listing and withholding payments owed to us indefinitely. For example, during the second quarter of 2020, Amazon suspended certain of our dehumidifier listings. While we endeavor to materially comply with the terms of services of the marketplaces on which we operate, and to provide our consumers with a great experience, we can provide no
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assurances that these marketplaces will have the same determination with respect to our compliance. In addition, we may not be able to promptly resolve any compliance issue, which could have a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Amazon or any other marketplace on which we choose to sell can make changes to their respective platforms that could require us to change the manner in which we operate, limit our ability to successfully launch new products or increase our costs to operate and such changes could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. Examples of changes that could impact us relate to platform fee charges (i.e., selling commissions), exclusivity, inventory warehouse availability, excluded products and limitations on sales and marketing. Any change, limitation or restriction on our ability to sell on Amazon’s platform, even if temporary, could have a material impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We also rely on services provided by Amazon’s fulfillment platform, including Prime Certification, which provides for expedited shipping to the consumer, an important aspect in the buying decision for consumers. For products that we fulfill ourselves, we have qualified to offer our products for sale with Prime Certification delivery. Any inability to market our products for sale with expedited delivery provided under Prime Certification could have a material impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. For example, in the third and fourth quarter of 2019, we temporarily experienced the loss of our Prime Certification delivery, and in addition, certain of our products were deemed not be eligible for Prime delivery based on Amazon’s determination of expected shipping dates. Failure to remain compliant with the best fulfillment practices on Amazon’s platform could have a material impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
In addition, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon implemented changes to its fulfillment services platform such that certain products deemed non-essential have extended delivery times and Amazon is currently not accepting goods to any of its warehouses that are deemed non-essential. The impact of this change could have a material effect on our revenues, profitability and financial condition.
We may not accurately forecast revenues, profitability and appropriately plan our expenses.
We base our current and future expense levels primarily on our operating forecasts and estimates of sales. Sales and operating results are difficult to forecast because they generally depend on a number of factors including our ability to launch new products on a timely basis and to accurately predict the success of those launches, which are uncertain. Additionally, our business is affected by general economic, business and other conditions around the world, in particular in the U.S and China. We may be unable to adjust our spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in sales and operating results. If actual results differ from our estimates, our operating results and financial condition could be adversely impacted.
In addition, during the second quarter of 2020, we began selling personal protective equipment (“PPE”) to state and local governments in the U.S. The market for PPE is volatile and unpredictable, and we have limited experience sourcing and selling PPE. While we expect to continue to sell PPE, we can provide no assurances that we will be successful in selling products to such state and local governments or to private businesses, that the products we deliver will be of sufficient quality, the correct specifications or the goods secured at all and our cash deposits refunded, or that we will receive timely payment from the customer. In addition, any failure in successfully delivering PPE to state and local governments may harm our business relationships with these state and local governments, our PPE manufacturers and ultimately our reputation.
If we are unable to manage our inventory effectively, our operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
To ensure timely delivery of products, we generally issue purchase orders to contract manufacturers. As a result, we are vulnerable to demand and pricing shifts and to suboptimal selection and timing of product purchases. In the past, we have not always predicted the appropriate demand for our products by consumers with accuracy, which has resulted in inventory shortages, excess inventory write offs and lower gross margins. We rely on our procurement team to order products and we rely on our data analytics to decide on the levels and timing of inventory we purchase, including when to reorder items that are selling well and when to write off items that are not selling well. We rely on our contract manufacturers who are often responsible for conducting a number of traditional operations with respect to their respective products, including maintaining raw materials and inventory for shipment to us. In these instances, we may be unable to ensure that these suppliers will continue to perform these services to our satisfaction in a manner that provides our customer with an appropriate brand experience or on commercially reasonable terms. If so, our business, reputation and brands could suffer. If our sales and procurement teams do not accurately predict demand or if our algorithms do not help us reorder the right products or write off the right products timely, we may not effectively manage our inventory, which could result in inventory excess or shortages, and our operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Given the long lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may expect to continue experiencing inventory shortages and our operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
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We may not be able to manage our growth effectively, and our failure to do so may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition, business, and culture.
We have rapidly and significantly expanded our operations and anticipate expanding further as we pursue our growth strategies. Such expansion increases the complexity of our business and places a significant strain on our management, operations, technical systems, financial resources and internal control over financial reporting functions. Our current and planned personnel, systems, procedures and controls may not be adequate to support and effectively manage our future operations, especially as we employ personnel in several geographic locations. We are currently in the process of transitioning certain of our business and financial systems to systems on a scale reflecting the increased size, scope and complexity of our operations, and the process of migrating our legacy systems could disrupt our ability to timely and accurately process and report information, which could adversely affect our results of operations and cause harm to our reputation. As a result, we may not be able to manage our expansion effectively.
Our business, including our costs and supply chain, is subject to risks associated with sourcing, manufacturing, shipping, importing and warehousing.
We currently source all of the products we offer from third-party vendors and, as a result, we may be subject to price fluctuations or supply disruptions. Our operating results would be negatively impacted by increases in the prices of our products, and we have no guarantees that prices will not rise. We have no guarantees that prices will not rise. In addition, as we expand into new categories and product types, we expect that we may not have strong purchasing power in these new areas, which could lead to higher costs than we have historically seen in our current categories. We may not be able to pass increased costs on to customers, which could adversely affect our operating results. Moreover, in the event of a significant disruption in the supply of raw materials used in the manufacture of our products, the vendors that we work with might not be able to locate alternative suppliers of materials of comparable quality at an acceptable price. For example, natural disasters, unforeseen public health crises, such as epidemics and pandemics, have in the past increased raw material costs, impacting pricing with certain of our vendors, and caused shipping delays for certain of our products. As a result, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship merchandise to clients may be negatively affected by such natural disasters, pandemics, labor disputes, acts of war or terrorism, and similar factors, whether occurring in the United States or internationally. For example, we receive and warehouse a portion of our inventory in California. If any such disaster were to impact this facility, our operations would be disrupted. In addition, these types of events could negatively impact consumer spending in the impacted regions. We rely on the business continuity plans of third parties to operate during natural disasters or pandemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have limited ability to influence their plans. The sourcing, manufacturing, importing or warehousing of our products could be significantly disrupted if a third-party does not have a business continuity plan or such business continuity plan does not adequately support our products or operations. Further capacity fluctuations driven by various factors such as seasonality, tariffs, fuel-related regulations affecting the shipping industry, hedging or other factors can cause importing delays, which can lead to volatility in ocean freight rates and availability, causing us to incur additional expense and adversely affecting our operating results. In addition, our third-party warehouse providers may not have sufficient capacity to store our goods or may seek to increase our pricing rates. Any delays, interruption, damage to or increased costs in the manufacture of the product we offer could result in higher prices to acquire the product or non-delivery of product altogether and could adversely affect our operating results.
In addition, we cannot guarantee that product we receive from vendors will be of sufficient quality or free from damage or defects, or that such merchandise will not be damaged during shipping or storage. While we take measures to ensure product quality and avoid damage, including evaluating vendor facilities, operations and product samples, conducting inventory inspections and inspecting returned product, we cannot control merchandise while it is out of our possession or prevent all damage while in our distribution centers. We may incur additional expenses and our reputation could be harmed if clients and potential clients believe that our merchandise is not of high quality or may be damaged.
Risks associated with the suppliers from whom our products are sourced could materially adversely affect our financial performance as well as our reputation and brand.
We depend on our ability to provide our customers with a wide range of products from qualified suppliers in a timely and efficient manner. Our agreements with most of our suppliers do not provide for the long-term availability of merchandise or the continuation of particular pricing practices, nor do they usually restrict such suppliers from selling products to other buyers or directly to consumers themselves. There can be no assurance that our current suppliers will continue to seek to sell us products on current terms or that we will be able to establish new or otherwise extend current supply relationships to ensure product acquisitions in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable commercial terms. For example, in 2019 we switched manufacturers for two of our products. Our ability to develop and maintain relationships with reputable suppliers and offer high quality products to our customers is critical to our success. If we are unable to develop and maintain relationships with suppliers that would allow us to offer a sufficient amount and variety of quality products on acceptable commercial terms, our ability to satisfy our customers’ needs, and therefore our growth prospects and financial performance, would be materially adversely affected.
We also are unable to predict whether any of the countries in which our suppliers’ products are currently manufactured or may be manufactured in the future will be subject to trade restrictions imposed by the U.S. or foreign governments or the likelihood, type or effect of any such restrictions. Any event causing a disruption or delay of imports from suppliers with international manufacturing
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operations, including the imposition of additional import restrictions, restrictions on the transfer of funds or increased tariffs or quotas, could increase the cost or reduce the supply of merchandise available to our customers and materially adversely affect our financial performance as well as our reputation and brand. For example, a significant number of our products are subject to import tariffs from China of 25%, and the remainder of our products, including our dehumidifier line of products, may be subject to tariffs if the previously announced and subsequently postponed, increases are enacted in the future. Our competitors may have greater existing inventory positions and other advantages that may allow them to price more competitively relative to our products. In addition, we may not be able to shift production for our products to other countries not subject to tariffs or other disruptions or be able to obtain competitive pricing and sufficient quality. Furthermore, some or all of our suppliers’ foreign operations may be adversely affected by political and financial instability, resulting in the disruption of trade from exporting countries, restrictions on the transfer of funds or other trade disruptions.
Shipping is a critical part of our business and any changes in our shipping arrangements or any interruptions in shipping could adversely affect our operating results.
We currently rely on three major vendors for our shipping. If we are not able to negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with these entities or they experience performance problems or other difficulties, it could negatively impact our operating results and our customers’ experience. For example, our current shipping carrier unilaterally increased certain of our rates beginning in November of 2020. If we are unable to reduce these increased costs or if we are unable to successfully pass these costs on to consumers, certain of our products, including our over-sized products, may experience reduced sales and/or profitability. We are also subject to volatility in ocean freight rates that are driven, in part, by seasonality, capacity availability and other factors, including fuel-related regulations affecting the shipping industry and we expect these rates to increase in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship merchandise to clients may be negatively affected by inclement weather, fire, flood, power loss, earthquakes, labor disputes, acts of war or terrorism, pandemics and similar factors. We are also subject to risks of damage or loss during delivery by our shipping vendors. If our products are not delivered in a timely fashion or are damaged or lost during the delivery process, our clients could become dissatisfied and cease using our products or services, which would adversely affect our business and operating results. Further, we rely on the business continuity plans of these third parties to operate during pandemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have limited ability to influence their plans, prevent delays, and/or cost increases due to reduced availability and capacity and increased required safety measures.
We are dependent on third-party manufacturers, which are located in China, and any inability to obtain products from any such manufacturers, such as changes to trade policies, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Substantially all of our products are manufactured by unaffiliated companies that are located in China. This concentration exposes us to risks associated with doing business globally, including: changing international political relations; labor availability and cost; changes in laws, including tax laws, regulations and treaties; changes in labor laws, regulations and policies; changes in customs duties, additional tariffs and other trade barriers; changes in shipping costs; currency exchange fluctuations; local political unrest; an extended and complex transportation cycle; the impact of changing economic conditions; and the availability and cost of raw materials and merchandise. These risks most recently manifested in an increase in tariffs, primarily in 2018 and 2019, either directly on products we trade in or indirectly on industries we sell into, between the United States and its trading partners, as well as greater uncertainty around regional and global trade agreements generally. These tariffs levied on most of our products originating in China have caused us to review and implement potential solutions to the increase in our product costs with our customers. The political, legal and cultural environment in China and other nations is rapidly evolving, and any change that impairs our ability to obtain products from manufacturers in that region, or to obtain products at marketable rates, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We contract with our manufacturers through purchase orders and we may have limited recourse in the event of a dispute with any vendor in China. We rely on one large manufacturer for the manufacturing of several of our products, including our dehumidifiers. If we were no longer able to maintain that relationship for any reason, we may not be able to timely find another manufacturer, or another manufacturer that provides the same quality, which would negatively affect our business, sales and results of operations.
We rely on AIMEE and other information technologies and systems to operate our business and to maintain our competitiveness, and any failure to invest in and adapt to technological developments and industry trends could harm our business.
We depend on the use of our proprietary technology platform named AIMEE and other sophisticated information technologies and systems, including technology and systems used for websites and apps, customer service, logistics and fulfillment, supplier connectivity, communications and administration. Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are subject to rapid changes and our technology is yet to be fully automated. As our operations grow in size, scope and complexity, including through acquisitions, we will need to continuously improve and upgrade our systems and infrastructure to offer an increasing number of consumer-enhanced services, features and functionalities, while maintaining and improving the reliability and integrity of our systems and infrastructure.
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Our future success also depends on our ability to adapt AIMEE, our services and infrastructure, including our research, sales and marketing, and logistics and fulfillment platform which leverages AIMEE, to meet rapidly evolving e-commerce trends and demands while continuing to improve our software’s performance, features and reliability. The emergence of alternative platforms may require us to continue to invest in new and costly technology. We may not be successful, or we may be less successful than our competitors, in developing technologies that operate effectively across multiple e-commerce platforms, which would negatively impact our business and financial performance. New developments in other areas, such as cloud computing providers and other technological changes, could also make it easier for competitors to enter our markets due to lower up-front technology costs. In addition, we may not be able to maintain our existing systems or replace our current systems or introduce new technologies and systems as quickly or cost effectively as we would like. We expect to incur significant costs in the development of AIMEE’s functionality, and any failure to invest in and adapt to technological developments and industry trends may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We rely on data provided by third parties, the loss of which could limit the functionality of our platforms, cause us to invest in the wrong product or disrupt our business.
We use AIMEE, our proprietary software, to determine market trends and what markets to enter into. Our ability to successfully use AIMEE depends on our ability to analyze and utilize data, including search engine results, provided by unaffiliated third parties, primarily, Google and Amazon. Some of this data is provided to us pursuant to third-party data sharing policies and terms of use, under data sharing agreements by third-party providers or by customer consent. The majority of this data is sourced for free or for de minimis amounts. AIMEE sources significant amounts of data through application program interfaces (“APIs”) or through other standard data upload/downloads methods. This source of data allows us, leveraging AIMEE, to determine trends, performance and consumer sentiment on products and searches within e-commerce platforms. This functionality allows us to help determine which products to market, manufacture through contract manufacturers, import and sell on e-commerce marketplaces. The connection to multiple e-commerce platforms through APIs allows us to develop the automation of the purchase of marketing, to automate pricing changes on product listings on those e-commerce platforms, to view sales and costs and to fulfill orders.
In the future, any of these third parties could change its data sharing policies, including making them more restrictive, charging fees or altering its algorithms that determine the placement, display and accessibility of search results and social media updates, any of which could result in the loss of, or significant impairment to, our ability to collect useful data. These third parties could also interpret our, or our service providers’, data collection policies or practices as being inconsistent with their policies, which could result in the loss of our ability to collect this data. Privacy concerns may cause end users to resist providing the personal data necessary to allow our proprietary software to determine market trends as well as our ability to effectively retain existing customers. Privacy advocacy groups and the technology and other industries are considering various new, additional or different self-regulatory standards that may place additional burdens on us. Any such changes could impair our ability to use data and could adversely impact select functionality of our proprietary software, impairing the ability to use this data to anticipate customer demand and market trends, as well as adversely affecting our business and our ability to generate revenue.
Our business depends on our ability to build and maintain strong product listings on e-commerce platforms. We may not be able to maintain and enhance our product listings if we receive unfavorable customer complaints, negative publicity or otherwise fail to live up to consumers’ expectations, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and growth prospects.
Maintaining and enhancing our product listings is critical in expanding and growing our business. However, a significant portion of our perceived performance to the customer depends on third parties outside of our control, including suppliers and logistics providers such as FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and other third-party delivery agents as well as online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart. Because our agreements with our online retail partners are generally terminable at will, we may be unable to maintain these relationships, and our results of operations could fluctuate significantly from period to period. Because we rely on third parties to deliver our products, we are subject to shipping delays or disruptions caused by inclement weather, natural disasters, labor activism, health epidemics or bioterrorism. We may also experience shipping delays or disruptions due to other carrier-related issues relating to their own internal operational capabilities, as we and other consumer product companies experienced during the fourth quarter of 2019 when Amazon placed limitations on the ability to use certain FedEx services. Further, we rely on the business continuity plans of these third parties to operate during pandemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have limited ability to influence their plans, prevent delays, and/or cost increases due to reduced availability and capacity and increased required safety measures.
In addition, because we rely on national, regional and local transportation companies for the delivery of some of our other products, we are also subject to risks of breakage or other damage during delivery by any of these third parties. If these third parties do not meet our or our customers’ expectations, our brands may suffer irreparable damage. In addition, maintaining and enhancing these brands may require us to make substantial investments, and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to promote and maintain our brands, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially
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adversely affected. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brands may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend largely on our ability to anticipate market trends and customer demand and to provide high quality products to our customers and a reliable, trustworthy and profitable sales channel to our suppliers, which we may not be able to do successfully.
Customer complaints or negative publicity about our sites, products, delivery times, customer data handling and security practices, customer support or marketing strategies, even if not accurate, especially on blogs, social media websites and our sites, could rapidly and severely diminish consumer view of our product listings and result in harm to our brands. From time to time, incumbent competitors that we disrupt on the Amazon marketplace allege or may allege that we have engaged in unfair business practices, and though we believe such claims are without merit, time, resources or other actions we may take to defend against such claims may have an impact on our financial results and financial condition. In addition, from time to time, we have experienced attacks from “black hat” third party sellers and the impact from such attacks has resulted in reduced financial performance for certain of those product listings. We may continue to experience such attacks which could impact our operating results. Customers may also make safety-related claims regarding products sold through our online retail partners, such as Amazon, which may result in an online retail partner removing the product from its marketplace. We have from time to time experienced such removals and such removals may materially impact our financial results depending on the product that is removed and length of time that it is removed. We also use and rely on other services from third parties, such as our telecommunications services, and those services may be subject to outages and interruptions that are not within our control.
Our efforts to acquire or retain consumers, and our efforts to sell new products or increase sales of our existing products, may not be successful, which could prevent us from maintaining or increasing our sales or improving our financial results or condition.
If we do not successfully promote and sustain our new and/or existing product listings and brands through marketing and other tools, we may fail to maintain or increase our sales. Promoting and positioning our brands and product listings will depend largely on the success of our marketing efforts, including any limitations on our marketing efforts by marketplaces or regulators, our ability to attract consumers cost effectively and our ability to consistently provide a high-quality product and maintain consumer satisfaction. In order to grow our business and to acquire and retain consumers, we have incurred and will continue to incur substantial expenses related to advertising and other marketing efforts. We also use promotions to drive sales, which may not be effective and may adversely affect our gross margins. In addition, while we believe our marketing strategies comply with relevant terms of service and laws relating to marketing, we can provide no assurance that we will be able to continue our practices in the event a marketplace or regulator determines otherwise. Our investments in marketing may not effectively reach potential consumers, potential consumers may decide not to buy our products or the spending of consumers that purchase from us may not yield the intended return on investment, any of which could negatively affect our financial results. The failure of our marketing activities could also adversely affect our ability to promote our product listings and sell our products, and to develop and maintain relationships with our consumers, retailers and brands, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
If we fail to acquire new customers or retain existing customers, or fail to do so in a cost-effective manner, we may not be able to achieve profitability.
Our success depends on our ability to acquire and retain customers in a cost-effective manner. In order to expand our customer base, we must appeal to and acquire customers who have historically used other channels to purchase the wide variety of products we offer and may prefer alternatives to our offerings, such as those offered by other vendors on Amazon and Walmart, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, and the websites of our competitors or our suppliers’ own websites. We expect competition in e-commerce generally to continue to increase. Competitors have introduced lower cost or differentiated products that are perceived to compete with our products. In addition, certain competitors engage in so-called “black hat” tactics that violate marketplace terms of service and FTC regulations. Such activities in general could put us at a competitive disadvantage. Black hat activities typically include tactics that are used to unfairly influence the ranking or review score of a product being sold on an online marketplace. These tactics include, among other things, the usage of click farms, fake buyer accounts, software bots pretending to buy products, and compensating consumers specifically in exchange for providing a positive product review. Other tactics include attacks on competitor listings intended to have the listing removed or lower the review score of a product listing generally such as by providing false negative reviews.
Further, if we are unable to correctly anticipate market trends and customer demand, our ability to sell our products could be impaired. We have made investments related to customer acquisition and expect to continue to spend significant amounts to acquire additional customers. Our paid advertising efforts consist primarily of online channels, including search engine marketing, display advertising and paid social media. These efforts are expensive and may not result in the cost-effective acquisition of customers. We cannot assure you that the net profit from new customers we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring those customers. If we fail to deliver quality products, or if consumers do not perceive the products we offer to be of high value and quality, we may not be able to acquire new customers. If we are unable to acquire new customers who purchase products in numbers sufficient to grow our business,
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we may not be able to generate the scale necessary to drive beneficial network effects with our suppliers, our net revenue may decrease and our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected.
We believe new customers can originate from word-of-mouth and other non-paid referrals from existing customers. Therefore, we must ensure that our existing customers remain loyal to us in order to continue receiving those referrals. If our efforts to satisfy our existing customers are not successful, we may not be able to acquire new customers in sufficient numbers to continue to grow our business, or we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing expenses in order to acquire new customers. For example, since 2016, Amazon has maintained a policy whereby they will purge all reviews they believe are paid for or are fake reviews. We do remind customers to leave a review post purchase, through Amazon’s dedicated review request mechanisms and through our chatbot customer service follow up conversations. However, we do not compensate customers specifically in exchange for leaving a review. We have from time to time had reviews removed by Amazon because Amazon’s software algorithms believed they were questionable or not authentic. We have also experienced from time to time, Amazon reinstating customer reviews that it had previously removed. If Amazon continues to purge reviews or if we are unable to maintain our positive reviews, it may adversely affect our ability to acquire new customers. In addition, we believe that Amazon has, from time to time, placed limitations on the daily volume of reviews that may be provided for any specific product listing. This limitation or others relating to customer engagement with our product listings could impact the success of our product listings, which could adversely impact our financial performance.
Significant merchandise returns could harm our business.
We allow our customers to return products, subject to our return policy. If merchandise returns are significant, our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. Further, we modify our policies relating to returns from time to time, which may result in customer dissatisfaction or an increase in the number of product returns. From time to time our products are damaged in transit, which can increase return rates and harm our brand. Our refund liability for sales returns was $0.5 million, and $0.5 million as of December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020, respectively, which is included in accrued liabilities and represents the expected value of refunds that may be due to our customers. If we experience significant product returns, we would incur significant expenses and our results of operation and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Our efforts to expand our business into new brands, products, services, technologies, and geographic regions will subject us to additional business, legal, financial and competitive risks and may not be successful.
Our business success depends to some extent on our ability to expand our customer offerings by launching new brands, products and services and by expanding our existing offerings into new geographies. Our strategy is to use our proprietary software to determine which markets to enter and optimize the mix of products that we offer. Further, we are expanding our business and have begun to launch products that are outside our original core of home and kitchen appliances and kitchenware, beauty-related products and consumer electronics. Launching new brands, products and services requires significant upfront investments, including investments in marketing, information technology and additional personnel. We operate in highly competitive industries with relatively low barriers to entry and must compete successfully in order to grow our business. As our business expands into new industries, we may not be able to generate satisfactory revenue from these efforts to offset these costs. Any lack of market acceptance of our efforts to launch new brands, products and services or to expand our existing offerings could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. Further, as we continue to expand our fulfillment capability or add new businesses with different requirements, our logistics networks will become increasingly complex and operating them will become more challenging. There can be no assurance that we will be able to operate our networks effectively. We have also entered and may continue to enter new markets and provide product offerings in which we have limited or no experience, which may not be successful or appealing to our customers. In addition, we may face difficulties in integrating AIMEE into a PaaS client’s supply chain, which would reduce the ability of our PaaS business to generate revenues.
The consumer product goods (“CPG”) industry is subject to evolving standards and practices, as well as changing customer needs, requirements and preferences. Our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends, in part, on our ability to enhance and improve our existing features, pinpoint new markets and introduce new products. We expend significant resources on research and development to develop new products in order to meet our customers’ rapidly evolving demands. The success of any enhancements or new features depends on several factors, including timely completion, adequate quality testing, actual performance quality, market-accepted pricing levels and overall market acceptance. We may not be successful in these efforts, which could result in significant expenditures that could impact our revenue or distract management’s attention from current offerings.
Increased emphasis on the sale of new products or on acquisitions could distract us from sales of our existing products in existing markets, negatively affecting our overall sales. We have invested and expect to continue to invest in new businesses, products, features, services and technologies. Such endeavors may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including insufficient revenue from such investments to offset any new liabilities assumed and expenses associated with these new investments, inadequate return of capital on our investments, distraction of management from current operations and unidentified issues not discovered in our due diligence of such strategies and offerings that could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such investments and incur
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unanticipated liabilities. Because these new strategies and offerings are inherently risky, no assurance can be given that they will be successful. Our new features or enhancements could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
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delays in introducing products including in new markets;
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failure to accurately predict market demand or end consumer preferences;
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defects, errors or failures in our manufacturing;
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introduction of competing products;
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poor financial conditions for our customers or poor general macroeconomic conditions;
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changes in legal or regulatory requirements, or increased legal or regulatory scrutiny, adversely affecting our products;
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failure of our brand promotion activities or negative publicity about the performance or effectiveness of our existing features; and
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disruptions or delays in the online retailers and, or in addition to, logistics providers distributing our products.
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There is no assurance that we will successfully identify new opportunities or develop and bring new products to market on a timely basis, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results and compromise our ability to generate revenue.
Expansion of our operations internationally requires management attention and resources, involves additional risks and may be unsuccessful.
We have limited experience with operating internationally or selling our merchandise outside of the United States, and as we expand internationally, we need to adapt to different local cultures, standards and policies. The business model and technology we employ and the merchandise we currently offer may not be successful with consumers outside of the United States. Furthermore, to succeed with consumers and clients in international locations, it may be necessary to locate fulfillment centers in foreign markets and hire local employees in those international centers, and we may have to invest in these facilities and personnel before proving we can successfully run foreign operations. We may not be successful in expanding into international markets or in generating revenue from foreign operations for a variety of reasons, including:
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localization of our merchandise offerings and technology, including translation into foreign languages and adaptation for local practices;
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availability of certain features and availability of data, including at reasonable costs;
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different consumer demand dynamics, which may make our business model, technology and the merchandise we offer less successful compared to the United States;
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competition from local incumbents that understand the local market and may operate more effectively;
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regulatory requirements, taxes, trade laws, trade sanctions and economic embargoes, tariffs, import and export quotas, custom duties or other trade restrictions or any unexpected changes thereto;
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laws and regulations regarding anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance;
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differing labor regulations where labor laws may be more advantageous to employees as compared to the United States and increased labor costs;
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more stringent regulations relating to privacy and data security and access to, or use of, commercial and personal information;
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changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions, including changes to or limits on access to internet connectivity; and
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risks resulting from changes in currency exchange rates.
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If we invest substantial time and resources to establish and expand our operations internationally and are unable to do so successfully and in a timely manner, our operating results would suffer.
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Use of social media and emails may adversely impact our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties.
We use social media and emails as part of our omnichannel approach to marketing. As laws and regulations rapidly evolve to govern the use of these channels, the failure by us, our employees or third parties acting at our direction to abide by applicable terms of services, laws and regulations in the use of these channels could adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties. In addition, our employees or third parties acting at our direction may knowingly or inadvertently make use of social media in ways that could lead to the loss or infringement of intellectual property, as well as the public disclosure of proprietary, confidential or sensitive personal information of our business, employees, consumers or others. Any such inappropriate use of social media and emails could also cause reputational damage.
Consumers value readily available information concerning retailers and their goods and services and often act on such information without further investigation and without regard to its accuracy. Our consumers may engage with us online through our social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, by providing feedback and public commentary about all aspects of our business. Information concerning us or our retailers and brands, whether accurate or not, may be posted on social media platforms at any time and may have a disproportionately adverse impact on our brand, reputation or business. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We depend on highly skilled personnel, including senior management and our technology professionals, and if we are unable to retain or motivate key personnel or hire, retain and motivate qualified personnel, our business could be harmed.
We believe our success has depended, and our future success depends; on the efforts and talents of our senior management and our highly skilled team members, including our software engineers, data scientists and technology professionals. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and skilled employees. The loss of one or more of our key personnel or the inability to promptly identify a suitable successor to a key role could have an adverse effect on our business. In particular, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer has unique and valuable experience leading our Company from our inception through today. If he were to depart or otherwise reduce his focus on our Company, our business may be disrupted. We do not currently maintain key-person life insurance policies on any member of our senior management team and other key employees, except for our Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
Competition for key personnel is strong and we cannot be sure that we will be able to attract and retain a sufficient number of qualified personnel in the future, or that the compensation costs of doing so will not adversely affect our operating results. Similarly, competition for well-qualified employees in all aspects of our business, including software engineers and other technology professionals, is intense globally. We do not have long-term employment or non-competition agreements with any of our personnel. Our continued ability to compete effectively depends on our ability to attract new employees and to retain and motivate existing employees. In particular, our software engineers and technology professionals are key to designing, maintaining and improving code and algorithms necessary to our business. If we do not succeed in attracting well-qualified employees or retaining and motivating existing employees and key senior management with the appropriate skills at cost-effective compensation levels, or if changes to our business adversely affect morale or retention, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects may be adversely affected.
In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the software industry, job candidates often consider the value of the stock options or other equity incentives they are to receive in connection with their employment. Their perceptions of the value of our stock or its volatility may impact adversely our ability to attract or retain key employees. Also, as employee options vest and lock-ups expire, we may have difficulty retaining key employees, in particular if the value of vested awards does not meet their expectations. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our growth prospects could be severely harmed.
Natural disasters or other unexpected events may adversely affect our operations, particularly our supply chain and shipping efforts.
Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and other adverse weather and climate conditions; unforeseen public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics; political crises, such as terrorist attacks, war and other political instability; or other catastrophic events, whether occurring in the United States or internationally, could disrupt our operations in any of our offices and fulfillment centers or the operations of one or more of our third-party providers or vendors. In particular, these types of events could impact our supply chain, including our ability to ship merchandise to clients from or to the impacted region, and could impact our ability or the ability of third parties to operate our sites and ship merchandise. For example, we receive and warehouse a portion of our inventory in California. If any such disaster were to impact this facility, our operations would be disrupted. In addition, these types of events could negatively impact consumer spending in the impacted regions. To the extent any of these events occur, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many state, local and foreign governments have put in place quarantines, executive orders, shelter-in-place orders and similar government orders and restrictions in order to control the spread of the disease. We have implemented work-from-home policies and the majority of our personnel are currently working remotely. Such orders and policies may negatively impact productivity and creates challenges in the way we operate our business, including, but not limited to, how we test our products and our ability to meet our reporting obligations, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length and severity of the restrictions and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course. Our ability to execute our operations could be further impacted if any of our key personnel contracts COVID-19. Additionally, if sufficient numbers of our staff are infected with COVID-19 and are unable to perform their roles, we may not be able to operate efficiently for the duration of any shelter-in-place order or while we have insufficient numbers of staff, either of which could negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our operating results are subject to seasonal and quarterly variations in our net revenue and operating income and, as a result, our quarterly results may fluctuate and could be below expectations.
Our business can be seasonal based on our product mix and may become more seasonal depending on our product mix. As we invest in new businesses and continue to develop new products that may reduce seasonality variations of our revenue profile and reduce product concentration risk within our portfolio, quarterly results may continue to fluctuate. Specifically, we have realized a disproportionate amount of our net revenue and earnings for prior fiscal years during warmer weather and summer seasons. If we experience lower than expected net revenue these periods, it may have a disproportionately large impact on our operating results and financial condition for that year. Any factors that harm our quarter operating results during these periods, including disruptions in our brands or our supply chains or unfavorable economic conditions, could have a disproportionate effect on our results of operations and our financial condition for our entire fiscal year.
In anticipation of increased sales activity during the third and fourth quarter, we may incur significant additional expenses, including additional marketing and additional staffing in our customer support operations. In addition, we may experience an increase in our net shipping costs due to complimentary upgrades, split-shipments and additional long-zone shipments necessary to ensure timely delivery for the holiday season. At peak periods, there could also be further delays in processing orders, which could leave us unable to fulfill customer orders due to being out of inventory which could lead to lower consumer satisfaction and lost sales. In the future, our seasonal sales patterns may become more pronounced, may strain our personnel and production activities and may cause a shortfall in net revenue as compared with expenses in a given period, which could substantially harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Our quarterly results of operations may also fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of other factors, including those described above. As a result, historical period-to-period comparisons of our sales and operating results are not necessarily indicative of future period-to-period results. You should not rely on the results of any single fiscal quarter as an indication of our annual results or our future performance.
The terms of our revolving credit facility and term loans contain restrictive covenants that may limit our operating flexibility.
On November 23, 2018, we entered into an Amended and Restated Credit and Security Agreement with MidCap (“MidCap Loan Agreement”), as amended, pursuant to which we received access to a $30.0 million revolving credit facility (the “Credit Facility”). On November 30, 2020, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with High Trail SA, pursuant to which, among other things, we agreed to issue and sell to High Trail SA, in exchange for the payment by High Trail SA of $38.0 million, a senior secured promissory note in an aggregate principal amount of $43.0 million (the “November Note”) and a warrant to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,864,133 shares of our common stock. On February 2, 2021, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with High Trail ON, pursuant to which, among other things, we agreed to issue and sell to High Trail ON, in exchange for the payment by High Trail ON of $14.025 million, a senior secured promissory note in an aggregate principal amount of $16.5 million (the “February Note” and, together with the November Note, the “Notes”) and a warrant to purchase up to an aggregate of 469,931 shares of our common stock. The Credit Facility and the Notes contain affirmative and restrictive covenants that limit our operating ability including to, among other things, transfer or dispose of assets, merge with other companies or consummate certain changes of control, pay dividends, incur additional indebtedness and liens and enter into new businesses. The Credit Facility also contains affirmative and restrictive covenants that limit our ability including to, among other things acquire other companies and modify organizational documents. We therefore may not be able to engage in any of the foregoing transactions unless we obtain the consent of our lenders. In addition, the Credit Facility and the Notes are secured by all of our assets, and the Credit Facility requires us to satisfy certain covenants, including maintaining a $5.0 million minimum cash balance. There is no guarantee that we will be able to meet our covenants or pay the principal and interest on any such debt. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that future working capital, borrowings or equity financing will be available to repay or refinance any such debt. Any inability to make scheduled payments, meet the financial or other covenants in our Credit Facility or the Notes or to refinance them would adversely affect our business. Further, at any time, if we violate the terms of the Credit Facility or the Notes or otherwise fail to meet our covenants, we may not be able to obtain a waiver from the lenders under satisfactory terms, if at all, which would limit our operating flexibility and/or liquidity and which would have an adverse
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effect on our business and prospects, and could also result in dilution to our shareholders in the event we are required to pay back the Notes using our common stock.
General economic factors may adversely affect our business, financial performance and results of operations.
Our business, financial performance and results of operations depend significantly on worldwide macroeconomic conditions and their impact on consumer spending. Recessionary economic cycles, higher interest rates, volatile fuel and energy costs, inflation, levels of unemployment, conditions in the residential real estate and mortgage markets, access to credit, consumer debt levels, unsettled financial markets and other economic factors that may affect consumer spending or buying habits could materially and adversely affect demand for our products. For example, to the extent that the pandemic becomes sufficiently under control, consumer may opt to spend more of their discretionary income on travel instead of consumer products. In addition, volatility in the financial markets has had and may continue to have a negative impact on consumer spending patterns. A reduction in consumer spending or disposable income may affect us more significantly than companies in other industries and companies with a more diversified product offering. In addition, negative national or global economic conditions may materially and adversely affect our suppliers’ financial performance, liquidity and access to capital. This may affect their ability to maintain their inventories, production levels and/or product quality and could cause them to raise prices, lower production levels or cease their operations.
Economic factors such as increased commodity prices, shipping costs, inflation, higher costs of labor, insurance and healthcare, and changes in or interpretations of other laws, regulations and taxes may also increase our cost of goods sold and our selling, general and administrative expenses, and otherwise adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Any significant increases in costs may affect our business disproportionately than our competitors. Changes in trade policies or increases in tariffs, including those enacted by the United States and China, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets and may reduce international trade.
We may acquire other companies or technologies, which could divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results. A failure to successfully integrate our acquired businesses may adversely affect our business or operations.
On August 26, 2020, we completed the acquisition of assets of Truweo, a leading e-commerce brand in the health and personal wellness category (the “Truweo Assets”) On December 1, 2020, we completed the acquisition of assets of an e-commerce business under the brands Mueller, Pursteam, Pohl and Schmitt and Spiralizer (the “Smash Assets”). On February 2, 2021, we completed the acquisition of assets of a retail and e-commerce business under the brands Healing Solutions, Tarvol, Sun Essential Oils and Artizen (among others) (the “Healing Solutions Assets”). We may in the future seek to acquire or invest in other businesses, features or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our market, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities, and we believe that acquisitions may further our growth strategy. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated. In addition, to the extent that we enter into any term sheets or otherwise announce any intention to acquire any additional businesses, features or technologies, any such acquisition would generally be subject to completion of due diligence and required approvals, and would require additional financing, and there can be no assurance that any such acquisition will occur or be completed in a timely manner, or at all.
In order to achieve the anticipated benefits associated with these acquisitions, we will need to successfully integrate these businesses in an effective and efficient manner. If we acquire additional businesses, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations, existing contracts and technologies successfully or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from any acquired business, including the Truweo Assets, the Smash Assets and the Healing Solutions Assets, due to a number of factors, including:
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failure to manage our inventory effectively;
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failure to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired company or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, regulatory compliance practices, product quality and safety, revenue recognition or other accounting practices, or employee or client issues;
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difficulty incorporating acquired technology and rights into our proprietary software and of maintaining quality and security standards consistent with our brands;
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inability to generate sufficient revenue to offset acquisition or investment costs;
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incurrence of acquisition-related costs or equity dilution associated with funding the acquisition;
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difficulties and additional expenses associated with supporting legacy products and hosting infrastructure of the acquired business;
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risks of entering new markets or new product categories in which we have limited or no experience;
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difficulty converting the customers of the acquired business into our customers;
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diversion of our management’s attention from other business concerns;
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adverse effects to our existing business relationships as a result of the acquisition;
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potential loss of key employees, clients, vendors and suppliers from either our current business or an acquired company’s business;
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use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business;
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possible write offs or impairment charges relating to acquired businesses;
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compliance with regulatory matters covering the products of the acquired business; and
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use of substantial portions of our available cash to consummate the acquisition.
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With respect to any acquisitions of businesses that primarily sell their products on Amazon or other marketplaces, we may determine to make changes to the target’s business practices to ensure regulatory and marketplace compliance. Such changes could have an adverse impact on the target’s future financial performance. In addition, the marketplaces on which a target has historically operated may suspend one or more product listings temporarily or permanently after completion of our acquisition, due to compliance issues that occurred prior to our acquisition of the target and such actions could have a material adverse impact on the acquired business’s financial performance.
Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results. Acquisitions could also be subject to earnouts or other contingent payments which could result in dilutive issuances in the case of payment in the Company’s stock or could adversely impact the Company’s financial condition in the case of payments in cash. If an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our business, operating results and financial condition may suffer.
As we continue to acquire and invest in new businesses, our ability to add companies at a low multiple may not be viable.
Acquisitions are important to the success of our business and overall corporate strategy, and the inherent risks associated with these transactions may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results. As our business continues to face changing technologies, shifting consumer demands, and frequent introduction of rival products, our success depends on our ability to invest in and adapt to new businesses. Our growth strategy may be adversely affected due to increased competition for, suitable acquisition targets.
Acquisitions of third party Amazon sellers have typically required smaller upfront purchase prices associated with limited operating history, product concentration risk, and less experienced operations and management teams. While we expect to continue acquiring such businesses, we may face increasing competition in our acquisition efforts, in particular with respect to smaller acquisition targets where the competition tends to be more intense. As a result of increased competition over target companies within the industry we operate, our ability to buy companies at a lower, accretive multiple may not be viable. Through increased competition over target companies, our competitors may adversely increase the price of certain acquisition targets, which may adversely affect our long-term business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.
If our emails are not delivered and accepted or are routed by email providers less favorably than other emails, or our sites or mobile applications are not accessible or are treated disadvantageously by Internet service providers, our business may be substantially harmed.
If email providers or Internet service providers (“ISPs”) implement new or more restrictive email or content delivery or accessibility policies, including with respect to net neutrality, it may become more difficult to deliver emails to our customers or for customers to access our site, products and services. For example, certain email providers, including Google, categorize our emails as “promotional”, and these emails are directed to an alternate, and less readily accessible, section of a customer’s inbox. If email providers materially limit or halt the delivery of our emails, or if we fail to deliver emails to customers in a manner compatible with email providers’ email handling or authentication technologies, our ability to contact customers through email could be significantly restricted. In addition, if we are placed on “spam” lists or lists of entities that have been involved in sending unwanted, unsolicited emails, our operating results and financial condition could be substantially harmed. Further, if ISPs prioritize or provide superior access to our competitors’ content, our business and results of operations may be negatively impacted.
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We are subject to risks related to online payment methods.
We accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit card, debit card, PayPal, credit accounts (including promotional financing) and gift cards. For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower profitability. In addition, our credit card and other payment processors could impose receivable holdback or reserve requirements in the future. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including the processing of credit cards and debit cards, and it could disrupt our business if these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules, certification requirements and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we fail to comply with the rules or requirements of any provider of a payment method we accept, if the volume of fraud in our transactions limits or terminates our rights to use payment methods we currently accept, or if a data breach occurs relating to our payment systems, we may, among other things, be subject to fines or higher transaction fees and may lose, or face restrictions placed upon, our ability to accept credit card and debit card payments from consumers or to facilitate other types of online payments. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Any significant disruption in service on our websites or apps or in our computer systems, a number of which are currently hosted or provided by third-party providers, could materially affect our ability to operate, damage our reputation and result in a loss of consumers, which would harm our business and results of operations.
Our ability to sell and market our products relies on the performance and continued development of AIMEE. AIMEE’s functionality, including its continued development, relies upon a number of third-party related services, including those relating to cloud infrastructure, technology services, servers, open source libraries and vendor APIs. Any disruption or loss of any of these third-party services could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. We may experience interruptions in our systems, including server failures that temporarily slow down or interfere with the performance of our platforms and the ability to sell on e-commerce marketplaces. Interruptions in these systems, whether due to system failures, human input errors, computer viruses or physical or electronic break-ins, and denial-of-service attacks on us, third-party vendors or communications infrastructure, could affect the availability of our services on our platform and prevent or inhibit the ability of selling our products. Volume of traffic and activity on e-commerce marketplaces spikes on certain days, such as during a Black Friday promotion, and any such interruption would be particularly problematic if it were to occur at such a high-volume time. Problems with the reliability of our systems or third-party marketplaces could prevent us from earning revenue and could harm our reputation. Damage to our reputation, any resulting loss of customers, e-commerce confidence and the cost of remedying these problems could negatively affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Our ability to maintain communications, network and computer hardware in the countries in which they are used may in the future be subject to regulatory review and licensing, and the failure to obtain any required licenses could negatively affect our business. Our systems and infrastructure are predominately reliant on third parties. Problems faced by our third-party service providers with the telecommunications network providers with whom they contract or with the systems by which they allocate capacity among their users, including us, could adversely affect the experience of our consumers. Our third-party service providers could decide to close their facilities without adequate notice. Any financial difficulties, such as bankruptcy or reorganization, faced by our third-party service providers or any of the service providers with whom they contract may have negative effects on our business, the nature and extent of which are difficult to predict. If our third-party service providers are unable to keep up with our needs for capacity, this could have an adverse effect on our business. Any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance problems with our services could harm our reputation and may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Our failure or the failure of third parties to protect our sites, networks and systems against security breaches, or otherwise to protect our confidential information, could damage our reputation and brand and substantially harm our business and operating results.
We collect, maintain, transmit and store data about our consumers, brands and others, including credit card information and personally identifiable information, as well as other confidential information. We also engage third parties that store, process and transmit these types of information on our behalf. We rely on encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties in an effort to securely transmit confidential and sensitive information, including credit card numbers. Advances in computer capabilities, new technological discoveries or other developments may result in the whole or partial failure of this technology to protect transaction data or other confidential and sensitive information from being breached or compromised. In addition, our brand’s e-commerce websites are often attacked through compromised credentials, including those obtained through phishing and credential stuffing. Our security measures, and those of our third-party service providers, may not detect or prevent all attempts to breach our systems, denial-of-service attacks, viruses, malicious software, break-ins, phishing attacks, social engineering, security breaches or other attacks and similar disruptions that may jeopardize the security of information stored in or transmitted by our websites, networks and systems or that we or such third parties otherwise maintain, including payment card systems, which may subject us to fines or higher transaction
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fees or limit or terminate our access to certain payment methods. We and such third parties may not anticipate or prevent all types of attacks until after they have already been launched. Further, techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or sabotage systems change frequently and may not be known until launched against us or our third-party service providers. In addition, security breaches can occur as a result of non-technical issues, including intentional or inadvertent breaches by our employees or by third parties. These risks may increase over time as the complexity and number of technical systems and applications we use also increases. In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may face increased cybersecurity risks due to our or third-party service providers’ reliance on internet technology and the number of our and our third-party service providers’ employees who are working remotely, which may create additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities.
Breaches of our security measures or those of our third-party service providers or cyber security incidents could result in unauthorized access to our sites, networks, systems and accounts; unauthorized access to, and misappropriation of, consumer information, including consumers’ personally identifiable information, or other confidential or proprietary information of ourselves or third parties; viruses, worms, spyware or other malware being served from our sites, networks or systems; deletion or modification of content or the display of unauthorized content on our sites; interruption, disruption or malfunction of operations; costs relating to breach remediation, deployment of additional personnel and protection technologies, response to governmental investigations and media inquiries and coverage; engagement of third-party experts and consultants; or litigation, regulatory action and other potential liabilities. In the past, we have experienced social engineering, phishing, malware and similar attacks and threats of denial-of-service attacks; however, such attacks could in the future have a material adverse effect on our operations. If any of these breaches of security should occur, our reputation and brand could be damaged, our business may suffer, we could be required to expend significant capital and other resources to alleviate problems caused by such breaches, and we could be exposed to a risk of loss, litigation or regulatory action and possible liability. We cannot guarantee that recovery protocols and backup systems will be sufficient to prevent data loss. Actual or anticipated attacks may cause us to incur increasing costs, including costs to deploy additional personnel and protection technologies, train employees and engage third-party experts and consultants.
We may experience periodic system interruptions from time to time. In addition, continued growth in our transaction volume, as well as surges in online traffic and orders associated with promotional activities or seasonal trends in our business, place additional demands on our marketplace platforms and could cause or exacerbate slowdowns or interruptions. If there is a substantial increase in the volume of traffic on our sites or the number of orders placed by customers, we will be required to further expand and upgrade our technology, transaction processing systems and network infrastructure. There can be no assurances that we will be able to accurately project the rate or timing of increases, if any, in the use of our sites or expand and upgrade our systems and infrastructure to accommodate such increases on a timely basis. In order to remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our sites, which is particularly challenging given the rapid rate at which new technologies, customer preferences and expectations and industry standards and practices are evolving in the e-commerce industry. Accordingly, we redesign and enhance various functions on our sites on a regular basis, and we may experience instability and performance issues as a result of these changes. Our disaster recovery plan may be inadequate, and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur.
Any compromise or breach of our security measures, or those of our third-party service providers, could violate applicable privacy, data protection, data security, network and information systems security and other laws and cause significant legal and financial exposure, adverse publicity and a loss of confidence in our security measures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. We continue to devote significant resources to protect against security breaches, or we may need to devote significant resources in the future to address problems caused by breaches, including notifying affected subscribers and responding to any resulting litigation, which in turn, diverts resources from the growth and expansion of our business. To date, we are not aware of any material compromises or breaches of our networks or systems.
Risks Relating to Intellectual Property
Our use of open source software may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and systems.
We use open source software in our proprietary software AIMEE, and other of our sophisticated information technologies and systems, and will use open source software in the future. We may use open source software that may require that source code that is developed using open source software be made available to the public and that any modifications or derivative works to certain open source software continue to be licensed under open source licenses. From time to time, we may face claims from third parties claiming infringement. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to purchase a costly license, publicly release the affected portions of our source code, be limited in or cease using the implicated software unless and until we can re-engineer such software to avoid infringement or change the use of the implicated open source software. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties, indemnities or other contractual protections with respect to the software (for example, non-infringement or functionality). Our use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the source code for open source software is publicly available, which may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to breach
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our sites and systems that rely on open source software. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and, if not addressed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Assertions by third parties of infringement or misappropriation by us of their intellectual property rights or confidential know how could result in significant costs and substantially harm our business and results of operations.
Third parties have asserted, and may in the future assert, that we have infringed or misappropriated their trademarks, copyrights, confidential know how, trade secrets, patents or other intellectual property rights. We cannot predict whether any such assertions or claims arising from such assertions will substantially harm our business and results of operations, whether or not they are successful. If we are forced to defend against any infringement or other claims relating to the trademarks, copyright, confidential know how, trade secrets, patents or other intellectual property rights of third parties, whether they are with or without merit or are determined in our favor, we may face costly litigation or diversion of technical and management personnel. Furthermore, the outcome of a dispute may be that we would need to cease selling a product or use of some portion of our technology, develop non-infringing technology, pay damages, costs or monetary settlements or enter into royalty or licensing agreements. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and we may be unable to successfully develop non-infringing technology. In addition, Amazon and other marketplaces may remove a product listing if they determine, whether or not accurate, that we are infringing on the intellectual property of others. Any assertions or litigation could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
The e-commerce industry is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights, which has resulted in protracted and expensive litigation for many companies. Some companies, including some of our competitors, own large numbers of patents, copyrights and trademarks, which they may use to assert claims against us. In addition, because patent applications can take years to issue and are often afforded confidentiality for some period of time, there may currently be pending applications, unknown to us, that later result in issued patents that could cover one or more of our technologies.
Certain third parties have substantially greater resources than we have and may be able to sustain the costs of intellectual property litigation for longer periods of time than we can. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.
We could incur substantial costs in protecting or defending our intellectual property rights, and any failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary methods, trademarks, domain names, copyrights, patent, trade dress, trade secrets, proprietary technology and similar intellectual property, and we rely on trademark, copyright and patent law, trade secret protection, agreements and other methods with our employees and others to protect our proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that the particular forms of intellectual property protection that we seek, including business decisions about when to file trademark applications and patent applications, will be adequate to protect our business. We intend to continue to file and prosecute patent applications when appropriate to attempt to protect our rights in our proprietary technologies. However, there can be no assurance that our patent applications will be approved, that any patents issued will adequately protect our intellectual property, that the scope of the claims in our issued patents will be sufficient or have the coverage originally sought, that our issued patents will provide us with any competitive advantages, or that such patents will not be challenged by third parties or found by a judicial authority to be invalid or unenforceable.
We could be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, determine the validity and scope of our proprietary rights or those of others, or defend against claims of infringement or invalidity. Such litigation may fail, and even if successful, could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in a diversion of significant resources. Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights or alleging that we infringe the counterclaimant’s own intellectual property. An adverse determination of any litigation or defense proceedings could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our related pending patent applications at risk of not being issued. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential or sensitive information could be compromised by disclosure in the event of litigation. During the course of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock.
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Any of our intellectual property rights could be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative processes or litigation. Furthermore, there can be no guarantee that others will not independently develop similar products, duplicate any of our products or design around our patents. Despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights.
We rely, in part, on confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, advisors, customers and others in our efforts to protect our proprietary technology, processes and methods.
These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information, and it may be possible for unauthorized parties to copy our software or other proprietary technology or information, or to develop similar software independently, without us having an adequate remedy for unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in these cases, we would not be able to assert any trade secret rights against those parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
The laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property and other proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States.
To the extent that we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying, transfer and use of our proprietary technology or information may increase. For example, many foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate. In addition, changes in the law and legal decisions by courts in the United States and foreign countries may affect our ability to obtain adequate protection for our technology and the enforcement of intellectual property.
We cannot be certain that our means of protecting our intellectual property and proprietary rights will be adequate or that our competitors will not independently develop similar technology. If we fail to meaningfully protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
The inability to acquire, use or maintain our marks and domain names for our sites could substantially harm our business and operating results.
We currently are the registrant of marks for our brands in numerous jurisdictions and are the registrant of the Internet domain name for the websites of Mohawkgp.com, homelabs.com, vremi.com, xtava.com, rif6.com and our other sites, as well as various related domain names. However, we have not registered our marks or domain names in all major international jurisdictions. Domain names generally are regulated by Internet regulatory bodies. If we do not have, or cannot obtain on reasonable terms, the ability to use our marks in a particular country or to use or register our domain name, we could be forced either to incur significant additional expenses to market our products within that country, including the development of a new brand and the creation of new promotional materials and packaging, or to elect not to sell products in that country. Either result could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Furthermore, the regulations governing domain names and laws protecting marks and similar proprietary rights could change in ways that block or interfere with our ability to use relevant domains or our current brands Also, we might not be able to prevent third parties from registering, using or retaining domain names that interfere with our consumer communications or infringe or otherwise decrease the value of our marks, domain names and other proprietary rights. Regulatory bodies also may establish additional generic or country-code top-level domains or may allow modifications of the requirements for registering, holding or using domain names. As a result, we might not be able to register, use or maintain the domain names that utilize the name Mohawk or our other brands in all of the countries in which we currently or intend to conduct business.
Risks Relating to Litigation and Government Regulation
We may be subject to general litigation, regulatory disputes and government inquiries.
As a growing company with expanding operations, we have in the past and may in the future increasingly face the risk of claims, lawsuits, government investigations and other proceedings involving competition and antitrust, intellectual property, privacy, consumer protection, accessibility claims, securities, tax, labor and employment, commercial disputes, services and other matters. The
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number and significance of these disputes and inquiries have increased as the political and regulatory landscape changes, and as we have grown larger and expanded in scope and geographic reach, and our services have increased in complexity.
We cannot predict the outcome of such disputes and inquiries with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, these can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs, diversion of management resources and other factors. Determining reserves for any litigation is a complex, fact-intensive process that is subject to judgment calls. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments, fines or penalties or to settle claims or proceedings, any of which could harm our business. These proceedings could also result in reputational harm, criminal sanctions, consent decrees or orders preventing us from offering certain products or services or requiring a change in our business practices in costly ways or requiring development of non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies. Litigation and other claims and regulatory proceedings against us could result in unexpected expenses and liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
A failure to comply with current laws, rules and regulations or changes to such laws, rules and regulations and other legal uncertainties may adversely affect our business, financial performance, results of operations or business growth.
Our business and financial performance could be adversely affected by unfavorable changes in or interpretations of existing laws, rules and regulations or the promulgation of new laws, rules and regulations applicable to us and our businesses, including those relating to the internet and e-commerce, internet advertising and price display, consumer protection, anti-corruption, antitrust and competition, economic and trade sanctions, energy usage and emissions, tax, banking, data security, network and information systems security, data protection and privacy. As a result, regulatory authorities could prevent or temporarily suspend us from carrying on some or all of our activities or otherwise penalize us if our practices were found not to comply with applicable regulatory or licensing requirements or any binding interpretation of such requirements. Unfavorable changes or interpretations could decrease demand for our products or services, limit marketing methods and capabilities, affect our margins, increase costs or subject us to additional liabilities.
For example, there are, and will likely continue to be, an increasing number of laws and regulations pertaining to the internet and e-commerce that may relate to liability for information retrieved from or transmitted over the internet, display of certain taxes and fees, online editorial and consumer-generated content, user privacy, data security, network and information systems security, behavioral targeting and online advertising, taxation, liability for third-party activities and the quality of services. Furthermore, the growth and development of e-commerce may prompt calls for more stringent consumer protection laws and more aggressive enforcement efforts, which may impose additional burdens on online businesses generally.
In May 2019, we received notice from the California Energy Commission (the “CEC”) that certain of our products had not been listed in the CEC’s Modernized Appliance Efficiency Database System (the “MAEDbS”) and therefore we were not in compliance with a CEC regulation. In order for an appliance to be listed in the MAEDbS, it must be tested at a lab approved by the CEC and the test data must be submitted to the CEC’s Appliance Efficiency Program. We settled this matter with the CEC on May 26, 2020 and agreed to pay a fine of $150,000, of which $75,000 was paid on June 1, 2020 and the remaining payment was made on July 1, 2020. If we are not in compliance with CEC regulations in the future, we may not be permitted to sell certain products in the State of California or may be required to pay a penalty fee to the CEC.
In September 2019, we received a Test Notice from the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) indicating that a certain dehumidifier model may not comply with applicable energy-conservation standards. The DOE requested that we provide it with several model units for DOE testing. If it is determined that we have violated certain energy-conservation standards, we could be fined pursuant to DOE guidelines, and this civil penalty may be material to our consolidated financial statements. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves. We have submitted to the DOE testing process, made a good-faith effort to provide necessary notice as practicable, and included in a formal response copies of the energy-efficiency report and certification that were issued for the dehumidifier model at the time of production. We believe this product is compliant, and we, in conjunction with our manufacturing partner, have disputed the Test Notice received from the DOE. As of the date hereof, we cannot reasonably estimate what, if any, penalties may be levied.
In September 2019, we received notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) that certain of our products were identified by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (“AHAM”) as failing to comply with EPA ENERGY STAR requirements. For an appliance to be ENERGY STAR certified, it must meet standards promulgated by the EPA and enforced through EPA-accredited certification bodies and laboratories. We believe that our products are compliant, and we, in conjunction with our manufacturing partner, have disputed the AHAM testing determination pursuant to EPA guidelines. While a resolution remains pending, we are not selling or marketing the products identified by the EPA. We cannot be certain that these products will eventually be certified by AHAM and the EPA, and we may incur costs that cannot presently be calculated in the event that we need to make changes to the manner in which these products are manufactured and sold.
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In April 2020, we received notice from the EPA with respect to regulatory compliance and advertising associated with certain of our dehumidifier products. We believe that our products and the associated advertising are compliant, and we are currently in discussions with the EPA to resolve the matter. The EPA had placed a hold on the sale of certain of our dehumidifier inventory while it reviewed the matter with us. As of October 2020, we are able to resume selling the products identified by the EPA, and discussions are continuing with the EPA. No penalty has been assessed by the EPA or communicated to us. If we receive a similar notice from the EPA in the future with regards to regulatory compliance of any of our other products, the EPA may place a hold on the sale of our products while it reviews an open matter with us.
We cannot be certain of the outcome with the EPA, and we may incur costs and penalties that cannot presently be calculated in the event that we are unable to resolve this matter with the EPA. Notwithstanding the above, we have deemed it appropriate to record an accrual for a potential fine. The final costs and penalties, if any, may be material with respect to our financial condition once determined.
If our products experience any recalls, product liability claims, or government, customer or consumer concerns about product safety, our reputation and operating results could be harmed.
Our products are subject to regulation by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (the “CPSC”) and similar state and international regulatory authorities, and these products sold on our platform could be subject to involuntary recalls and other actions by these authorities. Concerns about product safety including concerns about the safety of products manufactured in developing countries, could lead us to recall selected products. Recalls and government, customer or consumer concerns about product safety could harm our reputation and reduce sales, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. For example, in May 2018, the board of directors of Mohawk Group, Inc., our wholly-owned subsidiary (“Mohawk Opco”), approved a voluntary recall of the Xtava Allure Hair Dryer. In June 2018, Mohawk Opco filed an application for a voluntary recall with the CPSC pursuant to Section 15(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (“CPSA”). Mohawk Opco received approval from the CPSC to provide consumers with replacement units and publicly announced the recall on August 15, 2018. Mohawk Opco estimated it would incur approximately $1.6 million in costs related to the recall for procurement, manufacturing, fulfillment and delivery to consumers who apply and qualify for the recall costs. Mohawk Opco recorded the expense in 2018. As of December 31, 2020, we do not have any recall liability as the recall program for the Xtava Allure Hair Dryer has been materially completed.
We may be subject to product liability claims if people or property are harmed by the products we sell. Some of the products we sell may expose us to product liability claims and litigation (including class actions) or regulatory action relating to safety, personal injury, and death or environmental or property damage. For example, in August 2018, we announced a voluntary recall of certain hair dryers that were alleged to have overheated or caused fires. Although no claims have been brought, pursuant to the CPSC and the guidelines set forth by the CPSA, we may be subject to a late reporting penalty if the CPSC decides to perform a late reporting investigation and determines we failed to meet all reporting requirements. If we are determined to have violated the reporting guidelines, a penalty may be material to the consolidated financial statements. In August 2019, we received notice that we have materially completed our obligation on the recall program and, as a result, have eliminated a substantial portion of the remaining liability pertaining to the program. As such, we believe the likelihood that a late reporting investigation will be initiated by the CPSC is remote but we can make no guarantee that CPSC will not open an investigation in the future.
Although we maintain liability insurance, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all. In general, our agreements with members of our supply chain do not indemnify us from product liability for a particular product, and some members of our supply chain may not have sufficient resources or insurance to satisfy their indemnity and defense obligations.
Any failure by us or our vendors to comply with product safety, consumer protection or other laws, or our standard vendor terms and conditions, or to provide safe factory conditions for our or their workers may damage our reputation and brand and harm our business.
The products we sell to our clients are subject to regulation by the CPSC, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and similar state and international regulatory authorities addressing the safety and marketing for our products, among other things. As a result, such products, including our marketing strategy, could be in the future subject to remedial actions, such as product recalls and the manner in which we market our products. Product safety or labeling concerns may require us to voluntarily remove selected merchandise from our inventory. Such recalls or voluntary removal of merchandise can result in, among other things, suspension of our seller accounts on Amazon and other online marketplaces, lost sales, diverted resources, potential harm to our reputation and increased client service costs and legal expenses, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.
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Some of the products we sell may expose us to product liability claims and litigation or regulatory action relating to personal injury or environmental or property damage. Although we maintain liability insurance and have implemented a quality assurance program that includes obtaining necessary certifications, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms or at all. In addition, our agreements with our vendors in general do not indemnify us from product liability for a particular vendor’s products or our vendors may not have sufficient resources or insurance to satisfy their indemnity and defense obligations.
Misclassification or reclassification of our independent contractors or employees could increase our costs and adversely impact our business.
Our workers are classified as either employees or independent contractors, and if employees, as either exempt from overtime or non-exempt (and therefore overtime eligible). Regulatory authorities and private parties have recently asserted within several industries that some independent contractors should be classified as employees and that some exempt employees, including those in sales-related positions, should be classified as non-exempt based upon the applicable facts and circumstances and their interpretations of existing rules and regulations. If we are found to have misclassified employees as independent contractors or non-exempt employees as exempt, we could face penalties and have additional exposure under federal and state tax, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, labor, employment and tort laws, including for prior periods, as well as potential liability for employee overtime and benefits and tax withholdings. Legislative, judicial or regulatory (including tax) authorities could also introduce proposals or assert interpretations of existing rules and regulations that would change the classification of a significant number of independent contractors doing business with us from independent contractor to employee and a significant number of exempt employees to non-exempt. A reclassification in either case could result in a significant increase in employment-related costs such as wages, benefits and taxes. The costs associated with employee classification, including any related regulatory action or litigation, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and our financial position.
We are subject to U.S. governmental regulation and other legal obligations related to privacy, data protection and information security. If we are unable to comply with these, we may be subject to governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity.
We collect personally identifiable information and other data from our consumers and prospective consumers. We collect this info automatically through the automated sales processes with e-commerce marketplaces. We, at times, may use this information to provide, support, expand and improve our business, customer service and tailor our marketing and advertising efforts.
Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, such as the FTC, and various state, local and foreign agencies. Our data handling also is subject to contractual obligations and industry standards.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of data relating to individuals, including the use of contact information and other data for marketing, advertising and other communications with individuals and businesses. In the United States, various laws and regulations apply to the collection, processing, disclosure and security of certain types of data. Additionally, the FTC and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of data. The laws and regulations relating to privacy and data security are evolving, can be subject to significant change and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions.
In the United States, federal and various state governments have adopted or are considering laws, guidelines or rules for the collection, distribution, use and storage of information collected from or about consumers or their devices. For example, California recently passed the California Consumer Privacy Act, effective as of January 1, 2020, which introduced substantial changes to privacy law for businesses that collect personal information from California residents. Additionally, the FTC and many state attorneys general are applying federal and state consumer protection laws, to impose standards for the online collection, use and dissemination of data. Furthermore, these obligations may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other requirements or our practices.
Many data protection regimes apply based on where a consumer is located, and as we expand and new laws are enacted or existing laws change, we may be subject to new laws, regulations or standards or new interpretations of existing laws, regulations or standards, which could require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with rapidly evolving privacy or security laws, such as the Personal Information Security Specification in China (the “China Specification”), policies (including our own stated privacy policies), legal obligations or industry standards or any security incident that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other consumer data may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation (including consumer class actions), fines and penalties or adverse publicity and could
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cause our consumers to lose trust in us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We handle credit card and other personal information, and, as such, are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations related to the protection of personal data, privacy and information security in certain countries where we do business and there has been and will continue to be a significant increase globally in such laws that restrict or control the use of personal data.
Due to the sensitive nature of such information, we have implemented policies and procedures to preserve and protect our data and our customers’ data against loss, misuse, corruption, misappropriation caused by systems failures, unauthorized access or misuse. Notwithstanding these policies, we could be subject to liability claims by individuals and customers whose data resides in our databases for the misuse of that information. If we fail to meet appropriate compliance levels, this could negatively impact our ability to utilize credit cards as a method of payment, and/or collect and store credit card information, which could disrupt our business.
In Europe, the data privacy and information security regime has continued to evolve and is subject to increasing regulatory scrutiny.
The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), implements stringent operational requirements for our use of personal data. These stringent requirements include expansive disclosures to tell our consumers about how we may use their personal data, increased controls on profiling customers and increased rights for customers to access, control and delete their personal data. In addition, there are mandatory data breach notification requirements and significantly increased penalties of the greater of €20 million or 4% of global turnover for the preceding financial year. The U.K.’s Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 (“NID Regulations”) apply to us as an online marketplace and place additional network and information systems security obligations on us, as well as mandatory security incident notification in certain circumstances with penalties of up to £17 million.
In recent years, U.S. and European lawmakers and regulators have expressed concern over the use of third-party cookies and similar technologies for online behavioral advertising. To address these concerns, the GDPR has set forth enumerated requirements as to how websites are meant to properly handle their collection and use of personal data gathered through cookies. Such regulations may have a negative effect on businesses, including ours, that collect and use online usage information for consumer acquisition and marketing, may increase the cost of operating a business that collects or uses such information and undertakes online marketing, may also increase regulatory scrutiny and may increase potential civil liability under data protection or consumer protection laws.
We may incur substantial costs to comply with these regulations. The changes could require significant systems changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, adversely affect our margins, increase costs and subject us to additional liabilities.
We are subject to stringent privacy regulations in China that are broader than those of our other operations.
Although the China Specification is not a mandatory regulation, it nonetheless has a key implementing role in relation to China’s Cyber Security Law in respect of protecting personal information in China. Furthermore, it is likely that the China Specification will be relied on by Chinese government agencies as a standard to determine whether businesses have abided by China’s data protection rules. The China Specification introduced many concepts and protection rules for personal information, such as “Data Controller” from GDPR. From a consent perspective the China Specification and GDPR are similar, but the China Specification has broadened the scope of personal sensitive information (“PSI”) as compared to GDPR (including but not limited to phone number, transaction record and purchase history, bank account, browser history and e-ID info such as system account, email address and corresponding password) and thus, the application of explicit consent under the China Specification is more far reaching. Furthermore, under the China Specification, the Data Controller must provide the purpose of collecting and using personal information, as well as business functions of such purpose, and the China Specification requires the Data Controller to distinguish its core function from additional functions to ensure the Data Controller will only collect personal information as needed. Our failure to comply with the China Specification could result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We are subject to customs and international trade laws that could require us to modify our current business practices and incur increased costs or could result in a delay in getting products through customs and port operations, which may limit our growth and cause us to suffer reputational damage.
We predominately import our products from China. We are subject to numerous regulations, including customs and international trade laws that govern the importation and sale of our goods. In addition, we face risks associated with trade protection laws, policies and measures and other regulatory requirements affecting trade and investment, including loss or modification of exemptions for taxes and tariffs, imposition of new tariffs and duties and import and export licensing requirements in the countries in which we operate, in
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particular, in China, where trade relations between the United States and China are uncertain. Our failure to comply with import or export rules and restrictions or to properly classify items under tariff regulations and pay the appropriate duties could expose us to fines and penalties. If these laws or regulations were to change or were violated by our management, employees, retailers or brands, we could experience delays in shipments of our goods, be subject to fines or penalties or suffer reputational harm, which could reduce demand for our products or services and negatively impact our results of operations.
Our business depends on our ability to source and distribute products in a timely manner. As a result, we rely on the free flow of goods through open and operational ports worldwide. Labor disputes or other disruptions at ports create significant risks for our business, particularly if work slowdowns, lockouts, strikes or other disruptions occur. Any of these factors could result in reduced sales or canceled orders, which may limit our growth and damage our reputation and may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
If significant tariffs or other restrictions are placed on imports from China or any retaliatory trade measures are taken by China, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
We purchase our products from unaffiliated manufacturers that are located in China. This concentration exposes us to risks associated with doing business globally, including changes in tariffs. The Office of the United States Trade Representative previously identified certain Chinese imported goods for additional tariffs to address China’s trade policies and practices. These tariffs could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Additionally, the Biden administration has yet to signal whether it will alter existing trade agreements and terms between China and the United States, including limiting trade with China, adjusting the additional tariffs on imports from China and potentially imposing other restrictions on exports from China to the United States. Consequently, it is possible further and or higher tariffs will be imposed on products imported from foreign countries, including China, or that our business will be affected by retaliatory trade measures taken by China or other countries in response to existing or future tariffs. This may cause us to raise prices or make changes to our operations, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Amendments to existing tax laws, rules or regulations or enactment of new unfavorable tax laws, rules or regulations could have an adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
Many of the laws, rules or regulations imposing taxes and other similar obligations were established before the growth of the internet and e-commerce. Tax authorities in non-U.S. jurisdictions and at the U.S. federal, state and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in internet commerce and considering changes to existing tax or other laws that could regulate our transmissions and/or levy sales, income, consumption, use or other taxes relating to our activities, and/or impose obligations on us to collect such taxes. For example, in March 2018, the European Commission proposed new rules for taxing digital business activities in the EU. In addition, state and local taxing authorities in the United States and taxing authorities in other countries have identified e-commerce platforms as a means to calculate, collect and remit indirect taxes for transactions taking place over the internet. Multiple U.S. states have enacted related legislation and other states are now considering such legislation. Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court recently held in South Dakota v. Wayfair that a U.S. state may require an online retailer to collect sales taxes imposed by that state, even if the retailer has no physical presence in that state, thus permitting a wider enforcement of such sales tax collection requirements. Such legislation could require us or our retailers and brands to incur substantial costs in order to comply, including costs associated with legal advice, tax calculation, collection, remittance and audit requirements, which could make selling in such markets less attractive and could adversely affect our business. We cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose taxes on commerce over the internet. If such tax or other laws, rules or regulations were amended, or if new unfavorable laws, rules or regulations were enacted, the results could increase our tax payments or other obligations, prospectively or retrospectively, subject us to interest and penalties, decrease the demand for our products if we pass on such costs to the consumer, result in increased costs to update or expand our technical or administrative infrastructure or effectively limit the scope of our business activities if we decided not to conduct business in particular jurisdictions. As a result, these changes may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
We have $87.0 million net operating loss carryforwards as of December 31, 2020, which have a full valuation allowance against them. In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), a corporation that undergoes an ownership change, which is generally defined as a greater than 50-percentage-point cumulative change by value in the equity ownership of certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses (“NOLs”) to offset post-change taxable income. Our existing NOLs may be subject to limitations arising from previous ownership changes, and if we undergo an ownership change, our ability to utilize NOLs could be further limited by Section 382 of the Code and similar state provisions. Future changes in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as limitations on the use of NOLs, our existing NOLs could expire, decrease in value or otherwise be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act resulted in a reduction in the economic benefit of the NOLs and other deferred tax
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assets available to us. For these reasons, we may not be able to realize a tax benefit from the use of our NOLs, even if we attain profitability. We have not performed a detailed analysis to determine whether an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code has occurred. The effect of a Section 382 ownership change would be the imposition of an annual limitation on the use of net operating loss carryforwards attributable to periods before the change. Any limitation may result in expiration of all, or a portion of the NOLs or other tax attributes, such as research and development credit carryforwards, before utilization.
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm our business and reputation.
The SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (“OFAC”), the U.S. Department of State, as well as other foreign regulatory authorities continue to enforce economic and trade regulations and anti-corruption laws across industries. U.S. trade sanctions relate to transactions with designated foreign countries and territories, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Crimea region of Ukraine (“Crimea”) as well as specifically targeted individuals and entities that are identified on U.S. and other blacklists, and those owned by them or those acting on their behalf. Anti-corruption laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) and the U.K. Bribery Act (the “Bribery Act”), generally prohibit direct or indirect corrupt payments to government officials and, under certain laws, private persons to obtain or retain business or an improper business advantage. Some of our international operations are conducted in parts of the world, including Ukraine, Philippines and China, where it is common to engage in business practices that are prohibited by these laws.
Although we have policies and procedures in place designed to promote compliance with laws and regulations, which we review and update as we expand our operations in existing and new jurisdictions in order to proportionately address risks of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations, our employees, partners or agents could take actions in contravention of our policies and procedures or violate applicable laws or regulations. As regulations continue to develop and regulatory oversight continues to focus on these areas, we cannot guarantee that our policies and procedures will ensure compliance at all times with all applicable laws or regulations. In the event our controls should fail, or we are found to be not in compliance for other reasons, we could be subject to monetary damages, civil and criminal monetary penalties, withdrawal of business licenses or permits, litigation and damage to our reputation and the value of our brand.
As we expand our operations in existing and new jurisdictions internationally, we will need to increase the scope of our compliance programs to address the risks relating to the potential for violations of the FCPA and the Bribery Act and other anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. Further, the promulgation of new laws, rules and regulations, or the new interpretation of existing laws, rules and regulations, in each case that restrict or otherwise unfavorably impact the ability or manner in which we or our retailers and brands conduct business could require us to change certain aspects of our business, operations and commercial relationships to ensure compliance, which could decrease demand for products or services, reduce net revenue, increase costs or subject us to additional liabilities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years, are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, offering, soliciting or accepting improper payments or other benefits to or from government officials and others in the private sector. As we increase our international sales and business, particularly in countries with a low score on the Corruptions Perceptions Index by Transparency International and increase our use of third-party business partners such as sales agents, distributors, resellers or consultants, our risks under these laws may increase. Under these laws, we could be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, representatives, contractors, business partners and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. Noncompliance with these laws could subject us to investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension or debarment from contracting with certain persons, the loss of export privileges, whistleblower complaints, reputational harm, adverse media coverage and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense and compliance costs and other professional fees. In certain cases, enforcement authorities may even require us to appoint an independent compliance monitor, which can result in added costs and administrative burdens. Any investigations, actions, sanctions or other previously mentioned harm could have a material negative effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
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Risks Relating to the Ownership of our Common Stock
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company and, for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we intend to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emerging growth companies,” including:
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not being required to have our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act;
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permission to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies;
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reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and annual report on Form 10-K; and
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exemptions from the requirements of holding non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
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We intend to take advantage of these and other exemptions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company”. Under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), we will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of:
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the last day of the fiscal year during which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more;
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the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering, or December 31, 2024;
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the date on which we have issued, during the previous three-year period, more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and
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the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), (i.e., the first day of the fiscal year after we have (1) more than $700.0 million in outstanding common equity held by our non-affiliates, measured each year on the last day of our second fiscal quarter, (2) been public for at least 12 months, and (3) are not eligible to be deemed a “smaller reporting company” because we do not meet the revenue test of the definition of “smaller reporting company”, which includes an initial determination that our annual revenues are more than $100.0 million for the most recently completed fiscal year).
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We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive by our reliance on any of the exemptions afforded emerging growth companies. If some investors find our common stock less attractive because we rely on these exemptions, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and the market price of our common stock may be more volatile.
In addition, under the JOBS Act, “emerging growth companies” can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this exemption and, as a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that we can elect to opt out of the extended transition period at any time, which election is irrevocable.
Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company”, which would allow us to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements (excluding the exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. 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.
Our share price may be volatile. Market volatility may affect the value of an investment in our common stock and could subject us to litigation.
Technology stocks have historically experienced high levels of volatility. There has been and could continue to be significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of equity securities. For example, our closing stock price ranged from approximately
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$5.56 to $33.85 per share from January 1, 2020 to March 5, 2021.The market price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to many risk factors listed in this section, and others beyond our control, including:
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actual or perceived impact on our business due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition and operating results;
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the financial projections we may provide to the public, and any changes in projected operational and financial results;
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addition or loss of significant customers;
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changes in laws or regulations applicable to our products;
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actual or anticipated changes in our growth rate relative to our competitors;
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announcements of technological innovations or new offerings by us or our competitors;
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announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital-raising activities or commitments;
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additions or departures of key personnel;
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changes in our financial guidance or securities analysts’ estimates of our financial performance;
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discussion of us or our stock price by the financial press and in online investor communities;
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reaction to our press releases and filings with the SEC;
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changes in accounting principles;
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lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
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fluctuations in operating performance and the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us;
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sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders;
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share price and volume fluctuations attributable to inconsistent trading volume levels of our shares;
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price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
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changes in laws or regulations applicable to our business;
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changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of debt or equity securities;
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short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions involving our capital stock;
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the expiration of contractual lock-up periods, including in connection with acquisition transactions;
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sales of common stock by the Company’s executives;
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other events or factors, including those resulting from pandemics, war, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events; and
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general economic and market conditions.
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Furthermore, in recent years, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies, and technology companies in particular. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact the market price of our common stock. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could also harm our business.
An active trading market for our common stock may not be sustained, and you may not be able to resell your common stock at a desired market price.
Our shares of common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on June 12, 2019. Prior to our IPO, there was no public market for our common stock. Although our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, an active trading market for our
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shares may not be sustained. If an active market for our common stock is not sustained, you may not be able to sell your shares quickly or at a desired market price. If no active trading market for our common stock is sustained, you may be unable to sell your shares when you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider attractive or satisfactory. The lack of an active market may also adversely affect our ability to raise capital by selling securities in the future or impair our ability to acquire businesses or technologies using our shares as consideration.
The estimates of market opportunity, market size and forecasts of market growth included in our publicly-filed documents may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.
Market opportunity, size estimates and growth forecasts included in our publicly-filed documents are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. For example, several of the reports and data on which our estimates and forecasts are based rely on projections of consumer adoption and incorporate data from secondary sources such as company websites as well as industry, trade and government publications.
Net revenue and operating results are difficult to forecast because they generally depend on the volume, timing and type of orders we receive, all of which are uncertain. We base our expense levels and investment plans on our estimates of total net revenue and gross margins using human judgment combined with our machine learning, natural language processing and data analytics. We cannot be sure the same growth rates, trends and other key performance metrics are meaningful predictors of future growth. If our assumptions and calculations prove to be wrong, we may spend more than we anticipate acquiring and retaining customers or may generate less net revenue than anticipated, any of which could have a negative impact on our business and results of operations. In addition, as we enter a new consumer product market, we may initially provide discounts to customers to gain market traction, and the amount and effect of these discounts may vary greatly. Finally, we are evaluating our total addressable market with respect to new product offerings and new markets. These estimates of total addressable market and growth forecasts are subject to significant uncertainty, are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate and are based on data published by third parties that we have not independently verified. Even if the market in which we compete meets the size estimates and growth forecasted in our publicly-filed documents, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.
Our business is also affected by general economic and business conditions in the U.S., and we anticipate that it will be increasingly affected by conditions in international markets. In addition, we experience seasonal trends in our business, and our mix of product offerings is highly variable from day-to-day and quarter-to-quarter. This variability makes it difficult to predict sales and could result in significant fluctuations in our net revenue from period-to-period. A significant portion of our expenses is fixed, and as a result, we may be unable to adjust our spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in net revenue. Any failure to accurately predict net revenue or gross margins could cause our operating results to be lower than expected, which could materially adversely affect our financial condition and stock price.
Future sales and issuances of our capital stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, could cause our stock price to decline.
We may issue additional securities following the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue up to 500,000,000 shares of common stock and 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock. Future sales and issuances of our capital stock or rights to purchase our capital stock could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders. We may sell common stock, convertible securities and other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, the ownership of existing stockholders will be diluted, possibly materially. New investors in subsequent transactions could also gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of existing holders of our common stock.
Future sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market could reduce the prevailing market prices for our common stock. Substantially all of our outstanding common stock is eligible for sale as are shares of common stock issuable under vested and exercisable stock options. If our existing stockholders sell a large number of shares of our common stock, or the public market perceives that existing stockholders might sell shares of common stock, the market price of our common stock could decline significantly. Existing stockholder sales might also make it more difficult for us to sell additional equity securities at a time and price that we deem appropriate, or at all.
We expect to continue to issue shares of our common stock in connection with acquisitions which could result in substantial dilution in the event such acquisitions are not accretive. In connection with the acquisition of the Smash Assets, we issued 4,220,000 shares of common stock, which we agreed to register for resale with the SEC. In connection with the acquisition of the Healing Solutions Assets, we issued 1,387,759 shares of common stock, which we agreed to register for resale with the SEC. In addition, pursuant to a letter agreement with High Trail SA entered into on February 8, 2021, we agreed to prepare and file by March 26, 2021 a registration statement with the SEC for the purpose of registering for resale 980,000 shares of common stock issued to High Trail SA pursuant to
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the exercise of a warrant and 1,884,133 shares of common stock underlying a warrant issued to High Trail SA. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) will result in such shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, subject to certain other conditions. Any sale of these shares could have a materially adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.
If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, or the market perception that such sales may occur, the price of our common stock could decline.
The price of our common stock could decline if there are substantial sales of our common stock, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or if there is a large number of shares of our common stock available for sale and the market perceives that sales will occur.
In addition, we intend to file one or more registration statements to register the shares of common stock subject to outstanding options under our equity incentive plans and the shares reserved for awards available for future issuance under our equity incentive plans. Shares registered on these registration statements would be eligible for sale to the public, subject to certain legal and contractual limitations. The market price of the shares of our common stock could decline as a result of the sale of a substantial number of our shares of common stock in the public market or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business. In addition, the Credit Facility and the Notes contain restrictive covenants that limit our ability to pay dividends. Consequently, stockholders must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
The concentration of our stock ownership will likely limit your ability to influence corporate matters, including the ability to influence the outcome of director elections and other matters requiring stockholder approval.
As of March 5, 2021, our executive officers, directors and the holders of more than 5% of our outstanding common stock in the aggregate beneficially own approximately 51% of our common stock. This concentrated control limits your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have significant influence over all matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Corporate actions might be taken even if other stockholders oppose them. Additionally, these stockholders may cause us to make strategic decisions or pursue acquisitions that could involve risks to you or may not be aligned with your interests. This concentration of ownership might also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company that other stockholders may view as beneficial. This control may materially adversely affect the market price of our common stock. In addition, as further described below, the Company has entered into voting agreements with a number of parties in connection with its initial public offering and in connection with acquisition transactions. The Company may elect to release one or more parties from voting agreements which could also limit your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future.
MV II, LLC, Dr. Larisa Storozhenko and Mr. Maximus Yaney (collectively, the “Designating Parties”) have entered into a voting agreement with Asher Delug and us (the “Restated Voting Agreement”), pursuant to which each of the Designating Parties agreed to relinquish the right to vote their shares of capital stock of, and any other equity interest in, us (collectively, the “Voting Interests”) by granting our board of directors the sole right to vote all of the Voting Interests as the Designating Parties’ proxyholder. The Voting Interests include all shares of our common stock currently held by the Designating Parties, as well as any of our securities or other equity interests acquired by the Designating Parties in the future. Pursuant to the proxy granted by the Designating Parties, our board of directors is required to vote all of the Voting Interests in direct proportion to the voting of the shares and equity interests voted by all holders other than the Designating Parties. The proxy granted by the Designating Parties under the Restated Voting Agreement is irrevocable. In addition, the Restated Voting Agreement proxyholder may not be changed unless we receive the prior approval of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC.
The Restated Voting Agreement became effective on June 12, 2019, and it will continue until the earlier to occur of (a) a Deemed Liquidation Event unless, immediately upon such Deemed Liquidation Event, our common stock is and remains listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or (b) Mr. Yaney’s death. For purposes of the Restated Voting Agreement, a “Deemed Liquidation Event” means (i) the acquisition of us by another entity by means of any transaction or series of related transactions to which we are party other than a transaction or series of transactions in which the holders of our voting securities outstanding immediately prior to such transaction or series of transactions retain, immediately after such transaction or series of transactions, as a result of our shares held by such holders prior to such transaction or series of transactions, a majority of the total voting power represented by our outstanding voting securities or such other surviving or resulting entity; (ii) a sale, lease or other disposition of all or substantially all of our and our subsidiaries’ assets taken as a whole by means of any transaction or series of related transactions, except where such sale, lease or other disposition is to a wholly-owned subsidiary of us; or (iii) any liquidation, dissolution or winding up of us, whether voluntary or involuntary; however, a Deemed Liquidation Event shall not include any transaction effected primarily to raise capital for us or a spin-off or
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similar divestiture of our product or PaaS business as part of a reorganization of us approved by our board of directors. In addition, the rights and obligations under the Restated Voting Agreement will terminate with respect to shares of capital stock sold by a Designating Party in connection with any arm’s length transaction to a third-party that is not a Designating Party, an affiliate of a Designating Party or any other individual or party that has a direct or indirect familial relationship with any Designating Party.
On April 12, 2019, Asher Delug entered into a voting agreement with us on substantially the same terms as the Restated Voting Agreement (the “Delug Voting Agreement”), pursuant to which Mr. Delug agreed to relinquish the right to vote his shares of capital stock of, and any other equity interest in, us (collectively, the “Delug Voting Interests”) by granting our board of directors the sole right to vote all of the Delug Voting Interests as Mr. Delug’s proxyholder. The Delug Voting Interests include all shares of our common stock currently held by Mr. Delug, as well as any of our securities or other equity interests acquired by Mr. Delug in the future. Pursuant to the proxy granted by Mr. Delug, our board of directors is required to vote all of the Delug Voting Interests in direct proportion to the voting of the shares and equity interests voted by all holders other than Mr. Delug. The proxy granted by Mr. Delug under the Delug Voting Agreement is irrevocable. In addition, the Delug Voting Agreement proxyholder may not be changed unless we receive the prior approval of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC.
The Delug Voting Agreement became effective on June 12, 2019, and it will continue until the earlier to occur of (a) a Deemed Liquidation Event unless, immediately upon such Deemed Liquidation Event, our common stock is and remains listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or (b) Mr. Delug’s death. The definition of “Deemed Liquidation Event” in the Delug Voting Agreement is the same as the definition in the Restated Voting Agreement. In addition, the rights and obligations under the Delug Voting Agreement will terminate with respect to shares of capital stock sold by Mr. Delug in connection with any arm’s length transaction to a third-party that is not an affiliate of Mr. Delug or any other individual or party that has a direct or indirect familial relationship with Mr. Delug.
On December 1, 2020, 9830 Macarthur LLC (“9830”), one of the sellers of the Smash Assets, entered into a lock-up, voting and standstill agreement with us, pursuant to which 9830 agreed that until December 1, 2025, 9830 will, among other things, vote at each annual or special meeting of our stockholders all shares of common stock held by 9830 in accordance with the recommendations of our board of directors on each matter presented to our stockholders at such meeting.
On February 2, 2021, Healing Solutions, LLC (“Healing Solutions”), the seller of the Healing Solutions Assets, entered into a lock-up, voting and standstill agreement with us, pursuant to which Healing Solutions agreed that until August 2, 2021, Healing Solutions will, among other things, vote at each annual or special meeting of our stockholders all shares of common stock held by Healing Solutions in accordance with the recommendations of our board of directors on each matter presented to our stockholders at such meeting.
On February 9, 2021, each of our executive officers and members of our board of directors, in his or her capacity as a stockholder of us, entered into a voting agreement (collectively, the “Voting Agreements”) pursuant to which he or she agreed to vote, at an annual or special meeting of stockholders, all shares of common stock that he or she holds in favor of certain proposals, including proposals to issue shares of common stock in excess of the limitations imposed by Nasdaq Listing Standard Rule 5635(a) and/or 5635(d) pursuant to a warrant issued to High Trail SA on February 9, 2021 to purchase 750,000 shares of common stock, the December Note, the February Note, a warrant issued to High Trail ON on February 2, 2021 to purchase 469,931 shares of common stock and that certain Asset Purchase Agreement, dated February 2, 2021, by and among us and Truweo, LLC, as Purchaser, Healing Solutions, Jason R. Hope, and for the purposes of Section 5.11 and Article VII, Super Transcontinental Holdings LLC.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “DGCL”) could make an acquisition of us more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our management.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws may delay or prevent an acquisition of us or a change in our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL, which prohibits stockholders owning in excess of 15% of the outstanding combined organization voting stock from merging or combining with the combined organization. Although we believe these provisions collectively will provide for an opportunity to receive higher bids by requiring potential acquirers to negotiate with our board of directors, they would apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some stockholders. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove then-current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of management.
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Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of us and may affect the trading price of our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could significantly reduce the value of shares of our capital stock to a potential acquirer or delay or prevent changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. Our charter documents include the following provisions:
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a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which may delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors;
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no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
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the exclusive right of our board of directors, unless the board of directors grants such right to the stockholders, to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;
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the required approval of at least two-thirds of the shares entitled to vote to remove a director for cause, and the prohibition on removal of directors without cause;
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the ability of our board of directors to authorize the issuance of shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of stockholders or a hostile acquirer;
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the ability of our board of directors to alter our amended and restated bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;
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the required approval of at least two-thirds of the shares entitled to vote to adopt, amend or repeal our amended and restated bylaws or repeal the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation regarding the election and removal of directors;
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a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;
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an exclusive forum provision providing that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for certain actions and proceedings;
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the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the board of directors, the chairperson of the board of directors, the chief executive officer or the president (in the absence of a chief executive officer) which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors; and
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advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.
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These provisions could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of us. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and cause us to take other corporate actions our stockholders desire.
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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine; provided, that, this provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act, the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. These choices of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. In addition, stockholders who do bring a claim in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware could face additional litigation costs in pursuing any such claim, particularly if they do not reside in or near Delaware. Furthermore, the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. If a court were to find the choice of forum provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
Our management team continues to adapt to the additional demands of being a public company and still has limited experience managing a public company.
Our chief executive officer has limited experience managing a public company, interacting with public company investors and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Additionally, our management team, as a whole, is adapting to and learning how to efficiently manage being a public company subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These obligations and constituents require significant attention from our senior management, particularly from our chief executive officer, and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
General Risk Factors
If securities or industry analysts either do not publish research about us, discontinue research coverage, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our common stock adversely, the trading price or trading volume of our common stock could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced in part by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If one or more of the analysts initiate research with an unfavorable rating or downgrade our common stock, provide a more favorable recommendation about our competitors or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our common stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the trading price or trading volume of our common stock to decline.
We will incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of operating as a public company.
As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and are required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. Our compliance with these requirements increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time consuming and costly. In addition, our management and other personnel need to divert attention from operational and other business matters to devote substantial time to these public company requirements. In particular, we incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which will increase when we are no longer an emerging growth company, as defined by the JOBS Act. We will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and maintain an internal audit function. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur as a result of operating as a public company or the timing of such costs.
We believe that being a public company makes it expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more
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difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.
As a result of disclosure of information in our publicly-filed documents, our business and financial condition has become more visible, which may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Any significant disruption in or unauthorized access to our computer systems or those of third parties that we utilize in our operations, including those relating to cybersecurity or arising from cyber-attacks, could result in a loss or degradation of service, unauthorized disclosure of data, or theft of intellectual property, including digital content assets, which could adversely impact our business.
Our business is dependent upon the reliable performance and security of our computer systems and those of third parties that we utilize in our operations. These systems may be subject to damage or interruption from, among other things, earthquakes, adverse weather conditions, other natural disasters, terrorist attacks, rogue employees, power loss, telecommunications failures, and cybersecurity risks. Interruptions in these systems, or with the internet in general, could make our service unavailable or degraded or otherwise hinder our ability to operate. Service interruptions, errors in our software or the unavailability of computer systems used in our operations could diminish our overall results.
Our computer systems and those of third parties we use in our operations are subject to cybersecurity threats, including cyber-attacks such as computer viruses, denial of service attacks, physical or electronic break-ins and similar disruptions. These systems could experience directed attacks which may lead to interruptions and delays in our operations as well as loss, misuse or theft of personal information and other data, confidential information or intellectual property. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to induce employees or users to disclose sensitive or confidential information in order to gain access to data. Any attempt by hackers to obtain our data or intellectual property (including digital content assets), disrupt our operations, or otherwise access our systems, or those of third parties we use, if successful, could harm our business, be expensive to remedy and damage our reputation. We have implemented certain systems and processes to thwart hackers and protect our data and systems, but the techniques used to gain unauthorized access to data and software are constantly evolving, and we may be unable to anticipate or prevent unauthorized access. There is no assurance that hackers may not have a material impact on our service or systems in the future. Efforts to prevent hackers from disrupting our service or otherwise accessing our systems are expensive to develop, implement and maintain. These efforts require ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become more sophisticated and may negatively impact our financial results. Any significant disruption to our service or access to our systems could result in a loss of sales and adversely affect our business and results of operation. Further, a penetration of our systems or a third-party’s systems or other misappropriation or misuse of personal information could subject us to business, regulatory, litigation and reputation risk, which could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
As a result of our failure to timely file certain financial statements relating to the Smash Assets, we are currently ineligible to file new short form registration statements on Form S-3 or to have resale registration statements declared effective in a timely manner, which may impair our ability to raise capital on terms favorable to us, in a timely manner or at all, or in the case of resale registration statements, could result in an event of default under our credit facilities or a breach of existing obligations to shareholders with registration rights.
Form S-3 permits eligible issuers to conduct registered offerings using a short form registration statement that allows the issuer to incorporate by reference its past and future filings and reports made under the Exchange Act. In addition, Form S-3 enables eligible issuers to conduct primary offerings “off the shelf” under Rule 415 of the Securities Act. The shelf registration process, combined with the ability to forward incorporate information, allows issuers to avoid delays and interruptions in the offering process and to access the capital markets in a more expeditious and efficient manner than raising capital in a standard registered offering pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-1. The ability to register securities for resale may also be limited as a result of the loss of Form S-3 eligibility.
The SEC rules required us to file certain financial statements relating to the Smash Assets (the “Smash Financial Statements”) no later than February 16, 2021. As of the date of the filing of this Annual Report, we have not yet filed the Smash Financial Statements, and are working diligently to file such financial statements. As a result of our failure to timely file the Smash Financial Statements, we are not currently permitted to use our existing registration statement on Form S-3. As a consequence, absent a waiver of the Form S-3 eligibility requirements, we are not permitted to sell all of the amount of our common stock or other securities we could otherwise sell, which could adversely affect our ability to run our operations and progress our product development programs. We also will not be permitted to conduct an “at the market offering” absent an effective primary registration statement on Form S-3.
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Our inability to use Form S-3 may significantly impair our ability to raise necessary capital to run our operations and progress our product development programs. If we seek to access the capital markets through a registered offering during the period of time that we are unable to use Form S-3, we may be required to publicly disclose the proposed offering and the material terms thereof before the offering commences, we may experience delays in the offering process due to SEC review of a Form S-1 registration statement and we may incur increased offering and transaction costs and other considerations. Further we may be unable to have our Form S-1 registration statement, or any other resale registration statements that we are required to file, declared effective in the event that the Smash Financial Statements have not been filed. In the event we are unable to file such resale registration statements, and are unable to obtain a waiver, this would result in an event of default under our credit facilities and a breach of our obligations to shareholders who have registration rights, which could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and business or could lead to substantial dilution. Disclosing a public offering prior to the formal commencement of an offering may result in downward pressure on our stock price. If we are unable to raise capital through a registered offering, we would be required to conduct our equity financing transactions on a private placement basis, which may be subject to pricing, size and other limitations imposed under the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or seek other sources of capital.
Absent a waiver of the Form S-3 eligibility requirements and assuming we continue to timely file our required Exchange Act reports after the Smash Financial Statements are filed, the earliest we would regain the ability to use Form S-3 is 12 months from the date we file the Smash Financial Statements.