Item 3.01 Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing.
On November 26, 2019, Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. (the “Company”) received written notice from the Listing Qualifications staff of the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“NASDAQ”) indicating that because the minimum bid price of the Company’s common stock has closed below $1.00 per share for the last 30 consecutive business days, the Company no longer meets the requirements of Listing Rule 5550(a)(2), which requires the Company to maintain a minimum bid price of $1.00 per share (the “Bid Price Rule”). The NASDAQ Listing Rules provide us with a compliance period of 180 calendar days in which to regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule. Accordingly, we will regain compliance if at any time during this 180-day period the closing bid price of our common stock is at least $1.00 for a minimum of ten consecutive business days.
In the event the Company does not regain compliance by the end of the 180-day compliance period on May 25, 2020, but meets certain other applicable standards, the Company may be eligible for additional time. To qualify, the Company will be required to meet the continued listing requirement for market value of publicly held shares and all other initial listing standards for The Nasdaq Capital Market, with the exception of the Bid Price Rule, and will need to provide written notice of the Company’s intention to cure the deficiency during the second compliance period, by effecting a reverse stock split, if necessary. If the Company meets these requirements, NASDAQ will inform the Company that it has been granted an additional 180 calendar days to regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule. However, if it appears to NASDAQ that the Company will not be able to cure the deficiency, or if it is otherwise not eligible, NASDAQ will provide notice that the Company’s common stock will be subject to delisting. At that time, the Company may appeal the delisting determination to a hearings panel.
The Company intends to monitor the bid price of its common stock and consider available options if its common stock does not trade at a level likely to result in the Company regaining compliance with the Bid Price Rule by May 25, 2020. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule or that the Company will otherwise be compliant with the other listing standards for the Nasdaq Global Capital Market.
Additionally, as previously disclosed, the Company is not currently in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) (the “Stockholders’ Equity Rule”) because the Company’s stockholders’ equity, as reported in the Company’s recently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, was below $2.5 million, which is the minimum stockholders’ equity required for compliance with the Stockholders’ Equity Rule. The Company subsequently submitted a plan to NASDAQ explaining how the Company intends to regain compliance with the Stockholders’ Equity Rule and NASDAQ granted the Company an extension until February 17, 2020 to regain compliance with the Stockholders’ Equity Rule. If the Company fails to evidence compliance upon filing its periodic report for the year ending December 31, 2019 with the SEC and NASDAQ, the Company may be subject to delisting. Accordingly, the Company’s failure to regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule could serve as an additional basis for delisting.
Cautionary Note About Forward-Looking Statements
This Current Report on Form 8-K contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of current or historical fact contained in this current report, including statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy, new products, budgets, liquidity, cash flows, projected costs, regulatory approvals, or the impact of any laws or regulations applicable to us, and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “should,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations about future events. While we believe these expectations are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. Our actual future results may differ materially from those discussed here for various reasons. We discuss many of these risks in Item 1A under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, as updated by our other filings with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this current report are made only as of the date hereof. We do not undertake any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of such statements to reflect future events or developments.