Liquidmetal Technologies Inc: Form 10-Q for the period ended Mar 31, 2024

This management’s discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. All amounts described in this section are in thousands, except percentages, periods of time, and share and per share data.

This management’s discussion and analysis, as well as other sections of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, may contain “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding our plans, future events, objectives, expectations, estimates, forecasts, assumptions, or projections. Any statement that is not a statement of historical fact is a forward-looking statement, and in some cases, words such as “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “seek,” and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from the anticipated outcomes or results, and undue reliance should not be placed on these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the matters discussed in Part II herein, under the heading “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and other risks and uncertainties discussed in other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (including risks described in subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K and other filings). We disclaim any intention or obligation, other than as required by applicable law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Overview

We are a materials technology company that works with manufacturing and commercial partners to develop and commercialize products made from our proprietary amorphous alloys. Our Liquidmetal® family of alloys consists of a variety of proprietary bulk alloys and composites that utilize the advantages offered by amorphous alloy technology. We work with partners to design, develop, and sell custom products and parts from bulk amorphous alloys for sale in various industries. We also partner with third-party manufacturers and licensees to develop and commercialize Liquidmetal alloy products.

Amorphous alloys are, in general, unique materials that are distinguished by their ability to retain a random atomic structure when they solidify, in contrast to the crystalline atomic structure that forms in other metals and alloys when they solidify. Liquidmetal alloys are proprietary amorphous alloys that possess a combination of performance, processing, and potential cost advantages that we believe will make them preferable to other materials in a variety of applications. The amorphous atomic structure of bulk alloys enables them to overcome certain performance limitations caused by inherent weaknesses in crystalline atomic structures, thus facilitating performance and processing characteristics superior in many ways to those of their crystalline counterparts. We believe the alloys and the molding technologies we employ can result in components for many applications that exhibit exceptional dimensional control and repeatability that rivals precision machining, excellent corrosion resistance, brilliant surface finish, high strength, high hardness, high elastic limit, alloys that are non-magnetic, and the ability to form complex shapes common to the injection molding of plastics. All of these characteristics are achievable from the molding process, so design engineers often do not have to select specific alloys to achieve one or more of the characteristics as is the case with crystalline materials. We believe these advantages could result in Liquidmetal alloys supplanting high-performance alloys, such as titanium and stainless steel, and other incumbent materials in a wide variety of applications. Moreover, we believe these advantages could enable the introduction of entirely new products and applications that are not possible or commercially viable with other materials.

Our bulk amorphous alloy technology is a relatively new technology as compared to many other material technologies, such as plastics and widely-used high-performance crystalline alloys. Historically, the successful commercialization of a new material technology has required the persistent improvement and refining of the technology over a sometimes lengthy period of time. Accordingly, we believe that our Company’s future success will be dependent on our ability to continue expanding and improving our technology platform by, among other things, constantly refining and improving our processes, optimizing our existing amorphous alloy compositions for various applications, and developing and improving new bulk amorphous alloy compositions.

Our revenues are derived from i) selling our bulk amorphous alloy custom products and parts for applications which include, but are not limited to, non-consumer electronic devices, medical products, automotive components, and sports and leisure goods; ii) selling tooling and prototype parts such as demonstration parts and test samples for customers with products in development; and iii) product licensing and royalty revenue.

Our cost of sales consists primarily of the costs of manufacturing, which include raw alloy and direct labor costs. Selling, general, and administrative expenses currently consist primarily of salaries and related benefits, travel, consulting and professional fees, depreciation and amortization, insurance, office and administrative expenses, and other expenses related to our operations.

Research and development expenses represent salaries, related benefits expenses, consulting and contract services, expenses incurred for the design and testing of new processing methods, expenses for the development of sample and prototype products, and other expenses related to the research and development of Liquidmetal bulk alloys. Costs associated with research and development activities are expensed as incurred. We plan to enhance our competitive position by improving our existing technologies and developing advances in amorphous alloy technologies. We believe that our research and development efforts will focus on the discovery of new alloy compositions, the development of improved processing technology, and the identification of new applications for our alloys.

SIGNIFICANT TRANSACTIONS

Amorphology License Agreement

On March 15, 2024, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) entered into a First Amendment to License Agreement (the “First Amendment”) with Amorphology Inc. (“Amorphology”), which amended a License Agreement, dated November 22, 2019, previously entered into by the Company and Amorphology (the “Original License Agreement,” and together with the First Amendment, the “Amended License Agreement”). The Company has determined that, as a result of the First Amendment, the Amended License Agreement has become a material definitive agreement of the Company. The following is a description of the material terms and conditions of the Amended License Agreement:

The Amended License Agreement grants Amorphology a non-exclusive royalty bearing license under all patents, patent applications, and technical information of the Company in existence as of the date of the First Amendment to make, use, offer to sell, sell, export, and import products utilizing Engel injection molding machines in a field of use consisting of the worldwide industry for amorphous metal parts and components, excluding consumer electronic products, jewelry, certain luxury products, and other product categories and territories that are subject to a license grant to third parties. The license bears a running royalty equal to a percentage of Amorphology’s sales of licensed products as well as for sales to customers referred to Amorphology by the Company. The Company may also utilize Amorphology as a third-party contract manufacturer. The Amended License Agreement is for a term of five (5) years, with automatic 1-year extensions unless terminated by either party upon at least 6 months notice prior to the expiration of the then-current term.

Yihao Manufacturing Agreement

On January 12, 2022, Liquidmetal Technologies entered into a manufacturing agreement (“Manufacturing Agreement”) with Dongguan Yihao Metal Materials Technology Co. Ltd. (“Yihao”) to become the primary outsourced manufacturer of the Company’s products. Under the Manufacturing Agreement, which has a term of five years, Yihao has agreed to serve as a non-exclusive contract manufacturer for amorphous alloy parts offered and sold by the Company at prices determined on a “cost-plus” basis. Yihao is an affiliate of Dongguan Eontec Co. Ltd. and Professor Lugee Li, our Chairman and largest beneficial owner of the Company’s capital stock.

Liquidmetal Golf License

On January 13, 2022, our Liquidmetal Golf subsidiary entered into a sublicense agreement (“LMG Sublicense Agreement”) with Amorphous Technologies Japan, Inc. (“ATJ”), a newly formed Japanese entity that was established by Twins Corporation, a sporting goods company operating in Japan. Under the agreement, LMG granted ATJ a nonexclusive worldwide sublicense to the Company’s amorphous alloy technology and related trademarks to manufacture and sell golf clubs and golf related products. The LMG Sublicense Agreement has a term of three years and provides for the payment of a running royalty to LMG of 3% of the net sales price of licensed products.

Corporate Facility Purchase and Lease

On February 16, 2017, we purchased a 41,000 square foot facility (the “Facility”) located in Lake Forest, CA, where operations commenced during July 2017. The purchase price for the Facility was $7,818.

On January 23, 2020, 20321 Valencia, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and our wholly owned subsidiary, entered into a lease agreement (the “Facility Lease”) pursuant to which we leased to MatterHackers, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Tenant”), an approximately 32,534 square foot portion of the Facility. The lease term is for 5 years and 2 months and is scheduled to expire on April 30, 2025. The base rent payable under the Facility Lease is $32,534 per month initially and is subject to periodic increases up to a maximum of approximately $54,000 per month. Tenant will pay approximately 79% of common operating expresses. The Facility Lease has other customary provisions, including provisions relating to default and usage restrictions. The Facility Lease grants to Tenant a right to extend the lease for one additional 60-month period at market rental value.

2016 Purchase Agreement

On March 10, 2016, we entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement (the “2016 Purchase Agreement”) with Liquidmetal Technology Limited, a Hong Kong company (the “Investor”), which is controlled by our Chairman, Professor Lugee Li (“Professor Li”). The 2016 Purchase Agreement provided for the purchase by the Investor of a total of 405,000,000 shares of our common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $63,400. The transaction occurred in multiple closings, with the Investor having purchased 105,000,000 shares at a purchase price of $8,400 (or $0.08 per share) at the initial closing on March 10, 2016, and the remaining 200,000,000 shares at $0.15 per share and 100,000,000 shares at $0.25 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $55,000 on October 26, 2016.

In addition to the shares issuable under the 2016 Purchase Agreement, we issued to the Investor a warrant to acquire 10,066,809 shares of common stock (of which the right to exercise 2,609,913 of the warrant shares vested on March 10, 2016 and the right to exercise the remaining 7,456,896 warrant shares vested on October 26, 2016, all at an exercise price of $0.07 per share). The warrant will expire on the tenth anniversary of its issuance date.

The 2016 Purchase Agreement also provided that, with certain limited exceptions, if we issue any shares of common stock at any time through the fifth anniversary of the 2016 Purchase Agreement, the Investor will have a preemptive right to subscribe for and to purchase at the same price per share (or at market price, in the case of issuance of shares pursuant to stock options) the number of shares necessary to maintain its ownership percentage of our issued shares of common stock.

Eontec License Agreement

On March 10, 2016, in connection with the 2016 Purchase Agreement, we entered into a Parallel License Agreement (the “License Agreement”) with DongGuan Eontec Co., Ltd., a Hong Kong corporation (“Eontec”) pursuant to which we each entered into a cross-license of our respective technologies. Our Chairman, Professor Li, is also the Chairman of Eontec.

The License Agreement provides for the cross-license of certain patents, technical information, and trademarks between us and Eontec. In particular, we granted to Eontec a paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual license to our patents and related technical information to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, export, and import products in certain geographic areas outside of North America and Europe. In turn, Eontec granted to us a paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual license to Eontec’s patents and related technical information to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, export, and import products in certain geographic areas outside of specified countries in Asia. The license granted by us to Eontec is exclusive (including to the exclusion of us) in the countries of Brunei, Cambodia, China (P.R.C and R.O.C.), East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. The license granted by Eontec to us is exclusive (including to the exclusion of Eontec) in North America and Europe. The cross-licenses are non-exclusive in geographic areas outside of the foregoing exclusive territories.

Eutectix Business Development Agreement

On January 31, 2020, the Company entered into a Business Development Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Eutectix LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Eutectix”), which provides for collaboration, joint development efforts, and the manufacturing of products based on the Company’s proprietary amorphous metal alloys. Under the Agreement, the Company has licensed to Eutectix specified equipment owned by the Company, including two injection molding machines, two diecasting machines, and other machines and equipment, all of which will be used to make product for Company customers and Eutectix customers. The licensed machines and equipment represent substantially all of the machinery and equipment then held by the Company. The Company has also licensed to Eutectix various patents and technical information related to the Company’s proprietary technology. Under the Agreement, Eutectix will pay the Company a royalty of six percent (6%) of the net sales price of licensed products sold by Eutectix, and Eutectix will also manufacture for the Company product ordered by the Company. The Agreement has a term of five years, subject to renewal provisions and the ability of either party to terminate earlier upon specified circumstances.

Apple License Transaction

On August 5, 2010, we entered into a license transaction with Apple pursuant to which (i) we contributed substantially all of our intellectual property assets to a newly organized special-purpose, wholly-owned subsidiary, Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC (“CIP”), (ii) CIP granted to Apple a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products, as defined in the license agreement, in exchange for a license fee, and (iii) CIP granted back to us a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in all other fields of use.

Under the agreements relating to the license transaction with Apple, we were obligated to contribute to CIP all intellectual property that we developed through February 2016. We are also obligated to maintain certain limited liability company formalities with respect to CIP at all times after the closing of the license transaction.

Swatch Group License

In March 2009, we entered into a license agreement with Swatch Group, Ltd. (“Swatch”) under which Swatch was granted a non-exclusive license to our technology to produce and market watches and certain other luxury products. In March 2011, this license agreement was amended to grant Swatch exclusive rights as to watches, but non-exclusive as to Apple. We will receive royalty payments over the life of the contract on all Liquidmetal products produced and sold by Swatch. The license agreement with Swatch will expire on the expiration date of the last licensed patent.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect 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. These estimates and assumptions are based on historical experience and various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

We believe that the following accounting policies are the most critical to our consolidated financial statements since these policies require significant judgment or involve complex estimates that are important to the portrayal of our financial condition and operating results:

• Revenue recognition
• Impairment of long-lived assets and definite-lived intangibles
• Deferred tax assets
• Share based compensation

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 (the “2023 Annual Report”) contains further discussions on our critical accounting policies and estimates.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023

Revenue – Total revenue increased by $143 to $173 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 from $30 for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The increase was attributable to increase in product shipments primarily related to the launch of health monitoring rings utilizing our technology.

Cost of Sales – Cost of sales was $134, or 77.5% of total revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2024, as compared to $23, or 76.7% of total revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The increase in our cost of sales was primarily driven by lower product revenues during Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2024. Once we are able to sustain and increase shipments of routine, commercial products and parts through our contract manufacturers, we expect our cost of sales percentages to decrease, stabilize, and be more predictable.

Gross Profit – Our gross profit increased by $32 from $7 for the three months ended March 31, 2023 to $39 for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Our gross margin percentage decreased slightly from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024. Our gross profit percentages have fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate based on production volumes and quoted production prices per unit and may not be representative of our future business. If we are able to sustain and increase shipments of routine, commercial products and parts through future orders to third party contract manufacturers, we expect our gross profit percentages to stabilize, increase, and be more predictable.

Selling, marketing, general, and administrative expenses – Selling, marketing, general, and administrative expenses decreased by $43 to $763, or 441.0% of revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2024 from $806, or 2686.7% of revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The decrease in expenses was primarily attributable to decrease in trade show and investment relations expenses in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023.

Research and development expenses – Research and development expenses decreased by $2 to $4, or 2.3% of revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2024, from $6, or 20.0% of revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The decrease in expense was mainly due to reductions in employee compensation and associated development initiatives from headcount reductions. Going forward, we will continue to perform research and development of new Liquidmetal alloys and related processing capabilities, albeit on a reduced basis.

We continue to invest in our technology infrastructure to expedite the adoption of our technology, but we have experienced long sales lead times for customer adoption of our technology. Until that time when we can either (i) increase our revenues with shipments of routine, commercial products and parts through third party contract manufacturers or (ii) obtain significant licensing revenues, we expect to continue to have operating losses for the foreseeable future.

Interest and Investment Income – Interest and investment income relates to interest earned from our cash deposits and investments in debt securities for the respective periods. Interest and investment income was $243 and $100 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase was primarily due to higher overall yields on debt securities as a result of an increase in overall interest rate increases by the government in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023.

Lease income – Lease income relates to straight-line rental income received under the Facility Lease. Such amounts were $171 and $118 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash used in operating activities

Cash used in operating activities totaled $342 and $394 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The cash was primarily used to fund operating expenses related to our business and product development efforts.

Cash provided by (used in) investing activities

Cash provided by investing activities totaled $903 and $4,975 for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Investing inflows primarily consist of proceeds from the sale of debt securities. Investing outflows primarily consist of purchases of debt securities.

Financing arrangements and outlook

We have a relatively limited history of selling bulk amorphous alloy products and components on a mass-production scale. Furthermore, the ability of future contract manufacturers to produce our products in desired quantities and at commercially reasonable prices is uncertain and is dependent on a variety of factors that are outside of our control, including the nature and design of the component, the customer’s specifications, and required delivery timelines. These factors have previously required that we engage in equity sales under various stock purchase agreements to support its operations and strategic initiatives.

However, as of March 31, 2024, we had $9,403 in cash and restricted cash, as well as $13,685 in investments in debt securities. We view this total of $23,088 as readily available sources of liquidity in the event needed to advance our existing strategy, and/or pursue an alternative strategy. As such, we anticipate that our current capital resources, when considering expected losses from operations, will be sufficient to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures.

Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer (our Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer), we carried out an evaluation 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, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)) as of March 31, 2024. Based on their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer has concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of March 31, 2024.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting.

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as that term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended March 31, 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II

OTHER INFORMATION

For a detailed discussion of the risk factors that should be understood by any investor contemplating an investment in our stock, please refer to Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in the 2023 Annual Report. There have been no material changes from the risk factors previously disclosed in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in the 2023 Annual Report.