Organization and Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization and Business

Organization and Business

Company Overview

Inuvo is a technology company that develops and sells information technology solutions for marketing. These platforms predictively identify and message online audiences for any product or service across devices, channels and formats, including video, mobile, connected TV, display, social and native. These capabilities allow Inuvo's clients to engage with their customers and prospects in a manner that drives engagement from the first contact with the consumer. Inuvo facilitates the delivery of hundreds of millions of marketing messages to consumers every single month and counts among its clients, numerous world- renowned names in industries that have included retail, automotive, insurance, health care, technology, telecommunications and finance.

The Inuvo solution incorporates a proprietary form of artificial intelligence, or AI, branded the IntentKey. This sophisticated machine learning technology uses interactions with Internet content as a source of information from which to predict consumer intent. The AI includes a continually updated database of over 500 million machine profiles which Inuvo utilizes to deliver highly aligned online audiences to its clients. Inuvo earns revenue when consumers view or click on its client’s messages.

The Inuvo business scales through account management activity with existing clients and by adding new clients through sales activity.

As part of the Inuvo technology strategy, it owns a collection of websites including alot.com and earnspendlive.com, where Inuvo creates content in health, finance, travel, careers, auto, education and living categories. These sites provide the means to test the Inuvo technologies, while also delivering high quality consumers to clients through the interaction with proprietary content in the form of images, videos, slideshows and articles.

There are many barriers to entry associated with the Inuvo business model, including a proficiency in large scale information processing, predictive software development, marketing data products, analytics, artificial intelligence, integration to the internet of things (IOT), and the relationships required to execute within the IOT. Inuvo's intellectual property is protected by 18 issued and seven pending patents.

Mergers Termination

On June 20, 2019, Inuvo entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger Termination Agreement (the “Merger Termination Agreement”) with ConversionPoint Technologies Inc., a Delaware corporation (“CPT”), ConversionPoint Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Parent”), CPT Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation, (“CPT Merger Sub”), and CPT Cigar Merger Sub, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“Inuvo Merger Sub”), which, among other things, (1) terminated the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated November 2, 2018, by and among Inuvo, CPT, Parent, CPT Merger Sub, and Inuvo Merger Sub, as amended (the “Merger Agreement”), pursuant to which Inuvo would have merged with and into Inuvo Merger Sub and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent, and CPT would have merged with and into CPT Merger Sub and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent (the “Mergers”), and (2) terminated each of the Support Agreements that were entered into by certain officers and directors of Inuvo and the parties to the Merger Agreement. The Merger Agreement was terminated as a result of Parent’s inability to fulfill the closing condition of the Mergers that Parent raise $36,000,000 in gross proceeds from an equity, debt, or equity-linked offering of its securities which no longer obligated Inuvo to consummate the Mergers contemplated by the Merger Agreement.

Concurrently with the execution of the Merger Termination Agreement, CPT Investments, LLC, a California limited liability company and an affiliate of CPT (“CPT Investments”), and Inuvo entered into a certain Inuvo Note Termination Agreement (the “Note Termination Agreement”) and agreed to (1) terminate and cancel the 10% Senior Unsecured Subordinated Convertible Promissory Note, dated November 1, 2018, executed by Inuvo in favor of CPT Investments (the “CPTI Note”), which as of June 20, 2019, had $1,063,288 in accrued principal and interest outstanding (the “Outstanding Indebtedness”) by July 20, 2019, (2) effective immediately, terminate all conversion rights under the CPTI Note to convert amounts outstanding into shares of Inuvo’s common stock, (3) terminate the Securities Purchase Agreement, dated November 1, 2018, by and between Inuvo and CPT Investments, and (4) terminate the Registration Rights Agreement, dated November 1, 2018, by and between Inuvo and CPT Investments.

The Merger Termination Agreement provided that the termination fee of $2,800,000 to be paid to Inuvo (the “Termination Fee”) for failure to fulfill the Financing Condition would be satisfied as follows:

(1) $1,063,288 of the Termination Fee was satisfied in consideration of the termination and cancellation of the Outstanding Indebtedness pursuant to the CPTI Note Termination Agreement that was approved by CPT’s senior lenders Montage Capital II, L.P. and Partners for Growth IV, L.P. and CPT’s issuance of a replacement note to CPT Investments that was entered into in July 2019;

(2) $1,611,712 of the Termination Fee was satisfied by CPT transferring all of the assets related to CPT’s programmatic and RTB advertising solutions business conducted through managed services and a proprietary SaaS solution free and clear of all liabilities, encumbrances, or liens, to Inuvo. The enterprise valuation of the ReTargeter Business was determined to be $2.57 million.

(3) CPT paid $125,000 to Inuvo on September 15, 2019 to be contributed to the settlement of ongoing litigation with respect to the Mergers.

On September 30, 2019, Inuvo paid its obligation of $250,000 under a confidential settlement agreement that it entered into on June 20, 2019 resolving certain outstanding litigation related to the Mergers. Under the Merger Termination Agreement, CPT and Inuvo agreed to mutually release all claims that each party had against the other, as well as certain affiliated entities of each. Inuvo, however, will be able to pursue any claims against CPT and its affiliates for breaches of the Merger Termination Agreement.

Liquidity

The change in operating assets and liabilities during 2020 was a use of cash of $5,599,335 primarily due to a net loss of $7,304,569, a decrease in the accounts payable balance by $2,271,578, partially offset with the decrease in the accounts receivable balance of $1,317,508 and the increase in accrued expenses and other liabilities balance by $623,576. Our terms are such that we generally collect receivables prior to paying trade payables. Media sales typically have slower payment terms than the terms of related payables.

Our principal sources of liquidity are the sale of our common stock, our borrowings under our credit facility with Hitachi, described in Note 6, and borrowings from non-bank financial institutions (see Note 7). During March 2020 and April 2020, we raised approximately $1.5 million in gross proceeds, before expenses, through sales of our common stock and in April 2020 we received a $1.1 million PPP Loan. On June 8, 2020, we raised an additional $5.5 million in gross proceeds, before expenses, through the sale of our common stock and on July 27, 2020, we raised an additional $10.75 million in gross proceeds, before expenses, through sales of our common stock. On January 19, 2021, we raised an additional $8.0 million in gross proceeds, before expenses, through the sale of our common stock, and on January 22, 2021, we raised an additional $6.25 million in gross proceeds, before expenses, through sales of our common stock.

In April 2020, the Company experienced a significant reduction in advertiser marketing budgets across both the ValidClick and IntentKey platforms as a direct consequence of COVID-19. These reductions have adversely impacted our overall revenue throughout 2020. We are unable at this time to quantify the ultimate long-term impact on our company. As a result, in May 2020 and June 2020 we implemented a temporary compensation change for senior officers and employees. Certain employees with salaries in excess of $100,000 per year had forgone a percentage of their salary. We have curtailed expenses, including compensation and travel for the months of May and June, and we issued a work from home policy to protect our employees and their families from virus transmission associated with co-workers. As a result of this uncertainty we are focusing our resources on areas we believe have immediate revenue potential and attempting to reduce expenses where necessary with as little disruption on our daily operations as possible. Should revenues continue to turn downwards or fail to return to historical levels, we may not be able to offset expenses quickly enough.

On October 7, 2020, we held a Special Meeting of Stockholders for the purpose of approving and adopting the ratification and validation of the amendment to our articles of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock that we may issue from 60,000,000 to 100,000,000. The proposal was approved.

On December 16, 2020, stockholders approved an amendment to our articles of incorporation increasing the number of authorized shares of common stock, $0.001 par value per share from 100,000,000 to 150,000,000.

Revisions of Previously Issued Consolidated Financial Statements

During the second quarter of 2020, the Company identified an error in the accounting for deferred tax asset valuation allowance originating in 2012 and continuing in its previously issued 2019 annual consolidated financial statements and the first quarter of 2020. Although the Company assessed the materiality of the error and concluded that the error was not material to the previously issued annual or interim financial statements, the Company is revised its previously issued 2019 annual balance sheet to correct for the error in connection with the filing of its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2020. Additionally, in connection with the filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the Company has disclosed the impact of the revision to the consolidated balance sheet to correct for the impact of the error. See Note 19, "Revisions of Previously Issued Consolidated Year-end Financial Statements" for reconciliations between as reported and as revised amounts as of and for the period ended December 31, 2019 and 2018.