KNDI Kandi Technolgies Group Inc

You should carefully consider the risks described below together with all of the other information included in this report before making an investment decision with regard to our securities. The statements contained in or incorporated into this Annual Report that are not historic facts are forward -looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Relating to Our Business

Our future growth is dependent upon consumers’ willingness to adopt EVs.

Our growth is highly dependent upon the adoption by consumers of, and we are subject to a risk of any reduced demand for, alternative fuel vehicles in general and EVs in particular. The market for alternative fuel vehicles (including EVs) is relatively new and rapidly evolving, characterized by rapidly changing technologies, price competition, additional competitors, evolving government regulation and industry standards, frequent new vehicle announcements and changing consumer demands and behaviors. If the market for EVs in China does not develop as we expect or develops more slowly than we expect, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results will be harmed.

Developments in alternative technologies or improvements in the internal combustion engine may materially adversely affect the demand for our EV Products.

Significant developments in alternative technologies, such as advanced diesel, ethanol, fuel cells or compressed natural gas, or improvements in the fuel economy of the internal combustion engine, may materially and adversely affect our business and prospects in ways we do not currently anticipate. Any failure by us to develop new or enhanced technologies or processes, or to react to changes in existing technologies, could materially delay our development and introduction of new and enhanced EV products, which could result in the loss of competitiveness of our vehicles, decreased revenue and a loss of market share to competitors.

If we are unable to keep up with advances in electric vehicle technology, we may suffer a decline in our competitive position.

We may be unable to keep up with changes in EV technology, and we may suffer a resulting decline in our competitive position. Any failure to keep up with advances in EV technology would result in a decline in our competitive position which would materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. Our research and development efforts may not be sufficient to adapt to changes in EV technology. As technologies change, we plan to upgrade or adapt the vehicles and introduce new models in order to continue to provide vehicles with the latest technology, in particular battery cell technology. However, our vehicles may not compete effectively with alternative vehicles if we are not able to source and integrate the latest technology into our vehicles. For example, we do not manufacture battery cells, which makes us dependent upon other suppliers of battery cell technology for our battery packs.

Our business depends substantially on the continuing efforts of our executive officers, and our business may be severely disrupted if we lose their services.

Our future success depends substantially on the continued services of our executive officers, especially our CEO and Chairman of the Board, Mr. Hu Xiaoming. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of our executive officers. If any of our executive officers are unable or unwilling to continue in their present positions, we may not be able to replace them readily, if at all. Therefore, our business may be severely disrupted, and we may incur additional expenses to recruit and retain new officers. In addition, if any of our executive officers joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose some of our customers.

We may be subject to product liability claims or recalls which could be expensive, damage our reputation or result in a diversion of management resources.

We may be subject to lawsuits resulting from injuries associated with the use of the vehicles that we sell or produce. We may incur losses relating to these claims or the defense of these claims. There is a risk that claims or liabilities will exceed our insurance coverage. In addition, we may be unable to retain adequate liability insurance in the future.

We may also be required to participate in recalls involving our vehicles, if any (including the products SC Autosports sells in the U.S.) prove to be defective, or we may voluntarily initiate a recall or make payments related to such claims as a result of various industry or business practices or the need to maintain good customer relationships. Such a recall would result in a diversion of resources. While we do maintain product liability insurance, we cannot assure investors that it will be sufficient to cover all product liability claims, that such claims will not exceed our insurance coverage limits or that such insurance will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Any product liability claim brought against us could have a material adverse effect on the results of our operations.

We retain certain personal information about our customers and may be subject to various privacy and consumer protection laws.

We and our operating companies use the electronic systems of our vehicles to log information about each vehicle’s condition, performance and use in order to aid us in providing customer service, including vehicle diagnostics, repair and maintenance, as well as to help us collect data regarding our customers’ charge time, battery usage, mileage and efficiency habits and to improve our vehicles. We also collect information about our customers through our website, at our stores and facilities, and via telephone.

Our customers may object to the processing of this data, which may negatively impact our ability to provide effective customer service and develop new vehicles and products. Collection and use of our customers’ personal information in conducting our business may be subject to national and local laws and regulations in China, and such laws and regulations may restrict our processing of such personal information and hinder our ability to attract new customers or market to existing customers. We may incur significant expenses to comply with privacy, consumer protection and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards or contractual obligations. Although we take steps to protect the security of our customers’ personal information, we may be required to expend significant resources to comply with data breach requirements if third parties improperly obtain and use the personal information of our customers or we otherwise experience a data loss with respect to customers’ personal information. A major breach of our network security and systems could have serious negative consequences for our businesses and future prospects, including possible fines, penalties and damages, reduced customer demand for our vehicles, and harm to our reputation and brand.

Our business will be adversely affected if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use or infringement by third parties.

Any failure to adequately protect our proprietary rights could result in the weakening or loss of such rights, which may allow our competitors to offer similar or identical products or use identical or confusingly similar branding, potentially resulting in the loss of some of our competitive advantage, a decrease in our revenue or an attribution of potentially lower quality products to us, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results. Our success depends, at least in part, on our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of patents, patent applications, trade secrets (including know-how), employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, copyright protection, trademarks, intellectual property licenses and other contractual rights to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our technology. We have also received from third parties patent licenses related to manufacturing our vehicles.

The protection provided by the patent laws is and will be important to our future opportunities. However, such patents and agreements and various other measures we take to protect our intellectual property from use by others may not be effective for various reasons, including the following:

Existing trademark and trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements afford only limited protections. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States, and policing the unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult.

We may need to defend ourselves against patent or trademark infringement claims, which may be time-consuming and could cause us to incur substantial costs.

Companies, organizations or individuals, including our competitors, may hold or obtain patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop, sell or market our vehicles or components, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive inquiries from holders of patents or trademarks regarding their proprietary rights. Companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights may bring suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise assert their rights and seek licenses. In addition, if we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following:

In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to the infringed technology or other intellectual property right, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention.

We may also face claims that our use of technology licensed or otherwise obtained from a third party infringes the rights of others. In such cases, we may seek indemnification from our licensors/suppliers under our contracts with them. However, indemnification may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our costs and losses, depending on our use of the technology, whether we choose to retain control over conduct of the litigation, and other factors.

Our vehicles make use of lithium-ion battery cells, which have the potential to catch fire or vent smoke and flame. This may lead to additional concerns about batteries used in automotive applications.

The battery packs in our EV products make use of lithium-ion cells. We also currently intend to make use of lithium-ion cells in battery packs on any future vehicles we may produce. On rare occasions, lithium-ion cells can rapidly release the energy they contain by venting smoke and flames in a manner that can ignite nearby materials as well as other lithium-ion cells. Extremely rare incidents of laptop computers, cell phones and EV battery packs catching fire have focused consumer attention on the safety of these cells.

These events have raised concerns about batteries used in automotive applications. To address these questions and concerns, a number of battery cell manufacturers are pursuing alternative lithium-ion battery cell chemistries to improve safety. We may have to recall our vehicles or participate in a recall of a vehicle that contains our battery packs, or redesign our battery packs, which would be time consuming and expensive. Also, negative public perceptions regarding the suitability of lithium-ion cells for automotive applications or any future incident involving lithium-ion cells such as a vehicle or other fire, even if such incident does not involve us, could seriously harm our business.

In addition, we store a significant number of lithium-ion cells at our manufacturing facility. Any mishandling of battery cells may cause disruption to the operation of our facilities. While we have implemented safety procedures related to the handling of the cells, there can be no assurance that a safety issue or fire related to the cells would not disrupt our operations. Such damage or injury would likely lead to adverse publicity and potentially a safety recall. Moreover, any failure of a competitor’s EV, may cause indirect adverse publicity for us and our EV products. Such adverse publicity would negatively affect our brand and harm our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

Compliance with environmental regulations can be expensive, and noncompliance with these regulations may result in adverse publicity and potentially significant monetary damages and fines.

Our business operations generate noise, waste water, gaseous byproduct and other industrial waste. We are required to comply with all national and local regulations regarding the protection of the environment. We are in compliance with current environmental protection requirements and have all necessary environmental permits to conduct our business. However, if more stringent regulations are adopted in the future, the costs of compliance with these new regulations could be substantial. Additionally, if we fail to comply with present or future environmental regulations, we may be required to pay substantial fines, suspend production or cease operations. Any failure by us to control the use of, or to adequately restrict the unauthorized discharge of, hazardous substances could subject us to potentially significant monetary damages and fines or suspensions to our business operations. Certain laws, ordinances and regulations could limit our ability to develop, use, or sell our products.

Our high concentration of sales to relatively few customers may result in significant impact on our liquidity, business, results of operations and financial condition.

As of December 31, 2018 and 2017 our major customers (above 10% of the total revenue), in the aggregate, accounted for 76% and 90%, respectively, of our sales. Due to the concentration of sales to relatively few customers including the JV Company, loss of one or more of these customers will have relatively high impact on our operational results. In the event that our relationship with the JV Company and/or our partner in the JV Company changes negatively, our operating results would be materially negatively affected.

Our business is subject to the risk of supplier concentrations.

We depend on a limited number of suppliers for the sourcing of major components and parts and principal raw materials. For the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 our top two suppliers accounted for 42% and 51% of our purchases, respectively. As a result of this concentration in our supply chain, our business and operations would be negatively affected if any of our key suppliers were to experience significant disruption affecting the price, quality, availability or timely delivery of their products. The partial or complete loss of these suppliers, or a significant adverse change in our relationship with any of these suppliers, could result in lost revenue, added costs and distribution delays that could harm our business and customer relationships. In addition, concentration in our supply chain can exacerbate our exposure to risks associated with the termination by key suppliers of our distribution agreements or any adverse change in the terms of such agreements, which could have a negative impact on our revenues and profitability.

Our facilities or operations could be damaged or adversely affected as a result of disasters or unpredictable events.

Our headquarters and facilities are located in several cities in China such as Jinhua, Yongkang and Haikou. If major disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, wars, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, pandemics or other events occur, or our information system or communications network breaks down or operates improperly, our headquarters and production facilities may be seriously damaged, or we may have to stop or delay production and shipment of our products. We may incur expenses relating to such damages, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, current and potential shareholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which would harm our business and the trading price of our stock.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. As directed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX 404, the SEC adopted rules requiring public companies to include a report of management on our internal controls over financial reporting in their annual reports.

Although we continue to maintain and improve our internal control procedures, we cannot provide assurance that we will not fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment on an ongoing basis, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

The audit report included in this Annual Report was prepared by auditors who are not inspected by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and, as a result, investors are deprived of the benefits of such inspection.

The independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit reports included in our annual reports filed with the SEC, as auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or the “PCAOB”, is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess its compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards. Because our auditors are located in China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of Chinese authorities, our auditors are not currently inspected by the PCAOB.

Inspections of other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside China have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating our auditor’s statements, audits and quality control procedures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections.

The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditor’s quality control and audit procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to PCAOB inspections. Investors may lose confidence in our reported financial information and procedures and the quality of our financial statements.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

The economy of China had experienced unprecedented growth. This growth has slowed in the recent years, and if the growth of the economy continues to slow or if the economy contracts, our financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy had historically resulted in widespread growth opportunities for industries across China. This growth has slowed in the recent years. As a result of the global financial crisis and the inability of enterprises to gain comparable access to the same amounts of capital available in past years, there may be an adverse effect on the business climate and growth of private enterprise in China. An economic slowdown could have an adverse effect on our sales and may increase our costs. Further, if economic growth continues to slow, and if, in conjunction, inflation continues unchecked, our costs would be likely to increase, and there can be no assurance that we would be able to increase our prices to an extent that would offset the increase in our expenses.

In addition, a tightening of the labor markets in our geographic region may result in fewer qualified applicants for job openings in our facilities. Further, higher wages, related labor costs and other increasing cost trends may negatively impact our results.

Changes in political and economic conditions may affect our business operations and profitability.

Since our business operations are primarily located in China, our business operations and financial position are subject, to a significant degree, to the economic, political and legal developments in China.

While the Chinese government has not halted its economic reform policy since 1978, any significant adverse changes in the social, political and economic conditions of China may fundamentally impact China’s economic reform policies, and thus the Company’s operations and profits may be adversely affected.

Uncertainties with respect to the Chinese legal system could have a material adverse effect on us and may restrict the level of legal protections to foreign investors.

China’s legal system is based on statutory law. Unlike the common law system, statutory law is based primarily on written statutes. Previous court decisions may be cited as persuasive authority but do not have a binding effect. Since 1979, the Chinese government has been promulgating and amending laws and regulations regarding economic matters, such as corporate organization and governance, foreign investment, commerce, taxation and trade. However, since these laws and regulations are relatively new, and the Chinese legal system continues to rapidly evolve, the interpretation of many laws, regulations and rules is not always uniform and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involves uncertainties, which may limit legal protections available to us.

In addition, any litigation in China may be protracted and may result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management’s attention. The legal system in China cannot provide investors with the same level of protection as in the U.S. The Company is governed by laws and regulations generally applicable to local enterprises in China. Many of these laws and regulations were recently introduced and remain experimental in nature and subject to changes and refinements. Interpretation, implementation and enforcement of the existing laws and regulations can be uncertain and unpredictable and therefore may restrict the legal protections available to foreign investors.

Changes in currency conversion policies in China may have a material adverse effect on us.

Renminbi (“RMB”) is still not a freely exchangeable currency. Since 1998, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China has promulgated a series of circulars and rules in order to enhance verification of foreign exchange payments under a Chinese entity’s current account items, and has imposed strict requirements on borrowing and repayments of foreign exchange debts from and to foreign creditors under the capital account items and on the creation of foreign security in favor of foreign creditors.

This may complicate foreign exchange payments to foreign creditors under the current account items and thus may affect the ability to borrow under international commercial loans, the creation of foreign security, and the borrowing of RMB under guarantees in foreign currencies. Moreover, the value of RMB may become subject to supply and demand, which could be largely impacted by international economic and political environments. Any fluctuations in the exchange rate of RMB could have an adverse effect on the operational and financial condition of the Company and its subsidiaries in China.

Fluctuations in exchange rates could adversely affect our business and the value of our securities.

The value of our common stock will be indirectly affected by the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollars and RMB and between those currencies and other currencies in which our sales may be denominated. Because substantially all of our earnings and cash assets are denominated in RMB, fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the RMB will affect our balance sheet and our earnings per share in U.S. dollars. In addition, appreciation or depreciation in the value of the RMB relative to the U.S. dollar would affect our financial results reported in U.S. dollar terms without giving effect to any underlying change in our business or results of operations.

Investors may experience difficulties in effecting service of legal process, enforcing judgements or bringing original actions based on United States or foreign laws against us or our management.

We conduct substantially all of our operations in China and almost all of our assets are located in China. In addition, almost all of our senior executive officers reside in China. As a result, it may not be possible to effect service of process on our senior executive officers within the United States or elsewhere outside China, including with respect to matters arising under U.S. federal securities laws or applicable state securities laws. Moreover, our Chinese counsel has advised us that China does not have treaties with the United States or many other countries providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of court orders and final judgments.

Changes to the government’s subsidy support policies and further delays in subsidy payments may have negative impacts on our operations.

Due to the changes of the policies, the unavailability, reduction or elimination of government and economic incentives could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects mainly in the following aspects.

2019 will be the implementation year for a decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles. The Chinese government’s subsidy for new energy vehicles has continued to decline compared to past years. However, as of the date of this report, the new government policy regarding state subsidies for new energy vehicles has not yet been released. The Chinese government has not made clear the extent to which new energy vehicle subsidies will decline. The Company cannot predict in the coming year whether the declining levels of national new energy vehicle subsidies will be made up by the scale effect of production, a reduction of the purchase price of key parts, or tightened control of manufacturing costs. This may also present greater challenges to the JV Company’s operations. Therefore, changes in government support policies may have a significant adverse impact on the Company’s business prospects, operating results, cash flow and profitability in the coming years.

Risks associated with the export of Kandi electric vehicles to the United States

Our intellectual property rights may be harmed by competitors preemptively filing legitimate and illegitimate patents, which could create significant barriers for our business by preventing us from adequately protecting our intellectual property.

Multinational automobile companies usually obtain patent portfolios consisting of basic patents and peripheral patents on improvements and related technologies, thereby creating patent barriers in the industry.  At the same time, certain multinational automobile companies also maliciously apply for patents, in order to obtain an unlawful competitive advantage or to directly receive invalid rights and use patents as weapons in litigation. New energy vehicles are emerging products in worldwide markets in recent years, while relevant and related patents in the industry are still in force.  Kandi Electric Vehicles may be seriously adversely affected by intellectual property rights barriers through participation in the competitive international automobile market. Therefore, Kandi Electric Vehicles faces risks of patent barriers and intellectual property litigation in the future.

Failures in our overseas business and export trade processes may present a risk of significant losses to our business.

Our automobile product export and overseas operations sections involve import and export currency exchange, insurance, ocean transportation, customs clearance and various other logistical procedures. A loss of trust in any part of the chain can lead to the failure of transactions, which in turn causes huge losses to our enterprise. In the future, the Company will expand its overseas market. An insufficient assessment of the capital strength and commercial credit of its partners, or any fraud in risk prevention and risk control systems may cause economic losses for the Company due to its business partners’ breach of contract or even fraud. In short, the export of Kandi electric vehicles to the United States may have risks in the overseas operation and export trade process.

The developed countries that import our products have strict environmental laws and regulations which may cause us to expend significant sums to comply with such laws and regulations.

The United States and other developed countries have strong awareness of environmental protection and product safety regulations. The penalties for violating environmental laws in such countries are extremely high. Developed countries have mature and highly saturated automobile markets. Costs associated with maintaining controls over atmospheric emissions, harmful toxic substances, and products safety are getting higher in an accelerated manner. The process for a company to obtain the applicable certifications is time-consuming, complicated and expensive. Kandi Electric Vehicles will also face the adverse impact of compliance with policy and regulatory standards in the United States. Thus, Kandi electric vehicles may face the risk of not being able to sustain its business in accordance with US and state environmental protection and product safety policies and regulations.

Our short-term financial performance may suffer due to our investment in expanding our presence and sales in the United States.

Chinese auto products have market competition disadvantages in terms of technology content, product structure, product quality and brand influence. It is difficult to reverse the sentiment of “low quality and low price” that have followed Chinese automobiles for a long time, resulting in weakened bargaining power for Chinese auto companies and generally low gross profit margins. In the future, Kandi will expand into the US market and rely on overseas distributors to establish a marketing network and after-sales service guarantee system. All actions require the Company to invest a certain amount of resources. Additionally electric vehicle sales may face a slow growth period. In a certain period of time, the growth of operating income lags behind the increase in sales inputs. At the same time, the company cannot predict the direct economic loss caused by an unsatisfactory market expansion caused by the adverse factors of market competition. Cash flows for Kandi Electric Vehicles and SC Autosports may be significantly adversely affected by large investments and small revenues in the short term. Therefore, in the future, there may be a risk that the short-term financial performance indicators will fall due to factors such as the expansion of resources in overseas markets.

Risks Relating to Ownership of Our Securities

Our stock price may be volatile, which may result in losses for our shareholders.

The stock markets have experienced significant price and trading volume fluctuations. Although our stock was listed on the NASDAQ Global Market and upgraded to the NASDAQ Global Select Market on January 2, 2014, the trading price of our common stock may be volatile and could fluctuate significantly in response to many factors, including the following, some of which are beyond our control:

Domestic and international stock markets often experience significant price and volume fluctuations. These fluctuations, as well as general economic and political conditions unrelated to our performance, may adversely affect the price of our common stock.

Mr. Hu, our CEO, President and Chairman of our Board, is the beneficial owner of a substantial portion of our outstanding common stock, which may enable Mr. Hu to exert significant influence on corporate actions.

Excelvantage Group Limited controls approximately 24.4% of our outstanding shares of common stock as of December 31, 2018. Hu Xiaoming, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, is the sole stockholder of Excelvantage Group Limited. Together with the shares held through Excelvantage Group Limited, Mr. Hu controls 27.0% of our outstanding shares of common stock, which could have a substantial impact on matters requiring the vote of our shareholders, including the election of our directors and other corporate actions. This control could delay, defer or prevent others from initiating a potential merger, takeover or other change in control, even if these actions would benefit our other shareholders and the Company. This control could adversely affect the voting and other rights of our other shareholders and could depress the market price of our common stock.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends to our common shareholders.

We presently do not anticipate that we will pay dividends on any of our common stock in the foreseeable future. If payment of dividends does occur at some point in the future, it would be contingent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements, and general financial condition. The payment of any common stock dividends will be within the discretion of our Board. We presently intend to retain all earnings in order to implement our business plan; accordingly, we do not anticipate the declaration of any dividends for common stock in the foreseeable future.

The limitation of monetary liability against our directors, officers and employees under Delaware Law and the existence of statutory indemnification rights of our directors, officers and employees may result in substantial expenditures by our company and may discourage lawsuits against our directors, officers and employees.

Our articles of incorporation do not contain any specific provisions that limit the liability of our directors for monetary damages to our Company or shareholders; however, we are prepared to indemnify our directors and officers to the extent provided for by Delaware law. We may also have included contractual indemnification obligations in our employment agreements with our officers. The foregoing indemnification obligations could result in the Company incurring substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against its directors and officers, which we may be unable to recoup. These provisions and resultant costs may also discourage our Company from bringing a lawsuit against directors and officers for breaches of their fiduciary duties, and may similarly discourage the filing of derivative litigation by our shareholders against our directors and officers even though such actions, if successful, might otherwise benefit our Company and shareholders.

We may require additional capital, and the sale of additional shares or other equity securities could result in additional dilution to our shareholders.

In the future, we may require additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other future developments, including investments or acquisitions that we may decide to pursue. If our resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain a credit facility. The sale of additional equity securities could result in dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations. We cannot assure investors that financing will be available, if at all, in amounts or on terms acceptable to us.

Our business is subject to changing regulations related to corporate governance and public disclosure that may increase both our costs and the risk of noncompliance.

Because our common stock is publicly traded, we are subject to certain rules and regulations of federal, state and financial market exchange entities charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded. These entities, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the SEC and NASDAQ, have issued requirements and regulations and continue to develop additional regulations and requirements in response to corporate scandals and laws enacted by Congress. Our efforts to comply with these regulations have resulted in, and are likely to continue resulting in, increased general and administrative expenses and diversion of management time and attention from revenue -generating activities to compliance activities. Because new and modified laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices.

Techniques employed by manipulative short sellers in Chinese small cap stocks may drive down the market price of our common stock.

Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has, supposedly, borrowed from a third party with the intention of buying identical securities back at a later date to return to the lender. The short seller hopes to profit from a decline in the value of the securities between the sale of the borrowed securities and the purchase of the replacement shares, as the short seller expects to pay less in that purchase than it received in the sale. As it is therefore in the short seller’s best interests for the price of the stock to decline, many short sellers (sometimes known as “disclosed shorts”) publish, or arrange for the publication of, negative opinions or reports regarding the relevant issuer and its business prospects in order to create negative market momentum and generate profits for themselves after selling a stock short. These short attacks have, in the past, led to selling of shares in the market, on occasion in large scale and broad base.

Short seller publications are not regulated by any governmental, self-regulatory organization or other official authority in the U.S. and are not subject to the certification requirements imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Regulation AC (Regulation Analyst Certification) and, accordingly, the opinions they express may be based on distortions of actual facts or, in some cases, fabrications of facts. In light of the limited risks involved in publishing such information, and the enormous profit that can be made from running just one successful short attack, unless the short sellers become subject to significant penalties, it is more likely than not that disclosed short sellers will continue to issue such reports.

While we intend to strongly defend our public filings against any such short seller attack, often times we are constrained, either by principles of freedom of speech, applicable state law (often called “Anti-SLAPP statutes”), or issues of commercial confidentiality, in the manner in which we can proceed against the relevant short seller. You should be aware that in light of the relative freedom to operate that such persons enjoy – oftentimes blogging from outside the U.S. with little or no assets or identity requirements – should we be targeted for such an attack, our stock will likely suffer from a temporary, or possibly long term, decline in market price should the rumors created not be dismissed by market participants.