ZYXI Zynex Inc

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS

We’ve encountered significant volatility in our recent operating results.

The Company’s results from operations have improved significantly in recent years, but there has been significant volatility in our results over the past 5 years as reflected in the following table (in millions):

Our financial results could continue to be volatile, and there is no assurance we will continue our current increase in revenue and profits.

We’ve had lack of liquidity in recent periods which led to a going concern opinion in prior years.

During 2013-2015, the Company suffered operating losses which caused a lack of liquidity and a substantial working capital deficit. This raised substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

During 2016, the Company generated net income during Q3 and Q4 and combined with the profitability in 2017 and 2018, the Company has recorded ten consecutive profitable quarters, paid off its line of credit with Triumph Healthcare Finance, a division of TBK Bank, SSB, formerly known as Triumph Community Bank, (“Triumph”) and generated cash reserves and positive working capital.

Our history of operating losses could make it difficult to raise any new capital and may have an adverse impact on our relationship with third parties with whom we do business, including our customers, vendors and employees.

We cannot be certain the Company won’t be impacted by liquidity challenges in the future due to the volatile operating results mentioned above.

We are dependent on reimbursement from insurance companies; changes in insurance reimbursement policies or application of them have resulted in decreased or delayed revenues.

A large percentage of our revenues come from insurance company and government health care program reimbursement. Upon delivery of our products to our customers, we directly bill the customers’ private insurance companies or government payors for reimbursement. If the billed payors do not remit payment on a timely basis or if they change their policies to exclude or reduce coverage for our products, we would experience a decline in our revenue as well as cash flow. In addition, we may deliver products to customers based on past practices and billing experiences with health insurance companies and have a health insurance company later deny coverage for such products.

In some cases our delivered product may not be covered pursuant to a policy statement of a health insurance provider, despite a payment history of the insurance provider and benefits to the patients. A health insurance provider may seek repayment of amounts previously paid for covered products. We maintain an allowance for provider discounts for amounts intended to cover legitimate requests for repayment. Failure to adequately identify and provide for amounts for resolution of repayment demands in our allowance for provider discounts could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows. For government health care programs, if we identify a deficiency in prior claims or practices, we may be required to repay amounts previously reimbursed to us by government health care programs.

We frequently receive, and expect to continue to receive, refund requests from insurance providers relating to specific patients and dates of service. Billing and reimbursement disputes are very common in our industry. These requests are sometimes related to a few patients and other times include a significant number of refund claims in a single request. We review and evaluate these requests and determine if any refund is appropriate. During the adjudication process we review claims where we are rebilling or pursuing additional reimbursement from that insurance provider. We frequently have significant offsets against such refund requests which may result in amounts that are due to us in excess of the amounts of refunds requested by the insurance providers. Therefore, at the time of receipt of such refund requests we are generally unable to determine if a refund request is valid. Although we cannot predict whether or when a request for repayment or our subsequent request for reimbursement will be resolved, it is not unusual for such matters to be unresolved for a long period of time. No assurances can be given with respect to our estimates for our allowance for provider discounts for reimbursements and offsets or the ultimate outcome of the refund requests.

During the first quarter of 2016, the Company collected $880,000 from a single insurance company for accounts receivable. The accounts receivable had been previously reduced to zero by the allowance for billing adjustments. Subsequent to March 31, 2016, the insurance company verbally communicated to the Company that this payment was made in error and requested it be refunded to the insurance company. The Company recorded this $880,000 insurance reimbursement as a deferred insurance liability. However, the Company is disputing the refund request and has initiated an internal review of the reimbursement to determine that the original sales arrangement was properly executed, the products had been delivered, the price of the products and the reimbursement rate is determinable, and the Company’s ultimate claim to the reimbursement is reasonably assured. The Company will record the appropriate amount as net revenue when such internal review is complete and any refund obligation is deemed remote.

Future changes in coverage and reimbursement policies for our products or reductions in reimbursement rates for our products by third party payors could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

In the United States, our products are prescribed by physicians for their patients. Based on the prescription, which we consider an order, we submit a claim for payment directly to third-party payors such as private commercial insurance carriers, government payors and others as appropriate and the payor reimburses us directly. Federal and state statutes, rules or other regulatory measures that restrict coverage of our products or reimbursement rates could have an adverse effect on our ability to sell or rent our products or cause physical therapists and physicians to dispense and prescribe alternative, lower-cost products.

There are significant estimating risks associated with the amount of revenue, related refund liabilities, accounts receivable and provider discounts that we recognize, and if we are unable to accurately estimate these amounts, it could impact the timing of our revenue recognition, have a significant impact on our operating results or lead to a restatement of our financial results.

There are significant estimating risks associated with the amount of revenues, related refund liabilities, accounts receivable and provider discounts that we recognize in a reporting period. The billing and collection process is complex due to ongoing insurance coverage changes, geographic coverage differences, differing interpretations of coverage, differing provider discount rates and other third party payor issues. Determining applicable primary and secondary coverage for our customers at any point in time, together with the changes in patient coverage that occur each month, requires complex, resource-intensive processes. Errors in determining the correct coordination of benefits may result in refunds to payors. Revenues associated with government programs are also subject to estimating risk related to the amounts not paid by the primary government payor that will ultimately be collectable from other government programs paying secondary coverage, the patient’s commercial health plan secondary coverage or the patient. Collections, refunds and pay or retractions typically continue to occur for up to three years and longer after our products are provided. While we typically look to our past experience in collections with a payor in estimating ultimate amounts expected to be collected on current billings, nonetheless recent trends and current changes in reimbursement practice, the overall healthcare environment, and other factors could ultimately impact the amount of revenues recorded and the receivables ultimately collected. If our estimates of revenues, related refund liabilities, accounts receivable or provider discounts are materially inaccurate, it could impact the timing of our revenue recognition and have a significant impact on our operating results. It could also lead to a restatement of our financial results.

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09—“Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (Topic 606) which amended revenue recognition guidance to clarify the principles for recognizing revenue from contracts with customers. The guidance requires an entity to recognize revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which an entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The guidance also requires expanded disclosures relating to the nature, amount, timing, and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from contracts with customers. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative disclosures are required about customer contracts, significant judgments and changes in judgments, and assets recognized from the costs to obtain or fulfill a contract.  The Company adopted the new ASU as of January 1, 2018 using the modified retrospective method and resulted in no material changes to previously issued financial statements .

Tax laws and regulations require compliance efforts that can increase our cost of doing business and changes to these laws and regulations could impact financial results. 

We are subject to a variety of tax laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we do business. Maintaining compliance with these laws can increase our cost of doing business and failure to comply could result in audits or the imposition of fines or penalties. Further, our future effective tax rates in any of these jurisdictions could be affected, positively or negatively, by changing tax priorities, changes in statutory rates, or changes in tax laws or the interpretation thereof. The most significant recent example of this is the impact of the U.S Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”) which was enacted on December 22, 2017.  These changes significantly revised the ongoing U.S. corporate income tax law by lowering the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, implementing a territorial tax system, imposing a one-time tax on foreign unremitted earnings and setting limitations on deductibility of certain costs, among other things. The Company has implemented the U.S. Tax Act and does not expect any significant changes related to the Tax Act at this time.

The Patient Protection and Accountability act of 2010 has had an impact on our business which may be in part beneficial and in part detrimental.

In March 2010, broad federal health care reform legislation was enacted in the United States. This legislation did not become effective immediately in total, and may be modified prior to the effective date of some provisions. This legislation has had an impact on our business in a variety of ways including increased number of Medicaid recipients, increased number of individuals with commercial insurance, additional audits conducted by public health insurance plans such as Medicaid and Medicare, changes to the rules that govern employer group health insurance and other factors that influence the acquisition and use of health insurance from private and public payors. This legislation has resulted in a change in reimbursement for certain durable medical equipment. We believe the new healthcare legislation and these changes to reimbursement have caused uncertainty with prescribers, which we believe contributed to our drop in orders and revenue during 2013 and 2014 and the lack of any significant increase in 2015. Orders and revenue increased in2016, 2017 and 2018; however, we are currently unable to determine whether such trend will continue in future periods or whether the health care reform legislation will have other adverse consequences to our business and results of operations. To the extent prescribers write fewer prescriptions for our products or there is an adverse change to insurance reimbursement for our products, due to the new law or otherwise, our revenue and profitability will be materially adversely affected.

Effective 2013, there was a 2.3% excise tax on the first sale of medical devices, with certain exceptions. We believe that a majority of our ZMI products are not subject to this tax but currently we can make no assurance. For our products that are or become subject to this excise tax, we are uncertain of our ability to pass this tax on to third parties. Thus far this excise tax has not had a material impact on our financial results.

The uncertainty of continuing healthcare changes and regulations may place our business model in doubt.

There is substantial doubt on the continuation of the Affordable Care Act and the legislation that the current Congress will enact to replace it, if any. There is also substantial doubt whether, even if the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land, the President will support it or take regulatory action to negatively impact its benefits. This significant amount of uncertainty creates a significant concern on our customer’s willingness to buy products which may, or may not, be covered by future health care benefits even if they are covered currently.

Hospitals and clinicians may not buy, prescribe or use our products in sufficient numbers, which could result in decreased revenues and profits.

Hospitals and clinicians may not accept any of our products as effective, reliable, or cost-effective. Factors that could prevent such institutional customer acceptance include:

Because our sales are dependent on prescriptions from physicians, if any of these or other factors results in fewer prescriptions for our products being written, we will have reduced revenues and may not be able to fully fund operations. Although we experienced an increase in orders for our ZMI products during 2017 and 2018 compared to prior years, we can make no assurances that demand for our products will not decline in future periods.

Any new competitor could be larger than us and have greater financial and other resources than we do, and those advantages could make it difficult for us to compete with them.

Many competitors to our products may have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, and other resources. Competition could result in our need to reduce prices, fewer orders, reduced gross margins, and loss of market share. Our products are regulated by the FDA in the United States. Competitors may develop products that are substantially equivalent to our FDA cleared products, thereby using our products as predicate devices to more quickly obtain FDA approval for their own products. If overall demand for our products should decrease it could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. Substantial competition is expected in the future in the area of stroke rehabilitation that may directly compete with our NeuroMove product. These competitors may use standard or novel signal processing techniques to detect muscular movement and generate stimulation to such muscles. Other companies may develop rehabilitation products that perform better and/or are less expensive than our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

Failure to keep pace with the latest technological changes could result in decreased revenues.

The market for some of our products is characterized by rapid change and technological improvements. Failure to respond in a timely and cost-effective way to these technological developments could result in serious harm to our business and operating results. We have derived, and we expect to continue to derive, a substantial portion of our revenues from the development and sale of products in the medical device industry. As a result, our success will depend, in part, on our ability to develop and market product offerings that respond in a timely manner to the technological advances of our competitors, evolving industry standards and changing patient preferences. There is no assurance that we will keep up with technological improvements.

A third-party manufacturer’s inability to produce our goods on time and to our specifications could result in lost revenue.

Third-party manufacturers assemble and manufacture components of the NexWave and NeuroMove and some of our other products to our specifications. The inability of a manufacturer to ship orders of our products in a timely manner or to meet our quality standards could cause us to miss the delivery date requirements of our customers for those items, which could result in cancellation of orders, refusal to accept deliveries or a reduction in purchase prices, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our revenues. Because of the timing and seriousness of our business, and the medical device industry in particular, the dates on which customers need and require shipments of products from us are critical. Further, because quality is a leading factor when customers, doctors, health insurance providers and distributors accept or reject goods, any decline in quality by our third-party manufacturers could be detrimental not only to a particular order, but also to our future relationship with that particular customer.

If we need to replace manufacturers, our expenses could increase resulting in smaller profit margins.

We compete with other companies for the production capacity of our manufacturers and import quota capacity. Some of these competitors have greater financial and other resources than we have, and thus have an advantage in the competition for production and import quota capacity. If we experience a significant increase in demand, or if we need to replace an existing manufacturer, we may have to expand our third-party manufacturing capacity. We cannot assure that this additional capacity will be available when required on terms that are acceptable to us or similar to existing terms, which we have with our manufacturers, either from a production standpoint or a financial standpoint. We enter into a number of purchase order commitments specifying a time for delivery, method of payment, design and quality specifications and other standard industry provisions, but do not have long-term contracts with any manufacturer. None of the manufacturers we use produce our products exclusively. Should we be forced to replace one or more of our manufacturers, we may experience increased costs or an adverse operational impact due to delays in distribution and delivery of our products to our customers, which could cause us to lose customers or lose revenue because of late shipments.

Cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities could lead to reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to our competitive position.

Increased sophistication and activities of perpetrators of cyber-attacks have resulted in an increase in information security risks in recent years. Hackers develop and deploy viruses, worms, and other malicious software programs that attack products and services and gain access to networks and data centers. If we were to experience difficulties maintaining existing systems or implementing new systems, we could incur significant losses due to disruptions in our operations. Additionally, these systems contain valuable proprietary and confidential information and may contain personal data of our customers. A security breach could result in disruptions of our internal systems and business applications, harm to our competitive position from the compromise of confidential business information, or subject us to liability under laws that protect personal data. As cyber threats continue to evolve, we may be required to expend additional resources to continue to enhance our information security measures and/or to investigate and remediate any information security vulnerabilities.  Any of these consequences would adversely affect our revenue and margins.

If we are unable to retain the services of Mr. Sandgaard or if we are unable to successfully recruit qualified managerial and sales personnel, we may not be able to continue our operations.

Our success depends to a significant extent upon the continued service of Mr. Thomas Sandgaard, our Chief Executive Officer and Founder and beneficial owner of 53% of our outstanding stock. Loss of the services of Mr. Sandgaard could have a material adverse effect on our growth, revenues, and prospective business. There is currently no employment agreement with Mr. Sandgaard. We do not maintain key-man insurance on the life of Mr. Sandgaard. In addition, in order to successfully implement and manage our business plan, we will be dependent upon, among other things, successfully retaining and recruiting qualified managerial and sales personnel. Competition for qualified individuals is intense. Various factors, such as marketability of our products, our reputation, our liquidity, and sales commission structure can affect our ability to find, attract or retain sales personnel. There can be no assurance that we will be able to find and attract qualified new employees and sales representatives and retain existing employees and sales representatives.

We need to maintain insurance coverage, which could become very expensive or have limited availability.

Our marketing and sales of medical device products creates an inherent risk of claims for product liability. As a result, we carry product liability insurance and will continue to maintain insurance in amounts we consider adequate to protect us from claims. We cannot, however, be assured that we have resources sufficient to satisfy liability claims in excess of policy limits if required to do so. Also, if we are subject to such liability claims, there is no assurance that our insurance provider will continue to insure us at current levels or that our insurance rates will not substantially rise in the future, resulting in increased costs to us or forcing us to either pay higher premiums or reduce our coverage amounts, which would result in increased liability to claims.

We depend upon obtaining regulatory approval of any new products and/or manufacturing operations we develop and maintain approvals of current products; failure to obtain or maintain such regulatory approvals could result in increased costs, lost revenue, penalties and fines.

Before marketing any new products, we will need to complete one or more clinical investigations of each product. There can be no assurance that the results of such clinical investigations will be favorable to us. We may not know the results of any study, favorable or unfavorable to us, until after the study has been completed. Such data must be submitted to the FDA as part of any regulatory filing seeking approval to market the product. Even if the results are favorable, the FDA may dispute the claims of safety, efficacy, or clinical utility and not allow the product to be marketed. The sale price of the product may not be enough to recoup the amount of our investment in conducting the investigative studies and we may expend significant funds on research and development on products that are rejected by the FDA. Some of our products are marketed based upon our interpretation of FDA regulation allowing for changes to an existing device. If our interpretations are incorrect, we could suffer consequences that could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows and could result in fines and penalties. There can be no assurance that we will have the financial resources to complete development of any new products or to complete the regulatory approval process or to maintain regulatory compliance of existing products.

We may not be able to obtain clearance of a 510 (k) notification or approval of a de novo or pre-market approval application with respect to any products on a timely basis, if at all.

If timely FDA clearance or approval of new products is not obtained, our business could be materially adversely affected. Clearance of a 510(k) notification or de novo application may also be required before marketing certain previously marketed products, which have been modified after they have been cleared. Should the FDA so require, the filing of a new 510(k) notification for the modification of the product may be required prior to marketing any modified devices.

To determine whether adequate compliance has been achieved, the FDA may inspect our facilities at any time. Such compliance can be difficult and costly to achieve and maintain. Our compliance status may change due to future changes in, or interpretations of, FDA regulations or other regulatory agencies. Such changes may result in the FDA withdrawing marketing clearance or requiring product recall. In addition, any changes or modifications to a device or its intended use may require us to reassess compliance with good manufacturing practices guidelines, potentially interrupting the marketing and sale of products. We may also fail to comply with complex FDA regulations due to their complexity or otherwise. Failure to comply with regulations could result in enforceable actions, including product seizures, product recalls, withdrawal of clearances or approvals, and civil and criminal penalties, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and reputation.

We continue to incur substantial expenses.

This area of medical device research is subject to rapid and significant technological changes. Developments and advances in the medical industry by either competitors or other parties can affect our business in either a positive or negative manner. Developments and changes in technology that are favorable to us may significantly advance the potential of our research while developments and advances in research methods outside of the methods we are using may severely hinder, or halt completely our development.

We are a small company in terms of employees, technical and research resources, and we have limited liquidity. We expect to incur research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. These amounts may increase before any commensurate incremental revenue from these efforts may be obtained and may adversely affect our potential profits and we may lack the liquidity to pay for such expenditures. These factors may also hinder our ability to meet changes in the medical industry as rapidly or effectively as competitors with more resources.

We may be unable to protect our trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights that are important to our business.

We consider our trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property an integral component of our success. We rely on trademark law and trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements with employees, customers, partners and others to protect our intellectual property. Effective trademark and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our products are available. In 2018 we obtained a utility patent on the blood volume monitor. We cannot be certain that we have taken adequate steps to protect our intellectual property, especially in countries where the laws may not protect our rights as fully as in the United States. In addition, if our third-party confidentiality agreements are breached there may not be an adequate remedy available to us. If our trade secrets become publicly known, we may lose competitive advantages.

Substantial costs could be incurred defending against claims of infringement.

Other companies, including competitors, may obtain patents or other proprietary rights that would limit, interfere with, or otherwise circumscribe Zynex’s ability to make, use, or sell products. Should there be a successful claim of infringement against us and if we could not license the alleged infringed technology at a reasonable cost, our business and operating results could be adversely affected. There has been substantial litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the medical device industry. The validity and breadth of claims covered in medical technology patents involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved. Any litigation claims against us, independent of their validity, may result in substantial costs and the diversion of resources with no assurance of success. Intellectual property claims could cause us to:

Our business could be adversely affected by reliance on sole suppliers.

Notwithstanding our current multiple supplier approach, in the future certain essential product components may be supplied by sole, or a limited group of, suppliers. Most of our products and components are purchased through purchase orders rather than through long term supply agreements and large volumes of inventory may not be maintained. There may be shortages and delays in obtaining certain product components. Disruption of the supply or inventory of components could result in a significant increase in the costs of these components or could result in an inability to meet the demand for our products. In addition, if a change in the manufacturer of a key component is required, qualification of a new supplier may result in delays and additional expenses in meeting customer demand for products. These factors could adversely affect our revenues and ability to retain our experienced sales force.

Our products are subject to recall even after receiving FDA or foreign clearance or approval, which would harm our reputation and business.

We are subject to medical device reporting regulations that require us to report to the FDA or respective governmental authorities in other countries if our products cause or contribute to a death or serious injury or malfunction in a way that would be reasonably likely to contribute to death or serious injury if the malfunction were to recur. The FDA and similar governmental authorities in other countries have the authority to require the recall of our products in the event of material deficiencies or defects in design or manufacturing. A government mandated or voluntary recall by us could occur as a result of component failures, manufacturing errors or design defects, including defects in labeling.

Any recall would divert managerial and financial resources and could harm our reputation with customers. We cannot assure you that we will not have product recalls in the future or that such recalls would not have a material adverse effect on our business. We have not undertaken any voluntary or involuntary recalls to date.

Our principal executive officer owns a controlling interest in our voting stock, and investors will not have any voice in our management.

Our President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman, Thomas Sandgaard, beneficially owns approximately 54% of our outstanding common stock as of February 22, 2019. As a result, Mr. Sandgaard has the ability to control substantially all day to day operations of our company and all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including:

We are a relatively small company with a limited number of products and staff. Sales fluctuations and employee turnover may adversely affect our business.

We are a relatively small company. Consequently, compared to larger companies, sales fluctuations could have a greater impact on our revenue and profitability on a quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year basis and delays in patient orders could cause our operating results to vary significantly from quarter to quarter and year-to-year. In addition, as a small company we have limited staff and are heavily reliant on certain key personnel to operate our business. If a key employee were to leave the company it could have a material impact on our business and results of operations as we might not have sufficient depth in our staffing to fill the role that was previously being performed. A delay in filling the vacated position could put a strain on existing personnel or result in a failure to satisfy our contractual obligations or to effectively implement our internal controls, and materially harm our business.

We’ve had material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting in previous periods.

We believe our material weaknesses have been remediated, but as a small company with limited resources, it is possible we identify material weaknesses in the future. If we do not remediate any such weaknesses in the future, in addition to any impact on our stock price, it could also impact our ability to raise capital and could affect adversely our reputation, which collaterally could affect our ability to retain sales personnel and business relationships with insurance companies paying for our products and vendors.

We may fail to protect the privacy, integrity and security of customer information.

We possess and process sensitive customer information and Protected Health Information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act (“HIPAA”). While we have taken reasonable and appropriate steps to protect that information, if our security procedures and controls were compromised, it could harm our business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition and may increase the costs we incur to protect against such information security breaches, such as increased investment in technology, the costs of compliance with health care privacy and consumer protection laws. A compromise of our privacy or security procedures could also subject us to liability under certain health care privacy laws applicable to us.

Expansion of our operations and sales internationally may subject us to additional risks, including risks associated with unexpected events.

A component of our growth strategy is to expand our operations and sales internationally. There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully market, sell and deliver our products in foreign markets, or that we will be able to successfully expand our international operations. Global operations could cause us to be subject to unexpected, uncontrollable and rapidly changing risks, events and circumstances.

The following factors, among others, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations:

Changes in financial accounting standards or practices may cause adverse, unexpected financial reporting fluctuations and affect our reported results of operations.

We are required to prepare our financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”), which is periodically revised and/or expanded. From time to time, we are required to adopt new or revised accounting standards issued by recognized authoritative bodies, including the FASB and the SEC. It is possible that future accounting standards we are required to adopt may require additional changes to the current accounting treatment that we apply to our financial statements and may require us to make significant changes to our reporting systems. Such changes could result in a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

RISKS RELATING TO OUR COMMON STOCK

Sales of significant amounts of shares held by Mr. Sandgaard, or the prospect of these sales, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock

Sales of significant amounts of shares held by Mr. Sandgaard, or the prospect of these sales, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. As a resolution in certain issues in his divorce, in December 2015 Mr. Sandgaard transferred 250,000 shares of common stock he owned to his former spouse, which shares will become tradeable after complying with the legal requirements under Rule 144 and other guidance. Mr. Sandgaard has no control whether or when his former spouse may choose to sell those shares or other shares of the Company’s common stock she may own. Mr. Sandgaard’s stock ownership may discourage a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of the Company, which in turn could reduce our stock price or prevent our stockholders from realizing a premium over our stock price..

Our status as a ‘controlled company’ could make our common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price. 

On February 12, 2019, we began trading on The Nasdaq Capital Market. We currently qualify as a "controlled company" under the corporate governance rules, therefore we are not required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. Accordingly, should the interests of our controlling stockholder differ from those of other stockholders; the other stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all corporate governance rules. Our status as a controlled company could make our common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.

Our existing shareholders may experience dilution if we elect to raise equity capital to meet our liquidity needs

Due to our past liquidity issues, we have had to raise capital in the form of debt and/or equity to meet working capital needs.  We may also be required to issue equity (or debt) securities in the future to meet our liquidity needs which would result in additional dilution to our existing stockholders.  Although we will attempt to minimize the dilutive impact of any future capital-raising activities, we cannot offer any assurance that we will be able to do so.  If we raise additional working capital, we may have to issue additional shares of our common stock at prices at a discount from the then-current market price of our common stock.

We paid a dividend on our common stock, and cash used to pay dividends will not be available for other corporate purposes

In 2018, our Board of Directors declared a special one-time dividend of $0.07 per share which was paid in January 2019. The decision to pay dividends in the future will depend on general business conditions, the impact of such payment on our financial condition and other factors our Board of Directors may consider to be relevant.   If we elect to pay future dividends, this could reduce our cash reserves to levels that may be inadequate to fund expansions to our business plan or unanticipated contingent liabilities.

Our stock price could become more volatile and your investment could lose value.

All of the factors discussed in this section could affect our stock price. A significant drop in our stock price could also expose us to the risk of securities class actions lawsuits, which could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which could adversely affect our business.