As Filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 30, 2021
Registration No. 333-
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
__________________________________________
Form F-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
__________________________________________
VERSUS SYSTEMS INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
__________________________________________
Not Applicable
(Translation of Registrant’s Name into English)
__________________________________________
British Columbia |
7374 |
Not Applicable |
||
(State or other Jurisdiction of |
(Primary Standard Industrial |
(I.R.S. Employer |
1558 West Hastings Street
Vancouver BC V6G 3J4 Canada
(604) 639-4457
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)
__________________________________________
Matthew Pierce
Versus Systems Inc.
6701 Center Drive West, Suite 480
Los Angeles, CA 90445
(310) 242-0228
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
__________________________________________
Copies of all communications, including communications sent to agent for service, should be sent to:
M. Ali Panjwani, Esq. |
Larry A. Cerutti, Esq. |
__________________________________________
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☒
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933.
Emerging growth company. ☒
If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act ☐
____________
† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.
CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title of Each Class of Securities to be Registered |
Proposed |
Amount of |
||||||
Common Shares, no par value per share(3) |
$ |
17,250,000 |
|
$ |
1,599.08 |
|
||
Warrants to purchase Common Shares |
|
— |
(4) |
|
— |
(4) |
||
Common Shares underlying warrants |
$ |
20,700,000 |
|
$ |
1,918.89 |
|
||
Underwriters’ warrants to purchase Common Shares(5) |
|
— |
(4) |
|
— |
(4) |
||
Common Shares underlying underwriters’ warrants |
$ |
1,035,000 |
|
$ |
95.95 |
|
||
Total |
$ |
38,985,000 |
|
$ |
3,613.92 |
|
____________
(1) Estimated solely for the purpose of determining the amount of registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).
(2) Pursuant to Rule 416 under the Securities Act of 1933, the shares being registered hereunder include such indeterminate number of shares as may be issuable with respect to the shares being registered hereunder as a result of stock splits, stock dividends or similar transactions.
(3) Includes the offering price of common shares that may be purchased by the representatives if the over-allotment option to purchase additional common shares is exercised by the underwriter. See “Underwriting.”
(4) No fee required pursuant to Rule 457(g) under the Securities Act.
(5) The underwriter’s warrants are exercisable at a per share exercise price equal to 120% of the public offering price per share. As estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act, the proposed maximum aggregate offering price of the underwriter’s warrants is $ , which is equal to % of $ (the aggregate value of % of , the total number of common shares sold in the offering). Pursuant to Rule 416, the registrant is also registering an indeterminate number of additional common shares that are issuable by reason of the anti-dilution provisions of the underwriter’s warrants.
The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state or other jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS |
SUBJECT TO COMPLETION DATED NOVEMBER 30, 2021 |
Units
__________________________________________
We are offering units, with each unit consisting of one of our common shares, no par value per share, and one warrant to purchase one of our common shares at an assumed public offering price of $ per unit. All of the shares and warrants included in this offering are being sold by us.
The common shares and the warrants comprising the units are immediately separable and will be issued separately in this offering. The warrants included in the units are exercisable immediately and have an exercise price equal to $ per common share. The warrants will not be listed for trading and will expire five years from the date of issuance. The units will not be issued or certificated. Purchasers will receive only common shares and warrants. The common shares and warrants may be transferred separately, immediately upon issuance. The offering also includes the common shares issuable from time to time upon exercise of the warrants.
Our common shares are presently quoted on The Nasdaq Capital Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “VS”. On November 26, 2021, the last reported sale price for our common shares on Nasdaq was $2.70.
We are an “emerging growth company” as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 and a “foreign private issuer” under applicable Securities and Exchange Commission rules and, as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and future filings. See “Prospectus Summary — Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer.”
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 12 of this prospectus for a discussion of information that should be considered in connection with an investment in our securities.
Per Unit |
Total |
|||||
Public offering price |
$ |
$ |
||||
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1) |
$ |
$ |
||||
Proceeds, before expenses, to us |
$ |
$ |
____________
(1) We have agreed to reimburse the underwriters for certain expenses in connection with this offering. We have also agreed to issue the representative of the underwriters certain warrant compensation in connection with this offering. See “Underwriting.”
We have granted the underwriters an option, exercisable for 30 days from the date of this prospectus, to purchase up to an additional common shares on the same terms as the other shares being purchased by the underwriters from us.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The underwriters expect to deliver the common shares against payment on , 2021.
__________________________________________
D.A. Davidson & Co.
The date of this prospectus is , 2021.
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1 |
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12 |
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29 |
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31 |
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32 |
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33 |
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35 |
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND |
36 |
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45 |
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56 |
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62 |
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SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT |
67 |
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69 |
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70 |
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88 |
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MATERIAL U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSIDERATIONS FOR U.S. HOLDERS |
90 |
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MATERIAL CANADIAN INCOME TAX CONSIDERATIONS FOR NON-CANADIAN |
97 |
|
99 |
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103 |
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103 |
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103 |
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104 |
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104 |
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F-1 |
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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
The registration statement as of which this prospectus forms a part that we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, includes exhibits that provide more detail of the matters discussed in this prospectus.
You should read this prospectus and the related exhibits filed with the SEC, together with the additional information described under the heading “Where You Can Find Additional Information.”
You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with information different from, or in addition to, that contained in this prospectus. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the securities offered hereby but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus is current only as of its date. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.
We are not offering to sell or seeking offers to purchase these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. We have not done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the jurisdiction of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus are required to inform themselves about and to observe any restrictions relating to this Offering and the distribution of this prospectus applicable to that jurisdiction.
Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “ our company,” “Company, ” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Versus Systems Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
All service marks, trademarks and trade names referred to in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this prospectus are referred to without the ®, © and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto.
We publish our consolidated financial statements in United States dollars as of February 1, 2021. We changed our functional currency from Canadian to United States dollars due to our initial public offering in January 2021. In this prospectus, unless otherwise specified, all references to “C$” and “CAD$” means Canadian dollars and all references to “$”and “dollars” mean United States dollars.
This prospectus includes our audited annual consolidated financial statements, or the “Financial Statements.” Our audited consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 were prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB, the independent, private-sector body that develops and approves IFRS, and Interpretations issued by the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee, or IFRIC. None of the financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.
Unless indicated otherwise, our financial information in this prospectus has been prepared on a basis consistent with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board. In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of our results and consult with their own professional advisors.
The share and per share information in this prospectus reflects the one-for-16 reverse stock split of our outstanding common shares that became effective on December 15, 2020.
Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate is based on information from independent industry and research organizations, other third-party sources (including industry publications, surveys and forecasts), and management estimates. Management estimates are derived from publicly available information released by independent industry analysts and third-party sources, as well as data from our internal research, and are based on assumptions made by us upon reviewing such data and our knowledge of such industry and markets, which we believe to be reasonable. Although we believe the data from these third-party sources is reliable, we have not independently verified any third-party information. In addition, projections, assumptions and estimates of the future performance of the industry in which we operate and our future performance are necessarily subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by the independent parties and by us.
ii
This summary highlights principal features of this offering and certain information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information you should consider before investing in our securities. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the information presented under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus, before making an investment decision.
Our Mission
Our mission is to reinvent the way our customers interact with consumers through live events, games, apps and streaming content.
Our Company
We offer a proprietary business-to-business software platform called eXtreme Engagement Online (“XEO”) that allows live event producers, professional sports franchises, video game publishers and developers, live event producers, and professional sports franchises, as well as other interactive media content creators, the ability to offer in-game prizing and rewards based on the completion of in-content challenges alongside other user engagement tools. The prizes or rewards offered are specific to each player or viewer based on a variety of user- and content-based characteristics, including age, location, game played and challenge undertaken. Our platform facilitates several types of single player prize challenges that includes a wide range of prize types, including coupons, sweepstakes-style prizes, consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) and downloadable content (“DLC”).
With the acquisition of Xcite Interactive in June of 2021, we acquired a number of key pieces of technology and relationships that we believe will benefit our engagement and rewards business. First, we gained an industry-leading live events fan engagement business that partners with over 50 professional sports franchises across the National Football League (“NFL”), the National Basketball Association (“NBA”), the National Hockey League (“NHL”) and others to drive in-stadium audience engagement using interactive gaming functions like trivia, polling, and casual games that can be played alongside the live experience. Our three largest customers in 2021 include the Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, and New York Jets. We also acquired a growing software licensing business that takes the in-venue fan engagement tools and methods developed by Xcite and its team over decades, productizing those tools in a scalable way that allows teams and content partners of all sizes to engage with fans in-venue and at home in measurable, effective ways at a fraction of the cost of a large professional game operations staff.
We license our XEO software platform to teams, leagues, and other content creators creating a recurring revenue stream that supplements our professional services and advertising revenues. In addition to providing improved consumer engagement with games and features like trivia and polling, the XEO platform provides improved analytics and flexibility for our content partners through the real-time action board. The action board provides content partners with actionable insights during the game, and it also gives operators tools to adjust the run of show, reacting in real time to events that are happening on the field or in-venue, giving a more urgent, contextual feel to the content and making fan’s interactivity feel more authentic and personal. This real-time engagement tech, coupled with improved analytics about player behavior allows for both improved audience experience and also improved advertising efficiency.
We are able to provide our customers improved fan engagement, not only reaching out to those fans that are in the stadium, but also to those watching at home on television or streaming the game on a computer or mobile device. With XEO, fans can follow the game, interact with other fans through a chat function, and compete for prizes and rewards offered through the team itself or through one of the team’s sponsors or branding partners. This engagement and rewards model can extend beyond professional sports to viewers of college sports, the Olympics, awards shows, reality TV, or even streaming content on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch. By driving second screen engagement, content providers, such as sports teams, are able to maintain the consumer’s attention during lengthy commercials, timeouts, and breaks in play.
We believe out platform provides real benefits for three key target groups: content providers, brands and agencies, and fans/players. By providing interactivity and in-content rewards, content providers see more frequent sessions and longer session times from their users and viewers. Consumer brands offering sponsorships and in-content prizes or rewards within our interactive experiences see improved brand recall and brand affinity, as well as prolonged and increased interest from players and consumers who view their goods as a positive “win” within their viewing
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experience rather than as a distraction from the content they are watching as is typically the case with traditional in-content advertising. Players, viewers, and consumers who interact alongside their favorite content, especially players who play for real-world rewards, show an increased desire to interact with such content, which increases the value of the content as a supplier of prizing opportunities, of the brands that offer the prizes, and of the experience itself as an interactive and desirable challenge for players and viewers.
We monetize prizes and sponsorships in a number of ways including Cost Per Click (“CPC”), Cost Per Action (“CPA”), and sponsorship revenues that can be charged to the brand. In those cases, we either are paid to place images within our interactive elements, or as a function of an end user interacting with the brand (CPC), or as a function of the user accepting the reward or in some way transacting with the brand (CPA). We share a certain percentage of the gross receipts we receive from such brand customers with the content partners who are the owners of the media in which the prizes or rewards are offered. Our current agreements with the owners or marketers of consumer brands provide that we are paid a fee to place their ads in content, the amount of which is based either on the number of ads placed or upon the performance of those ads relative to the brand’s goals.
Our revenues have principally come from software licensing and professional services, provided to professional sports franchises as well as fan engagement events like rodeos, boxing matches, concerts, and other live events including the Olympics, Women’s World Cup, the X Games, and other global sporting events. Our current agreements with content or game owners, including the Peach Bowl, HP, Kast and Animoca Brands, provide that from 50% to 70% of advertising revenue will be kept by, or shared with, the publisher or developer, with the remaining 50% to 30% of gross receipts belonging to Versus. HP, our largest customer during the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019, and 2020 has pre-installed our platform in its OMEN and Pavilion brands of personal computers that are manufactured primarily for gamers and for general use as a means of increasing usage and desirability of those computers by consumers.
According to a 2018 study by us and the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment and Sports, the introduction of rewards benefits content providers, brands, and players across a variety of demographics.
Our technology facilitates advertising that is part of the entertainment itself — part of the narrative, not as a distraction. By creating an environment that makes brands part of a desired experience — winning prizes or rewards — we empower content providers and brands to engage consumers more effectively and for more extended periods of time.
Our Strengths
While we believe our overall value is generated from our ability to directly increase player and viewer engagement, we see the following as our core strengths:
• Our Technology is Robust, Scalable and Flexible. We have architected a platform that will allow any content publisher to integrate real-world prizes into their system, and allow any brand or agency to place their products, discounts, codes and coupons into an earned-rewards framework. We have software development kits that are compatible with millions of games, and apps, as well as ways to work with iOS and Android devices, PCs, consoles, Apple TVs, and other peripherals. The back end of our platform is built in Elixir by some of the world-experts in that language. The Elixir back end allows the type of massively scalable system that will be required for AAA games and app partners with millions of users. The strengths of the code base are its ability to manage huge numbers of concurrent users with localized failure — such that if there is an issue with a single player’s match it does not affect larger portions of the system. We can add new features, new games, entire new verticals easily. We can also adapt to changing regulatory environments around prizing, sweepstakes, privacy and other issues by managing our geofencing for where any given prize is offered. Our Dynamic Regulatory Compliance system is the direct result of years of thoughtful system architecture and development — an achievement that we believe sets us apart from competitors.
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• Our IP portfolio is Strong and Growing. We have been issued three key patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with over 50 granted claims around how to manage large multiplayer events and how to offer players prizes in-game, at scale. We have been awarded claims covering how to maintain and promote competitive balance in multiplayer games, how to use multi-factor tests to serve up only relevant prizing on a per-player basis, how to use a player’s location, game, and age to determine eligibility for certain kinds of prizes in certain kinds of single player games, competitive games, tournaments, synchronous and asynchronous matches. We have several other patent filings in various stages at the USPTO and we are working with our technology and legal teams to develop new and defensible IP in this space. We want to be the only real solution for global in-game and in-app rewards.
• The Support of Our Partners Helps US Grow. Our engagement platform is used by professional sports franchises across MLB, the NHL, the NBA and the NFL as well as dozens of other global sporting events worldwide. As we grow our user base, we believe we will become a more desirable destination and partner for brand and advertising partners that want to reach engaged fans. We expect to leverage that position to increase our transactional revenues exponentially while staying on a capital-efficient low-cost trajectory
• Choice and Earned-Rewards is a Better Model for Players. While we sell our ad units to agencies, brands and companies that seek to reach media players and viewers, our primary goal will always be to make games and media experiences more fun. Our objective is to build ad units that do not increase viewer/player churn, but in fact increase player engagement. We believe our focus on how the player views the experience — offering them choice and an opportunity to both earn the reward and achieve the gratification of a successful win — will be the key differentiator in the in-game and in-app advertising market. While other competitors in the advertising industry may have more reach at the moment, we believe the increasing numbers of players who want the superior experience of rewards rather than banner ads, commercials and un-skippable videos will ultimately win out.
• Our Team is Diverse, Accomplished, and Effective. We have brought together experts in the game industry, software development, advertising, product design and development, and corporate finance. Our Executive Chair, Keyvan Peymani, is the Chief Brand and Commercial Officer for Cirque du Soleil, and Jennifer Prince, one of our directors, is the Global VP and Head of Content Partnerships for Twitter. Our advisory board includes the former Vice President of Revenue for Activision Blizzard, the Chief Executive Officer of Radley Media, and a number of veterans of the global gaming industry. Our designers and engineers have built hundreds of successful products from games and apps, including the NFL.com fantasy football platform. Our production services team has supported the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup, the Olympics, and myriad other world-class events. We are curious, creative, community-oriented problem solvers who have come together to make a world-class software solution. As a result, we have won multiple awards as one of the best places to work in Los Angeles, and one of the best places to work anywhere for millennial women. We are extremely proud of our team and our culture. We believe it allows us to hire, retain, promote and develop the very best talent.
Our Growth Strategy
While other forms of advertising technology focus mostly upon increasing monetization solely for the advertiser, we believe we change the universe of beneficiaries significantly. Our approach creates simultaneous wins for content providers, brands, and consumers. We believe today’s audiences seek real, personal, contextual, interactive, and rewarding engagement. There is no shortage of content choice in the market. Going forward, all forms of content from apps to streaming content to video games to live events to television both linear and over the top (OTT) will be forced to find new ways to reach audiences with content that matters. At the same time, brands and agencies need new ways to reach customers as those audiences have an increasing number of non-ad-supported media choices as well as a more skeptical position on advertising than they have ever had in the past. We recognize that keeping engagement high, keeping content personal, contextual, choice-based, interactive, and rewarding, is the key to making great content — and also great ads. This type of approach has an opportunity to change what Statista estimates as a $600 billion-dollar global advertising industry — focusing on making content more fun and changing the negative associations that users have with traditional media advertising. By creating prizing opportunities, brand introductions mean a chance to win rather than switching to another tab, source, or device while waiting for selected content to return.
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Our growth strategy can be summarized into three areas: grow the audience, grow the prize provider pool, and then constantly iterate and improve.
The key elements of our long-term growth strategy include:
• Increase Applications and Verticals. To grow our user base, we will seek to increase the number of games, applications and content providers that have integrated our platform across an increasing number of industries. Part of that process will involve making our platform easier to integrate into the wide variety of media, which we are doing, but the rest is putting our value proposition in front of a larger group of app developers, content creators, and entertainment properties. Integrating into new categories and industries allows us a greater pool of potential applications with which to integrate, and therefore a greater pool of potential users. We intend to focus on gaming, streaming media (including OTT services), and live event applications, but may seek to expand to other verticals as opportunities arise. We believe this will significantly grow our user base.
• Integrate into More Devices and Software Languages. Our platform is currently available in applications running on laptops and desktops, as well as in mobile devices powered by iOS and Android operating systems through a series of software development kits (SDKs) which we have created. We also deliver our software platform experiences via mobile web applications. We strive to make our rewards platform available to, and compatible with, all kinds of devices. The current engineering roadmap includes additional support for the hundreds of millions of users of social media platforms such as Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Develop a Global Reach. We intend to deepen our penetration of the U.S. market. However, we believe there is significant opportunity for expansion of our offerings into the rest of the world, starting with Asia and Europe. In August 2020, our platform became available for the first time in China. Throughout 2021, we expanded our platform to be available in India, Mexico, and the UK. We plan to continue our expansion in Asia and Europe in 2022. Because our platform is built to optimize value for a player based on his or her location, we believe we are uniquely positioned to offer location-specific rewards and prizes for players all over the world. As we move into new geographies, we believe we will gain new players and new brands and prize providers that can offer real, local value.
• Add More Prizing Partners. Increasing the number of prize provider is the largest growth area for our company, and the one that we believe will be the most lucrative. We have built out a sales team and we are adding both salespeople and sales assets to pursue both agencies and individual vendors who may want to use our platform to promote their businesses. At the same time, we are also working to make our tools easier for prizing partners to use — including building functionality for businesses that use e-commerce platforms such as the Shopify platform, and for others who want to self-direct their prizing campaigns.
• Constantly Improve Outcomes. We are dedicated to improving the quality of the outcomes for our partners. We have developed a number of tools to evaluate the efficacy of each advertising campaign, and part of our value to our brand partners is providing them with anonymized but actionable information on each of their campaigns on our platform. Our analytics are focused on response rates, transaction rates, customer acquisition cost, and many other aspects of the step-by-step funnel from activation to registration, all the way through to lifetime customer value. We continually review outcomes and if there is a way to improve the transaction rate — to get winners, players or viewers to engage with our brand partners while retaining our core goal of making the media more fun — then we will make the necessary changes to improve those outcomes. This core tenet of our approach requires dedication to research, player and user outreach, surveys, and constant design improvements. We believe this strategy will produce yields in loyalty, affinity and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for our partners, which will drive future growth.
• Grow Revenues and Market Share. We are always looking for opportunities to grow through selective acquisitions and while much of our current roadmap is devoted to organic growth, we are also aware of a number of potential partnerships through which we may gain market share through inorganic growth via selective acquisition. Performance marketing is a growing field, as is interactive media advertising, and there may be opportunities to grow our sales team, our service offerings or our reach through acquisition.
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Our Products and Services
We provide the following products and services to our partners and customers:
• Professional Services: Integration, Customization, and Production. Our patented platform can be integrated into games and interactive media through a number of Software Development Kits (SDKs), including SDKs for iOS, Android, Unity, C++ and others. We also work with partners such as HP to develop bespoke instances of our rewards platform, as we did with their OMEN Rewards system available inside OMEN Command Center in every HP OMEN and Pavilion gaming desktop and laptop. We also offer professional design, development and platform integration services to content partners who seek a more bespoke solution. A majority of our professional sports team partners use some degree of customization in the application of our engagement platform. We also offer live-event production services, helping support the implantation of our platforms, including the production of creative assets to create a more seamless fan experience for a team or venue.
• XEO Platforms. Our engagement technology platform is used to power fan engagement at live-event and other entertainment focused properties, including partnering with multiple professional sports franchises to drive in-stadium audience engagement. In addition to providing improved consumer engagement, our XEO platform provides increased transparency and flexibility through the real time action board. The action board reduces data to information in which the content provider can act on during the live event. In addition, it allows for audience segmentation and targeted advertising technology further improving advertising efficiency.
• White-Label Rewards Platforms. Our technology can be easily integrated into mobile apps to track any behavior that a content, publishing, or health and fitness program partner may want to incentivize. We can also white label and/or license technologies like our stand-alone mobile app to enable partners to create an entire rewards ecosystem where activities in one application earn rewards or discounts from another part of the same company. For example, we can assist a partner in creating a mobile app that would allow a consumer to earn movie tickets to a comic book movie for purchasing or reading the online comic, or a consumer to earn discounts on in-stadium concessions or on team apparel for playing a sports trivia game or for watching games live on his or her mobile device. We work with content partners to create entire in-house rewards programs for their users that promote cross-sales within a company, or new channels for the sale of licensed goods, or new opportunities for event or brand sponsors. Our systems and applications can be white labeled and sold as a rewards platform for those partners looking to increase engagement and stickiness with their customers.
• Advertising services. In connection with the placement or licensing of our engagement and rewards platforms, we market our services to brand partners to place their products, discounts or coupons into Versus-enabled content so that users, viewers and players can earn those rewards for their in-game or in-app behavior. When providing those services, we typically charge the brand only when a player attempts to win one of the brand’s proffered prizes. However, in certain cases may also charge on a CPC, CPE or a CPA model.
Corporate History and Structure
Versus Systems Inc., a corporation formed under the laws of British Columbia, was formed by way of an amalgamation under the name McAdam Resources, Inc. in the Province of Ontario on December 1, 1988 and subsequently extra-provincially registered in British Columbia on February 2, 1989. We changed our name to Boulder Mining Corporation on May 9, 1995 in Ontario and on September 25, 1996 in British Columbia. We continued into British Columbia on January 2, 2007 and concurrently changed our name to Opal Energy Corp. We changed our name to Versus Systems Inc. on June 30, 2016, and concurrently ceased or divested our mining related business and began operating our current software platform business.
In June 2021, we completed the acquisition of multimedia, production, and interactive gaming company Xcite Interactive, a provider of online audience engagement through its owned and operated XEO technology platform. We now provide products and services to multiple professional sports franchises across MLB, the NHL, the NBA and the NFL to drive in-stadium audience engagement as well as a software licensing business to drive audience engagement.
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We operate through our majority-owned subsidiary, Versus LLC, a Nevada limited liability company that was organized on August 21, 2013, and through our wholly owned subsidiary, Xcite Interactive Inc, a Delaware company that was reorganized as such on April 1, 2019.
Our principal executive offices in Canada are located at 1558 Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6G 3J4 Canada, and our telephone number is (604) 639-4457. Our principal executive offices in the United States are located at 6701 Center Drive West, Suite 480, Los Angeles, CA 90045, and our telephone number at that address is (424) 226-8588. Our website address is www.versussystems.com. The information on or accessed through our website is not incorporated in this prospectus. The SEC maintains an Internet site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issues that file electronically with the SEC.
Over 2018, 2019, and 2020, we principally developed and operated a business-to-business software platform that allows video game publishers and developers, as well as other interactive media content creators, to offer in-game prizing and rewards based on the completion of in-content challenges. We spent approximately $3.9 million during those years to develop the system, and $14 million to operate the system and for general working capital needs. We are continuing to develop and operate this system and have similar-to-previous-years expenditures in progress. We operate principally in the United States of America where we develop and operate our software platform. We operate our corporate finance and treasury functions in Canada. We maintain these operations through the issuance of securities to raise capital.
The following chart reflects our organizational structure (including the jurisdiction of formation or incorporation of the various entities):
Name of Subsidiary |
Country of |
Proportion of |
|||
Versus Systems (Holdco), Inc. |
United States of America |
66.8 |
% |
||
Versus Systems UK, Ltd |
United Kingdom |
66.8 |
% |
||
Versus, LLC |
United States of America |
66.8 |
% |
||
Xcite Interactive, Inc. |
United States of America |
100 |
% |
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Risks Associated with Our Business
Our ability to execute our business strategy is subject to numerous risks, as more fully described in the section captioned “Risk Factors” immediately following this prospectus summary. You should read these risks before you invest in our common shares and warrants. In particular, risks associated with our business include, but are not limited to, the following:
• We have a relatively limited operating history and limited revenues to date and thus are subject to risks of business development and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
• We are a holding company and depend upon our subsidiaries for our cash flows.
• Future acquisitions or strategic investments could disrupt our business and harm our business, results of operations or financial condition.
• We may require additional funding for our growth plans, and such funding may result in a dilution of your investment.
• We may not have sufficient capital to fund our ongoing operations, effectively pursue our strategy or sustain our growth initiatives.
• Changes in our relationships with our most significant customers, including the loss or reduction in business, could have an adverse impact on us.
• Our operations are significantly dependent on changes in public and customer tastes and discretionary spending patterns. Our inability to successfully anticipate customer preferences or to gain popularity for games may negatively impact our profitability.
• If we fail to keep up with industry trends or technological developments, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.
• If we cannot continue to develop, acquire, market and offer new products and services or enhancements to existing products and services that meet customer requirements, our operating results could suffer.
• We make significant investments in new products and services that may not achieve expected returns.
• If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, our results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected
• Our insurance coverage may not adequately protect us against all future risks, which may adversely affect our business and prospects.
• Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.
• Public health epidemics or outbreaks, such as COVID-19, could materially and adversely impact our business.
• Our business may be harmed if our licensing partners, or other third parties with whom we do business, act in ways that put our brand at risk.
• If we fail to keep our existing users highly engaged, to acquire new users, to successfully implement an award-prizes model for our user community, our business, profitability and prospects may be adversely affected.
• Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position.
• Our business is highly dependent on the proper functioning and improvement of our information technology systems and infrastructure. Our business and operating results may be harmed by service disruptions, or by our failure to timely and effectively scale up and adjust our existing technology and infrastructure.
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Reverse Stock Split
On December 8, 2020, our board of directors approved a one-for-16 reverse stock split of our common shares. Pursuant to applicable rules of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE), the exchange we were listed on at the time, the reverse share split became effective on December 15, 2020. The conversion or exercise prices of our issued and outstanding convertible securities, stock options and warrants were adjusted accordingly. All share and per share amounts and the corresponding conversion price or exercise price data presented in this prospectus gives effect to such reverse stock split of our outstanding common shares.
Recent Developments
Audience Reach of 10 Million Fans Since July 1, 2021, Approaching 1 Million a Week in October 2021
On October 18, 2021, we announced that we had reached a significant milestone in fan engagement since the acquisition of Xcite Interactive in June. Versus surpassed 10 million viewers across all platforms since July 1, 2021 and approached 1 million viewers per week since the beginning of October. In the last 100 days, Versus-enabled content had been viewed at over 500 events around the world, including in-venue at multiple stadiums, arenas, and live events. Dozens of NFL, NCAA, NHL, MLB, and MLS games have been powered by Versus fan engagement tools. Versus has also powered fan engagement for events such as live cricket matches in the UK, rodeos in the US, and baseball games in Japan. Moreover, Versus-enabled video game experiences can also be played on HP Omen and Pavilion desktop and laptop computers in the US, China, India, the UK, and Mexico.
Partnership with Military Bowl Foundation, Inc.
On July 22, 2021, we announced a strategic partnership with the Military Bowl Foundation, Inc. to power technology behind interactive experiences for live events and digital activations. The Military Bowl presented by Peraton, benefiting the USO, is the National Capital Region’s college football postseason bowl game featuring a matchup between teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the American Athletic Conference.
Partnership with Peach Bowl, Inc.
On July 15, 2021, we entered into a definitive agreement with Peach Bowl, Inc. to power technology behind interactive experiences for live events and digital activations. Peach Bowl, Inc. operates the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, one of New Year’s Six Bowls selected to host the College Football Playoff. Peach Bowl, Inc. recently signed an extension with the CFP ensuring its inclusion in the New Year’s Six until 2025, with future Semifinals in 2022 and 2025. Peach Bowl, Inc. additionally owns and manages the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, the Peach Bowl Challenge charity golf tournament and is the presenting sponsor and manager of The Dodd Trophy national coach of the year award.
Xcite Interactive Acquisition
On May 12, 2021, we entered into a definitive agreement with Xcite Interactive to acquire 100% of Xcite’s capital stock. The definitive agreement calls for the Company to purchase 100% of Xcite for $19 million in Versus stock less a net working capital adjustment and a $2.25M retention pool for Xcite employees. On June 3, 2021, we closed the transaction according to its principal terms.
Strategic Partnership with Frias Agency
On March 5, 2021, we entered into a Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Frias Agency pursuant to which our technology platform may be offered to clients of Frias, such as Corona, Cerveza Modelo, Cerveza Pacifico, Crush, Kim Crawford, Meiomi, Blue Chair Bay, and Casa Noble. Frias also works with major athletes like Canelo Alvarez and sports promoters like Matchroom Boxing and Premier Boxing Champions. The Versus partnership with Frias expects to extend prizing into live sporting events starting Summer 2021 for soccer, boxing, wrestling and MMA, as well as live music festivals and tours.
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Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our common shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any November 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following May 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards). The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
Under the Nasdaq Listing Rules, as a foreign private issuer, we may elect to follow our home country practice in lieu of the corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq Listing Rules, with the exception of those rules that are required to be followed pursuant to the provisions of the Nasdaq Listing Rules. We have elected to follow Canadian practices in lieu of the requirements of the Nasdaq Listing Rules to the extent permitted under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5615(a)(3). We follow Canadian corporate governance practices in lieu of the corporate governance requirements of The Nasdaq Capital Market in respect of the quorum requirement for meetings of our common shareholders.
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THE OFFERING
The following summary contains basic terms about this offering and our securities and is not intended to be complete. It may not contain all information that is important to you. You should read the more detailed information contained in this prospectus, including but not limited to, the risk factors beginning on page 12.
Issuer |
Versus Systems Inc. |
|
Securities offered by us: |
units each consisting of one common share and one warrant. The warrant included within the unit is exercisable immediately and has an exercise price equal to $ per common share (100% of the public offering price of one unit). The warrants will expire five years from the date of issuance. The common shares and the warrants comprising the units are immediately separable upon issuance and will be issued separately in this offering. The unit amount referenced above is based on the units being sold at an assumed offering price of $ per unit, and such unit amount will change if the unit price is less than $ in such manner to maintain the gross proceeds at approximately $ million. For instance, if the unit price is $ per unit, the number of units to be sold in the offering will be . |
|
Assumed Offering Price: |
$ per unit. |
|
Common shares outstanding |
|
|
Common shares to be outstanding after the offering: |
|
|
Overallotment option: |
We have granted the representative of the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to additional common shares and/or warrants to purchase up to additional common shares at a public offering price reflected above, solely to cover over-allotments, if any. |
|
Use of Proceeds: |
We intend to use the net proceeds of this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds.” |
|
Risk Factors: |
Investing in our securities is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the information set forth in the “Risk Factors” section beginning on page 12 before deciding to invest in our securities. |
|
Trading Symbol: |
Our common shares are listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “VS”. |
|
Lock-up: |
We and our directors, officers and certain of our principal shareholders have agreed with the underwriters not to offer for sale, issue, sell, contract to sell, pledge or otherwise dispose of any of our common shares or securities convertible into common shares for a period of 90 days after the date of this prospectus. See “Underwriting” section on page 99. |
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The common shares to be outstanding after this offering is based on 15,554,255 shares outstanding as of September 30, 2021, plus (i) the common shares offered hereby. The common shares to be outstanding after this offering excludes the following:
• 4,486,130 common shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants, at September 30, 2021 with a weighted average exercise price of $6.83 per share;
• 1,941,769 common shares reserved for issuance upon the exercise of outstanding stock options at September 30, 2021 with a weighted average exercise price of $4.63 per share issued pursuant to our 2017 Stock Option Plan;
• common shares issuable upon exercise of warrants to be issued to the underwriters in connection with this offering;
• common shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants sold in this offering; and
• 309,554 common shares issuable upon conversion of outstanding Versus Systems (Holdco) shares.
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An investment in our securities carries a significant degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks, as well as the other information contained in this prospectus, including our historical financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before you decide to purchase our securities. Any one of these risks and uncertainties has the potential to cause material adverse effects on our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results which could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements expressed by us and a significant decrease in the value of our common shares and warrants. Refer to “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
We may not be successful in preventing the material adverse effects that any of the following risks and uncertainties may cause. These potential risks and uncertainties may not be a complete list of the risks and uncertainties facing us. There may be additional risks and uncertainties that we are presently unaware of, or presently consider immaterial, that may become material in the future and have a material adverse effect on us. You could lose all or a significant portion of your investment due to any of these risks and uncertainties.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a relatively limited operating history and limited revenues to date and thus are subject to risks of business development and you have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.
Because we have a relatively limited operating history and limited revenues to date, you should consider and evaluate our operating prospects in light of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by early-stage operating companies in rapidly evolving markets. These risks include:
• that we may not have sufficient capital to achieve our growth strategy;
• that we may not develop our product and service offerings in a manner that enables us to be profitable and meet our customers’ requirements;
• that our growth strategy may not be successful; and
• that fluctuations in our operating results will be significant relative to our revenues.
Our future growth will depend substantially on our ability to address these and the other risks described in this section. If we do not successfully address these risks, our business could be significantly harmed. To date, we have had minimal revenues. Even if we do achieve profitability, we cannot predict the level of such profitability. If we sustain losses over an extended period of time, we may be unable to continue our business.
Future acquisitions or strategic investments could disrupt our business and harm our business, results of operations or financial condition.
We may in the future explore potential acquisitions of companies or strategic investments to strengthen our business. Even if we identify an appropriate acquisition candidate, we may not be successful in negotiating the terms or financing of the acquisition, and our due diligence may fail to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired business.
Acquisitions involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business, including:
• straining our financial resources to acquire a company;
• anticipated benefits may not materialize as rapidly as we expect, or at all;
• diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to address acquisition integration challenges;
• retention of employees from the acquired company;
• cultural challenges associated with integrating employees from the acquired company into our organization;
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• integration of the acquired company’s accounting, management information, human resources and other administrative systems;
• the need to implement or improve controls, procedures and policies at a business that prior to the acquisition may have lacked effective controls, procedures and policies; and
• litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, former shareholders or other third parties.
Failure to appropriately mitigate these risks or other issues related to such strategic investments and acquisitions could result in reducing or completely eliminating any anticipated benefits of transactions, and harm our business generally. Future acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses or the impairment of goodwill, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
We may require additional funding for our growth plans, and such funding may result in a dilution of your investment.
We attempted to estimate our funding requirements in order to implement our growth plans. If the costs of implementing such plans should exceed these estimates significantly or if we come across opportunities to grow through expansion plans that cannot be predicted at this time, and our funds generated from our operations prove insufficient for such purposes, we may need to raise additional funds to meet these funding requirements.
These additional funds may be raised by issuing equity or debt securities or by borrowing from banks or other resources. We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain any additional financing on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. If we fail to obtain additional financing on terms that are acceptable to us, we will not be able to implement such plans fully if at all. Such financing even if obtained, may be accompanied by conditions that limit our ability to pay dividends or require us to seek lenders’ consent for payment of dividends, or restrict our freedom to operate our business by requiring lender’s consent for certain corporate actions.
Further, if we raise additional funds by way of a rights offering or through the issuance of new shares, any shareholders who are unable or unwilling to participate in such an additional round of fund raising may suffer dilution in their investment.
We may not have sufficient capital to fund our ongoing operations, effectively pursue our strategy or sustain our growth initiatives.
Our remaining liquidity and capital resources may not be sufficient to allow us to fund our ongoing operations, effectively pursue our strategy or sustain our growth initiatives. The report of our independent registered public accountants on our financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 stated that our negative cash flows from operations, inability to finance our day-to-day operations through operations and expectation of further losses indicates that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern. If we require additional capital resources, we may seek such funds directly from third party sources; however, we may not be able to obtain sufficient equity capital and/or debt financing from third parties to allow us to fund our expected ongoing operations or we may not be able to obtain such equity capital or debt financing on acceptable terms or conditions. Factors affecting the availability of equity capital or debt financing to us on acceptable terms and conditions include:
• our current and future financial results and position;
• the collateral availability of our otherwise unsecured assets;
• the market’s, investors’ and lenders’ view of our industry and products;
• the perception in the equity and debt markets of our ability to execute our business plan or achieve our operating results expectations; and
• the price, volatility and trading volume and history of our common shares.
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If we are unable to obtain the equity capital or debt financing necessary to fund our ongoing operations, pursue our strategy and sustain our growth initiatives, we may be forced to scale back our operations or our expansion initiatives, and our business and operating results will be materially adversely affected.
Our operations are significantly dependent on changes in public and customer tastes and discretionary spending patterns. Our inability to successfully anticipate customer preferences or to gain popularity for games may negatively impact our profitability.
Our success depends significantly on public and customer tastes and preferences, which can be unpredictable. If we are unable to successfully anticipate customer preferences or increase the popularity of the games that have embedded at our platform, the per capita revenue and overall customer expenditures may decrease, and thereby negatively impact our profitability. In response to such developments, we may need to increase our marketing and product development efforts and expenditures, we may also adjust our product pricing, we may modify the platform itself, or take other actions, which may further erode our profit margins or otherwise adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. In particular, we may need to expend considerable cost and effort in carrying out extensive research and development to assess the potential interest in our platform and to remain abreast with continually evolving technology and trends.
While we may incur significant expenditures of this nature, including in the future as we continue to expand our operations, there can be no assurance that any such expenditures or investments by us will yield expected or commensurate returns or results, within a reasonable or anticipated time, or at all.
If we cannot continue to develop, acquire, market and offer new products and services or enhancements to existing products and services that meet customer requirements, our operating results could suffer.
The process of developing and acquiring new technology products and services and enhancing existing offerings is complex, costly and uncertain. If we fail to anticipate customers’ rapidly changing needs and expectations, our market share and results of operations could suffer. We must make long-term investments, develop, acquire or obtain appropriate intellectual property and commit significant resources before knowing whether our predictions will accurately reflect customer demand for our products and services. If we misjudge customer needs in the future, our new products and services may not succeed and our revenues and earnings may be harmed. Additionally, any delay in the development, acquisition, marketing or launch of a new offering or enhancement to an existing offering could result in customer attrition or impede our ability to attract new customers, causing a decline in our revenue or earnings.
We make significant investments in new products and services that may not achieve expected returns.
We have made and will continue to make significant investments in research, development and marketing for existing products, services and technologies, including developing new Software Development Kits (SDKs) for console gaming, wearables, smart TV systems, AR/VR, new feature sets for our core products, and entirely new products and platforms that we are developing for specific customers, as well as new technology or new applications of existing technology. Investments in new technology are speculative. Commercial success depends on many factors, including but not limited to innovativeness, developer support, and effective distribution and marketing. If customers do not perceive our latest offerings as providing significant new functionality or other value, they may reduce their purchases of our services or products, unfavorably affecting our revenue and profits. We may not achieve significant revenue from new product, service or distribution channel investments, or new applications of existing new product, service or distribution channel investments, for several years, if at all. New products and services may not be profitable, and even if they are profitable, operating margins for some new products and businesses may not be as high as the margins we have experienced historically. Furthermore, developing new technologies is complex and can require long development and testing periods. Significant delays in new releases or significant problems in creating new products or offering new services could adversely affect our revenue and profits.
If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, our results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.
The size of our users’ level of engagement are critical to our success. Our financial performance will be significantly determined by our success in having our products adding, retaining, and engaging active users. To the extent that our active user growth rate slows, our business performance will become increasingly dependent on our
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ability to increase levels of user engagement in current and new markets. If people do not perceive our products to be useful, reliable, and trustworthy, we may not be able to attract or retain users or otherwise maintain or increase the frequency and duration of their engagement. A decrease in user retention, growth, or engagement could render us less attractive to video game publishers and developers which may have a material and adverse impact on our revenue, business, financial condition, and results of operations. Any number of factors could potentially negatively affect user retention, growth, and engagement, including if:
• users increasingly engage with competing products;
• we fail to introduce new and improved products or if we introduce new products or services that are not favorably received;
• we are unable to successfully balance our efforts to provide a compelling user experience with the decisions made by us with respect to the frequency, prominence, and size of ads and other commercial content that we display;
• there are changes in user sentiment about the quality or usefulness of our products or concerns related to privacy and sharing, safety, security, or other factors;
• we are unable to manage and prioritize information to ensure users are presented with content that is interesting, useful, and relevant to them;
• there are adverse changes in our products that are mandated by legislation, regulatory authorities, or litigation, including settlements or consent decrees;
• technical or other problems prevent us from delivering our products in a rapid and reliable manner or otherwise affect the user experience;
• we adopt policies or procedures related to areas such as sharing our user data that are perceived negatively by our users or the general public;
• we fail to provide adequate customer service to users, developers, or advertisers; or
• we, our software developers, or other companies in our industry are the subject of adverse media reports or other negative publicity.
If we are unable to build and/or maintain relationships with publishers and developers, our revenue, financial results, and future growth potential may be adversely affected.
If we fail to keep up with industry trends or technological developments, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.
The gaming industry is rapidly evolving and subject to continuous technological changes. Our success depends on our ability to continue to develop and implement services and solutions that anticipate and respond to rapid and continuing changes in technology and industry developments and offerings to serve the evolving needs of our customers. Our growth strategy is focused on responding to these types of developments by driving innovation that will enable us to expand our business into new growth areas. If we do not sufficiently invest in new technology and industry developments, or evolve and expand our business at sufficient speed and scale, or if we do not make the right strategic investments to respond to these developments and successfully drive innovation, our services and solutions, our results of operations, and our ability to develop and maintain a competitive advantage and continue to grow could be negatively affected. In addition, we operate in a quickly evolving environment in which there currently are, and we expect will continue to be, new technology entrants. New services or technologies offered by competitors or new entrants may make our offerings less differentiated or less competitive, when compared to other alternatives, which may adversely affect our results of operations. Technological innovations may also require substantial capital expenditures in product development as well as in modification of products, services or infrastructure. We cannot assure you that we can obtain financing to cover such expenditures. Failure to adapt our products and services to such changes in an effective and timely manner could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We are subject to cybersecurity risks.
Cybersecurity risks and attacks continue to increase. Cybersecurity attacks are evolving and not always predictable. Attacks include malicious software, threats to information technology infrastructure, denial-of-service attacks on websites, attempts to gain unauthorized access to data, and other breaches. Data breaches can originate with authorized or unauthorized persons. Authorized persons could inadvertently or intentionally release confidential or proprietary information, and recipients could misuse data. Such events could lead to interruption of our operations or business, unauthorized release or use of information, compromise of data, damage to our reputation, damage to our customers or vendors, and increased costs to prevent, respond to or mitigate any events.
We are a holding company and depend upon our subsidiaries for our cash flows.
We are a holding company. All of our operations are conducted, and almost all of our assets are owned, by our subsidiaries. Consequently, our cash flows and our ability to meet our obligations depend upon the cash flows of our subsidiaries and the payment of funds by these subsidiaries to us in the form of dividends, distributions or otherwise. The ability of our subsidiaries to make any payments to us depends on their earnings, the terms of their indebtedness, including the terms of any credit facilities, of which there are currently none, and legal restrictions. While there are no restrictions on the ability of our subsidiaries to make any payments to us, such restrictions may arise in the future. Any failure to receive dividends or distributions from our subsidiaries when needed could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Our insurance coverage may not adequately protect us against all future risks, which may adversely affect our business and prospects.
We maintain insurance coverage, including for fire, acts of god and perils, terrorism, burglary, money, fidelity guarantee, professional liability including errors and omissions and breach of contract, commercial property, commercial general liability, cyber events including incident response costs, legal, forensic and breach management costs, cyber-crimes, system damage, rectification costs, business interruption and reputational harm, as well as directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and employee health and medical insurance, with standard exclusions in each instance. While we maintain insurance in amounts that we consider reasonably sufficient for a business of our nature and scale, with insurers that we consider reliable and credit worthy, we may face losses and liabilities that are uninsurable by their nature, or that are not covered, fully or at all, under our existing insurance policies. Moreover, coverage under such insurance policies would generally be subject to certain standard or negotiated exclusions or qualifications and, therefore, any future insurance claims by us may not be honored by our insurers in full, or at all. In addition, our premium payments under our insurance policies may require a significant investment by us.
To the extent that we suffer loss or damage that is not covered by insurance or that exceeds our insurance coverage, the loss will have to be borne by us and our business, cash flow, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.
We are subject to laws and regulations enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We are dependent upon our executive officers and directors and their departure could adversely affect our ability to operate.
Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals and, in particular, our executive officers and directors. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our executive officers and directors. We do not have key-man insurance on the life of any of our directors or executive officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or executive officers could have a detrimental effect on us.
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Public health epidemics or outbreaks, such as COVID-19, could materially and adversely impact our business.
In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. While initially the outbreak was largely concentrated in China and caused significant disruptions to its economy, it has now spread to several other countries and infections have been reported globally. Because COVID-19 infections have been reported throughout the United States, certain federal, state and local governmental authorities have issued stay-at-home orders, proclamations and/or directives aimed at minimizing the spread of COVID-19. Additional, more restrictive proclamations and/or directives may be issued in the future.
To protect the health and well-being of our employees and customers, we have implemented work-from-home requirements, made substantial modifications to employee travel policies, and cancelled or shifted marketing and other corporate events to virtual-only formats for the foreseeable future. While we continue to monitor our circumstances and may adjust our current policies as more information and public health guidance become available, these precautionary measures could negatively affect our sales and marketing efforts, delay and lengthen our sales cycles, or create operational or other challenges, any of which could harm our business and results of operations.
While we believe we have not been significantly adversely impacted by COVID-19 to date, we believe COVID-19 continues to present the potential for adverse risks to our company.
The potential impacts of COVID-19 on our business, financial condition, and results of operations include, but are not limited to, the following:
• There may be a decrease in the willingness or ability of certain of our customers or partners to move forward with integrations of our platform into their products or media due to restructurings or cutbacks within their organizations or because their business, financial condition or operations have been adversely impacted by COVID-19.
• Our customers could potentially be negatively impacted by the outbreak, which may reduce their budgets for online advertising and marketing in 2021 and perhaps beyond. As a result, our revenue, gross profit and net income may be negatively impacted in 2020, 2021 and perhaps beyond.
• The situation may worsen if the COVID-19 outbreak continues. Our customers may request additional time to pay us or fail to pay us on time, or at all, which may require us to record additional allowances.
• The global stock markets have experienced, and may continue to experience, significant volatility from the COVID-19 outbreak, which may adversely affect our ability to raise funds in the capital markets.
• If one or more of our employees or customers becomes ill from coronavirus and attributes their infection to us, including through exposure at one of our offices or facilities, we could be subject to allegations of failure to adequately mitigate the risk of exposure. Such allegations could harm our reputation and expose us to the risks of litigation and liability.
The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations is unknown and will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak, new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, and any additional preventative and protective actions that governments, or we, may direct, which may result in an extended period of continued business disruption, reduced customer traffic and reduced operations. Any resulting financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at this time but could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business may be harmed if our licensing partners, or other third parties with whom we do business, act in ways that put our brand at risk.
We offer a business-to-business software platform that allows video game publishers and developers, as well as other interactive media content creators, to offer in-game prizing and rewards, based on the completion of in-content challenges. We anticipate that our business partners shall be given access to sensitive and proprietary information or control over our intellectual property in order to provide services and support to our teams. These third parties may misappropriate our information or intellectual property and engage in unauthorized use of it or otherwise act in a way that places our brand at risk. The failure of these third parties to provide adequate services and technologies, the failure
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of third parties to adequately maintain or update their services and technologies or the misappropriation or misuse of this information or intellectual property could result in a disruption to our business operations or an adverse effect on our reputation, and may negatively impact our business.
If we fail to keep our existing users highly engaged, to acquire new users, to successfully implement an award-prizes model for our user community, our business, profitability and prospects may be adversely affected.
Our success depends on our ability to maintain and grow the number of users playing our partners’ games and other media and keeping our users highly engaged. Of particular importance is the successful deployment and expansion of our award-prizes model to our gaming community for purposes of creating predictable recurring revenues.
A decline in the number of our users may adversely affect the engagement level of our users, the vibrancy of our user community, or the popularity of our award-prizes model, which may in turn reduce our monetization opportunities, and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we are unable to attract and retain users, our revenues may decline and our results of operations and financial condition may suffer.
Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position.
We believe that our patents, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property are essential to our success. Please see “Business — Intellectual Property” for more details. We depend to a large extent on our ability to develop and maintain the intellectual property rights relating to our existing portfolio of prizing, promotion and financial technologies that enable brands to reach the rapidly growing competitive gaming audience of players, spectators and broadcasters. We have devoted considerable time and energy to the development and improvement of our portfolio of prizing, promotion and financial technologies intellectual property.
We rely primarily on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets laws, and contractual restrictions for the protection of the intellectual property used in our business. Nevertheless, these provide only limited protection and the actions we take to protect our intellectual property rights may not be adequate. Our trade secrets may become known or be independently discovered by our competitors. We may have no or limited rights to stop the use of our information by others. Moreover, to the extent that our employees or third parties with whom we do business use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights to such intellectual property. Preventing any unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly and the steps we take may be inadequate to prevent the misappropriation of our intellectual property. In the event that we resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, such litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our managerial and financial resources. We can provide no assurance that we will prevail in such litigation. Any failure in protecting or enforcing our intellectual property rights could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our services or solutions could infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or we might lose our ability to utilize the intellectual property of others.
We cannot be sure that our services and solutions do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties, and these third parties could claim that we or our clients are infringing upon their intellectual property rights. These claims could harm our reputation, cause us to incur substantial costs or prevent us from offering some services or solutions in the future. Any related proceedings could require us to expend significant resources over an extended period of time. Any claims or litigation in this area could be time-consuming and costly, damage our reputation and/or require us to incur additional costs to obtain the right to continue to offer a service or solution to our clients. If we cannot secure this right at all or on reasonable terms, or we cannot substitute alternative technology, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected. The risk of infringement claims against us may increase as we expand our industry software solutions.
In recent years, individuals and firms have purchased intellectual property assets in order to assert claims of infringement against technology providers and customers that use such technology. Any such action naming us or our clients could be costly to defend or lead to an expensive settlement or judgment against us. Moreover, such an action could result in an injunction being ordered against our client or our own services or operations, causing further damages.
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In addition, we rely on third-party software in providing some of our services and solutions. If we lose our ability to continue using such software for any reason, including in the event that the software is found to infringe the rights of others, we will need to obtain substitute software or seek alternative means of obtaining the technology necessary to continue to provide such services and solutions. Our inability to replace such software, or to replace such software in a timely or cost-effective manner, could materially adversely affect our results of operations.
Third parties may register trademarks or domain names or purchase internet search engine keywords that are similar to our trademarks, brands or websites, or misappropriate our data and copy our platform, all of which could cause confusion to our users, divert online customers away from our products and services or harm our reputation.
Competitors and other third parties may purchase trademarks that are similar to our trademarks and keywords that are confusingly similar to our brands or websites in internet search engine advertising programs and in the header and text of the resulting sponsored links or advertisements in order to divert potential customers from us to their websites. Preventing such unauthorized use is inherently difficult. If we are unable to prevent such unauthorized use, competitors and other third parties may continue to drive potential online customers away from our platform to competing, irrelevant or potentially offensive platform, which could harm our reputation and cause us to lose revenue.
Our business is highly dependent on the proper functioning and improvement of our information technology systems and infrastructure. Our business and operating results may be harmed by service disruptions, or by our failure to timely and effectively scale up and adjust our existing technology and infrastructure.
Our business depends on the continuous and reliable operation of our information technology, or IT, systems. Our IT systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption as a result of fires, floods, earthquakes, power losses, telecommunications failures, undetected errors in software, computer viruses, hacking and other attempts to harm our IT systems. Disruptions, failures, unscheduled service interruptions or a decrease in connection speeds could damage our reputation and cause our customers and end-users to migrate to our competitors’ platforms. If we experience frequent or constant service disruptions, whether caused by failures of our own IT systems or those of third-party service providers, our user experience may be negatively affected, which in turn may have a material and adverse effect on our reputation and business. We may not be successful in minimizing the frequency or duration of service interruptions. As the number of our end-users increases and more user data are generated on our platform, we may be required to expand and adjust our technology and infrastructure to continue to reliably store and process content.
We use third-party services and technologies in connection with our business, and any disruption to the provision of these services and technologies to us could result in adverse publicity and a slowdown in the growth of our users, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business partially depends on services provided by, and relationships with, various third parties. We exercise no control over the third parties with whom we have business arrangements. If such third parties increase their prices, fail to provide their services effectively, terminate their service or agreements or discontinue their relationships with us, we could suffer service interruptions, reduced revenues or increased costs, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In most cases, we rely on third party consumer-brand partners to fulfil the prizes and rewards for our end users, players, viewers and participants. Disruption of this fulfilment could result in a poor user experience, adverse publicity, and a slowdown in growth of users, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business depends on rewards, earned by users, being fulfilled correctly by third party consumer-brands with whom we have business arrangements. While we have agreements with those consumer-brands, we do not exercise control over those companies. If, for any reason, our customers do not fulfil the prizes or rewards in a manner that our end users, players and/or viewers expect, we may suffer in the perception of those end users. This could result in loss of players, poor public relations, or lawsuits. Such event(s) would have a material adverse effect(s) on our business, financial condition and may results in a loss of operations.
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Risks Related to International Operations
The risks related to international operations, in particular in countries outside of the United States, could negatively affect our results.
We expect to incur up to 20% of our total expenses from transactions denominated in currencies other than the United States dollar, such as the Canadian dollar, and the British pound. As such, our operations may be adversely affected by changes in foreign government policies and legislation or social instability and other factors which are not within our control, including, but not limited to, recessions in foreign economies, expropriation, nationalization and limitation or restriction on repatriation of funds, assets or earnings, longer receivables collection periods and greater difficulty in collecting accounts receivable, changes in consumer tastes and trends, renegotiation or nullification of existing contracts or licenses, changes in gaming policies, regulatory requirements or the personnel administering them, currency fluctuations and devaluations, exchange controls, economic sanctions and royalty and tax increases, risk of terrorist activities, revolution, border disputes, implementation of tariffs and other trade barriers and protectionist practices, taxation policies, including royalty and tax increases and retroactive tax claims, volatility of financial markets and fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, difficulties in the protection of intellectual property particularly in countries with fewer intellectual property protections, the effects that evolving regulations regarding data privacy may have on our online operations, adverse changes in the creditworthiness of parties with whom we have significant receivables or forward currency exchange contracts, labor disputes and other risks arising out of foreign governmental sovereignty over the areas in which our operations are conducted. Our operations may also be adversely affected by social, political and economic instability and by laws and policies of such foreign jurisdictions affecting foreign trade, taxation and investment. If our operations are disrupted and/or the economic integrity of our contracts is threatened for unexpected reasons, our business may be harmed.
Our international activities may require protracted negotiations with host governments, national companies and third parties. Foreign government regulations may favor or require the awarding of contracts to local contractors or require foreign contractors to employ citizens of, or purchase supplies from, a particular jurisdiction. In the event of a dispute arising in connection with our operations in a foreign jurisdiction where we conduct our business, we may be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of foreign courts or may not be successful in subjecting foreign persons to the jurisdictions of the courts of United States or enforcing United States judgments in such other jurisdictions. We may also be hindered or prevented from enforcing our rights with respect to a governmental instrumentality because of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Accordingly, our activities in foreign jurisdictions could be substantially affected by factors beyond our control, any of which could have a material adverse effect on it. We believe that management’s experience to date in commercializing our products, services and solutions in China, Japan, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other countries and regions around the world may be of assistance in helping to reduce these risks. Some countries in which we may operate may be considered politically and economically unstable.
Doing business in the industries in which we operate often requires compliance with numerous and extensive procedures and formalities. These procedures and formalities may result in unexpected or lengthy delays in commencing important business activities. In some cases, failure to follow such formalities or obtain relevant evidence may call into question the validity of the entity or the actions taken. Our management is unable to predict the effect of additional corporate and regulatory formalities which may be adopted in the future including whether any such laws or regulations would materially increase our cost of doing business or affect our operations in any area.
We may in the future enter into agreements and conduct activities outside of the jurisdictions where we currently carry on business, which expansion may present challenges and risks that we have not faced in the past, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations and/or our financial condition.
We are subject to foreign exchange and currency risks that could adversely affect our operations, and our ability to mitigate our foreign exchange risk through hedging transactions may be limited.
We expect to incur up to 20% of our expenses in currencies other than the United States dollar; however, a substantial portion of our operating expenses are incurred in United States dollars. Fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and other currencies may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. Our consolidated financial results are affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Foreign currency exchange rate exposures arise from current transactions and anticipated transactions denominated in currencies other than United States dollars and from the translation of foreign-currency-denominated balance sheet accounts into United States dollar-denominated balance sheet accounts. We are exposed to currency exchange rate
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fluctuations because portions of our revenue and expenses are denominated in currencies other than the United States dollar, particularly the Canadian dollar. Exchange rate fluctuations could adversely affect our operating results and cash flows and the value of our assets outside of the United States. If a foreign currency is devalued in a jurisdiction in which we are paid in such currency, then our customers may be required to pay higher amounts for our products or services, which they may be unable or unwilling to pay. Changes in exchange rates and our limited ability or inability to successfully hedge exchange rate risk could have an adverse impact on our liquidity and results of operations.
We may be unable to operate in new jurisdictions where our customers operate because of new regulations.
We are subject to regulation in any jurisdiction where our customers access our systems. To expand into any such jurisdiction we may need to operate according to local regulations. In some cases, this may require us to be licensed, or obtain approvals for our products or services. If we do not receive or receive a revocation of a license in a particular jurisdiction for our products or services, we would not be able to sell or place our products or services in that jurisdiction. Any such outcome could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and any growth plans for our business.
Privacy concerns could result in regulatory changes and impose additional costs and liabilities on us, limit our use of information, and adversely affect our business.
Personal privacy has become a significant issue in the United States and many other countries in which we currently operate and may operate in the future. Many federal, state, and foreign legislatures and government agencies have imposed or are considering imposing restrictions and requirements about the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information obtained from individuals. Changes to laws or regulations affecting privacy could impose additional costs and liability on us and could limit our use of such information to add value for customers. If we were required to change our business activities or revise or eliminate services, or to implement burdensome compliance measures, our business and results of operations could be harmed. In addition, we may be subject to fines, penalties, and potential litigation if we fail to comply with applicable privacy regulations, any of which could adversely affect our business, liquidity and results of operation.
Our results of operations could be affected by natural events in the locations in which we operate or where our customers or suppliers operate.
We, our customers, and our suppliers have operations in locations subject to natural occurrences such as severe weather and other geological events, including hurricanes, earthquakes, or flood that could disrupt operations. Any serious disruption at any of our facilities or the facilities of our customers or suppliers due to a natural disaster could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and increase our costs and expenses. If there is a natural disaster or other serious disruption at any of our facilities, it could impair our ability to adequately supply our customers, cause a significant disruption to our operations, cause us to incur significant costs to relocate or re-establish these functions and negatively impact our operating results. While we intend to seek insurance against certain business interruption risks, such insurance may not adequately compensate us for any losses incurred as a result of natural or other disasters. In addition, any natural disaster that results in a prolonged disruption to the operations of our customers or suppliers may adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Risks Related to Regulation
We are subject to various laws relating to trade, export controls, and foreign corrupt practices, the violation of which could adversely affect our operations, reputation, business, prospects, operating results and financial condition.
We are subject to risks associated with doing business outside of the United States, including exposure to complex foreign and U.S. regulations such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, and other anti-corruption laws which generally prohibit U.S. companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Violations of the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws may result in severe criminal and civil sanctions and other penalties. It may be difficult to oversee the conduct of any contractors, third-party partners, representatives or agents who are not our employees, potentially exposing us to greater risk from their actions. If our employees or agents fail to comply with applicable laws or company policies governing our international operations, we may face legal proceedings and actions which could result in civil penalties,
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administration actions and criminal sanctions. Any determination that we have violated any anti-corruption laws could have a material adverse impact on our business. Changes in trade sanctions laws may restrict our business practices, including cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries or with sanctioned entities.
Violations of these laws and regulations could result in significant fines, criminal sanctions against us, our officers or our employees, requirements to obtain export licenses, disgorgement of profits, cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries, prohibitions on the conduct of our business and our inability to market and sell our products or services in one or more countries. Additionally, any such violations could materially damage our reputation, brand, international expansion efforts, ability to attract and retain employees and our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition.
Regulations that may be adopted with respect to the internet and electronic commerce may decrease the growth in the use of the internet and lead to the decrease in the demand for our services.
We may become subject to any number of laws and regulations that may be adopted with respect to the internet and electronic commerce. New laws and regulations that address issues such as user privacy, pricing, online content regulation, taxation, advertising, intellectual property, information security, and the characteristics and quality of online products and services may be enacted. As well, current laws, which predate or are incompatible with the internet and electronic commerce, may be applied and enforced in a manner that restricts the electronic commerce market. The application of such pre-existing laws regulating communications or commerce in the context of the internet and electronic commerce is uncertain. Moreover, it may take years to determine the extent to which existing laws relating to issues such as intellectual property ownership and infringement, libel and personal privacy are applicable to the internet. The adoption of new laws or regulations relating to the internet, or particular applications or interpretations of existing laws, could decrease the growth in the use of the internet, decrease the demand for our services, increase our cost of doing business or could otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, revenues, operating results and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Common Shares, Our Warrants and This Offering
Our common shares were only recently listed on Nasdaq and there can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with Nasdaq’s continued listing standards.
Our common shares commenced trading on Nasdaq on January 22, 2021. However, there can be no assurance any broker will be interested in trading our common shares. Therefore, it may be difficult to sell your common shares if you desire or need to do so. We cannot provide any assurance that an active and liquid trading market in our securities will develop or, if developed, that such market will continue. In addition, there is no guarantee that we will be able to maintain such listings for any period of time by perpetually satisfying Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements. Our failure to continue to meet these requirements may result in our securities being delisted from Nasdaq.
The market prices of our common shares and warrants are likely to be highly volatile because of several factors, including a limited public float.
The market prices of our common shares have experienced significant price and volume fluctuations and the prices of such securities are likely to be highly volatile in the future. You may not be able to resell our common shares or warrants following periods of volatility because of the market’s adverse reaction to volatility.
Other factors that could cause such volatility may include, among other things:
• actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;
• the absence of securities analysts covering us and distributing research and recommendations about us;
• we may have a low trading volume for a number of reasons, including that a large portion of our stock is closely held;
• overall stock market fluctuations;
• announcements concerning our business or those of our competitors;
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• actual or perceived limitations on our ability to raise capital when we require it, and to raise such capital on favorable terms;
• conditions or trends in the industry;
• litigation;
• changes in market valuations of other similar companies;
• future sales of common shares;
• departure of key personnel or failure to hire key personnel; and
• general market conditions.
Any of these factors could have a significant and adverse impact on the market prices of our securities. In addition, the stock market in general has at times experienced extreme volatility and rapid decline that has often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading prices of our securities, regardless of our actual operating performance.
Our common shares have in the past been a “penny stock” under SEC rules, and our common shares may be subject to the “penny stock” rules in the future. It may be more difficult to resell securities classified as “penny stock.”
In the past, our common shares were a “penny stock” under applicable SEC rules (generally defined as non-exchange traded stock with a per-share price below $5.00). Because our common shares are listed on Nasdaq, our common shares are not considered “penny stock”. However, if we are unable to maintain that listing and our common shares are no longer listed on Nasdaq, unless we maintain a per-share price above $5.00, our common shares will be considered “penny stock.” These rules impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers that recommend the purchase or sale of penny stocks to persons other than those who qualify as “established customers” or “accredited investors.” For example, broker-dealers must determine the appropriateness for non-qualifying persons of investments in penny stocks. Broker-dealers must also provide, prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from the rules, a standardized risk disclosure document that provides information about penny stocks and the risks in the penny stock market. The broker-dealer also must provide the customer with current bid and offer quotations for the penny stock, disclose the compensation of the broker-dealer and its salesperson in the transaction, furnish monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer’s account, provide a special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser, and receive the purchaser’s written agreement to the transaction.
Legal remedies available to an investor in “penny stocks” may include the following:
• If a “penny stock” is sold to the investor in violation of the requirements listed above, or other federal or states securities laws, the investor may be able to cancel the purchase and receive a refund of the investment.
• If a “penny stock” is sold to the investor in a fraudulent manner, the investor may be able to sue the persons and firms that committed the fraud for damages.
These requirements may have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity, if any, in the secondary market for a security that becomes subject to the penny stock rules. The additional burdens imposed upon broker dealers by such requirements may discourage broker-dealers from effecting transactions in our securities, which could severely limit the market price and liquidity of our securities. These requirements may restrict the ability of broker-dealers to sell our common shares or our warrants and may affect your ability to resell our common shares and our warrants.
Many brokerage firms will discourage or refrain from recommending investments in penny stocks. Most institutional investors will not invest in penny stocks. In addition, many individual investors will not invest in penny stocks due, among other reasons, to the increased financial risk generally associated with these investments.
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For these reasons, penny stocks may have a limited market and, consequently, limited liquidity. We can give no assurance at what time, if ever, our common shares or our warrants will not be classified as a “penny stock” in the future.
We are subject to the continued listing criteria of Nasdaq, and our failure to satisfy these criteria may result in delisting of our common shares from Nasdaq and could also jeopardize our continued ability to trade on Nasdaq.
Our common shares are currently listed for trading on Nasdaq. In order to maintain the listing on Nasdaq or any other securities exchange we may trade on, we must maintain certain financial and share distribution targets, including maintaining a minimum number of public shareholders. In addition to objective standards, Nasdaq may delist our securities if, in the exchange’s opinion, our financial condition and/or operating results appear unsatisfactory; if it appears that the extent of public distribution or the aggregate market value of the security has become so reduced as to make continued listing inadvisable; if we sell or dispose of our principal operating assets or cease to be an operating company; if we fail to comply with the listing requirements; or if any other event occurs or any condition exists which, in their opinion, makes continued listing on the exchange inadvisable.
If Nasdaq were to delist our common shares, investors may face material adverse consequences, including, but not limited to, a lack of trading market for our common shares, reduced liquidity, decreased analyst coverage, and/or an inability for us to obtain additional financing to fund our operations.
If the benefits of any proposed acquisition do not meet the expectations of investors, shareholders or financial analysts, the market price of our common shares and/or warrants may decline.
If the benefits of any proposed acquisition do not meet the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the market price of our common shares prior to the closing of the proposed acquisition may decline. The market values of our common shares at the time of the proposed acquisition may vary significantly from their prices on the date the acquisition target was identified.
In addition, broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our common shares irrespective of our operating performance. The stock market in general has experienced price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected. The trading prices and valuations of these stocks, and of our securities, may not be predictable. A loss of investor confidence in the market for retail stocks or the stocks of other companies which investors perceive to be similar to us could depress the price of our common shares regardless of our business, prospects, financial conditions or results of operations. A decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and our ability to obtain additional financing in the future.
Our management team will have immediate and broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from this offering and we may use the net proceeds in ways with which you disagree.
The net proceeds from this offering will be immediately available to our management to use at their discretion. We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds.” We have not allocated specific amounts of the net proceeds from this offering for any of the foregoing purposes. Accordingly, our management will have significant discretion and flexibility in applying the net proceeds of this offering. You will be relying on the judgment of our management with regard to the use of these net proceeds, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether the proceeds are being used appropriately. It is possible that the net proceeds will be invested in a way that does not yield a favorable, or any, return for us or our shareholders. The failure of our management to use such funds effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operation.
You will experience immediate and substantial dilution as a result of this offering and may experience additional dilution in the future.
You will incur immediate and substantial dilution as a result of this offering. After giving effect to the sale by us of up to $ in units (of which our common shares forms a part) offered in this offering, at a public offering price of $ per unit, and after deducting the underwriters’ discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses payable by us, investors in this offering can expect an immediate dilution of $ per share, or %,
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at the public offering price. We also have a large number of outstanding stock options to purchase common shares with exercise prices that are below the public offering price of our common shares. To the extent that these options are exercised, you will experience further dilution.
Shares eligible for future sale may adversely affect the market.
From time to time, certain of our shareholders may be eligible to sell all or some of their common shares by means of ordinary brokerage transactions in the open market pursuant to Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, subject to certain limitations. In general, pursuant to Rule 144, non-affiliate shareholders may sell freely after six months, subject only to the current public information requirement. Affiliates may sell after six months, subject to the Rule 144 volume, manner of sale (for equity securities), current public information, and notice requirements. Of the approximately 15,554,255 common shares outstanding as of September 30, 2021, approximately 13,049,070 shares are tradable without restriction. Given the limited trading of our common shares, resale of even a small number of our common shares pursuant to Rule 144 or an effective registration statement may adversely affect the market price of our common shares.
We have never paid dividends on our common shares and may not do so in the future.
Holders of our common shares are entitled to receive such dividends as may be declared by our board of directors. To date, we have paid no cash dividends on our common shares, and we do not expect to pay cash dividends on our common shares in the foreseeable future. We intend to retain future earnings, if any, to provide funds for operations of our business. Therefore, any return investors in our common shares may have will be in the form of appreciation, if any, in the market value of their common shares. See “Dividend Policy.”
Holders of our warrants will have no rights as a common shareholder until they acquire our common shares.
Until you acquire our common shares upon exercise of your warrants, you will have no rights as a shareholder in respect of the common shares underlying such warrants. Upon exercise of your warrants, you will be entitled to exercise the rights of a common shareholder only as to matters for which the record date occurs after the exercise date.
Our articles and certain Canadian legislation contain provisions that may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control.
Certain provisions of our articles could discourage potential acquisition proposals, delay or prevent a change in control and limit the price that certain investors may be willing to pay for our common shares. The material differences between the British Columbia Business Corporations Act, or the BCBCA, and Delaware General Corporation Law, or the DGCL, that may have the greatest such effect include, but are not limited to, the following: (i) for certain corporate transactions (such as mergers and amalgamations or amendments to our articles) the BCBCA generally requires the voting threshold to be a special resolution approved by 66 2/3% of shareholders, whereas DGCL generally only requires a majority vote; and (ii) under the BCBCA a holder of 5% or more of our common shares can requisition a special meeting of shareholders, whereas such right does not exist under the DGCL.
In addition, a non-Canadian must file an application for review with the Minister responsible for the Investment Canada Act and obtain approval of the Minister prior to acquiring control of a “Canadian Business” within the meaning of the Investment Canada Act, where prescribed financial thresholds are exceeded. Finally, limitations on the ability to acquire and hold our common shares may be imposed by the Competition Act (Canada). The Competition Act (Canada) establishes a pre-merger notification regime for certain types of merger transactions that exceed certain statutory shareholding and financial thresholds. Transactions that are subject to notification cannot be closed until the required materials are filed and the applicable statutory waiting period has expired or been waived by the Commissioner. However, the Competition Act (Canada) permits the Commissioner of Competition to review any acquisition or establishment, directly or indirectly, including through the acquisition of shares, of control over or of a significant interest in us, whether or not it is subject to mandatory notification. Otherwise, there are no limitations either under the laws of Canada or British Columbia, or in our articles on the rights of non-Canadians to hold or vote our common shares. Any of these provisions may discourage a potential acquirer from proposing or completing a transaction that may have otherwise presented a premium to our shareholders. We cannot predict whether investors will find our company and our common shares less attractive because we are governed by foreign laws.
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Because we are a corporation incorporated under the laws of British Columbia and some of our directors and officers are residents of Canada, it may be difficult for investors in the United States to enforce civil liabilities against us based solely upon the U.S. federal securities laws. Similarly, it may be difficult for Canadian investors to enforce civil liabilities against our directors and officers residing outside of Canada.
We are a corporation incorporated under the laws of British Columbia. Some of our directors and officers and the auditors or other experts named herein are residents of Canada and all or a substantial portion of our assets and those of such persons are located outside the United States. Consequently, it may be difficult for U.S. investors to effect service of process within the United States upon us or our directors or officers or such auditors who are not residents of the United States, or to realize in the United States upon judgments of courts of the United States predicated upon civil liabilities under the U.S. federal securities laws. Investors should not assume that Canadian courts: (1) would enforce judgments of U.S. courts obtained in actions against us or such persons predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws or the securities or blue sky laws of any state within the United States or (2) would enforce, in original actions, liabilities against us or such persons predicated upon the U.S. federal securities laws or any such state securities or blue sky laws.
As a result of our recently becoming a reporting company under the Exchange Act, we will be obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting and any failure to maintain the adequacy of these internal controls may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common shares.
We are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for the first fiscal year beginning after March 3, 2021. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. Our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC following the date we are no longer an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. We will be required to disclose significant changes made in our internal control procedures on a quarterly basis.
We are beginning the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404, and we may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. Our compliance with Section 404 requires that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management efforts. While we currently have an internal audit group, we may need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and compile the system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404.
During the evaluation and testing process of our internal controls, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. We cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common shares could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor internal controls attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding
26
executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our common shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any November 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following May 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
We will continue to incur increased costs as a result of operating as a reporting company under the Exchange Act, and our management will continue to be required to devote substantial time to compliance with our reporting company responsibilities and corporate governance practices.
As a reporting company under the Exchange Act, and particularly after we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of The Nasdaq Capital Market and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies. We are also obligated to file with the Canadian securities regulators similar reports pursuant to securities laws and regulations applicable in all the provinces and territories of Canada in which we will be a reporting issuer. Compliance with these laws and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly. Our management and other personnel must devote a substantial amount of time to compliance with these requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, these rules and regulations make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, which could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional future costs we will incur as a public company or the timing of such costs.
We are a foreign private issuer under the rules and regulations of the SEC and, thus, are exempt from a number of rules under the Exchange Act and are permitted to file less information with the SEC than a company incorporated in the U.S.
As a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act, including the proxy rules, which impose certain disclosure and procedural requirements for proxy solicitations. Moreover, we are not required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. companies with securities registered under the Exchange Act; we are not required to file financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; and we are not required to comply with SEC Regulation FD, which imposes certain restrictions on the selective disclosure of material information. In addition, our officers, directors and principal shareholders are not subject to the reporting or short-swing profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act or the rules under the Exchange Act with respect to their purchases and sales of our common shares. Accordingly, you may receive less information about us than you would receive about a company incorporated in the United States and may be afforded less protection under the U.S. federal
27
securities laws than you would be afforded with respect to a company incorporated in the United States. If we lose our status as a foreign private issuer at some future time, we will no longer be exempt from such rules and, among other things, will be required to file periodic reports and financial statements as if we were a company incorporated in the United States. The costs incurred in fulfilling these additional regulatory requirements could be substantial.
Additionally, pursuant to the Nasdaq Listing Rules, as a foreign private issuer, we may elect to follow our home country practice in lieu of the corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq Listing Rules, with the exception of those rules that are required to be followed pursuant to the provisions of the Nasdaq Listing Rules. We have elected to follow Canadian practices in lieu of the requirements of the Nasdaq Listing Rules to the extent permitted under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5615(a)(3).
U.S. Holders of our common shares may suffer adverse tax consequences if we are treated as a passive foreign investment company.
A non-U.S. corporation generally will be treated as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, in any taxable year if either (1) at least 75% of its gross income for such year is passive income (such as interest income) or (2) at least 50% of the value of its assets (based on an average of the quarterly values of the assets) during such year is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income. Based on the current and anticipated composition of the income, assets and operations of the Company and its subsidiaries, we do not believe that we will be a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes for the current taxable year or for future taxable years. However, the application of the PFIC rules is subject to uncertainty in several respects, and a separate determination must be made after the close of each taxable year as to whether we are a PFIC for that year. Changes in the composition of our income or assets may cause us to become a PFIC. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC for any taxable year. If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder (as that term is defined below in “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”) holds our common shares, such U.S. Holder may be subject to adverse tax consequences. In particular, absent certain elections, a U.S. Holder would generally be subject to U.S. federal income tax at ordinary income tax rates, plus a possible interest charge, in respect of a gain derived from a disposition of our common shares, as well as certain distributions by us. The PFIC rules are complex, and each prospective investor is strongly urged to consult its tax advisors regarding the application of these rules to such investor’s particular circumstances. See “Material United States Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”.
Changes to tax laws may have an adverse impact on us and holders of our common shares.
Changes in tax laws, including amendments to tax laws, changes in the interpretation of tax laws, or changes in the administrative pronouncements or positions by the Canada Revenue Agency, or the CRA, may have a material adverse effect on us. In addition, tax authorities could disagree with us on tax filing positions taken by us and any reassessment of our tax filings could result in material adjustments of tax expense, income taxes payable and deferred income taxes.
Changes in tax laws, including amendments to tax laws, changes in the interpretation of tax laws or changes in the administrative pronouncements or positions by the CRA, may also have a material adverse effect on our shareholders and their investment in our common shares. Purchasers of our common shares should consult their tax advisors regarding the potential tax consequences associated with the acquisition, holding and disposition of our common shares in their particular circumstances.
28
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus includes forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks known to us, significant uncertainties, and other factors which may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements.
Some of the statements in this prospectus constitute “forward-looking statements” that represent our beliefs, projections and predictions about future events. From time to time in the future, we may make additional forward-looking statements in presentations, at conferences, in press releases, in other reports and filings and otherwise. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than statements of historical fact, including statements that refer to plans, intentions, objectives, goals, targets, strategies, hopes, beliefs, projections, prospects, expectations or other characterizations of future events or performance, and assumptions underlying the foregoing. The words “may,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “will,” “project,” “intend,” “continue,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “expect,” “plan,” “potential,” “opportunity,” “scheduled,” “goal,” “target,” and “future,” variations of such words, and other comparable terminology and similar expressions and references to future periods are often, but not always, used to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the following:
• our prospects, including our future business, revenues, expenses, net income, earnings per share, gross margins, profitability, cash flows, cash position, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations, backlog of orders and revenue, our targeted growth rate, our goals for future revenues and earnings, and our expectations about realizing the revenues in our backlog and in our sales pipeline;
• the potential impact of COVID-19 on our business and results of operations;
• the effects on our business, financial condition and results of operations of current and future economic, business, market and regulatory conditions, including the current economic and market conditions and their effects on our customers and their capital spending and ability to finance purchases of our products, services, technologies and systems;
• the effects of fluctuations in sales on our business, revenues, expenses, net income, earnings per share, margins, profitability, cash flows, capital expenditures, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations;
• our products, services, technologies and systems, including their quality and performance in absolute terms and as compared to competitive alternatives, their benefits to our customers and their ability to meet our customers’ requirements, and our ability to successfully develop and market new products, services, technologies and systems;
• our markets, including our market position and our market share;
• our ability to successfully develop, operate, grow and diversify our operations and businesses;
• our business plans, strategies, goals and objectives, and our ability to successfully achieve them;
• the sufficiency of our capital resources, including our cash and cash equivalents, funds generated from operations, availability of borrowings under our credit and financing arrangements and other capital resources, to meet our future working capital, capital expenditure, lease and debt service and business growth needs;
• the value of our assets and businesses, including the revenues, profits and cash flows they are capable of delivering in the future;
• the effects on our business operations, financial results, and prospects of business acquisitions, combinations, sales, alliances, ventures and other similar business transactions and relationships;
• industry trends and customer preferences and the demand for our products, services, technologies and systems; and
• the nature and intensity of our competition, and our ability to successfully compete in our markets.
29
These statements are necessarily subjective, are based upon our current plans, intentions, objectives, goals, strategies, beliefs, projections and expectations, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements described in or implied by such statements. Actual results may differ materially from expected results described in our forward-looking statements, including with respect to correct measurement and identification of factors affecting our business or the extent of their likely impact, the accuracy and completeness of the publicly-available information with respect to the factors upon which our business strategy is based, or the success of our business. Furthermore, industry forecasts are likely to be inaccurate, especially over long periods of time.
Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times by which, our performance or results may be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and management’s belief as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that may cause actual results, our performance or achievements, or industry results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, those discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in this prospectus.
30
CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE RATE INFORMATION
The following table sets forth, for each period indicated, the period-end and the high and low exchange rate for U.S. dollars expressed in Canadian dollars, and the average exchange rate for the periods indicated. These rates are based on the noon buying rate certified for custom purposes by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. These rates are provided solely for your convenience and are not necessarily the exchange rates that we used in this prospectus or will use in the preparation of any other reports or information to be provided to you. We make no representation that any Canadian dollar or U.S. dollar amounts referred to in this prospectus could have been or could be converted into U.S. dollars or Canadian dollars, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. We maintain our books and records and have presented our results of operations in United States dollars.
On November 19, 2021, the noon buying rate was US$1.00 = C$1.2631.
Period |
Period |
Low |
High |
|||||
(C$ per US$) |
||||||||
Year Ended December 31: |
||||||||
2016 |
1.3426 |
1.3243 |
1.2544 |
1.4592 |
||||
2017 |
1.2517 |
1.2984 |
1.2131 |
1.3745 |
||||
2018 |
1.3644 |
1.2957 |
1.2280 |
1.3650 |
||||
2019 |
1.2962 |
1.3269 |
1.2962 |
1.3591 |
||||
2020 |
1.2753 |
1.3422 |
1.2715 |
1.4539 |
||||
2021: |
||||||||
January |
1.2776 |
1.2725 |
1.2633 |
1.2812 |
||||
February |
1.2698 |
1.2696 |
1.2528 |
1.2830 |
||||
March |
1.2571 |
1.2569 |
1.2434 |
1.2672 |
||||
April |
1.2291 |
1.2494 |
1.2291 |
1.2614 |
||||
May |
1.2087 |
1.2125 |
1.2049 |
1.2320 |
||||
June |
1.2404 |
1.2220 |
1.2031 |
1.2437 |
||||
July |
1.2466 |
1.2547 |
1.2346 |
1.2752 |
||||
August |
1.2629 |
1.2599 |
1.2487 |
1.2853 |
||||
September |
1.2673 |
1.2671 |
1.2524 |
1.2818 |
||||
October |
1.2397 |
1.2434 |
1.2328 |
1.2657 |
31
We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $ (or $ if the underwriters exercise their overallotment-option to purchase up to additional common shares and/or warrants to purchase up to common shares) assuming a public offering price of $ per unit, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed public offering price of $ per unit would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, by approximately $ , assuming that the number of units offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same. We may also increase or decrease the number of units we are offering. Each increase or decrease of 1.0 million units in the number of units we are offering at the assumed public offering price of $ per share would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, by approximately $ .
We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, including marketing and sales expenses, the costs and expenses of our continuing development of our engagement and rewards platform and salaries and wages. General corporate purposes may also include capital expenditures. Due to the uncertainties inherent in the product development process, it is difficult to estimate with certainty the exact amounts of the net proceeds from this offering that may be used for the above purposes. The amounts and timing of our actual expenditures will depend upon numerous factors, including the progress of our product development activities, any collaborations that we may enter into with third parties for our products or strategic opportunities that become available to us, our sales and marketing and commercialization efforts, our operating costs, as well as unforeseen cash needs.
We would receive additional gross proceeds of approximately $ if all of the warrants included in the units are exercised, assuming no exercise of the underwriter’s over-allotment option and the representative’s warrants. We intend to use any such proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Based on our current business plan, we believe that our existing cash, together with the net proceeds from this offering as described above, will be sufficient to enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through the 12-month period following completion of the offering. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could use our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect.
Pending their use as described above, we plan to invest the net proceeds in short-term, interest-bearing obligations, investment-grade instruments, certificates of deposit or guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government
Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds of this offering, and investors will be relying on our judgment regarding the application of the net proceeds. In addition, we might decide to postpone or not pursue certain activities if the net proceeds from this offering and our other sources of cash are less than expected. See “Risk Factors”.
32
MARKET FOR COMMON EQUITY AND RELATED SHAREHOLDER MATTERS
Market Information for Common Shares and Unit A Warrants
Our common shares and Unit A Warrants are presently quoted on Nasdaq, under the symbol “VS” and “VSSYW,” respectively. On , 2021, the closing price of our common shares on Nasdaq was $ and the closing price of our Unit A Warrants on Nasdaq was $ .
Holders
As at September 30, 2021, the registrar and transfer agent for our common shares reported that there were 15,554,255 common shares issued and outstanding. Of these, 11,217,663 were registered to Canadian residents, including 11,217,663 shares registered to CDS & Co., which is a nominee of the Canadian Depository for Securities Limited. The 10,027,498 shares were registered to 918 shareholders in Canada, one of which is CDS & Co. 4,225,494 of our shares were registered to residents of the United States, including 1,633,771 shares registered to CEDE & Co., which is a nominee of Depository Trust Company. The 4,225,594 shares were registered to 450 shareholders in the United States, one of which is CEDE & Co. 111,098 of our shares were registered to residents of other foreign countries (1shareholders).
Dividends
We have not declared any common share dividends to date. We have no present intention of paying any cash dividends on our common shares in the foreseeable future, as we intend to use earnings, if any, to generate growth. The payment by us of dividends, if any, in the future, is within the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon, among other things, our earnings, capital requirements and financial condition, as well as other relevant factors. There are no material restrictions in our articles that restrict us from declaring dividends.
33
The table below sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of September 30, 2021:
• on an actual basis;
• on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give effect to the sale of units by us in this offering at the assumed public offering price of $ per unit (based upon the last reported sale of our common shares on Nasdaq on , 2021), and to reflect the application of the proceeds after deducting the estimated 7.5% underwriting discounts and commissions and approximately $ estimated offering expenses payable by us.
The pro forma information set forth in the table below is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. You should read the information in this table together with our financial statements and accompanying notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” appearing elsewhere in this prospectus.
Actual |
Pro forma |
|||||||
Cash and Cash Equivalents |
$ |
4,410,046 |
|
$ |
17,760,046 |
|
||
Liabilities: |
|
|
|
|
||||
Warrant Liability |
|
1,283,533 |
|
|
1,283,533 |
|
||
Notes payable |
|
2,737,775 |
|
|
2,737,775 |
|
||
Total liabilities |
|
5,447,589 |
|
|
5,447,589 |
|
||
Equity |
|
|
|
|
||||
Share capital |
|
|
|
|
||||
Common shares, no par value; unlimited shares authorized and 15,554,255 shares issued and outstanding on an actual basis, 19,304,255 shares issued and outstanding on a pro forma basis |
|
110,213,723 |
|
|
123,563,723 |
|
||
Commitment to issue shares; |
|
2,648,783 |
|
|
2,648,783 |
|
||
Class A shares; 5,057 shares authorized and 5,057 issued and outstanding on an actual and on a pro forma and a pro forma as adjusted basis |
|
28,247 |
|
|
28,247 |
|
||
Reserves |
|
9,810,789 |
|
|
9,810,789 |
|
||
Deficit |
|
(99,314,670 |
) |
|
(99,314,670 |
) |
||
Total Equity before non-controlling interest |
|
23,386,872 |
|
|
36,736,872 |
|
||
Non-controlling interest |
|
(7,810,928 |
) |
|
(7,810,928 |
) |
||
Total Equity |
|
15,575,943 |
|
|
28,925,943 |
|
||
Total Liabilities and Equity |
$ |
21,023,532 |
|
$ |
34,373,532 |
|
Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed public offering price of $ per unit would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted net tangible cash and cash equivalents after giving effect to this offering by approximately $ million assuming no change to the number of units offered by us as set forth on the front cover page of this prospectus and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and expenses payable by us.
The foregoing table and calculations are based on 15,554,255 of our common shares outstanding as of September 30, 2021, and excludes:
• 4,486,130 common shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants, at September 30, 2021 with a weighted average exercise price of $6.83 per share;
• 1,941,769 common shares reserved for issuance upon the exercise of outstanding stock options at September 30, 2021 with a weighted average exercise price of $4.63 per share issued pursuant to our 2017 Stock Option Plan;
• common shares issuable upon exercise of warrants to be issued to the underwriters in connection with this offering;
• common shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants sold in this offering; and
• 309,554 common shares issuable upon conversion of outstanding Versus Systems (Holdco) shares.
34
If you invest in our units in this offering, your ownership interest in our common shares will be diluted immediately to the extent of the difference between the public offering price per common share and the pro forma net tangible book value per common share immediately after this offering.
As of September 30, 2021, we had a net tangible book value (deficit) of $(78,601), corresponding to a net tangible book value of $(0.01) per common share (based upon 15,554,255 common shares outstanding). Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing the net tangible book value of our company (total tangible assets less total liabilities) by the number of outstanding common shares.
Dilution results from the fact that the per common share public offering price is substantially in excess of the book value per common share attributable to the existing shareholders for our presently outstanding common shares. After giving effect to (i) our issuance and sale of units in this offering at an assumed offering price of $ per unit (based upon the last reported sale of our common shares on Nasdaq on , 2021), and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of September 30, 2021 would have been $13,271,400, or $0.69 per common share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $0.70 per common share to existing shareholders and immediate dilution of $[ ] per common share to new investors purchasing common shares in this offering.
The following table illustrates the estimated net tangible book value per common share after this offering and the per common share dilution to persons purchasing common shares in this offering based on the foregoing offering assumptions:
Assumed offering price per unit |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
Consolidated net tangible book value per common share as of September 30, 2021 |
$ |
(0.01 |
) |
|
|||
Increase in consolidated net tangible book value per common share attributable to the offering |
$ |
0.70 |
|
|
|||
As adjusted consolidated net tangible book value per common share after this offering |
|
|
$ |
0.69 |
|||
Dilution per common share to new investors participating in this offering |
|
|
$ |
|
The number of our common shares that will be outstanding both before and immediately after this offering is based on 15,554,255 common shares outstanding as of September 30, 2021, and excludes as of such date:
• 4,486,130 common shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants, at September 30, 2021 with a weighted average exercise price of $6.83 per share;
• 1,941,769 common shares reserved for issuance upon the exercise of outstanding stock options at September 30, 2021 with a weighted average exercise price of $4.63 per share issued pursuant to our 2017 Stock Option Plan;
• common shares issuable upon exercise of warrants to be issued to the underwriters in connection with this offering;
• 309,554 common shares issuable upon conversion of outstanding Versus Systems (Holdco) shares.
35
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes to those consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus and with our interim consolidated financial statements as of September 30, 2021 and for the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2021 and 2020. Certain information contained in the discussion and analysis set forth below includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results and the timing of selected events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus.
Overview
We offer a business-to-business software platform that allows video game publishers and developers, as well as other interactive media content creators, to offer in-game prizing and rewards, based on the completion of in-content challenges. The prizes available are specific to each player based on a variety of characteristics, including age, location, game played, and challenged played. Our platform facilitates several types of single player prize challenges that includes a wide range of prize types including, coupons, sweepstakes-style prizes, Consumer Packaged Goods (“CPG”), and Downloadable Content (“DLC”). We sell the opportunity to place in-game prizes to advertisers who wish to place product in-game, sharing a certain portion of the gross receipts with the content and game owners. Our current agreements range from 50% to 70% of revenue being shared with the publisher/developers, with the remaining 50% to 30% of gross receipts belonging to us.
On June 3, 2021, we completed the acquisition of Xcite Interactive, a leading provider of online audience engagement through its owned and operated XEO technology platform. We now sell or have sold services and software to multiple professional sports franchises across Major League Baseball (“MLB”), the National Hockey League (“NHL”), the National Basketball Association (“NBA”) and the National Football League (“NFL”) as well as the Olympics, World Cup, and other global sporting events. We acquired 100% of the outstanding voting interest in the company.
With the acquisition, we acquired both a live events business, which includes partnering with multiple professional sports franchises to drive in-stadium audience engagement as well as a software licensing business creating a recurring revenue stream. In addition to providing improved consumer engagement, the XEO platform provides increased transparency and flexibility through the real time action board. The action board reduces data to information in which the content provider can act on during the live event. In addition, it allows for audience segmentation and targeted advertising technology further improving advertising efficiency.
Our combined company is now positioned to provide improved fan engagement on behalf of professional sports teams to those fans that are not in the stadium but rather viewing at home on television or streaming the game on a computer or mobile device. Consumers are able to follow the game, interact with other fans through a chat function, and compete for prizes and rewards offered through the team itself or potentially one of the team’s branding partners. This can be extended beyond professional sports to viewers of college sports, the Olympics, awards shows, or even reality TV. By driving second screen engagement, content providers, such as sports teams, are able to maintain the consumer’s attention during lengthy commercials and downtime in play.
We believe our platform is mutually-beneficial across three targets. Content providers gain increased interaction with their media experience. Brands see a prolonged increase of interests from players and consumers viewing their goods as a positive win rather than a distraction from content. Players and consumers want to interact with content that provides access to these wins, increasing the value of the content as a supplier of opportunities, of the brands as prizes, and of the experience itself as an interactive and desirable challenge.
Our platform allows consumers to become active ad participants seeking a claim to placed brands as victories won through interactions with a variety of media experiences. Users are no longer “just” winning a game or streaming their favorite film. These interactions now bestow bragging rights that extend past the media’s original purpose, resulting in winning real world goods and gaining access to experiences.
36
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with the IFRS as issued by the IASB, and Interpretations issued by the IFRIC. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We continually evaluate our estimates, including those related to the allowance for doubtful accounts, the useful life of property and equipment, assumptions used in assessing impairment of long-term assets, and valuation of deferred tax assets.
We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Any future changes to these estimates and assumptions could cause a material change to our reported amounts of revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB. Some of the accounting methods and policies used in preparing the financial statements under IFRS are based on complex and subjective assessments by our management or on estimates based on past experience and assumptions deemed realistic and reasonable based on the circumstances concerned. The actual value of our assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity and of our earnings could differ from the value derived from these estimates if conditions changed and these changes had an impact on the assumptions adopted.
Our significant accounting policies that we believe to be critical to the judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our financial statements are included in “note 2 — Basis of Presentation” and “note 3 — Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Significant Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue. In general, we recognize revenue when the amount of revenue can be reliably measured, it is probable that future economic benefits will flow to us, where there is evidence of an arrangement, when the selling price is fixed or determinable, and when specific criteria have been met or there are no significant remaining performance obligations for each of our activities as described below. Foreseeable losses, if any, are recognized in the year or period in which the loss is determined.
We earn revenue in three primary ways: 1) provision of professional services, including the development and maintenance of custom-built software and creative assets, the production of live-events both in-venue and at-home or other professional services, 2) the licensing of our software on a Software-as-a-Service, (SaaS) basis; either for our entire platform or for access to specific components thereof, or 3) the sale of advertising.
We recognize revenues received from the development and maintenance of custom-built software and other professional services provided upon the satisfaction of our performance obligation in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those services. Performance obligations can be satisfied either at a single point in time or over time. For those performance obligations that are satisfied at a single point in time, the revenue is recognized at that time. For each performance obligation satisfied over time, we recognize revenue by measuring the progress toward complete satisfaction of that performance obligation.
For revenues related to the licensing of software, we generally license the use of our software in a software-as-a-service model (SaaS). We recognize revenue over the period of performance.
For revenues received from the sales of advertising, we are deemed the agent in our revenue agreements. We do not own or obtain control of the digital advertising inventory. We recognize revenues upon the achievement of agreed-upon performance criteria for the advertising inventory, such as a number of views, or clicks. As we are acting as an agent in the transaction, we recognize revenue from sales of advertising on a net basis, which excludes amounts payable to partners under our revenue sharing agreements.
Our contracts with customers may include multiple performance obligations. For these contracts, we account for individual performance obligations separately if they are capable of being distinct within the context of the contract. Determining which performance obligations are considered distinct may require significant judgment. Judgment is also required to determine the amount of revenue associated with each distinct performance obligation.
37
Operating Expenses. We classify our operating expense as sales and marketing, and general and administrative. Personnel costs are the primary component of each of these operating expense categories, which consist of cash-based personnel costs, such as salaries, benefits and bonuses. Additionally, we separate intangible amortization, amortization expense, interest expense, professional fees and share-based compensation into its own category.
Office and Miscellaneous Expenses. Our office and miscellaneous expenses primarily consist of non-labor overhead expenses, which include health benefits, utilities and other cost to run the back office operations of our company.
Salaries and Wages Expenses. Our salaries and wages are primarily made up of salaries paid directly to our engineers, which comprise most of the employee base within our company. This amount also includes the related payroll taxes and accrued bonuses.
Sales and Marketing Expenses. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of the costs of the advertisements and promotions we run in order to expand awareness of our product offerings.
Software and Delivery Costs. Software and delivery costs consist primarily of license fees we pay to access cloud-based software or cloud computing power.
Operating Results
Comparison of Results of Operations for the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 and 2020
The following table summarizes our results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020:
For the Nine Months Ended |
||||||||
2021 |
2020 |
|||||||
(unaudited) |
(unaudited) |
|||||||
Statement of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) Data: |
|
|
|
|
||||
Revenue |
$ |
375,383 |
|
$ |
1,020,443 |
|
||
Amortization |
|
230,031 |
|
|
169,521 |
|
||
Amortization of equipment |
|
11,304 |
|
|
16,155 |
|
||
Amortization of intangible assets |
|
1,455,366 |
|
|
979,755 |
|
||
Consulting fees |
|
463,201 |
|
|
381,524 |
|
||
Foreign exchange gain (loss) |
|
873,286 |
|
|
156,854 |
|
||
Office and miscellaneous expenses |
|
457,185 |
|
|
401,192 |
|
||
Interest expense |
|
114,569 |
|
|
133,720 |
|
||
Interest expense on lease obligations |
|
31,739 |
|
|
47,335 |
|
||
Professional fees |
|
2,385,696 |
|
|
651,414 |
|
||
Salaries and wages |
|
3,829,159 |
|
|
1,456,520 |
|
||
Sales and marketing |
|
820,573 |
|
|
172,160 |
|
||
Software and delivery costs |
|
386,658 |
|
|
173,529 |
|
||
Share-based compensation |
|
1,403,132 |
|
|
866,139 |
|
||
Operating loss |
|
(12,086,516 |
) |
|
(4,585,375 |
) |
||
Finance expense |
|
(185,486 |
) |
|
(218,847 |
) |
||
Change in fair value of warrant liability |
|
(2,969,244 |
) |
|
— |
|
||
Loss of disposal of marketable securities and notes payable |
|
— |
|
|
(378,718 |
) |
||
Other expense |
|
(116,356 |
) |
|
(59,698 |
) |
||
Net loss |
|
(15,357,602 |
) |
|
(5,242,638 |
) |
||
Foreign currency transaction loss |
|
(355,627 |
) |
|
(517,346 |
) |
||
Loss and comprehensive loss |
$ |
(15,713,229 |
) |
$ |
(5,759,984 |
) |
||
Net loss per share (basic and diluted) attributed to Versus Systems Inc. |
$ |
(0.92 |
) |
$ |
(0.46 |
) |
38
Revenue
Our revenues are derived from three primary sources: professional services, software licensing, and advertising. Revenue was $375,383 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing a decrease of $645,060, or 63%, from $1,020,443 for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to a lack of one time HP integration fees in 2021, offset by an increase in software licensing related to the Xcite acquisition.
Amortization of intangible assets
Our intangible assets are comprised of a business-to-business software platform that allows video game publishers and developers to offer prize-based matches of their games to their players. Amortization expense was $1,455,366 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $475,611 or 49%, from $979,755 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to the addition of Xcite’s intangible assets.
Consulting Fees
Consulting fees were $463,201 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $81,677 or 21%, from $381,524 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to the addition of Xcite’s contractors.
Foreign exchange
We have operated to date primarily in the United States and Canada. Foreign exchange loss was $873,286 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $716,432, or 457%, from a loss of $156,854 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase in the loss was due to changes in the foreign exchange translation between the U.S. and Canadian dollar.
Office and miscellaneous expenses
Office and miscellaneous expenses were $457,185 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $55,995, or 13%, from $401,192 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to the addition of Xcite.
Professional Fees
Professional fee expense was $2,385,696 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $1,734,282, or 266%, from $651,414 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to legal expenses related to the Xcite acquisition and expenses related to the public offering.
Salaries and wages
Salaries and wages were $3,829,159 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $2,372,639, or 163%, from $1,456,520 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to hiring additional employees and the employees obtained through the Xcite acquisition.
Sales and marketing
Sales and marketing expense was $820,573 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $648,413, or 377%, from $172,160 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to increased spending on market awareness advertising campaigns.
Software and delivery costs
Software and delivery costs expense was $386,658 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $213,129 or 123%, from $173,529 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to the addition of Xcite’s software costs.
39
Share-based compensation
Share-based compensation expense was $1,403,132 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $536,993, or 62%, from $866,139 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to the timing of options vesting and the increase in the fair value of options issued.
Change in fair value of warrant liability
Change in fair value of the warrant liability was $2,969,244 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $2,969,244, from $0 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The warrant liability is a result of having warrants in Canadian dollars and the change in functional currency to the United States dollar on February 1, 2021.
Loss from Operations
Loss from operations was $12,086,516 for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of $7,501,141, or 164%, from $4,585,375 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to the change in fair value of the warrant liability, an increase in the foreign exchange loss, an increase in salaries and wages as well as one-time costs associated with the public offering and the Xcite acquisition.
Comparison of Results of Operations for the Year Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
The following table summarizes our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2020 and 2019:
For the Year Ended |
||||||||
2020 |
2019 |
|||||||
Statement of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) Data: |
|
|
|
|
||||
Revenue |
$ |
1,390,018 |
|
$ |
501,152 |
|
||
Amortization |
|
240,820 |
|
|
246,626 |
|
||
Amortization of intangible assets |
|
1,272,435 |
|
|
1,907,306 |
|
||
Consulting fees |
|
465,252 |
|
|
613,608 |
|
||
Foreign exchange gain (loss) |
|
24,719 |
|
|
29,241 |
|
||
Office and miscellaneous expenses |
|
255,863 |
|
|
320,318 |
|
||
Interest expense |
|
173,975 |
|
|
169,834 |
|
||
Interest expense on lease obligations |
|
60,112 |
|
|
78,674 |
|
||
Professional fees |
|
780,534 |
|
|
335,851 |
|
||
Salaries and wages |
|
2,564,830 |
|
|
2,451,627 |
|
||
Sales and marketing |
|
486,249 |
|
|
593,462 |
|
||
Software and delivery costs |
|
257,924 |
|
|
184,352 |
|
||
Share-based compensation |
|