8-K 1 rcat1005form8k.htm FORM 8-K

 

UNITED STATES  

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 8-K

 

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF

THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): September 30, 2020

 

Red Cat Holdings, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Nevada   000-31587   86-0490034
 (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation)      (Commission File Number)   (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)
         

 

607 Ponce de Leon Ave, Suite 407

San Juan, PR 00909

(Address of principal executive offices) (zip code)

 

(833) 373-3228

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report)

 

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):

 

☐ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

☐ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

☐ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

☐ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

 

Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
None    

 

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b2 of this chapter).

 

Emerging growth company ☐

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

 
 

 

Item 1.01. Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.

On September 30, 2020, Red Cat Holdings, Inc., a Nevada corporation (the “Company”) and FS Acquisition, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“Acquisition”) entered into a share purchase agreement (the “Agreement”) with Greg French (the “Seller”), the sole shareholder Fat Shark Holdings, Ltd., a Cayman Islands Exempted Company (“Fat Shark”) pursuant to which, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions, Acquisition will acquire all of the issued and outstanding share capital of Fat Shark from the Seller in consideration for an aggregate of Seven Million Dollars ($7,000,000), payable Five Million Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($5,750,000) in shares (the “Share Consideration”) of Company common stock, par value $0.001 per share, (the “Common Stock”) at an agreed upon value based upon the VWAP of the Company at closing of the transaction (but not less than $1.00 nor more than $1.50 per share), a senior secured note of Holdings in the original principal amount of One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) subject to a floating charge under Cayman law on all of the assets of Holdings and its subsidiaries (the “Holdings Note”), and Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000) in cash (the “Fat Shark Transaction”). Fifteen (15%) percent of the Share Consideration (the “Escrow Shares”) is required to be deposited in an escrow account pursuant to the Agreement for a period of eighteen (18) months as security for indemnification obligations and any purchase price adjustments due to working capital deficiencies and any other claims or expenses arising under the Agreement. Seller’s indemnification obligations are subject to certain limitations and shall survive for a period of two (2) years following closing of the Fat Shark Transaction, and includes a basket amount of Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($25,000) before any claim can be asserted and a cap equal to the value of the Cash Consideration plus the Seller Note.

For a period of two (2) years following Closing, neither the Seller nor any affiliates shall engage in a business competing with the drone or first person view (FPV) goggle business of the Company, or solicit any customers or suppliers to the Company. The Company has agreed to register the Share Consideration issued to the Seller under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Act”) under certain circumstances. At any time following a Qualified Financing, defined as a private placement or public offering of debt, equity, or convertible securities in one or more transaction whereby on a cumulative basis on or prior to the three (3) year anniversary of closing, a minimum of Six Million Dollars ($6 million) of gross proceeds has been sold by the Company for its own account, (during which Seller shall also have the right to sell up to One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) of Seller’s Share Consideration in such offering(s)), Seller shall have the right to require the Company to a single demand registration under the Act of all or a portion of Seller’s shares, unless the Company’s aggregate public offering price (before deducting discounts and commissions) is less than Twenty Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000). The Seller has agreed to certain restrictions on the disposition of the Share Consideration during for a period of two (2) years following closing date (the “Lock-Up Agreement”). Under the Lock-Up Agreement Seller shall be permitted to sell an aggregate of up to the greater of twenty (20%) percent or One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) of the Share Consideration prior to the twelve (12) month anniversary of the closing in privately negotiated transactions (provided the purchaser enters into a joinder agreement and agrees to be subject to the same restrictions on such shares applicable to Seller). Following the first year after closing, Seller is permitted to dispose of no more than ten (10%) percent of the average daily volume during the prior ten (10) trading days, as reported. The Agreement also requires Seller to sell a pro-rata amount of Seller’s Common Stock (the Drag-Along Right”) and provides for Seller’s participation in sales (the “Tag-Along Right”) in certain sales by Company shareholders.

The closing of the Fat Shark Transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close on or before November 1, 2020.

The Company deems this to be a material acquisition and will, in compliance with Regulation S-X (17 CFR 210.8-05), file audited and pro forma financial statements within 71 calendar days of the date of this Current Report on Form 8-K. The foregoing description of the terms of the Agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Agreement filed as Exhibit 10.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K.

 

Following closing of the Transaction, we will continue to be a “smaller reporting company,” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K, as promulgated by the SEC.

 

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Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.

 

On October 5, 2020 the Company issued a press release titled “Red Cat to Acquire Fat Shark - Expands Presence in the First-Person View (FPV) Drone Business”. A copy of the press release is included herewith as Exhibit 99.1.

 

On October 5, 2020 the Company posted on its website a presentation titled “RED CAT HOLDINGS – Investing in the future of drones”. A copy of the presentation is included herewith as Exhibit 99.2.

 

Item 8.01 Other Events.

Below is a description of the business of Fat Shark and certain risks that the Company believes that investors should be aware of relating to the business. The risks contained herein should be read in conjunction with those contained in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) which are incorporated herein by reference.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this Current Report on Form 8-K may be “forward-looking statements.” Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that express our intentions, beliefs, expectations, strategies, predictions, or any other statements relating to our future activities or other future events or conditions. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and are likely to, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including those described above and those risks discussed from time to time in this report, including the risks described under “Risk Factors” in this report and in other documents which we file with the SEC including under Item 1A in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2020 filed with the SEC on August 13, 2020 (File No. 000-31587). In addition, such statements could be affected by risks and uncertainties related to:

our ability to raise funds for general corporate purposes and operations;
the commercial feasibility and success of our technology;
our ability to recruit qualified management and technical personnel; and
the other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Current Report on Form 8-K as well as in the Company’s prior and future filings and reports with the SEC.

 

Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

Changes to the Business. Following the closing of the Fat Shark Transaction, through our wholly-owned subsidiary Acquisition, we intend to enter into the business of design, development, marketing, and sale of wearable display devices also referred to as head mounted displays (“HMDs”), principally consisting of FPV goggles and related products. The operations of Fat Shark are expected to constitute a significant majority of our revenue and results of operations during our current and future fiscal years. Red Cat is developing a fully-integrated drone supply chain with secure blockchain-based distributed storage, analytics, and SaaS solutions for adoption in the drone industry. Red Cat supports education, training, and sales of drone products through its Rotor Riot platform and is developing the means to accurately track, report and review flight data that will be useful for insurance and regulatory requirements. Red Cat maintains a commitment to deliver unrivaled innovation to make drones, aviators, and products accountable and the sky a safer place. Red Cat provides additional product information at www.redcatholdings.com and www. rotorriot.com. Fat Shark’s product line is available at www.fatshark.com.

 

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Description of Business. HMDs for First Person View (FPV) drone flight is the unique experience of interacting with your aircraft through a level of immersion comparable to virtual reality where the pilot sees only what the drone sees. This is accomplished by live streaming footage from a camera mounted on the nose of the drone. The image is transmitted via radio (traditionally analog but increasingly digital) to goggles worn by the pilot. The remote control, drone, and goggles are all connected via radio and must transmit with sufficient speed and reliability to allow effective control of the drone at speeds that can reach over 90 mph. In its most basic form, the pilot experiences a transfer of their visual consciousness into the body of the flying device, be it a quadracopter, drone, remote control (RC) airplane, car or boat. There are three categories of FPV flight – freestyle flight, racing and aerial photography. Freestyle describes the experience where the pilot navigates around obstacles, focused on acrobatics and exploring the environment around the aircraft through the HMD. FPV Racing consists of flying, either solo or with a group of pilots, through a series of obstacles, flags, and gates maneuvering the aircraft through a racetrack through the HMD. Aerial photography is the process of viewing and recording a subject matter from the air from the viewpoint of the pilot seat as seen through the HMD or a separate onboard camera.

An FPV system consists of a flight camera mounted on the aircraft, a video transmitter, and goggles. Fat Shark designs, develops, and manufactures each of these FPV components which have become favorites in FPV racing. Various sports networks, and sponsors such as NBC, Sky, Liberty Media, Fox Sports, MGM, Hearst, Twitter, ProSieben, Groupe AB and Weibo broadcast or sponsor events where professional pilots and amateurs compete for prizes and sponsorships. Drone racing is a global sport with hundreds of chapters, leagues, and pilots around the world with rules and regulations adopted by various sponsoring organizations such as MultiGP, Drone Racing League (DRL), IUDRO, DR1 Racing, Rotomatch League, FPVR, and Freespace Drone Racing. In 2015 Fat Shark sponsored the first annual US National Drone Racing Championships held at the California State Fair with a prize of $25,000. Subsequent events featured prizes of up to $1 million. Drone pilots and spectators alike can experience the flight through an HMD. Pilots often design their craft personally, selecting and customizing frames, motors, propellors and controllers for speed and maneuverability purchased through vendors such as Rotor Riot where pilots can also access education, videos and training materials (www.rotorriot.com). We sponsor a team of six of the leading pilots on the competitive FPV racing circuit, including the 2019 and 2018 Drone Racing League champion.

RISK FACTORS

An investment in the Company’s common stock involves a high degree of risk. In determining whether to purchase the Company’s common stock, an investor should carefully consider all of the material risks described below, together with the other information contained in this report and the Company’s other public filings before making a decision to purchase the Company’s securities. An investor should only purchase the Company’s securities if he or she can afford to suffer the loss of his or her entire investment.

Risks Related to Our HMD Business

 

We operate in a highly competitive market and the size, resources and brand name of some of our competitors may allow them to compete more effectively than we can, which could result in a loss of our market share and a decrease in our revenue and profitability.

 

The market for head-worn display devices, including FPV HMDs, is highly competitive. Further, we expect competition to intensify in the future as existing competitors introduce new and more competitive offerings alongside their existing products, and as new market entrants introduce new products into our markets. We compete against established, well-known diversified consumer electronics manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Corporation, LG Electronics (LGE), HTC, Lenovo, and large software and other products companies such as Alphabet Inc. (Google), Microsoft Corporation, Facebook and Snap. In the FPV drone market we compete with additional established, well-known manufacturers such as Epson, Yuneed, Boscam, Eaching, Walkera, SkyZone, MicroLED and DJI. Many of our current competitors have substantial market share, diversified product lines, well-established supply and distribution systems, strong worldwide brand recognition and greater financial, marketing, research and development and other resources than we do. In addition, many of our existing and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as:

 

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longer operating histories;
the capacity to leverage their sales efforts and marketing expenditures across a broader portfolio of products;
broader distribution and established relationships with channel partners;
access to larger established customer bases and known branding;
greater resources to fund research and development and to make acquisitions;
larger intellectual property portfolios; and
the ability to bundle competitive offerings with other products and services.

 

Moreover, smartphones, tablets, and new wearable devices with ever growing larger video display screens and computing power have significantly improved the mobile personal computing experience. In the future, the manufacturers of these devices, such as Apple Inc., Samsung, LGE, Lenovo, Google/Fitbit, Snap, Garmin, Facebook, Microsoft and others may design or develop products similar to ours. In addition to competition or potential competition from large, established companies, new companies may emerge and offer competitive products. Increased competition may result in pricing pressures and reduced profit margins and may impede our ability to increase the sales of our products, any of which could substantially harm our business and results of operations.

 

Our lack of long-term purchase orders and commitments from our customers may lead to a rapid decline in our sales.

 

All of our customers issue purchase orders solely at their own discretion, often shortly before the requested date of shipment. Our customers are generally able to cancel orders (without penalty) or delay the delivery of products on relatively short notice. In addition, our current customers may decide not to purchase products from us for any reason. If those customers do not continue to purchase our products, our sales volume could decline rapidly with little or no warning.

  

We cannot currently rely on long-term purchase orders or commitments to protect us from the negative financial effects of a decline in demand for our products. We typically plan our production and inventory levels based on internal forecasts of customer demand, which are highly unpredictable and can fluctuate substantially. Our customers give us rolling forecasts and issue purchase orders but they have options to reschedule or pay cancellation fees. The uncertainty of product orders makes it difficult for us to forecast our sales and allocate our resources in a manner consistent with our actual sales. Moreover, our expense levels and the amounts we invest in capital equipment and new product development costs are based in part on our expectations of future sales and, if our expectations regarding future sales are inaccurate, we may be unable to reduce costs in a timely manner to adjust for sales shortfalls. As a result of our lack of long-term purchase orders and purchase commitments, we may experience a rapid decline in our sales.

 

As a result of these and other factors, investors should not rely on our revenues and our operating results for any one quarter or year as an indication of our future revenues or operating results. If our quarterly revenues or results of operations fall below expectations of investors or public market analysts, the price of our common stock could fall substantially.

 

If we do not effectively maintain and further develop our sales channels for our products, including developing and supporting our retail sales channel, value added resellers (VARs) and distributors, our business could be harmed.

 

We depend upon effective sales channels to assist us in reaching the customers who are the ultimate purchasers of our HMD products. We primarily sell our products either from our in-house sales team directly to retail outlets such as hobby shops or through our website and VARs.

 

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Our distributors, third-party online resellers and VARs generally offer products from several different manufacturers. Accordingly, we are at risk that these distributors, resellers and VARs may give higher priority to selling other companies’ products. If we were to lose the services of a distributor, online reseller, or VAR, we might need to find another in that area, and there can be no assurance of our ability to do so in a timely manner or on favorable terms. Further, our resellers and distributors can at times build inventories in anticipation of future sales, and if such sales do not occur as rapidly as they anticipate, our resellers and distributors will decrease the size of their future product orders. We are also subject to the risks of our distributors, resellers and VARs encountering financial difficulties, which could impede their effectiveness and also expose us to financial risk, for example if they are unable to pay for the products they purchase from us of ongoing disruptions in business, for example from natural disasters or the effects of COVID-19. Any reduction in sales by our current distributors or VARs, loss of key distributors and VARs or decrease in revenue from our distributors and VARs could adversely affect our revenue, operating results, and financial condition.

  

Our future growth and profitability may be adversely affected if our marketing initiatives are not effective in generating sufficient levels of brand awareness.

 

Our future growth and profitability will depend in large part upon the effectiveness and efficiency of our marketing efforts, including our ability to:

 

create awareness of our brands and products;
convert consumer awareness into actual product purchases;
effectively manage marketing costs (including creative and media) in order to maintain acceptable operating margins and return on marketing investment; and
successfully offer to sell our products or license our technology to third-party companies for sale.

 

Our planned marketing expenditures are unknown and may not result in increased total sales or generate sufficient levels of product and brand name awareness. We may not be able to manage our marketing expenditures on a cost-effective basis.

 

Our products require ongoing research and development and we may experience technical problems or delays, which could lead our business to fail.

 

Our research and development efforts remain subject to all of the risks associated with the development of new products based on emerging and innovative technologies, including, for example, unexpected technical problems or the possible insufficiency of funds for completing development of these products. If we experience technical problems or delays, further improvements in our products and the introduction of future products could be adversely impacted, and we could incur significant additional expenses and our business may fail.

 

We depend on advances in technology by other companies and if those advances do not materialize, some of our anticipated new products could be delayed or cancelled.

 

We rely on and will continue to rely on components of our products (including micro-display panels (OLED/LC) for our goggle displays, transmitters and cameras) that are developed and produced by other companies. The commercial success of certain of our planned future products will depend in part on advances in these and other technologies by other companies. We may, from time to time, contract with and support companies developing key technologies in order to accelerate the development of them for our specific uses. Such activities might not result in useful technologies or components for us.

 

If we fail to keep pace with changing technologies or are unable to anticipate customer preferences, our business and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

 

Rapidly changing customer requirements, evolving technologies and industry standards characterize the consumer electronics, wearables, and display industries. To achieve our goals, we need to enhance our existing products and develop and market new products that keep pace with continuing changes in industry standards, requirements, and customer preferences.

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Our success depends on our ability to originate new products and to identify product trends as well as to anticipate and react to changing customer demands in a timely manner. If we are unable to introduce new products or novel technologies in a timely manner or our new products or technologies are not accepted by customers, our competitors may introduce more attractive products, which could hurt our competitive position. Our new products might not receive customer acceptance if customer preferences shift to other products, and our future success depends in part on our ability to anticipate and respond to these changes. Failure to anticipate and respond in a timely manner to changing customer preferences could lead to, among other things, lower revenue and excess inventory levels.

 

If micro-display-based HMD’s and pilot gear do not gain greater acceptance in the marketplace, our business strategy may fail.

 

The acquisition of Fat Shark is based upon the acceptance of HMD wearables for FPV control of drones and the continuation of the attractiveness of that method for piloting drones. Fat Shark has experienced declining revenues over the past several years and such trend may continue or accelerate. Advances in other technologies may overcome their current market limitations and permit them to remain or become more attractive technologies for FPV applications, which could limit the potential market for our products and cause our business strategy to fail. If end-users fail to accept HMDs in the numbers we anticipate or as soon as we anticipate, the sales of our FPV products and our results of operations would be adversely affected and our business strategy may fail.

 

There are a number of competing providers of micro-display-based personal display technology, including HMDs, and we may fail to capture a substantial portion of the personal wearable display market.

 

In addition to competing with other HMD manufacturers and distributors for FPV displays, we also compete with micro-display-based personal display technologies that have been developed by other companies. Numerous start-up companies have announced their intentions to offer HMD products and developer kits in the near future. Further, industry blogs have speculated that companies such as Apple may offer HMDs in the near future.

 

Most of our competitors have greater financial, marketing, distribution, and technical resources than we do. Moreover, our competitors may succeed in developing new micro-display-based personal display technologies and products that are more affordable or have more desirable features than our technology. If our products are unable to capture a reasonable portion of the HMD market, our business strategy may fail.

  

Our business and products are subject to government regulation and we may incur additional compliance costs or, if we fail to comply with applicable regulations, may incur fines or be forced to suspend or cease operations.

 

In our current business and as we expand into new markets and product categories, we must comply with a wide variety of laws, regulations, standards and other requirements governing, among other things, electrical safety, wireless emissions, health and safety, e-commerce, consumer protection, export and import requirements, hazardous materials usage, product-related energy consumption, packaging, recycling and environmental matters. Compliance with these laws, regulations, standards, and other requirements may be onerous and expensive, and they may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction (including from country to country), further increasing the cost of compliance and doing business. Our products may require regulatory approvals or satisfaction of other regulatory concerns in the various jurisdictions in which they are manufactured, sold or both. These requirements create procurement and design challenges that require us to incur additional costs identifying suppliers and manufacturers who can obtain and produce compliant materials, parts and products. Failure to comply with such requirements can subject us to liability, additional costs, and reputational harm and, in extreme cases, force us to recall products or prevent us from selling our products in certain jurisdictions. If there is a new regulation, or change to an existing regulation, that significantly increases our costs of manufacturing or causes us to significantly alter the way that we manufacture our products, this would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, while we have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, and agents will not violate such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures.

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Our products must comply with certain requirements of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulating electromagnetic radiation in order to be sold in the United States and with comparable requirements of the regulatory authorities of the EU, Japan, China and other jurisdictions in order to be sold in those jurisdictions. Our FPV products include wireless radios and receivers which require additional emission testing. We are also subject to various environmental laws and governmental regulations related to toxic, volatile, and other hazardous chemicals used in the third-party components incorporated into our products, including the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances Directive, or RoHS and the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, or the WEEE Directive, as well as the implementing legislation of the EU member states. This directive restricts the distribution of products within the EU that exceed very low maximum concentration amounts of certain substances, including lead. Similar laws and regulations have been passed or are pending in China, Japan, and numerous countries around the world and may be enacted in other regions, including in the United States, and we are, or may in the future be, subject to these laws and regulations.

 

From time to time, our products are subject to new domestic and international requirements. Compliance with regulations enacted in the future could substantially increase our cost of doing business or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and our business. Any inability by us to comply with regulations in the future could result in the imposition of fines or in the suspension or cessation of our operations or sales in the applicable jurisdictions. Any such inability by us to comply with regulations may also result in our not being permitted, or limit our ability, to ship our products which would adversely affect our revenue and ability to achieve or maintain profitability.

   

Although we have encourage our contract manufacturers and major component suppliers to comply with the supply chain transparency requirements, such as the RoHS Directive, we cannot provide assurance that our manufacturers and suppliers consistently comply with these requirements. In addition, if there are changes to these or other laws (or their interpretation) or if new related laws are passed in other jurisdictions, we may be required to re-engineer our products to use components compatible with these regulations. This re-engineering and component substitution could result in additional costs to us or disrupt our operations or logistics.

 

The WEEE Directive requires electronic goods producers to be responsible for the collection, recycling and treatment of such products. Changes in interpretation of the directive may cause us to incur costs or have additional regulatory requirements to meet in the future in order to comply with this directive, or with any similar laws adopted in other jurisdictions. Our failure to comply with past, present, and future similar laws could result in reduced sales of our products, substantial product inventory write-offs, reputational damage, penalties and other sanctions, which could harm our business and financial condition. We also expect that our products will be affected by new environmental laws and regulations on an ongoing basis. To date, our expenditures for environmental compliance have not had a material impact on our results of operations or cash flows and, although we cannot predict the future impact of such laws or regulations, they will likely result in additional costs and may increase penalties associated with violations or require us to change the content of our products or how they are manufactured, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

 

Product quality issues and a higher-than-expected number of warranty claims or returns could harm our business and operating results.

 

The products that we sell could contain defects in design or manufacture. Defects could also occur in the products or components that are supplied to us. There can be no assurance we will be able to detect and remedy all defects in the hardware and software we sell, which could result in product recalls, product redesign efforts, loss of revenue, reputational damage and significant warranty and other remediation expenses. Similar to other mobile and consumer electronics, our products have a risk of overheating in the course of usage or upon malfunction. Any such defect could result in harm to property or in personal injury. If we determine that a product does not meet product quality standards or may contain a defect, the launch of such product could be delayed until we remedy the quality issue or defect. The costs associated with any protracted delay necessary to remedy a quality issue or defect in a new product could be substantial.

 

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We generally provide a one-year warranty on all of our products, except in certain European countries where it can be two years for some consumer-focused products. The occurrence of any material defects in our products could expose us to liability for damages and warranty claims in excess of our current reserves, and we could incur significant costs to correct any defects, warranty claims or other problems. In addition, if any of our product designs are defective or are alleged to be defective, we may be required to participate in a recall campaign. In part due to the terms of our warranty policy, any failure rate of our products that exceeds our expectations may result in unanticipated losses. Any negative publicity related to the perceived quality of our products could affect our brand image and decrease retailer, distributor and consumer confidence and demand, which could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. Further, accidental damage coverage and extended warranties are regulated in the United States at the state level and are treated differently within each state. Additionally, outside of the United States, regulations for extended warranties and accidental damage vary from country to country. Changes in interpretation of the regulations concerning extended warranties and accidental damage coverage on a federal, state, local or international level may cause us to incur costs or have additional regulatory requirements to meet in the future in order to continue to offer our support services. Our failure to comply with past, present and future similar laws could result in reduced sales of our products, reputational damage, penalties and other sanctions, which could harm our business and financial condition.

  

Regulations related to conflict minerals may cause us to incur additional expenses and could limit the supply and increase the costs of certain materials used in the manufacturing of our products.

 

As a public company, we are subject to requirements under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, or the Dodd-Frank Act, that require us to determine, disclose and report whether or not our products contain conflict minerals. These requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of the materials used in the manufacture of components used in our products. In addition, we have and will continue to incur additional costs to comply with the disclosure requirements, including costs related to conducting diligence procedures to determine the sources of conflict minerals that may be used in, or necessary for the production of our products and, if applicable, potential changes to products, processes or sources of supply as a consequence of such verification activities. We also may face reputational harm if we determine that certain of our products contain minerals not determined to be conflict free or if we are unable to alter our products, processes, or sources of supply to avoid such materials.

 

Our products will likely experience declining unit prices and we may not be able to offset that decline with production cost decreases or higher unit sales.

 

In the markets in which we compete, prices of established consumer electronics, displays, personal computers, and mobile products tend to decline significantly over time or as new enhanced versions are introduced, frequently every 12 to 24 months. In order to maintain adequate product profit margins over the long term, we believe that we will need to continuously develop product enhancements and new technologies that will either slow price declines of our products or reduce the cost of producing and delivering our products. While we anticipate many opportunities to reduce production costs over time, we may not be able to reduce our component costs. We expect to attempt to offset the anticipated decrease in our average selling price by introducing new products, increasing our sales volumes or adjusting our product mix. If we fail to do so, our results of operations will be materially and adversely affected.

  

Our products could infringe on the intellectual property rights of others.

 

Companies in the consumer electronics, wireless communications, semiconductor, IT, and display industries steadfastly pursue and protect intellectual property rights, often times resulting in considerable and costly litigation to determine the validity of patents and claims by third parties of infringement of patents or other intellectual property rights. Our products could be found to infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. Other companies may hold or obtain patents or inventions or other proprietary rights in technology necessary for our business. Periodically, other companies inquire about our products and technology in their attempts to assess whether we violate their intellectual property rights. If we are forced to defend against infringement claims, we may face costly litigation, diversion of technical and management personnel, and product shipment delays, even if the allegations of infringement are unwarranted. If there is a successful claim of infringement against us and we are unable to develop non-infringing technology or license the infringed or similar technology on a timely basis, or if we are required to cease using one or more of our business or product names due to a successful trademark infringement claim against us, it could adversely affect our business.

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Our intellectual property rights and proprietary rights may not adequately protect our products.

 

Our commercial success will depend substantially on our ability to obtain patents and other intellectual property rights and maintain adequate legal protection for our products in the United States and other countries. We will be able to protect our intellectual property from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that these assets are covered by valid and enforceable patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property rights, or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. As of the date of this filing, we have 10 issued and 6_ pending U.S. and foreign patent applications. We apply for patents covering our products, services, technologies, and designs, as we deem appropriate. We may fail to apply for patents on important products, services, technologies or designs in a timely fashion, or at all. We do not know whether any of our patent applications will result in the issuance of any patents. Even if patents are issued, they may not be sufficient to protect our products, services, technologies, or designs. Our existing and future patents may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from developing competing products, services technologies, or designs. Intellectual property protection and patent rights outside of the United States are even less predictable. As a result, the validity and enforceability of patents cannot be predicted with certainty. Moreover, we cannot be certain whether:

 

we were the first to conceive, reduce to practice, invent, or file the inventions covered by each of our issued patents and pending patent applications;
others will independently develop similar or alternative products, technologies, services or designs or duplicate any of our products, technologies, services or designs;
any patents issued to us will provide us with any competitive advantages, or will be challenged by third parties;
we will develop additional proprietary products, services, technologies or designs that are patentable; or
the patents of others will have an adverse effect on our business.

 

 The patents we own or license and those that may be issued to us in the future may be challenged, invalidated, rendered unenforceable or circumvented, and the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with proprietary protection or competitive advantages. Moreover, third parties could practice our inventions in territories where we do not have patent protection or in territories where they could obtain a compulsory license to our technology where patented. Such third parties may then try to import products made using our inventions into the United States or other territories. We cannot ensure that any of our pending patent applications will result in issued patents, or even if issued, predict the breadth, validity and enforceability of the claims upheld in our and other companies’ patents.

 

Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise use aspects of our processes and products that we regard as proprietary. Policing unauthorized use of our proprietary information and technology is difficult and can be costly, and our efforts to do so may not prevent misappropriation of our technologies. We may become engaged in litigation to protect or enforce our patent and other intellectual property rights or in International Trade Commission proceedings to abate the importation of goods that would compete unfairly with our products and, if unsuccessful, these actions could result in the loss of patent or other intellectual property rights protection for the key technologies on which our business strategy depends.

 

We rely in part on unpatented proprietary technology, and others may independently develop the same or similar technology or otherwise obtain access to our unpatented technology. We require employees, contractors, consultants, financial advisors, suppliers, and strategic partners to enter into confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements (as appropriate), but these agreements may not provide sufficient protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information.

 

 9 

 

The laws of certain countries do not protect intellectual property and proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States and, therefore, in certain jurisdictions, we may be unable to protect our products, services, technologies and designs adequately against unauthorized third-party copying, infringement or use, which could adversely affect our competitive position. To protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, we may initiate proceedings or litigation against third parties. Such proceedings or litigation may be necessary to protect our trade secrets or know-how, products, technologies, designs, brands, reputation, likeness, authorship works or other intellectual property rights. Such proceedings or litigation also may be necessary to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. Any proceedings or lawsuits that we initiate could be expensive, take significant time and divert management’s attention from other business concerns. Additionally, we may provoke third parties to assert claims against us, which could invalidate or narrow the scope of our own intellectual property rights. We may not prevail in any proceedings or lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may be commercially valuable. The occurrence of any of these events may adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

 

We have registered and applied to register certain of our trademarks in several jurisdictions worldwide. In some jurisdictions where we have applied to register our trademarks, other applications or registrations exist for the same, similar, or otherwise related products or services. If we are not successful in arguing that there is no likelihood of confusion between our marks and the marks that are the subject of the other applications or registrations owned by third parties, our applications may be denied, preventing us from obtaining trademark registrations and adequate protection for our marks in the relevant jurisdictions, which could impact our ability to build our brand identity and market our products and services in those jurisdictions. Whether or not our application is denied, third parties may claim that our trademarks infringe their rights. As a result, we could be forced to pay significant settlement costs or cease the use of these trademarks and associated elements of our brand in the United States or other jurisdictions.

 

Even in those jurisdictions where we are able to register our trademarks, competitors may adopt or apply to register similar trademarks to ours, may register domain names that mimic ours or incorporate our trademarks, or may purchase keywords that are identical or confusingly similar to our brand names as terms in Internet search engine advertising programs, which could impede our ability to build our brand identity and lead to confusion among potential customers of our products and services. If we are not successful in proving that we have prior rights in our marks and arguing that there is a likelihood of confusion between our marks and the marks of these third parties, our inability to prevent these third parties from using may negatively impact the strength, value and effectiveness of our brand names and our ability to market our products and prevent consumer confusion.

 

If we lose our rights under our third-party technology licenses, our operations could be adversely affected.

 

Our business depends in part on technology rights and software licensed from third parties. We could lose our exclusivity or other rights to use the technology under our licenses if we fail to comply with the terms and performance requirements of the licenses. In addition, certain licensors may terminate a license upon our breach and have the right to consent to sublicense arrangements. If we were to lose our rights under any of these licenses, or if we were unable to obtain required consents to future sublicenses, we could lose a competitive advantage in the market, and may even lose the ability to commercialize certain products or technologies completely. Either of these results could substantially decrease our revenues.

 

Our business depends in part on access to third-party platforms or technologies, and if the access is withdrawn, denied, or is not available on terms acceptable to us, or if the platforms or technologies change without notice to us, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

 

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With the growth of mobile devices and personal voice assistants, cloud services and AI, the number of supporting platforms has grown, and with it the complexity and increased need for us to have business and contractual relationships with the platform owners in order to produce products compatible with these platforms and enable access to and use of these platforms with our products. Our product strategy includes current and future products designed for use with third-party platforms or software, such as iPhone, Android phones, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, as well as gaming platforms. Our business in these categories relies on our access to the platforms of third parties, some of whom are our competitors. Platform owners that are competitors may limit or decline access to their platforms, and in any case have a competitive advantage in designing products for their own platforms and may produce products that work better, or are perceived to work better, than our products in connection with those platforms. As we expand the number of platforms and software applications with which our products are compatible, we may not be successful in launching products for those platforms or software applications and/or we may not be successful in establishing strong relationships with the new platform or software owners, which could negatively impact our ability to develop and produce high-quality products on a timely basis for those platforms and software applications. We may otherwise fail to navigate various new relationships, which could adversely affect our relationships with existing platform or software owners.

 

Our access to third-party platforms may also require paying a royalty or licensing fee, which lowers our product margins or may otherwise be on terms that are not acceptable to us. In addition, the third-party platforms or technologies used to interact with our product portfolio can be delayed in production or can change without prior notice to us, which can result in our having excess inventory, lower margins, or customer support issues.

 

If we are unable to access third-party platforms or technologies, or if our access is withdrawn, denied, or is not available on terms acceptable to us, or if the platforms or technologies are delayed or change without notice to us, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

 

If our customers are not satisfied with our technical support, firmware or software updates on some of our products, they may choose not to purchase our products, which would adversely impact our business and operating results.

 

Our business relies, in part, on our customers’ satisfaction with the technical support, firmware, software and security updates we provide to support our products. If we fail to provide technical support services and necessary updates that are responsive, satisfy our customers’ expectations and resolve issues that they encounter with our products, customers may choose not to purchase additional products and we may face brand and reputational harm, which could adversely affect our operating results.

 

Our use of open source software could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and could subject us to possible litigation.

 

We incorporate open source software into our products. Open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses. Some of these licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open source software, and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of a particular open source license or other license granting third parties certain rights of further use. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into software that we license from such provider, we could be required to disclose any of our source code that incorporates or is a modification of our licensed software. If an author or other third-party that distributes open source software that we use or license were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of the applicable license, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against those allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from offering or selling our products that contained the open source software and be required to comply with the foregoing conditions. Any of the foregoing could disrupt and harm our business and financial condition.

 

 11 

 

Our dependence on sales to VARs, resellers, and distributors increases the risks of managing our supply chain and may result in excess inventory or inventory shortages.

 

The majority of our various reseller relationships for our HMD products and their accessories could involve them taking inventory positions and reselling to multiple customers. Under some typical distributor relationships, we would not recognize revenue until the distributors sell the product to their end user customers and receive payment thereon; however, at this time we do not currently enter into these types of arrangements. Our distributor and VAR relationships may reduce our ability to forecast sales and increase risks to our business. Since our distributors and VARs would act as intermediaries between us and the end user customers or resellers, we would be required to rely on our distributors to accurately report inventory levels and production forecasts. This may require us to manage a more complex supply chain and monitor the financial condition and credit worthiness of our distributors and VARs and their major end user customers. Our failure to manage one or more of these risks could result in excess inventory or shortages that could adversely impact our operating results and financial condition.

 

Our operating results may be adversely impacted by worldwide political, economic and public health uncertainties and specific conditions in the markets we address.

 

Any worsening of global economic, financial, or public health conditions, including global pandemics, could materially adversely affect (i) our ability to raise, or the terms of needed capital; (ii) demand for our current and future products; and (iii) the supply of components for our products. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown or subsequent economic recovery, worldwide, or in the display industry.

  

Our results of operations may suffer if we are not able to successfully manage our increasing exposure to foreign exchange rate risks.

 

A substantial majority of our sales and cost of components are denominated in U.S. dollars. As our business grows, both our sales and production costs may increasingly be denominated in other currencies. Where such sales or production costs are denominated in other currencies, they are converted to U.S. dollars for the purpose of calculating any sales or costs to us. Our sales may decrease as a result of any appreciation of the U.S. dollar against these other currencies.

 

The majority of our current expenditures are incurred in U.S. dollars and many of our components come from countries that currently peg their currency against the U.S. dollar. If the pegged exchange rates change adversely or are allowed to float up, additional U.S. dollars will be required to fund our purchases of these components.

 

Although we do not currently enter into currency option contracts or engage in other hedging activities, we may do so in the future. There is no assurance that we will undertake any such hedging activities or that, if we do so, they will be successful in reducing the risks to us of our exposure to foreign currency fluctuations.

 

Due to our significant level of international operations, including the use of foreign contract manufactures, we are subject to international operational, financial, legal, political and public health risks which could harm our operating results.

 

A substantial part of our operations, including manufacturing of certain components used in our products, are outside of the United States and many of our customers and suppliers have some or all of their operations in countries other than the United States. Risks associated with our doing business outside of the United States include:

 

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compliance burdens and costs with a wide variety of foreign laws and regulations, particularly labor, environmental and other laws and regulations that govern our operations in those countries;
legal uncertainties regarding foreign taxes, tariffs, border taxes, quotas, export controls,
export licenses, import controls and other trade barriers;
economic instability and high levels of inflation in the countries of our suppliers and
customers, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, causing delays or reductions in orders for their products and therefore our sales;
political or public health instability, including global pandemics, in the countries in which
our suppliers operate;
changes or volatility in currency exchange rates;
difficulties in collecting accounts receivable and longer accounts receivable payment cycles; and
Any of these factors could harm our own, our suppliers’ and our customers’ international
operations and businesses and impair our and/or their ability to continue expanding into international markets.

 

We could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act or similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions in which we operate.

 

The global nature of our business and the significance of our international revenue create various domestic and local regulatory challenges and subject us to risks associated with our international operations. We operate in areas of the world that experience corruption by government officials to some degree and, in certain circumstances, compliance with anti-bribery and anticorruption laws may conflict with local customs and practices. Our global operations require us to import and export to and from several countries, which geographically expands our compliance obligations. In addition, changes in such laws could result in increased regulatory requirements and compliance costs which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. 

 

The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 (U.K. Bribery Act), and similar anti-bribery and anticorruption laws in other jurisdictions generally prohibit U.S.-based companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to another, or securing an advantage. In addition, U.S. public companies are required to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent their transactions and have an adequate system of internal accounting controls. Under the FCPA, U.S. companies may be held liable for the corrupt actions taken by directors, officers, employees, agents, or other strategic or local partners or representatives. As such, if we or our intermediaries fail to comply with the requirements of the FCPA or similar legislation, governmental authorities in the United States and elsewhere could seek to impose substantial civil and/or criminal fines and penalties which could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, operating results and financial condition.

 

We are subject to governmental export and import controls and economic sanctions laws that could subject us to liability and impair our ability to compete in international markets.

 

The U.S. and various foreign governments have imposed controls, export license requirements and restrictions on the import or export of some technologies. Our products are subject to U.S. export controls, including the Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations established by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls, and exports of our products must be made in compliance with these laws. Furthermore, U.S. export control laws and economic sanctions prohibit the provision of products and services to countries, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions. Even though we take precautions to prevent our products from being provided to targets of U.S. sanctions, our products, including our firmware updates, could be provided to those targets or provided by our customers despite such precautions. Any such provision could have negative consequences, including government investigations, penalties, and reputational harm. Our failure to obtain required import or export approval for our products could harm our international and domestic sales and adversely affect our revenue.

 

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If significant tariffs or other restrictions are placed and maintained on Chinese imports or any related counter-measures are taken by China, our revenue and results of operations may be materially harmed.

 

If significant tariffs or other restrictions are placed on Chinese imports or any related counter-measures are taken by China, our revenue and results of operations may be materially harmed. In July 2018, the Trump Administration introduced a list of thousands of categories of goods that begun facing tariffs of 10%, which may be increased to 25% in 2019 if a new trade deal with China is not concluded. These tariffs currently affect some of our products and we may be required to raise our prices on those products due to the tariffs, which may result in a loss of customers and harm our operating performance. If the existing tariffs are expanded or interpreted by a court or governmental agency to apply to any of our other products, we may be required to raise our prices on those products, which may further result in a loss of customers and harm our operating performance. It is possible further tariffs will be imposed on imports of our products, or that our business will be impacted by retaliatory trade measures taken by China or other countries in response to existing or future tariffs, causing us to raise prices or make changes to our operations, any of which could materially harm our revenue or operating results.

 

Changes in trade policy in the United States and other countries, including changes in trade agreements and the imposition of tariffs and the resulting consequences, may have adverse impacts on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

The U.S. government has indicated and demonstrated its intent to alter its approach to international trade policy through the renegotiation, and potential termination, of certain existing bilateral or multilateral trade agreements and treaties with, and the imposition of tariffs on a wide range of products and other goods from, China, countries in EMEA and other countries. Given our manufacturing in those countries, and our lack of manufacturing elsewhere, policy changes in the United States or other countries, such as the tariffs already proposed, implemented, and threatened, present particular risks for us. Tariffs already announced and implemented are having an adverse effect on certain of our products, tariffs announced but not yet implemented may have an adverse effect on many of our products, and threatened tariffs could adversely affect more or all of our products. There are also risks associated with retaliatory tariffs and resulting trade wars. We cannot predict future trade policy, the terms of any renegotiated trade agreements or treaties, or tariffs and their impact on our business. A trade war could have a significant adverse effect on world trade and the world economy. To the extent that trade tariffs and other restrictions imposed by the United States or other countries increase the price of, or limit the amount of, our products or components or materials used in our products imported into the United States or other countries, or create adverse tax consequences, the sales, cost or gross margin of our products may be adversely affected and the demand from our customers for products and services may be diminished. Uncertainty surrounding international trade policy and disputes and protectionist measures could also have an adverse effect on consumer confidence and spending. If we deem it necessary to alter all or a portion of our activities or operations in response to such policies, agreements or tariffs, our capital and operating costs may increase. Our ongoing efforts to address these risks may not be effective and may have long-term adverse effects on our operations and operating results that we may not be able to reverse. Such efforts may also take time to implement or to have an effect, and may result in adverse quarterly financial results or fluctuations in our quarterly financial results. As a result, changes in international trade policy, changes in trade agreements and tariffs could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

  

Any significant disruption to our ecommerce business could result in lost sales.

 

Our sales through our ecommerce channel have been growing. Sales through rotorriot.co, fatshark.com and our related web stores generally have higher profit margins than sales through resellers, and distributors. Online sales are subject to a number of risks. System interruptions or delays could cause potential customers to fail to purchase our products and could harm our brand. The operation of our direct to consumer ecommerce business depends on our ability to maintain the efficient and uninterrupted operation of online order-taking and fulfillment operations. Our ecommerce operations subject us to certain risks that could have an adverse effect on our operating results, including risks related to the computer systems that operate our website and related support systems, such as system failures, viruses, denial of services attacks, computer hackers and similar disruptions. If we are unable to continually add software and hardware, effectively upgrade our systems and network infrastructure and take other steps to improve the efficiency of our systems, system interruptions or delays could occur that would adversely affect our operating results.

 

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We utilize third-party vendors for our customer-facing ecommerce technology, portions of our order management system and fulfillment internationally. We depend on our technology vendors to manage “up-time” of the front-end ecommerce store, manage the intake of our orders, and export orders for fulfillment. Any failure on the part of our third-party ecommerce vendors or in our ability to transition third-party services effectively could result in lost sales and harm our business.

 

We may collect, store, process and use our customers’ personally identifiable information and other data, which subjects us to governmental regulation and other legal obligations related to privacy, information security and data protection. Any cybersecurity breaches or our actual or perceived failure to comply with such legal obligations by us, or by our third-party service providers or partners, could harm our business.

 

We may collect, store, process and use our customers’ personally identifiable information and other data in our transactions with them, and we rely on third parties that are not directly under our control to do so as well. While we take reasonable measures intended to protect the security, integrity and confidentiality of the personal information and other sensitive information we collect, store or transmit, we cannot guarantee that inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure will not occur, or that third parties will not gain unauthorized access to this information. While our privacy policies currently prohibit such activities, our third-party service providers or partners may engage in such activity without our knowledge or consent. If we or our third- party service providers were to experience a breach, disruption or failure of systems compromising our customers’ data, or if one of our third-party service providers or partners were to access our customers’ personal data without our authorization, our brand and reputation could be adversely affected, use of our products could decrease and we could be exposed to a risk of loss, litigation and regulatory proceedings.

 

Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, data collection, use of data and data protection is intensifying globally, and the personal information and other data we collect, store, process and use is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous jurisdictions around the world, especially in Europe. These laws often develop in ways we cannot predict and may materially increase our cost of doing business, particularly as we expand the nature and types of products we offer. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR"), which came into effect in the EU in May 2018 and superseded prior EU data protection legislation, imposes more stringent data protection requirements and provides for greater penalties for noncompliance.

 

Further, data protection legislation is also becoming increasingly common in the United States at both the federal and state level. For example, in June 2018, the State of California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the "CCPA"), which went into effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA requires companies that process information on California residents to make new disclosures to consumers about their data collection, use and sharing practices, allows consumers to opt out of certain data sharing with third parties and provides a new cause of action for data breaches. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws to impose standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of data. The burdens imposed by the CCPA and other similar laws that may be enacted at the federal and state level may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and/or to incur substantial expenditures in order to comply.

 

Cybersecurity risks could adversely affect our business and disrupt our operations.

 

 15 

 

The threats to network and data security are increasingly diverse and sophisticated. Despite our efforts and processes to prevent breaches, our devices, as well as our servers, computer systems, and those of third parties that we use in our operations are vulnerable to cybersecurity risks, including cyber-attacks such as viruses and worms, phishing attacks, denial-of-service attacks, physical or electronic break-ins, employee theft or misuse, and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our servers and computer systems or those of third parties that we use in our operations, which could lead to interruptions, delays, loss of critical data, unauthorized access to user data, and loss of consumer confidence. In addition, we may be the target of email scams that attempt to acquire personal information or company assets. Despite our efforts to create security barriers to such threats, we may not be able to entirely mitigate these risks. Any cyber-attack that attempts to obtain our or our users’ data and assets, disrupt our service, or otherwise access our systems, or those of third parties we use, if successful, could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition, be expensive to remedy, and damage our reputation. In addition, any such breaches may result in negative publicity, adversely affect our brand, decrease demand for our products and services, and adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

  

We may lose the services of key management personnel and may not be able to attract and retain other necessary personnel.

 

Changes in our management could have an adverse effect on our business, and in particular while our staff is relatively small with under 25 employees, we are dependent upon the active participation of several key management personnel, including Jeffrey Thompson, our founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chad Kapper, Rotor Riot’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Greg French, Fat Shark’s founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Allan Evans, Fat Shark’s Chief Executive Officer. Each of these executives are critical to the strategic direction and overall management of our company as well as our manufacturing, and research and development process. The loss of any of them could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results. We do not carry key person life insurance on any of our senior management or other key personnel. Greg French, the founder of Fat Shark on whom we expect to continue to rely, is a Canadian citizen, and has his principal residence in China and is tied by family relationship to Fat Shark’s principal manufacturing supplier and Allan Evans is a citizen of and resides in the Cayman Islands where Fat Shark and its subsidiaries are domiciled. If either becomes unable to legally or efficiently travel to or from work in the United States, China or elsewhere where there is dependence on the manufacturing supply chain, their ability to perform some of their duties could be materially adversely affected.

 

We will need to hire and retain highly skilled technical personnel as employees and as independent contractors in order to develop our products and grow our business. The competition for highly skilled technical, managerial, and other personnel is at times intense. Our recruiting and retention success is substantially dependent upon our ability to offer competitive salaries and benefits to our employees. We must compete with companies that possess greater financial and other resources than we do and that may be more attractive to potential employees and contractors. To be competitive, we may have to increase the compensation, bonuses, stock options and other fringe benefits we offer to employees in order to attract and retain such personnel. The costs of retaining or attracting new personnel may have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. If we fail to attract and retain the technical and managerial personnel required to be successful, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

   

We may acquire other businesses or receive offers to be acquired, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results.

 

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As part of our business strategy, we may make investments in complementary businesses, products, services, or technologies. We have not made any material acquisitions to date other than Rotor Riot and the acquisition of Fat Shark and, as a result, our ability as an organization to successfully acquire and integrate other companies, products, services or technologies is unproven. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by customers or investors. In addition, if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions, or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the revenue and operating results of the combined company could be adversely affected. Any integration process will require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology and accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition, each of which could affect our financial condition or the value of our capital stock. The sale of equity or issuance of debt to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations. Additionally, we may receive indications of interest from other parties interested in acquiring some or all of our business. The time required to evaluate such indications of interest could require significant attention from management, disrupt the ordinary functioning of our business and adversely affect our operating results.

 

Our failure to effectively manage growth could harm our business.

 

We intend to expand the number and types of products we sell. We will need to replace and regularly introduce on a timely basis new products and technologies, enhance existing products, and effectively stimulate customer demand for new products and upgraded or enhanced versions of our existing products.

 

The replacement and expansion of our products places a significant strain on our management, operations and engineering resources. Specifically, the areas that are strained most by these activities include the following:

 

New Product Launches: With the changes in and growth of our product portfolio, we will experience increased complexity in coordinating product development, manufacturing, and shipping. As this complexity increases, it places a strain on our ability to accurately coordinate the commercial launch of our products with adequate supply to meet anticipated customer demand and effectively market to stimulate demand and market acceptance. We have experienced delays in the past. If we are unable to scale and improve our product launch coordination, we could frustrate our customers and lose possible retail shelf space and product sales;

 

Existing Products Impacted by New Introductions: The introduction of new products or product enhancements may shorten the life cycle of our existing products, or replace sales of some of our current products, thereby offsetting the benefit of even a successful product introduction and may cause customers to defer purchasing our existing products in anticipation of the new products and potentially lead to challenges in managing inventory of existing products. We may also provide price protection to some of our retailers as a result of our new product introductions and reduce the prices of existing products. If we fail to effectively manage new product introductions, our revenue and profitability may be harmed; and

 

Forecasting, Planning and Supply Chain Logistics: With the changes in and growth of our product portfolio, we will experience increased complexity in forecasting customer demand, in planning for production, and in transportation and logistics management. If we are unable to scale and improve our forecasting, planning, production, and logistics management, we could frustrate our customers, lose product sales or accumulate excess inventory.

 

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Our facilities and information systems and those of our key suppliers could be damaged as a result of disasters or unpredictable events, which could have an adverse effect on our business operations.

 

Fat Shark operates the majority of its business from one location in George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands and Rotor Riot operates the majority of its business from one location in Orlando, Florida. The corporate headquarters of the Company is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We also rely on third-party manufacturing plants in the US and Asia and third-party logistics, sales and marketing facilities elsewhere in other parts of the world to provide key components for our products and services. If major disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms pandemics, fires, floods, wars, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, transportation disasters or other events occur in any of these locations, or the effect of climate change on any of these factors or our locations, or our information systems or communications network or those of any of our key component suppliers breaks down or operates improperly as a result of such events, our facilities or those of our key suppliers may be seriously damaged, and we may have to stop or delay production and shipment of our products. We may also incur expenses relating to such damages. If production or shipment of our products or components is stopped or delayed or if we incur any increased expenses as a result of damage to our facilities, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

   

Risks Related to Manufacturing

 

We do not control our contract manufacturers or suppliers or require them to comply with a formal code of conduct, and actions that they might take could harm our reputation and sales.

 

We do not control our contract manufacturers or suppliers, including their labor, environmental or other practices, or require them to comply with a formal code of conduct. Though we may seek to conduct periodic visits to some of our contract manufacturers and suppliers, these visits are not frequent or thorough enough to detect non-compliance with applicable laws and good industry practices. A violation of labor, environmental or other laws by our contract manufacturers or suppliers, or a failure of these parties to follow ethical business practices, could lead to negative publicity and harm our reputation. In addition, we may choose to seek alternative manufacturers or suppliers if these violations or failures were to occur. Identifying and qualifying new manufacturers or suppliers can be time consuming and we might not be able to substitute suitable alternatives in a timely manner or at an acceptable cost. Other consumer products companies have faced significant criticism for the actions of their manufacturers and suppliers, and we could face such criticism ourselves. Any of these events could adversely affect our brand, harm our reputation, reduce demand for our products and harm our ability to meet demand if we need to identify alternative manufacturers or suppliers.

 

Our principal manufacturer of HMDs is located in China and is owned by the wife of Fat Shark’s founder Greg French which could create conflicts of interest.

 

We rely on third-party suppliers, some of which are sole-source suppliers, to provide components for our products which may lead to supply shortages, long lead times for components, and supply changes, any of which could disrupt our supply chain and may increase our costs.

 

Our ability to meet customer demand depends, in part, on our ability to obtain timely and adequate delivery of components for our products. All of the components that go into the manufacturing are sourced from third-party suppliers.

 

Some of the key components used to manufacture our products come from a limited or single source of supply, or by a supplier that could potentially become a competitor. Our contract manufacturers generally purchase these components on our behalf from approved suppliers. We are subject to the risk of shortages and long lead times in the supply of these components and the risk that our suppliers discontinue or modify components used in our products. In addition, the lead times associated with certain components are lengthy and preclude rapid changes in quantities and delivery schedules. We have in the past experienced and may in the future experience component shortages, and the availability of these components may be unpredictable.

 

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If we lose access to components from a particular supplier or experience a significant disruption in the supply of products and components from a current supplier, we may be unable to locate alternative suppliers of comparable quality at an acceptable price, or at all, and our business could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we experience a significant increase in demand for our products, our suppliers might not have the capacity or elect not to meet our needs as they allocate components to other customers. Developing suitable alternate sources of supply for these components may be time-consuming, difficult and costly, and we may not be able to source these components on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which may adversely affect our ability to meet our development requirements or to fill our orders in a timely or cost-effective manner. Identifying a suitable supplier is an involved process that requires us to become satisfied with the supplier’s quality control, responsiveness and service, financial stability, labor and other ethical practices, and if we seek to source materials from new suppliers, there can be no assurance that we could do so in a manner that does not disrupt the manufacture and sale of our products.

 

Our reliance on single source, or a small number of suppliers involves a number of additional risks, including risks related to supplier capacity constraints, price increases, timely delivery, component quality, failure of a key supplier to remain in business and adjust to market conditions, delays in, or the inability to execute on, a supplier roadmap for components and technologies; and natural disasters, fire, acts of terrorism or other catastrophic events, including global pandemics.

 

We do not currently own or operate any manufacturing facilities. Certain components and services necessary for the manufacture of our products are available from only a limited number of sources, and other components and services are only available from a single source. We currently purchase almost all of components for HMDs from manufacturers related by marriage to Greg French, the Fat Shark founder. Our relationship generally is on a purchase order basis and these firms do not have a contractual obligation to provide adequate supply or acceptable pricing to us on a long-term basis. These firms could discontinue sourcing merchandise for us at any time. If any of these firms were to discontinue its relationship with us, or discontinue providing specific products to us, and we are unable to contract with a new supplier that can meet our requirements, or if they or such other supplier were to suffer a disruption in their production, we could experience disruption of our inventory flow, a decrease in sales and the possible need to re-design our products. Any such event could disrupt our operations and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Several new and alternative suppliers have begun offering components suitable for use in our products. With new tooling and electronics, any one of these alternative displays could be incorporated into our products but our costs of production could be higher, they may offer less performance, and, as a result, make our products too costly and less desirable.

  

The manufacture of HMDs encompasses several complex processes and several steps of our production processes are dependent upon certain critical machines and tools which could result in delivery interruptions, which could adversely affect our operating results.

 

Our product technology and manufacturing processes are evolving which can result in production challenges and difficulties. We may be unable to produce our products in sufficient quantity and quality to maintain existing customers and attract new customers. In addition, we may experience manufacturing problems which could result in delays in delivery of orders or product introductions.

 

Several steps of our production processes are dependent upon certain critical machines and tools which could result in delivery interruptions and foregone revenues.

 

We currently have little equipment redundancy in manufacturing locales. If we experience any significant disruption in manufacturing or a serious failure of a critical piece of equipment, we may be unable to supply products to our customers in a timely manner. Interruptions in our manufacturing could be caused by equipment problems, the introduction of new equipment into the manufacturing process or delays in the delivery of new manufacturing equipment. Lead-time for delivery, installation, testing, repair and maintenance of manufacturing equipment can be extensive. We have experienced production interruptions in the past and no assurance can be given that we will not lose potential sales or be able to meet production orders due to future production interruptions in our manufacturing lines.

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Our products are subject to lengthy development cycles.

 

Some HMDs are subject to lengthy product development phases. The time elapsed between initial sampling of our products, the custom design of our products to meet specific product requirements, and the ultimate incorporation of our products into salable products is significant, often with a duration of between one to two years. If our products fail to meet our customers’ cost, performance, or technical requirements or if unexpected technical challenges arise in the integration of our products into consumer products, our operating results could be significantly and adversely affected. Long delays in achieving customer qualification and incorporation of our products also could adversely affect our business. Many HMD companies including Fat Shark are introducing digital HMDs which could create shortages of components and provides an opportunity for companies with significantly greater resources than us to accelerate migration to digital products in a manner or timeline which we cannot meet, which could cause us to lose market share and harm our business and prospects.

 

We depend on third parties to provide integrated circuit chip sets and other critical components for use in our products.

 

We do not manufacture the integrated circuit chip sets, optics, micro-displays, backlights, projection engines, printed circuit boards or other electronic components which are used in our products. Instead, we purchase them from third-party suppliers or rely on third-party independent contractors for these integrated circuit chip sets and other critical components, some of which are customized or custom made for us. We also may use third parties to assemble all or portions of our products. Some of these third-party contractors and suppliers are small companies with limited financial resources. If any of these third-party contractors or suppliers were unable or unwilling to supply these HMDs may decrease. As the availability of components decreases, the cost of acquiring those components ordinarily increases. High growth product categories such as the consumer electronics and mobile phone markets have experienced chronic shortages of components during periods of exceptionally high demand. If we do not properly anticipate the need for or procure critical components, we may pay higher prices for those components, our gross margins may decrease and we may be unable to meet the demands of our customers and end-users, which could reduce our competitiveness, cause a decline in our market share and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

 

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

 

In accordance with General Instruction B.2 of Form 8-K, the information in this Current Report on Form 8-K under Item 7.01, including Exhibit 99.1 and 99.2 hereto, shall not be deemed to be "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of the Company's filings under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, whether made before or after the date hereof and regardless of any general incorporation language in such filings, except to the extent expressly set forth by specific reference in such a filing.

 

  (d) Exhibits

 

Exhibit Number   Description
Exhibit 10.1   Share Purchase Agreement dated September 30, 2020.
Exhibit 99.1   Press Release dated October 5, 2020.
Exhibit 99.2   Investor Presentation October 2020.

 

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SIGNATURES

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 

  RED CAT HOLDINGS, Inc.   
       
Dated: October 5, 2020 By: /s/ Jeffrey Thompson  
    Name: Jeffrey Thompson  
    Title: Chief Executive Officer  

 

 

 

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