Smith Micro Software, Inc.: Form 10-K for the period ended Dec 31, 2023
Filed with the SEC on Feb 26, 2024 and accepted by EDGAR at Feb 26, 2024, 16:35 ET.
Business
As filed, 16,372 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
General
Smith Micro provides software solutions that simplify and enhance the mobile experience to some of the leading wireless service providers around the globe. From enabling the Digital Family Lifestyle™ to providing powerful voice messaging capabilities, we strive to enrich today’s connected lifestyles while creating new opportunities to engage consumers via smartphones and consumer Internet of Things ("IoT") devices. Our portfolio includes family safety software solutions to support families in the digital age and a wide range of products for creating, sharing, and monetizing rich content, such as visual voice messaging, retail content display optimization and performance analytics on any product set.
We continue to innovate and evolve our business to respond to industry trends and maximize opportunities in growing and evolving markets, such as digital lifestyle services and online safety, “Big Data” analytics, automotive telematics, and the consumer IoT marketplace. The key to our longevity, however, is not simply technological innovation, but our focus on understanding our customers’ needs and delivering value.
Historically we have provided white label Family Safety applications to all three Tier 1 wireless carriers in the United States; however, our Family Safety contract with one of our U.S. Tier 1 customers terminated effective June 30, 2023, with post-termination services ending in November 2023. The revenues associated with that customer contract constituted approximately 36% of our total revenues for 2023. In 2024, we expect no further revenues related to that contract. To address the impact of the contract termination, starting in the first quarter of 2023, we undertook restructuring efforts that resulted in the elimination of approximately 26% of the Company's global workforce. These actions, coupled with other cost reduction measures taken, have resulted in a 26% reduction in operating expenses in 2023 as compared to 2022.
Despite that contract termination, we continue to believe that we remain strategically positioned to offer our market-leading family safety platform to most U.S. mobile subscribers. Since our acquisitions of Circle Media Labs, Inc.'s ("Circle") operator business in 2020 and the Family Safety Mobile Business from Avast plc ("Avast") in April 2021, we have been focused on migrating those customers from the acquired software platforms to our flagship SafePath® platform, with the first such migration being completed during the first quarter of 2022 at one of our U.S. Tier 1 carrier customers. Another U.S. Tier 1 carrier customer was successfully launched on the SafePath platform during the third quarter of 2023. We believe that with these transitions to the SafePath platform now complete, we have an opportunity to increase the respective subscriber bases, and in turn, grow the revenues associated with the U.S.Tier 1 carriers. Further, we executed a new, multi-year Family Safety agreement with a major Tier 1 carrier in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2023, which is anticipated to launch in 2024.
The Company was incorporated in California in November 1983 and reincorporated in Delaware in June 1995. Our principal executive offices are located at 5800 Corporate Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15237 and our telephone number is (412) 837-5300. Our website address is www.smithmicro.com (http://www.smithmicro.com), and we make our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) available on the Investor Relations page of our website. Information contained on our website does not constitute a part of this Report. Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “SMSI.”
Business Segments
We currently have one reportable operating segment: Wireless.
The wireless industry continues to undergo rapid change on all fronts as connected devices, mobile applications, and digital content are consumed by users who want information, high-speed wireless connectivity and entertainment, anytime, anywhere. While most of us think about being “connected” in terms of computers, tablets and smartphones, the consumer IoT market is creating a world where almost anything can be connected to the wireless Internet. Wearable devices such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, pet trackers and GPS locators, as well as smart home devices, are now commonplace, enabling people, pets, and things to be connected to the “Internet of Everything.” These devices have created an entire ecosystem of over-the-top (“OTT”) apps that provide products over the Internet to bypass traditional distribution methods, while expanding how communication service providers can provide value to mobile consumers.
Although there are numerous business opportunities associated with pervasive connectivity, there are also numerous challenges, including:
- The average age by which most children use smartphones and other connected devices continues to decrease. As such, parents and guardians must be proactive in managing and combating digital lifestyle issues such as excessive screen time, cyberbullying, and online safety;
- As IoT use cases continue to proliferate and scale, management complexity, security and interoperability must be addressed efficiently and correctly;
- Mobile network operators (“MNO”) are being marginalized by messaging applications, and face growing competitive pressure from cable multiple system operators (“MSO”) and others deploying Wi-Fi networks to attract mobile users;
- Enterprises face increasing pressure to mobilize workforces, operations, and customer engagement, but lack the expertise and technologies needed to leverage mobile technology securely and cost-effectively;
- The ubiquity and convenience of e-commerce has created the need for consumer-facing brands to reimagine brick-and-mortar retail experiences; and
- The change in dynamics of work, school and home life has led to an increased use of mobile devices for work, education and entertainment which has given rise to a new set of challenges and issues.
To address these challenges, Smith Micro offers the following solutions:
Products
SafePath®– Comprised of SafePath Family™, SafePath IoT™, SafePath Home™, and SafePath Premium™, the SafePath product suite provides comprehensive and easy-to-use tools to protect family digital lifestyles and manage connected devices both inside and outside the home. As a carrier-grade, white-label platform, SafePath empowers MNO and cable operators to bring to market full-featured, on-brand family safety solutions that provide in-demand services to mobile subscribers. These solutions include location tracking, parental controls, driver safety functionality, and enhanced AI/machine learning to optimize and customize families' online experience, provide cyberbulling protection, social media intelligence, and public safety notifications for parents or guardiancs. Delivered to end-users as value-added services, SafePath-based solutions activate new revenue streams for MNOs while helping to increase brand affinity and reduce subscriber churn. In 2024, we plan to deploy and launch SafePath Global™, a new deployment and launch model that will allow MNOs to rapidly deliver SafePath to their users with faster time-to-market, minimal reliance on MNO's resources, and easy customer onboarding, and SafePath OS™, a software-only solution designed to be pre-installed and configured on mobile devices to enable MNOs to offer a kids phone with the features and protections of our SafePath digital family software solution out of the box.
ViewSpot® – Our retail display management platform provides wireless carriers and retailers with a way to bring powerful on-screen, interactive demos to life. These engaging in-store demo experiences deliver consistent, secure, and targeted content that can be centrally managed and updated via ViewSpot Studio. With the feature set provided by the ViewSpot platform, wireless carriers and other smartphone retailers can easily customize and optimize the content loops displayed on demo devices so that it resonates with in-store shoppers. Interactive demos created in ViewSpot can be experienced on Android smart devices. We continue to develop and expand functionality of our ViewSpot solution in order to enhance the utility and usability of ViewSpot as well as giving MNOs greater control and autonomy over their content with ViewSpot Studio improvements.
CommSuite® – The CommSuite premium messaging platform helps mobile service providers deliver a next-generation voicemail experience to mobile subscribers, while monetizing a legacy cost-center. CommSuite Visual Voicemail (“VVM”) and Premium Visual Voicemail ("PVVM") quickly and easily allows users to manage voice messages just like email or SMS with reply, forwarding and social sharing options. CommSuite also enables multi-language Voice-to-Text (“VTT”) transcription messaging, which facilitates convenient message consumption for users by reading versus listening. The CommSuite platform is available to both postpaid premium subscribers as well as prepaid subscribers and is installed on millions of Android handsets in the United States.
Marketing and Sales Strategy
Because of our broad product portfolio, deep integration and product development experience and flexible business models we can quickly bring to market innovative solutions that support our customers’ needs, which creates new revenue opportunities and differentiates their products and services from their competitors.
Our marketing and sales strategy is as follows:
Leverage Operator Relationships. We continue to capitalize on our strong relationships with the world’s leading MNOs and MSOs. These customers serve as our primary distribution channel, providing access to hundreds of millions of end-users around the world.
Focus on High-Growth Markets. We continue to focus on providing digital lifestyle solutions, analytics/Big Data solutions, premium messaging services, and visual retail content management solutions.
Expand our Customer Base. In addition to growing our business with current customers, we look to add new MNO and MSO customers worldwide, as well as to expand into new partnerships as we extend the reach of our product platforms within the connected lifestyle ecosystem.
Key Revenue Contributors
In our business, we market and sell our products primarily to large MNOs and MSOs, so there are a limited number of actual and potential customers for our current products, resulting in significant customer concentration. With the launch of SafePath Global, we plan to expand our customer reach more easily to smaller MNOs and MSOs.
As noted above, one of the Company's U.S. Tier 1 carrier customers terminated its family safety contract with Smith Micro, effective June 30, 2023, and elected to continue to receive services under the contract for a transitional period through November 30, 2023. The revenues associated with that customer contract were approximately 36% of our total revenues for 2023. We do not anticipate any further revenue from this contract in 2024.
Customer Service and Technical Support
We provide technical support and customer service through our online knowledge base, email, and live chat. Our operator customers generally provide their own primary customer support functions and rely on us for support to their technical support personnel.
Product Development
The software industry, particularly the wireless market, is characterized by rapid and frequent changes in technology and user needs. We work closely with industry groups and customers, both current and potential, to help us anticipate changes in technology and determine future customer needs. Software functionality depends upon the capabilities of the related hardware. Accordingly, we maintain engineering relationships with various hardware manufacturers, and we develop our software in tandem with their product development. Our engineering relationships with manufacturers, as well as with our major customers, are central to our product development efforts. We remain focused on the development and expansion of our technology, particularly in the wireless space.
Competition
The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and subject to rapid changes in technology. These conditions create new opportunities for Smith Micro, as well as for our competitors, and we expect new competitors to continue to enter the market. We not only compete with other software vendors for new customer contracts, in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving market we also compete to acquire technology and qualified personnel.
We believe that the principal competitive factors affecting the mobile software market include domain expertise, product features, usability, quality, price, customer service, speed to market and effective sales and marketing efforts. Although we believe that our products currently compete favorably with respect to these factors, there can be no assurance that we can maintain our competitive position against current and potential competitors. We also believe that the market for our software products has been and will continue to be characterized by significant price competition. A material reduction in the price we obtain for our products would negatively affect our profitability.
Many of our existing and potential customers have the resources to develop products internally that would compete directly with our product offerings. As such, these customers may opt to discontinue the purchase of our products in the future. Our future performance is therefore substantially dependent upon the extent to which existing customers elect to purchase software from us rather than designing and developing their own software.
Proprietary Rights and Licenses
We protect our intellectual property through a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, intellectual property laws, confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions. We have United States and foreign patents and pending patent applications that relate to various aspects of our products and technology. We have also registered, and applied for the registration of, U.S. and international trademarks, service marks, domain names, and copyrights. We will continue to apply for such protections in the future as we deem necessary to protect our intellectual property. We seek to avoid unauthorized use and disclosure of our proprietary intellectual property by requiring employees and third parties with access to our proprietary information to execute confidentiality agreements with us and by restricting access to our source code.
Our customers license our products and/or access our offerings pursuant to written agreements. Our customer agreements contain restrictions on reverse engineering, duplication, disclosure, and transfer of licensed software, and restrictions on access and use of software as a service ("SaaS").
Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary technology and our intellectual property rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or obtain and use our technology to develop products and technology with the same functionality as our products and technology. Policing unauthorized use of our technology and intellectual property rights is difficult, and we may not be able to detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights or take effective steps to enforce our intellectual property rights.
Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2023, we had a total of 231 employees within the following departments: 153 in engineering and operations, 55 in sales and marketing, and 23 in management and administration. We are not subject to any collective bargaining agreement, and we believe that our relationships with our employees are good. We believe that our strength and competitive advantage is our people. We value the skills, strengths, and perspectives of our diverse team and foster a participatory workplace that enables people to get involved in making decisions. The Company provides various training and development opportunities to foster an environment in which employees are encouraged to be creative thinkers who are driven, focused, and interested and able to advance their knowledge and skills in ever-changing technology.
Risk factors
As filed, 58,205 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
Our future operating results are highly uncertain. Before deciding to invest in our common stock or to maintain or change your investment, you should carefully consider the risks described below, in addition to the other information contained in this Report and in our other filings with the SEC, including our other Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also affect our business operations. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be seriously harmed. In that event, the market price for our common stock could decline and you may lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Related to our Business Operations
We derive a significant portion of our revenues from sales to a concentrated number of clients, and a reduction in sales to any of them have adversely impacted, and in the future may adversely impact, our revenues and operating results.
We sell our wireless products and solutions primarily to large wireless carriers, so there are a limited number of actual and potential customers for our products, resulting in significant customer concentration. For the year ended December 31, 2023, sales to our three largest customers comprised 41%, 35%, and 13% of our revenues. No other customer was greater than 10% of our revenues individually. As a result of the termination of our family safety contract with our largest customer in 2023, the percentage of our revenues that will be attributable to our other two largest customers is likely to grow in future years if we are not successful in attracting new customers.
Because of our relatively high customer concentration, a small number of significant customers possess a relative level of pricing and negotiating power over us, enabling them to achieve advantageous pricing and other contractual terms, including the ability to terminate their agreements with us with a limited amount of notice. In addition, because our contracts generally provide our customers with the right and license, but not the obligation, to deploy our solutions to their end users, the existence of a contract does not guarantee that our solutions will be deployed as widely as we expect or at all.
Any material decrease in our sales to any of these customers, including the termination of contracts with any of these customers or a customer's curtailment or cessation of offering our solutions to their end users, would materially affect our revenue and profitability. The reduction in sales or termination of relationships with any of these customers would also increase the customer concentration and risk as to our remaining large customers.
If there are delays in the distribution of our products or if customer negotiations for our new products cannot occur on a timely basis, we may not be able to generate sufficient revenues to meet the needs of the business in the foreseeable future or at all.
Our growth depends in part on our customers’ ability and willingness to timely launch and deliver our products and services, to promote our products and services and to attract and retain new end user customers or achieve other goals outside of our control.
We sell our wireless products for use on handheld devices primarily to our wireless carrier customers, who deploy our products for use by their end user customers. Our wireless carrier customers’ launch of new or updated releases of our products and services may require that we enter into new or amended contracts with them and requires resource and scheduling commitments by our wireless carrier customers and the completion of their internal design, qualification, testing, and other go-to-market processes and approvals, many of which are outside of our control. In the event that we are unable to complete the necessary contract processes, or that our wireless carrier customers withhold or delay the commitment of resources or the completion of necessary internal processes or approvals, we may not be able to launch our new or updated products or services within the timeframes that we expect or at all, and our revenue and financial performance may be adversely affected. In addition, the success of our customers, and their ability and willingness to market to their end users the services that are supported by our products, is critical to our future success. Our ability to generate revenues from our software products and services is also constrained by our carrier customers’ ability to attract and retain customers. We have limited input into or influence upon their marketing efforts and sales and customer retention activities. If our large carrier customers fail to maintain or grow demand for their services, revenues or revenue growth from our products designed for use on mobile devices will decline and our results of operations will suffer.
If we are unable to retain key personnel, the loss of their services could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our future performance depends in significant part upon the continued service of our senior management and other key technical personnel. We do not have employment agreements with our key employees. The loss of the services of our key employees could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our future success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain, and motivate qualified personnel, particularly highly skilled engineers involved in the ongoing research and development required to develop and enhance our products. Competition for these employees remains high and employee retention is a common problem in our industry. Our inability to attract and retain the highly trained technical personnel that are essential to our product development, marketing, service, and support teams may limit the rate at which we can generate revenue, develop new products or product enhancements, and generally would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Security breaches, improper access to or disclosure of our data, our customers’ data or their end users’ data, other hacking attacks on our systems or the third-party systems that we use, or other cyber incidents and privacy breaches could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.
We and/or the third-party systems that we use to deliver our products and services may be subject to cyber-attacks by third parties seeking unauthorized access to our data or our customers’ or their end users’ data or to disrupt our ability to provide service. Our products and services involve the collection, storage, processing, and transmission of data. The uninterrupted operation of our hosted solutions and the confidentiality and security of our data, our customers’ and their end users’ data, and other third-party information and materials is critical to our business. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of our data or our customers’ data or their users’ data, including personal information from users, or of the other third party information and materials in our possession or control, including pre-release mobile devices in our custody, could result in the loss, modification, disclosure, destruction, or other misuse of such data or materials, which could harm our business and reputation, subject us to material liability and diminish our competitive position. In addition, computer malware, viruses, and general hacking have become more prevalent and may occur on our systems or on the third-party systems that we use. Such breaches and attacks may cause interruptions to the services we provide, degrade the user experience, cause our customers and their users to lose confidence and trust in our products and services, impair our internal systems or the third-party systems that we use, and result in financial harm to us.
If we are unable to protect, or our customers and mobile device manufacturer partners perceive that we are unable to protect, the security and privacy of information, data and materials in our care, our growth could be materially adversely affected, and we could be subject to material liability. A security or privacy breach may:
- cause our customers to lose confidence in our solutions;
- cause our mobile device manufacturer partners to cease doing business with us;
- harm our reputation;
- expose us to material liability; and
- increase our expense from potential remediation costs.
While we believe we use proven applications and have established adequate physical and technological safeguards designed for facility security, data security and integrity to process electronic transactions, there can be no assurance that these applications and safeguards will be adequate to prevent a security breach or that in the event of a security breach we will be able to react in a timely manner, or that our remediation efforts will be successful. We also cannot be certain that these applications and safeguards will be or remain sufficient to address changing market conditions or the security and privacy concerns of existing and potential customers and device manufacturer partners. Our efforts to protect our data, our customers’ and their end users' data and the other third party information and materials we receive, and to disable undesirable activities on our systems, may also be unsuccessful due to software bugs or other technical malfunctions, employee, contractor, or vendor error or malfeasance, including defects or vulnerabilities in our vendors’ information technology systems or offerings, breaches of security of our facilities or technical infrastructure, or other threats that may evolve in the future. In addition, our customers and end users may use our products and services in a manner which violates cybersecurity or data privacy laws in one or more jurisdictions. Any significant or high-profile security breach, data privacy breach or violation of data privacy laws could result in the loss of business and reputation, litigation against us, liquidated and other damages, and regulatory investigations and penalties that could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Interruptions or delays in service from data center hosting facilities could impair the delivery of our service and harm our business.
We currently serve our customers from data center hosting facilities. Any damage to, or failure of, such facilities generally could result in interruptions in our service. Interruptions in our service may reduce our revenue, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to terminate their on-demand services, and adversely affect our renewal rates and our ability to attract new customers.
The success of our products depends upon effective operation with operating systems, devices, networks, and standards that we do not control and on our continued relationships with mobile operating system providers and device manufacturers. Changes in our products or to those operating systems, devices, networks, or standards, or interference with those relationships may seriously harm our customers’ ability to retain or attract new users and may harm our revenue and growth.
We are dependent on the interoperability of our products with popular operating systems, devices, networks, and standards that we do not control. For example, we depend upon the interoperability of our mobile products with the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. Any changes, bugs or technical issues in such systems, or changes in our relationships with mobile operating system partners, handset manufacturers or mobile carriers, or in their terms of service or policies that degrade our products’ functionality, reduce, or eliminate our ability to distribute our products, or give preferential treatment to competitive products could adversely affect the usage of our products.
We maintain relationships with mobile device manufacturers which provide us with insights into product development and emerging technologies. These insights allow us to keep abreast of, or to anticipate, market trends and help us to serve our current and prospective customers. Mobile device manufacturers are under no obligation to continue providing us with these valuable insights. If we are unable to maintain our existing relationships with mobile device manufacturers, if we fail to enter into relationships with additional mobile device manufacturers, or if mobile device manufacturers favor one of our competitors, our ability to provide products that meet our current and prospective customers’ needs could be compromised and our reputation and future revenue prospects could suffer. For example, if our software does not function well with a popular mobile device because we have not maintained a relationship with its manufacturer, carriers seeking to provide that device to their respective customers may choose an alternative solution. Even if we succeed in establishing and maintaining these relationships, they may not result in additional customers or revenues.
We rely on our ability and/or customers’ ability to distribute our mobile software applications to their end users through third party mobile software application stores, which we do not control. Changes in the application stores’ policies and/or terms of service and other barriers to our distribution via mobile software application stores may seriously harm our ability to maintain and/or grow the subscriber base for our products and services and could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Because mobile software applications are key components of our products and services, the success of our business is dependent on our ability and/or our customers’ ability to distribute our mobile software applications through mobile software application stores, which are subject to terms and policies that are controlled by and subject to change in the discretion of the third-party operators of the application stores. In addition, each of these application store operators has approval authority over our mobile software applications as a condition to our distribution of our mobile software applications through the applicable application store, and any delay or withholding of any such approval can lead to delays in the availability of new releases, which may harm our customer relationships and adversely affect our business. There is also no guarantee that any approval will not be rescinded in the future. Any changes to third party application stores or their policies, terms or service or approvals, and other barriers that restrict our ability to distribute our mobile software applications via one or more application stores, including government actions, orders, or restrictions, may seriously harm our ability to maintain and/or grow the subscriber base for our products and services and could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Our products may contain undetected software defects, which could negatively affect our revenues.
Our software products are complex and may contain undetected defects. If we discover software defects in our products, we may experience delayed or lost revenues during the period it takes to correct these problems. Defects, whether actual or perceived, could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenues, product returns, a delay in market acceptance of our products, loss of competitive position or claims against us by customers. Any such problems could be costly to remedy and could cause interruptions, delays, or cessation of our product sales, which could cause us to lose existing or prospective customers and could negatively affect our results of operations.
Financial, Investment and Indebtedness Risks
If we are unable to meet our obligations as they become due over the next twelve months, the Company may not be able to continue as a going concern.
As indicated in the report provided from our independent registered public accounting firm, the Company's present financial situation raises substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern without additional capital becoming available to the Company. While the accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern, continued operations are dependent upon our ability to execute according to plans, which may include reducing expenditures, obtaining further operational efficiencies, completing equity or debt financings, or securing commercial lines of credit, and ultimately generating profitable operational results. Such financing or lines of credit may not be available on reasonable terms or at all. While the business plans we have established may enable us to meet our financial obligations as they become due over the next twelve months and maintain our current level of operating activities, our ability to continue as a going concern is substantially dependent upon multiple factors, which primarily include those factors set forth above. In order to preserve liquidity, we may also take one or more of the following additional actions:
- Implement additional restructuring and cost reductions,
- Secure a revolving line of credit,
- Dispose of one or more product lines and/or,
- Sell or license intellectual property.
Should we become unable to continue in the normal course of operations, adjustments would be required to the amounts and classifications of assets and liabilities within our consolidated financial statements, and these adjustments could be significant. Our consolidated financial statements do not reflect the adjustments or reclassifications of assets and liabilities that would be necessary if we were to become unable to continue as a going concern.
We may raise additional capital through the issuance of equity or convertible debt securities or by entering into borrowing arrangements in order to meet our capital needs. Additional funds to allow us to meet our capital needs may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all.
It is likely that we may need or choose to obtain additional financing to fund our future activities. We could raise these funds by selling more stock to the public or to selected investors, or by entering into borrowing arrangements. We may not be able to obtain additional funds on favorable terms, or at all. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to curtail our operations or other business activities significantly or to obtain funds through arrangements with strategic partners or others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain technologies or potential markets.
It is possible that our future capital requirements may vary materially from those currently anticipated. The amount of capital that we will need in the future will depend on many factors, including but not limited to:
- the launch and market acceptance of our products;
- the levels of promotion and advertising that will be required to launch our products and achieve and maintain a competitive position in the marketplace;
- our business, product, capital expenditure, and research and development plans and product and technology roadmaps;
- the levels of working capital that we maintain;
- any acquisitions that we would choose to undertake;
- capital improvements to new and existing facilities;
- technological advances;
- our competitors’ response to our products; and
- our relationships with suppliers and customers.
In addition, we may raise additional capital to accommodate planned growth, hiring, and infrastructure needs or to consummate acquisitions of other businesses, products, or technologies.
The Company has a history of net losses and may incur substantial net losses in the future.
During 2022 and 2023, we have been in a net loss position, partially driven by the loss of one of our U.S. Tier 1 customers, our Family Safety Mobile Business acquisition and the elevated level of expenses at which we have been operating as we continue to serve some of our carrier customers from the family safety platform that we acquired, and as we continued to incur the expenses associated with operating the acquired platform. We will continue to operate with an elevated level of expenses until we are able to fully discontinue the acquired legacy platform, which is expected to be in the first half of 2024. Once each of our continuing carrier customers has migrated to our SafePath family safety platform, we will focus our efforts on growing the customer's subscribers on the SafePath platform, which we expect will increase our revenues, however we cannot guarantee that our efforts will be successful or will result in an increase in our revenues in the manner that we expect or at all.
During 2022, we began to undertake efforts to align our operating expenses with our projected revenue subsequent to these migrations, and in February 2023, following receipt of notice of termination of one of our U.S. Tier 1 customer contracts, we announced we would accelerate our efforts designed to reduce operating costs and continue advancing our ongoing commitment to profitable growth. We are continuing those efforts in 2024, however we may encounter challenges in the execution of these efforts, and these challenges could impact our financial results. Moreover, although we believe that these efforts will reduce operating costs and improve operating margins, we cannot guarantee that they will achieve or sustain the targeted benefits, or that the benefits, even if achieved, will be adequate to meet our long-term profitability and operational expectations. In addition, if we do not achieve certain revenue targets subsequent to these efforts, we may need to undertake further cost reduction actions, which may include further restructurings.
The results of cost reduction efforts undertaken by the Company could negatively impact the Company's future operational goals and may negatively impact the Company.
The Company's actions to reduce operating costs as a result of the receipt of the notice of termination of one of our U.S. Tier 1 customer contracts caused the Company to incur additional one-time charges in 2023, which included charges related to employee transition, severance payments, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation. Similar events and/or operating cost reduction efforts in the future could cause the Company to take similar remedial actions, which could cause the Company to incur additional charges in the short-term period following such events or actions. Additional continuing risks associated with the impact of these efforts include employee attrition beyond our intended reduction in force and adverse effects on employee morale, diversion of management attention, adverse effects to our reputation as an employer (which could make it more difficult for us to hire new employees in the future), and potential failure or delays to meet operational and growth targets due to the loss of qualified employees. If we do not realize the expected benefits of our cost reduction efforts on a timely basis or at all, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our operating income or loss may continue to change due to shifts in our sales mix and variability in our operating expenses.
Our operating income or loss can change quarter to quarter and year to year due to a change in our sales mix and the timing of our continued investments in research and development and infrastructure. We continue to invest in research and development, which is vital to maintaining and enhancing our technology portfolio. The timing of these additional expenses can significantly vary quarter to quarter and even from year to year.
Our results of operations may be adversely affected if we fail to realize the full value of our goodwill and intangible assets.
As of December 31, 2023, we had total goodwill and net intangible assets of $64.6 million. We assess goodwill and definite lived assets for impairment annually, and we conduct an interim evaluation of definite lived and indefinite lived assets whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that these assets may be impaired. Our ability to realize the value of goodwill and net intangible assets will depend on the future cash flows of the businesses to which they relate. If we are not able to realize the value of the goodwill and net intangible assets, this could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition, and also result in an impairment of those assets.
Risks Related to our Industry and Macroeconomic Conditions
We derive a significant portion of our revenues from wireless carriers, and changes within this vertical market, or failure to penetrate new markets, could adversely impact our revenues and operating results.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from wireless carriers. In order to sustain and grow our business, we must continue to sell our software products in this vertical market, and we must seek to expand into additional markets. Shifts in the dynamics of the vertical markets that we serve, such as new product introductions by our competitors, could materially harm our results of operations, financial condition, and prospects. Increasing our sales outside our core vertical markets and into markets in which we do not have significant experience, for example to large enterprises, would require us to devote time and resources to hire and train sales employees familiar with those industries. Even if we are successful in hiring and training sales teams, customers in other vertical markets may not need or sufficiently value our current products or new product introductions.
Technology and customer needs change rapidly in our market, which could render our products obsolete and negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our success depends on our ability to anticipate and adapt to changes in technology and industry standards, including changes in the Microsoft, Google, and Apple operating systems with which our products are designed to be compatible, and to changes in customer demands. The communications software markets in which we operate are characterized by rapid technological change, changing customer needs, frequent new product introductions, evolving industry standards, and short product life cycles. Any of these factors could render our existing products obsolete and unmarketable. New products and product enhancements can require long development and testing periods as a result of the complexities inherent in today’s mobile technology environment and the performance demanded by customers. If our target markets do not develop as we anticipate, if our products do not gain widespread acceptance in these markets, or if we are unable to develop new versions of our software products that can operate on future wireless networks and PC and mobile device operating systems and interoperate with relevant third-party technology, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Competition within our target markets is intense and includes numerous established competitors and new entrants, which could negatively affect our revenues and results of operations.
We operate in markets that are extremely competitive and subject to rapid changes in technology. Because there are low barriers to entry into the software markets in which we participate and may participate in the future, we expect significant competition to continue from both established and emerging software companies, domestic and international. In fact, our growth opportunities in new product markets could be limited to the extent established and emerging software companies enter or have entered those markets. We also may face competition from our existing customers that choose to internally develop and operate a competing product.
Many of our other current and prospective competitors have significantly greater financial, marketing, service, support, technical, and other resources than we do. As a result, they may be able to adapt more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements, or to devote greater resources to the promotion and sale of their products. Announcements of competing products by competitors could result in our carrier customers reducing, delaying, or withholding the adoption, promotion, or launch of our products and services in anticipation of the introduction of such new products. In addition, some of our competitors are currently making complementary products that are sold separately. Such competitors could decide to enhance their competitive position by bundling their products to attract customers seeking integrated, cost-effective software applications. Some competitors have a retail emphasis and offer OEM products with a reduced set of features. The opportunity for retail upgrade sales may induce these and other competitors to make OEM products available at their own cost or even at a loss. We also expect competition to increase as a result of software industry consolidations, which may lead to the creation of additional large and well-financed competitors. Increased competition is likely to result in price reductions, fewer customer orders, reduced margins, and loss of market share.
Our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected as a result of legal, business, and economic risks specific to international operations.
In recent years, our revenues derived from sales to customers outside the U.S. have not been material. Our revenues derived from such sales can vary from quarter to quarter and from year to year. In the future, we may expand our international business activities. International operations are subject to many inherent risks, including:
- general political, social and economic instability;
- trade restrictions;
- the imposition of governmental controls;
- exposure to different legal standards, particularly with respect to intellectual property;
- burdens of complying with a variety of foreign laws, including without limitation data privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in Europe;
- import and export license requirements and restrictions of the United States and any other country in which we operate;
- unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
- foreign technical standards;
- changes in tariffs;
- difficulties in staffing and managing international operations;
- difficulties in securing and servicing international customers;
- difficulties in collecting receivables from foreign entities;
- fluctuations in currency exchange rates and any imposition of currency exchange controls; and
- potentially adverse tax consequences.
These conditions may increase our cost of doing business. Moreover, as our customers are adversely affected by these conditions, our business with them may be disrupted and our results of operations could be adversely affected.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
The actual or perceived failure by us, our customers, partners, or vendors to comply with stringent and evolving information security, data protection and data privacy laws, regulations, standards, policies, and contractual obligations could harm our reputation and business, may result in increased compliance costs and impediments to the development or performance of our offerings, and may subject us to significant monetary or other penalties and liability.
In the ordinary course of our business, through the delivery of our solutions and in connection with our routine processing of human resources data, we collect, receive, store, process, generate, use, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, share and otherwise process confidential, proprietary, and sensitive information, including personal information, and information that may be considered sensitive personal information in certain jurisdictions. As a result, we are subject to numerous data privacy, data protection, and information security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, and contractual requirements, and may become subject to new obligations of this nature in the future.
The data privacy, data protection, and information security laws and regulations to which we are and may become subject address and will address a range of issues, including data privacy, cybersecurity, age-appropriate design, and restrictions or technological requirements regarding the collection, use, storage, protection, retention, or transfer of personal information. The regulatory framework and enforcement mechanisms for data privacy and cybersecurity issues worldwide can vary substantially between jurisdictions. New laws continue to be enacted that may require considerable resources to ensure timely and ongoing compliance given the nuances of each jurisdiction’s legal obligations. For example, more U.S. states are enacting laws similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and the substantial amendments to that framework from the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which took effect in January 2023, that provide new data privacy rights to state residents, expand certain protections to personal information of employees in the state, and create special degrees of protection for certain “sensitive” personal information. The CPRA establishes a dedicated California data protection authority, which may increase enforcement actions and penalties for privacy regulation violations, as well as audits of possible violations. Additionally, expanded business-to-business personal information protections may require additional negotiation of new and existing data processing agreements with service providers. We may also be or become subject to laws requiring age-appropriate design of online products accessed by children, which may require us to expend resources to make conforming updates to our products. Burgeoning legal obligations may require expenditure of considerable resources to establish and maintain the necessary internal infrastructure to comply with monitoring obligations, requests from data subjects, and other requirements, which may limit the use and adoption of our offerings. Other state and federal legislative and regulatory bodies have enacted or may enact similar legislation regarding the handling of personal data.
Foreign privacy and data protection laws and regulations can be more restrictive than those in the United States. For example, in the European Union, the GDPR includes operational and governance requirements for companies that collect or process personal data of residents of the European Union and provides for significant penalties for non-compliance. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, these laws and regulations may become substantial and may limit the use and adoption of our offerings, require us to change our business practices, impede the performance and development of our solutions.
In addition to data privacy and security laws, we are contractually subject to industry standards adopted by industry groups and may become subject to such obligations in the future. We are also bound by other contractual obligations related to privacy, data protection, and information security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful. We publish privacy policies, marketing materials, and other statements, such as compliance with certain certifications or self-regulatory principles, regarding privacy, data protection, and information security privacy, data protection, and information security. For the offerings that are distributed by our customers under their respective brands, our customers develop the applicable privacy policies, terms of service and other similar materials and statements. If any of these policies, materials or statements are found to be deficient, lacking in transparency, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our practices, we may be subject to investigation, enforcement actions by regulators, contractual penalties or indemnification obligations, or other adverse consequences.
We may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) in our efforts to comply with our privacy, data protection, and information security obligations. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties on whom we rely, including the third party providers of services we utilize to deliver some of the functionality of our offerings, may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations. If we or the third parties on which we rely fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with applicable privacy, data protection, and information security obligations, we could face significant consequences, including but not limited to significant fines, penalties, or liabilities for noncompliance, government enforcement actions, litigation (including class-action claims), additional reporting requirements and/or oversight, bans on processing personal information, and orders to destroy or not use personal information. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition.
Regulations affecting our customers and our business and future regulations, to which they or we may become subject, may harm our business.
Certain of our customers in the communications industry are subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission, which could have an indirect effect on our business. In addition, the U.S. telecommunications industry has been subject to continuing deregulation since 1984. We cannot predict when, or upon what terms and conditions, further regulation or deregulation might occur, or the effect regulation or deregulation may have on demand for our products from customers in the communications industry. Demand for our products may be indirectly affected by regulations imposed upon potential users of those products, which may increase our costs and expenses.
We may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights, we may be subject to claims for intellectual property infringement, and our customers may be subject to claims for intellectual property infringement with respect to which we have indemnification obligations, which could negatively impact our business and financial results.
Our success is dependent upon our software code base, our programming methodologies and other intellectual properties and proprietary rights. In order to protect our proprietary technology, we rely on a combination of trade secrets, nondisclosure agreements, patents, and copyright and trademark law. We currently own U.S. trademark registrations for certain of our trademarks and U.S. patents for certain of our technologies. However, these measures afford us only limited protection. For our mobile applications that are distributed by our carrier customers to their end users, we rely on our carrier customers to establish binding end user terms. It is possible that third parties may copy or otherwise obtain our rights without our authorization. It is also possible that third parties may independently develop technologies similar to ours. It may be difficult for us to detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property and proprietary rights. In addition, we sometimes include open-source software in our products. As a result of our use of open source software in our products, we may license or be required to license or disclose code and/or innovations that turn out to be material to our business and may also be exposed to increased litigation risk. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent independent development, unauthorized use, or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brands and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our products, services, and methods of operations. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.
We may be subject to claims of intellectual property infringement as the number of trademarks, patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights asserted by companies in our industry grows and the coverage of these patents and other rights and the conduct of our business, including the functionality of our products, increasingly overlap. From time to time, we may receive communications from third parties asserting that our trade name or features, content, or trademarks of certain of our products infringe upon intellectual property rights held by such third parties. We have also received and may in the future receive correspondence from third parties separately asserting that our products may infringe on certain patents held by those parties. Although we are not aware that any of our products infringe on the proprietary rights of others, third parties may claim infringement by us with respect to our current or future products.
Additionally, subject to certain limitations, our customer agreements require that we indemnify our customers for infringement claims made by third parties involving our intellectual property, including our software code, embedded in their products, or otherwise distributed by them. Infringement claims, whether with or without merit, could result in time-consuming and costly litigation, divert the attention of our management, cause product shipment delays, result in our sales being enjoined, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements with third parties. If we are required to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, they may not be on terms that are acceptable to us. An injunction or unfavorable royalty or licensing agreements could seriously impair our ability to market our products and have an adverse effect on our business.
If we continue to fail to meet the requirements for continued listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market, our common stock could be delisted from trading on Nasdaq, which would likely reduce the liquidity of our common stock and could cause our trading price to decline.
Our common stock is currently listed for quotation on the Nasdaq Stock Market. We are required to meet specified financial requirements in order to maintain our listing on Nasdaq. We could lose our listing on Nasdaq if the closing bid price of our common stock does not increase or if in the future we fail to meet any of the other Nasdaq listing requirements. The loss of our Nasdaq listing would in all likelihood make our common stock significantly less liquid and adversely affect its value.
As initially disclosed on our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 2, 2024, we received a letter from the Listing Qualifications Department, or the Staff, of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or Nasdaq, on December 27, 2023, indicating that as result of the closing bid price of the Company’s common stock for the last 30 consecutive business days having been below the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) (the “Minimum Bid Price Requirement”) the Company was not in compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement (the “Minimum Bid Price Notice”). The Minimum Bid Price Notice has no immediate effect on the continued listing status of the Company’s common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market, and, therefore, the Company’s listing remains fully effective.
Pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), the Company has been provided an initial compliance period of 180 calendar days, or until June 24, 2024, to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement. If at any time before June 24, 2024, the closing bid price of the common stock is at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of ten consecutive business days, unless Nasdaq exercises its discretion to extend this ten-day period, Nasdaq will provide written confirmation stating that the Company has achieved compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement. If the Company’s common stock does not regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement during this initial 180-day compliance period, the Company may be eligible for an additional compliance period of 180 calendar days provided that (i) the Company satisfies Nasdaq’s continued listing requirement for market value of publicly held shares and all other initial listing standards, other than the Minimum Bid Price Requirement; and (ii) the Company provides written notice to Nasdaq of its intention to cure the deficiency during the second grace period.
The Company intends to monitor the closing bid price of its common stock and assess its available options in order to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement and continue listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. If among such options the Company elects to pursue a reverse stock split to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price requirement, there can be no assurance that it would accomplish this objective for any meaningful period of time, or at all, or that it would result in any permanent or sustained increase in the market price of our Common Stock; and if such an event would be viewed unfavorably by the market, it could have the effect of reducing our market capitalization. There can be no assurance that the Company will regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement or will otherwise be in compliance with the other Nasdaq listing requirements. In the event of a delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market, our common stock would likely be traded in the over-the-counter inter-dealer quotation system, more commonly known as the OTC. OTC transactions involve risks in addition to those associated with transactions in securities traded on the securities exchanges, such as the Nasdaq Capital Market, or, together, Exchange-listed stocks. Many OTC stocks trade less frequently and in smaller volumes than Exchange-listed stocks. Accordingly, our stock would be less liquid than it would be otherwise. Also, the prices of OTC stocks are often more volatile than Exchange-listed stocks. Additionally, institutional investors are usually prohibited from investing in OTC stocks, and it might be more challenging to raise capital when needed.
Risks Related to Our 2022 Convertible Notes
Although our 2022 Convertible Notes were retired at maturity, the securities purchase agreement associated with the 2022 Notes and Warrants Offering include certain restrictions which survive the retirement of the notes for a period of time, and may during such time limit our ability to obtain additional financing through certain types of equity transactions.
Our 2022 Convertible Notes retired at maturity effective December 31, 2023, however, the securities purchase agreement associated with the 2022 Notes and Warrants Offering includes certain restrictions which survive the retirement of the notes for a period of time, and may during such time restrict, and otherwise impair our ability to obtain additional financing from certain types of equity transactions, which would not be available to us as a means of raising capital for general corporate purposes, including working capital, capital expenditures, potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.
Exercise of the Warrants issued in connection with our 2022 Convertible Notes or the Additional Warrants issued in connection with the concurrent Stock and Additional Warrants Offering will dilute the ownership interest of our existing stockholders or may otherwise depress the price of our common stock.
The exercise of some or all of the Warrants issued along with the 2022 Convertible Notes or the Additional Warrants issued in connection with the concurrent Stock and Additional Warrants Offering will dilute the ownership interests of existing stockholders. Any sales in the public market of shares of our common stock that we issued pursuant to the conversion of the Convertible Notes in 2023 or that we may issue in connection with the exercise of the Warrants or Additional Warrants could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. In addition, the existence of these Warrants or Additional Warrants may encourage short selling by market participants because the exercise of the Warrants or Additional Warrants could be used to satisfy short positions, or the exercise of Warrants or Additional Warrants for, shares of our common stock could depress the price of our common stock.
We may require additional financing to sustain or grow our operations and such additional capital may not be available to us, or may only be available to us on unfavorable terms.
To the extent that revenues generated by our ongoing operations are insufficient to fund future requirements, we may need to raise additional funds through debt or equity financings or curtail our growth. We cannot be sure that we will be able to raise equity or debt financing on terms favorable to us and our stockholders in the amounts that we require, or at all. Our inability in the future to obtain additional equity or debt capital on acceptable terms, or at all, could adversely impact our ability to execute our business strategy, which could adversely affect our growth prospects and future stockholder returns.
Other General Risks
Our customers’ launch of our products and services may be subject to the negotiation and completion of new agreements or amendments to existing agreements and/or lengthy design, qualification and go-to-market processes, which may result in longer sales and launch cycles than we expect, which may impact our financial results and cause our revenues and operating results to be difficult to predict.
A customer’s decision to purchase and launch to the market certain of our products or solutions, particularly products or versions of products that are new to the market, may involve a lengthy contracting, design, and qualification processes, with a timing gap between contracting and launch. Further, a lengthy contracting process, together with lengthy testing, qualification and approval processes are often a prerequisite to our customers’ being in a position to launch updated versions of our products. In particular, customers deciding on the implementation of our products may have lengthy and unpredictable procurement and go-to-market processes that may delay or impact expected revenues. This unpredictability may cause our revenues and operating results to vary unexpectedly from quarter-to-quarter, making our future operational results less predictable.
Our acquisitions of companies or technologies may disrupt our business and divert management attention and cause our other operations to suffer.
We have historically made targeted acquisitions of businesses or product lines with technology important to our business strategy and expect to continue to do so in the future. As part of any acquisition, we are required to assimilate the operations, products, and, where applicable, personnel of the acquired businesses and train, retain, and motivate key personnel needed for the successful integration of the acquired business. We may not be able to maintain uniform standards, controls, procedures, and policies if we fail in these efforts. Additionally, as we integrate any newly acquired business into our existing operations, process changes may result in unanticipated or unintended delays in sales of acquired products or services, which could adversely affect our relationships with customers of the acquired business and result in lower revenues from the acquired business than anticipated. Acquisitions may cause disruptions in our operations and divert management’s attention from our Company’s day-to-day operations, which could impair our relationships with our existing employees, customers, and strategic partners. Acquisitions may also subject us to liabilities and risks that are not known or identifiable at the time of the acquisition.
We may also have to incur debt or issue equity securities to finance future acquisitions. Our financial condition could be harmed to the extent we incur substantial debt or use significant amounts of our cash resources in acquisitions. The issuance of equity securities for any acquisition could be substantially dilutive to our existing stockholders. In addition, we expect our profitability could be adversely affected because of acquisition-related accounting costs, impairments, amortization expenses, and charges related to acquired intangible assets. In consummating acquisitions, we are also subject to risks of entering geographic and business markets in which we have had limited or no prior experience. If we are unable to fully integrate acquired businesses, products, or technologies within existing operations, we may not receive the intended benefits of such acquisitions.
We rely directly and indirectly on third-party intellectual property and licenses, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Many of the Company’s products and services include third-party intellectual property, which require licenses directly to us or to unrelated companies that provide us with sublicenses and/or execution of services for the operation of our business. The Company has historically been able to obtain such licenses or sublicenses on reasonable terms. There is, however, no assurance that the necessary licenses could be obtained on acceptable terms, or at all, in the future. If the Company or our third-party service providers are unable to obtain or renew critical licenses on reasonable terms, we may be forced to terminate or curtail our products and services which rely on such intellectual property, and our financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected.
Our quarterly revenues and operating results are difficult to predict and could fall below analyst or investor expectations, which could cause the price of our common stock to fall.
Our quarterly revenues and operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past and may continue to vary from quarter to quarter due to several factors, many of which are not within our control. If our operating results do not meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors, our stock price may decline. Fluctuations in our operating results may be due to several factors, including the following:
- the gain or loss of a key customer;
- the timing of product and services deployments to our major customers and the timing of our customers’ launch of their branded versions of such products and services to their end users;
- the timing and extent of our customers’ efforts to market and promote such products and services to their users;
- the timing of user acceptance of our customers’ branded versions of our products and services and the growth or decline in the subscriber base for such products and services;
- our ability to maintain or increase gross margins;
- variations in our sales channels or the mix of our product sales;
- our ability to anticipate market needs and to identify, develop, complete, introduce, market and produce new products and technologies in a timely manner to address those needs;
- the availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effect on sales and pricing of our products;
- acquisitions;
- the effect of new and emerging technologies;
- deferrals of orders by our customers in anticipation of new products, applications, product enhancements or operating systems; and
- general economic and market conditions.
Our revenues are heavily dependent upon the number of subscribers utilizing our products through our wireless carrier customers. Variations in subscribers, including churn of those subscribers across multiple product and wireless carrier bases can drive volatility in our revenues and result in difficulties in predicting our operating results. Significant sales may also occur earlier than expected, which could cause operating results for later quarters to compare unfavorably with operating results from earlier quarters.
Future orders may come from new customers or from existing customers for new products. The sales cycles may be greater than what we have experienced in the past, increasing the difficulty to predict quarterly revenues.
Because we sell primarily to large wireless carriers, we have no direct relationship with most end users of our products. This indirect relationship delays feedback and blurs signals of change in the quick-to-evolve wireless ecosystem and is one of the reasons we have difficulty predicting demand.
A large portion of our operating expenses, including rent, depreciation, and amortization, is fixed and difficult to reduce or change. Accordingly, if our total revenue does not meet our expectations, we may not be able to adjust our expenses quickly enough to compensate for the shortfall in revenue. In that event, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.
Due to all of the foregoing factors, and the other risks discussed in this Report, you should not rely on quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our operating results as an indication of future performance.
Cybersecurity
As filed, 6,348 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
Risk Management and Strategy
In our business, we recognize the risk that cybersecurity threats pose to our operations, and as such, cybersecurity is an important component of our overall risk management strategy. We have adopted and implemented an approach to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks utilizing the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (“NIST CSF”) as a guideline to help management identify, assess, reassess, and manage cybersecurity risks. We have developed and implemented cybersecurity programs and processes, including risk management and assessment programs, network segmentation, deployment of detection tools across our network, systems and databases, security and event monitoring capabilities, a detailed incident response plan and an incident response team. Our incident response team is led by our Chief Information Officer, who has over 22 years of experience in information technology leadership and information security, serving in roles of increasing responsibility within private and public companies, and also includes our General Counsel and our Chief Financial Officer.
We conduct an initial assessment on the cybersecurity profile of our third party vendors as they are onboarded and evaluate their cyber security programs and safeguards before utilizing them in our environments. We utilize cyber intelligence to provide continuous monitoring and scanning of systems to provide awareness if any of our vendors have security incidents. Within our purchasing and third-party vendor management programs, we require all vendors who handle our data as well as vendors who provide technology and data services to maintain certain security protections including compliance with applicable data protection laws and implementation of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect our data, including storage, transmission, and access.
We have implemented advanced detection, prevention and protection capabilities, including practices and tools to monitor and mitigate threats. We provide at least quarterly company-wide cybersecurity information training and routinely communicate with employees about the potential for cybersecurity threats. We additionally deploy technical safeguards that are designed to protect our information systems from cybersecurity threats including firewalls, intrusion penetration and detection systems, anti-malware functionality and access controls, vulnerability assessments and cybersecurity threat intelligence. We continuously monitor and assess our information technology and data assets to detect anomalies and to respond quickly to threats that may arise. In certain instances, we engage third parties to conduct or assist us with conducting cybersecurity risk assessments, information security program assessments and external threat environment reviews.
We perform periodic assessments and testing of our policies, standards, processes, and practices in a manner intended to address cybersecurity threats and events. The results of such assessments are evaluated by management, and we adjust our cybersecurity policies, standards, processes, and practices as necessary based on the information provided by these evaluations.
Our incident response plan sets forth a process for detecting and responding to cybersecurity incidents, determining their scope and risk, developing an appropriate response to mitigate and remediate the incident, assessing materiality and communication or notification requirements, and reducing the likelihood of future incidents. In the event of a real or perceived cybersecurity incident the information technology team would, as soon as practicable, inform the incident response team, the members of which would then collaborate to assess a strategy and manage the risks.
Our risks of security breaches, improper access to or disclosure of our data, our customers’ data or their end users’ data, other hacking attacks on our systems or the third-party systems that we use, or other cyber incidents and privacy breaches could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business, are further disclosed in Item 1A. RISK FACTORS. To date, there have been no cybersecurity incidents which have materially affected, or have been reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. Further, we have a cyber risk insurance policy designed to help us mitigate risk exposure by providing top-tier external cybersecurity firms, as needed, and offsetting certain costs that may be involved with response, recovery and remediation after a cybersecurity breach or similar event.
Governance
The audit committee of the Company’s Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing management’s risk assessment and risk management processes designed to monitor and mitigate cybersecurity threats by reviewing with management the cybersecurity and other information technology risks, controls and processes, including the processes used to prevent or mitigate cybersecurity risks and respond to cybersecurity events. The Chief Information Officer, a member of the Company's incident response team, provides reports at least annually to the entire Board of Directors and other members of our senior management team as appropriate. These reports include updates on the Company’s cybersecurity risks and threats, the status of projects to strengthen our information security systems, assessments of the information security program, and the emerging threat landscape. Our Chief Information Officer also regularly updates senior management on our cybersecurity risk governance and management and the status of ongoing efforts to strengthen cybersecurity effectiveness. We also actively engage with key vendors, customers, and industry participants as part of our continuing efforts to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of our information security policies and procedures.
As dictated by the incident response plan, our audit committee also will receive prompt and timely information regarding cybersecurity threats or incidents that may be material in nature from the incident response team, as well as ongoing updates regarding any such threat or incident until it has been mitigated, resolved, or otherwise addressed.
Properties
As filed, 759 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
Our corporate headquarters is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where we currently lease approximately 35,621 square feet of space under a lease that expires on April 30, 2026. In January 2024, we executed a renewal on a lease where we occupy approximately 8,513 square feet of space in Aliso Viejo, California that now expires on February 29, 2028. Internationally, we lease approximately 12,728 square feet in Belgrade, Serbia under a lease that expires July 31, 2026, approximately 1,500 square feet in Stockholm, Sweden under a lease that expires September 30, 2026, and approximately 3,200 square feet in Braga, Portugal under a lease that expires July 31, 2024. Each of the above properties is used by our sole reportable operating segment: Wireless.
Legal proceedings
As filed, 578 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
The Company may become involved in various legal proceedings arising from its business activities. While management does not currently believe that the ultimate disposition of these matters will have a material adverse impact on the Company’s consolidated results of operations, cash flows, or financial position, litigation is inherently unpredictable, and depending on the nature and timing of these proceedings, an unfavorable resolution could materially affect the Company’s future consolidated results of operations, cash flows or financial position in a particular period.
Management's discussion and analysis
As filed, 32,364 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Report. This Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. See “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.” Readers are also urged to carefully review and consider these, and other disclosures made by us which attempt to advise interested parties of the factors which may affect our business.
Introduction and Overview
Smith Micro provides software solutions that simplify and enhance the mobile experience to some of the leading wireless and cable service providers around the globe. From enabling the Digital Family Lifestyle™ to providing powerful voice messaging capabilities, we strive to enrich today’s connected lifestyles while creating new opportunities to engage consumers via smartphones and consumer IoT devices. Our portfolio includes family safety software solutions to support families in the digital age and a wide range of products for creating, sharing, and monetizing rich content, such as visual voice messaging, retail content display optimization and performance analytics on any product set.
We continue to innovate and evolve our business to respond to industry trends and maximize opportunities in growing and evolving markets, such as digital lifestyle services and online safety, “Big Data” analytics, automotive telematics, and the consumer IoT marketplace. The key to our longevity, however, is not simply technological innovation, but our focus on understanding our customers’ needs and delivering value.
Historically, we have provided white label Family Safety applications to all three Tier 1 wireless carriers in the United States; however, our Family Safety contract with one of our Tier 1 customers terminated effective June 30, 2023, with post-termination services ending in November 2023. The revenues associated with that customer contract were approximately 36% of our total revenues for 2023. In 2024, we expect no further revenues related to that contract. To address the impact of the contract termination, starting in the first quarter of 2023, we undertook restructuring efforts that resulted in the elimination of approximately 26% of the Company's global workforce. These actions, coupled with other cost reduction measures taken, have resulted in a 26% reduction in operating expenses in 2023 as compared 2022.
In 2023, our revenues declined by 16% to $40.9 million, primarily driven by a $5.3 million decline in revenues in our Family Safety product line, coupled with a $2.0 million decline in CommSuite revenues. These revenue declines were primarily associated with T-Mobile's efforts to migrate legacy Sprint subscribers to the T-Mobile network, which has impacted our revenues associated with legacy Sprint subscribers for both Family Safety and CommSuite, as well as the impact of the Family Safety contract termination identified above. As a result of this decrease in revenue, gross profit declined to $30.3 million in 2023, a decrease of $4.0 million compared to prior year. Operating expenses decreased in 2023 by approximately $16.9 million, primarily due to a year-over-year reduction in Research and Development expenses of $12.2 million as SafePath migration efforts have now been substantially completed. The net loss for 2023 was $24.4 million, resulting in a net loss of $0.38 per basic and diluted share.
Despite the termination of one of our Family Safety contracts during 2023, we continue to believe that we remain strategically positioned to offer our market-leading family safety platform to most U.S. mobile subscribers. Since our acquisitions of Circle's operator business in 2020 and the Family Safety Mobile Business from Avast in April 2021, we have been focused on migrating those customers from the acquired software platforms to our flagship SafePath platform, with the first such migration being completed during the first quarter of 2022 at one of our U.S. Tier 1 carrier customers. Another U.S. Tier 1 carrier customer was successfully launched on the SafePath platform during the third quarter of 2023. We believe that with these transitions to the SafePath platform now complete, we have an opportunity to increase the respective subscriber bases, and in turn, grow the revenues associated with these Tier 1 carriers. Further, we executed a new, multi-year Family Safety agreement with a major Tier 1 carrier in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2023, which is anticipated to launch in 2024.
Refer to section titled "Liquidity and Capital Resources" for discussion of significant material changes in cash, and Note 4 of our Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for discussion regarding the changes related to the notes payable, derivative liabilities, and warrant liabilities.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth certain consolidated statement operations data as a percentage of total revenues for the periods indicated:
| For the Year Ended December 31, 2023 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenues | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Cost of revenues | 25.8 | 29.3 |
| Gross profit | 74.2 | 70.7 |
| Operating expenses: | ||
| Selling and marketing | 27.1 | 26.6 |
| Research and development | 42.0 | 60.6 |
| General and administrative | 31.3 | 32.0 |
| Depreciation and amortization | 18.0 | 15.4 |
| Total operating expenses | 118.3 | 134.5 |
| Operating loss | (44.2) | (63.7) |
| Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities | 10.3 | |
| Loss on derecognition of debt | (9.8) | — |
| Interest expense, net | (15.5) | (5.5) |
| Other expense, net | (0.1) | (0.2) |
| Loss before provision for income taxes | (59.3) | (69.6) |
| Provision for income tax expense | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Net loss | (59.7)% | (70.1)% |
Revenues and Expense Components
The following is a description of the primary components of our revenues and expenses:
Revenues. Revenues are net of allowances. Our operations are organized into one business segment, Wireless, which includes all of our existing core products, including the Family Safety (including SafePath), CommSuite, and ViewSpot portfolio of products.
Cost of revenues. Cost of revenues consists of direct product and hosting, maintenance, data center, royalties, and technical support expenses including personnel costs.
Selling and marketing. Selling and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, advertising costs, including digital marketing expenses, sales commissions, and trade show expenses. These expenses may vary significantly from quarter to quarter based on the timing of trade shows and product introductions.
Research and development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, equipment costs, and external contract development costs required to conduct our software development efforts.
General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, professional services and fees paid for external service providers, space and occupancy costs, and legal and other public company costs.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation is the expensing of a fixed asset as it is used to reflect its anticipated deterioration. Amortization of intangible assets consists of the amortization expense based on the pattern of economic benefit generated from the use of the related assets.
Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities. Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities results from valuation related impacts to the warrant and derivative liabilities.
Loss on derecognition of debt. Adjustments to fair value at each period end as the result of installment payments extinguishing principal associated with the convertible notes, including derivatives.
Interest (expense) income, net. Interest expense is primarily related to interest associated with our convertible notes and financing arrangements and the amortization of debt issuance costs and discount. Interest income is primarily related to interest earned on cash equivalents.
Other (expense) income, net. Other (expense) income, net is primarily related to fixed asset disposals and other non-operating gains or losses.
Provision for income tax expense. Income tax expense is primarily related to the provision for federal, state, and foreign taxes imposed upon our results of operations.
Year Ended December 31, 2023 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2022
Revenues. Revenues were $40.9 million and $48.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, representing a decrease of $7.7 million, or 16%. This decrease was driven by declines in Family Safety revenues of approximately $5.3 million and in CommSuite revenues of approximately $2.0 million. This decline in revenues was primarily as a result of the migration of legacy Sprint customers onto the T-Mobile network, which has impacted our revenues associated with legacy Sprint subscribers for both Family Safety and CommSuite. There was no legacy Sprint subscriber revenue for CommSuite in the second half of 2023. Also contributing to the decline in Family Safety revenues was the impact of the Family Safety contract termination, as the post-termination transition period concluded at the end of November 2023. The ViewSpot product line's revenues decreased by approximately $0.4 million due to a decrease in device launches in 2023.
Cost of revenues. Cost of revenues were $10.6 million and $14.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. This decrease of approximately $3.7 million was primarily due to cost reduction efforts in 2023 and the year-over-year decline in revenue.
Gross profit. Gross profit was $30.3 million, or 74.2% of revenues, for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $34.3 million, or 70.7% of revenues, for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease of $4.0 million in gross profit was a result of the year-over-year decline in revenue volume.
Selling and marketing. Selling and marketing expenses were $11.1 million and $12.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. This decrease of $1.8 million was primarily due to decreases in personnel related costs of $1.2 million coupled with a reduction of $0.8 million of severance and reorganization related costs, including stock based compensation.
Research and development. Research and development expenses were $17.1 million and $29.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. This decrease of approximately $12.2 million was primarily due to the decline in personnel-related costs of approximately $9.0 million associated with the workforce reduction efforts coupled with reductions in contractor costs of $2.9 million due to the substantial completion of SafePath migration efforts during 2023.
General and administrative. General and administrative expenses were $12.8 million and $15.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. This decrease of $2.7 million was primarily related to declines in personnel-related costs of approximately $1.4 million associated with the workforce reduction efforts undertaken, a reduction of $0.6 million due to transaction fees incurred related to the Note and Stock Offering in August 2022, a decrease in travel costs of approximately $0.2 million and a reduction in consulting and professional fees of approximately $0.4 million.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation expense was $0.6 million and $1.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Amortization expense was $6.8 million and $6.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The total decrease in depreciation expense of approximately $0.6 million was primarily due to certain fixed assets that have now been fully depreciated. Amortization expense is recognized based on the pattern of economic benefit expected to be generated from the use of the intangible asset, and as such it increased approximately $0.5 million.
Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities. The change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities of $4.2 million and $4.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, resulted from valuation related impacts to warrant and derivative liabilities including changes in remaining balance, stock price, risk-free interest rate, expected term, and expected volatility.
Loss on derecognition of debt. The loss recognized on derecognition of debt for the year ended December 31, 2023 was $4.0 million. This resulted from installment payments made on the convertible notes issued under the Note and Stock offering in August 2022 (the "Notes") in the form of shares, and the required derecognition of the net debt position related to that principal balance, including the derivative, and discounts. There was nothing commensurate in the year ended December 31, 2022 as the Notes did not begin to amortize until 2023.
Interest expense, net. Interest expense was $6.4 million and $2.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase in interest expense of $3.7 million was primarily related to the amortization of the discount and debt issuance costs and stated interest expense related to the August 2022 Notes and Warrants Offering, with the Notes issued thereunder being outstanding for the full year in 2023 versus less than five months during 2022.
Provision for income tax expense. Because of our cumulative loss position, the current provision for income tax expense consists of state income taxes, foreign tax withholdings, and foreign income taxes. After consideration of the Company’s cumulative loss position as of December 31, 2023, the Company retained a full valuation allowance related to its U.S.-based deferred tax assets of $58.5 million at December 31, 2023.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity are our existing cash and cash equivalents, and cash generated by operations. We have in the past also generated cash from equity and debt financings. Our primary needs for liquidity relate to working capital requirements for operations. Our working capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the ability to obtain sufficient subscribers, and therefore revenue, from our customers to cover the current level of operating expenses to achieve a level of profitability. As of December 31, 2023, our cash and cash equivalents were approximately $7.1 million and we had no outstanding debt. Our cash flow used in operations was $7.0 million for the year ending December 31, 2023.
Our liquidity may be adversely impacted by the anticipated effect of the aforementioned loss during 2023 of our Family Safety contract with a Tier 1 carrier on our results of operations, since we will receive no revenue from that contract during 2024. While we anticipate marketing efforts to accelerate for one of our existing Tier 1 carrier customers in order to drive subscriber growth on our Family Safety product, the timing of that anticipated revenue growth versus the immediate and current impact of the contract loss could cause the cash and cash equivalents on hand and expected to be generated in the next twelve months and beyond the next twelve months to be insufficient to fund operations at the current levels.
This potential adverse impact on liquidity does not trigger a violation of any covenants in our material agreements, particularly as all of our outstanding debt was retired as of December 31, 2023. The availability of sufficient funds will depend to an extent on the timing of subscriber growth and the related cash generation thereof, and/or the ability to obtain the necessary capital to meet our obligations and fund our working capital requirements to maintain normal business operations. However, if we begin to trend unfavorably with respect to our current internal profitability and cash flow projections, the Company may determine to take additional actions, as noted in the our Risk Factor "If we are unable to meet our obligations as they become due over the next twelve months, the Company may not be able to continue as a going concern." There can be no assurance that any such potential actions will be available or will be available on satisfactory terms. Our ability to obtain additional financing in the debt and equity capital markets is subject to several factors, including market and economic conditions, our performance and investor sentiment with respect to us and our industry. As a result of these uncertainties, and notwithstanding management's plans and efforts to date, we have been unable to alleviate substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year from the date that the financial statements are issued.
Operating activities
Net cash used in operating activities was $7.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The primary uses of operating cash were a net loss of $24.4 million less non-cash expenses totaling $17.8 million, and a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $2.8 million, partially offset by a decrease in accounts receivable of $2.6 million.
Net cash used in operating activities was $19.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The primary uses of operating cash were a net loss of $29.3 million partially offset by net non-cash expenses totaling $10.9 million coupled with a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $1.1 million.
Investing activities
Net cash provided by investing activities was $0.1 million for both the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022.
Financing activities
Net cash used by financing activities of $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 was primarily attributable to the timing of borrowings and repayments from short-term insurance premium financing arrangements.
Net cash provided by financing activities was $17.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, primarily attributable to proceeds from the Notes and Warrants Offering of $15.0 million and the Stock and Additional Warrants Offering of $3.0 million. Partially offsetting the proceeds from the Notes and Warrants Offering were $1.2 million in transaction fees. Also impacting net cash provided by financing activities were proceeds from insurance premium financing agreements and revolver draws of $1.5 million, offset by repayments on those arrangements of $1.3 million.
Contractual Obligations and Commercial Commitments
During our normal course of business, we have made certain indemnities, commitments, and guarantees under which we may be required to make payments in relation to certain transactions. These include: intellectual property indemnities to our customers and licensees in connection with the use, sale and/or license of our products; contractual indemnities to our customers for breach of covenants, representations and warranties with respect to end user data privacy obligations; indemnities to various lessors in connection with facility leases for certain claims arising from such facility or lease; indemnities to vendors and service providers pertaining to claims based on negligence or willful misconduct; indemnities involving the accuracy of representations and warranties in certain contracts; and indemnities to directors and officers of the Company to the maximum extent permitted under the laws of the State of Delaware. We may also issue a guarantee in the form of a standby letter of credit as security for contingent liabilities under certain customer contracts. The duration of these indemnities, commitments and guarantees varies, and in certain cases, may be indefinite. The majority of these indemnities, commitments and guarantees may not provide for any limitation of the maximum potential for future payments we could be obligated to make. We have not recorded any liability for these indemnities, commitments and guarantees in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets.
Real Property Leases
Our corporate headquarters is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where we currently lease approximately 35,621 square feet of space under a lease that expires on April 30, 2026. In January 2024, we executed a renewal on a lease where we occupy approximately 8,513 square feet of space in Aliso Viejo, California that now expires on February 29, 2028. Internationally, we lease approximately 12,728 square feet in Belgrade, Serbia under a lease that expires July 31, 2026, approximately 1,500 square feet in Stockholm, Sweden under a lease that expires September 30, 2026, and approximately 3,200 square feet in Braga, Portugal under a lease that expires July 31, 2024. Each of the above properties is used by our sole reportable operating segment: Wireless.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 1 of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding recent accounting pronouncements.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of December 31, 2023, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of results of operations, financial condition, and liquidity are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”). The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may materially differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. On an on-going basis, we review our estimates to ensure that they appropriately reflect changes in our business or new information as it becomes available.
We believe the following critical accounting policies affect our more significant estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements:
Business Combinations and Exit or Restructuring Costs
We apply the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") Topic No. 805, Business Combinations, in the accounting for our acquisitions, which requires recognition of the assets acquired and the liabilities assumed at their acquisition date fair values, separately from goodwill. Goodwill as of the acquisition date is measured as the excess of consideration transferred over the net of the acquisition date fair values of the tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed. While we use our best estimates and assumptions to accurately value assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the acquisition date as well as contingent consideration, where applicable, our estimates are inherently uncertain and subject to refinement. As a result, during the measurement period that exists up to twelve months from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the tangible and specifically identifiable intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed with a corresponding adjustment to goodwill in the reporting period in which the adjusted amounts are determined. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period or final determination of the values of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, whichever comes first, the impact of any subsequent adjustments is included in the consolidated statements of operations.
Costs to exit or restructure certain activities of an acquired company or our internal operations are accounted for as a one-time termination and exit cost pursuant to FASB ASC Topic No. 420, Exit or Disposal Cost Obligations, and are accounted for separately from the business combination. A liability for costs associated with an exit or disposal activity is recognized and measured at its fair value in our consolidated statement of operations in the period in which the liability is incurred.
Uncertain income tax positions and tax-related valuation allowances that are acquired in connection with a business combination are initially estimated as of the acquisition date. We reevaluate these items quarterly based upon facts and circumstances that existed as of the acquisition date, with any adjustments to the preliminary estimates being recorded to goodwill if such adjustments occur within the 12-month measurement period. Subsequent to the end of the measurement period or our final determination of the value of the tax allowance or contingency, whichever comes first, changes to these uncertain tax positions and tax-related valuation allowances will affect the provision for income taxes in the consolidated statement of operations and could have a material impact on results of our operations and financial position.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
We measure and disclose fair value measurements as required by FASB ASC topics.
Fair value is an exit price, representing the amount that would be received upon the sale of an asset or the amount that would be paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants. As such, fair value is a market-based measurement that is determined based on assumptions that market participants would use in pricing an asset or a liability. As a basis for considering such assumptions, the FASB establishes a three-tier value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in the valuation methodologies in measuring fair value:
- Level 1 - Observable inputs that reflect quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical assets or liabilities in active markets.
- Level 2 - Include other inputs that are directly or indirectly observable in the marketplace.
- Level 3 - Unobservable inputs which are supported by little or no market activity.
The fair value hierarchy also requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value.
We measure our cash equivalents at fair value. Our cash equivalents and short-term investments are classified within Level 1 by using quoted market prices utilizing market observable inputs.
For warrant liabilities and derivatives, we may utilize fair value measurements which are categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, and subsequent changes in fair value for designated items are required to be reported in earnings in the current period.
For goodwill and other intangibles impairment analysis, we may utilize fair value measurements which are categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy.
Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets
Long-lived assets to be held are reviewed for events or changes in circumstances which indicate that their carrying value may not be recoverable. They are tested for recoverability using undiscounted cash flows to determine whether or not impairment to such value has occurred as per ASC Topic No. 360, Property, Plant, and Equipment.
Goodwill and Intangible Assets
Goodwill represents purchase consideration from a business combination that exceeds the value assigned to the net assets of the acquired businesses. As per Topic No. ASC 350, Intangibles- Goodwill and Other, we are required to periodically assess the recoverability of the carrying value of our goodwill at least annually during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year or whenever events or circumstances indicate a potential impairment. If the carrying amount of our single reporting unit exceeds its fair value, an impairment loss equal to the excess of carrying value over fair value is recorded.
We have no indefinite-lived intangible assets. Amortization expense related to our definite-lived intangible assets resulting from acquisitions is calculated based on the pattern of economic benefit expected to be generated from the use of that asset. Intangible assets are tested for impairment if events or circumstances occur indicating that the respective asset might be impaired in accordance with ASC Topic No. 350, Intangibles- Goodwill and Other and ASC 360, Property, Plant and Equipment.
Going Concern
In connection with preparing our consolidated financial statements, management evaluates whether there are conditions and events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern within one year from the date that the financial statements are issued.
Revenue Recognition
In accordance with FASB ASC Topic No. 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, we recognize the sale of goods and services based on the five-step analysis of transactions as provided in Topic 606, which requires an entity to recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for such goods and services.
We transfer software licenses to our customers on a royalty free, non-exclusive, non-transferrable, limited use basis during the term of the agreement. In some instances, we perform integration services to ensure the software operates within our customer’s operating platforms as well as the operating platforms of the mobile devices used by their end customers, before transferring the license. Revenue related to these services is recognized at a point in time upon acceptance of the licensed software by the customer. We also earn usage-based revenue on our platforms. Usage based revenue is generated based on licenses used by our customers' active subscribers’ access and usage of our software licenses and cloud-based services on our platforms, the provision of hosting services, and revenue share based on media placements on our platform. We recognize our usage-based revenue when we have completed our performance obligation and have the right to invoice the customer. This revenue is generally recognized monthly or quarterly. Finally, we ratably recognize revenue over the contract period when customers pay in advance of our service delivery.
We also provide consulting services in connection with our development of customer-specified functionality that are generally not on our software development roadmap. We recognize revenue from our consulting services upon delivery and acceptance by the customer of our software enhancements and upgrades. For certain customers we provide maintenance and technology support services for which the customer either pays upfront or as we provide the services. When the customer pays upfront, we record the payments as contract liabilities and recognize revenue ratably over the contract period as this is our stand ready performance obligation that is satisfied ratably over the maintenance and technology services period.
We have received upfront payments from customers from services to be provided under our ViewSpot contracts. The advance receipts were deferred and subsequently recognized ratably over the contract period. We also provide consulting services to configure new devices or ad hoc targeted promotional content for our customers upon request. These requests are driven by our customers’ marketing initiatives and tend to be short term “bursts” of activity. We recognize these revenues upon delivery of the configured promotional content to the cloud platform or upon certification of the new device.
Stock-Based Compensation
We account for all stock-based payment awards made to employees and directors based on their fair values and recognizes such awards as compensation expense over the vesting period using the straight-line method over the requisite service period for each award as required by FASB ASC Topic No. 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation.
Controls and procedures
As filed, 3,766 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We conducted an evaluation under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”)) as of December 31, 2023. Based upon that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer determined that as of December 31, 2023, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to ensure that the information required to be disclosed in our Exchange Act reports is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, our management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and our management necessarily is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.
Management’s Responsibility for Financial Statements
Our management is responsible for the integrity and objectivity of all information presented in this Report. The consolidated financial statements were prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and include amounts based on management’s best estimates and judgments. Management believes the consolidated financial statements fairly reflect the form and substance of transactions and that the consolidated financial statements fairly represent the Company’s financial position and results of operations for the periods and as of the dates stated therein.
The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, which is composed solely of independent directors, meets regularly with our independent registered public accounting firm, SingerLewak LLP, and representatives of management to review accounting, financial reporting, internal control, and audit matters, as well as the nature and extent of the audit effort. The Audit Committee is responsible for the engagement of the independent auditors. The independent auditors have free access to the Audit Committee.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There have been no changes in our internal controls over financial reporting during the quarter ended December 31, 2023 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal controls over financial reporting.
Report of Management on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act).
Our management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023. Management based this assessment on criteria for effective internal control over financial reporting described in “Internal Control-Integrated Framework 2013” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this assessment, management determined that, as of December 31, 2023, we maintained effective internal control over financial reporting.
Figures reported in this filing
Standardized line items from the XBRL in this filing, for the period ended 2023-12-31. Comparative periods it repeats are left out.
| Line item | Period | Value | XBRL concept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | $40.9m | us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax |
| Cost of revenue | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | $10.6m | us-gaap:CostOfGoodsAndServicesSold |
| Gross profit | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | $30.3m | us-gaap:GrossProfit |
| Research and development | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | $17.1m | us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpense |
| Operating income | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | −$18.1m | us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss |
| Income tax | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | $158.0k | us-gaap:IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit |
| Net income | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | −$24.4m | us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss |
| Diluted EPS | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | −$0.38 | us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted |
| Basic EPS | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | −$0.38 | us-gaap:EarningsPerShareBasic |
| Diluted shares (weighted) | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | 64,916,000 shares | us-gaap:WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding |
| Operating cash flow | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | −$7.0m | us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities |
| Capital expenditure | 12 months2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31 | $4.0k | us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets |
| Cash and equivalents | At period end2023-12-31 | $7.1m | us-gaap:CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue |
| Current assets | At period end2023-12-31 | $16.9m | us-gaap:AssetsCurrent |
| Total assets | At period end2023-12-31 | $85.6m | us-gaap:Assets |
| Current liabilities | At period end2023-12-31 | $7.6m | us-gaap:LiabilitiesCurrent |
| Shareholders' equity | At period end2023-12-31 | $75.4m | us-gaap:StockholdersEquity |
Source: SEC EDGAR, the filing index for accession 0000948708-24-000009. Last ingested by Listed: Oct 24, 2026, 15:01 ET. Listed shows no prices and gives no investment advice.