ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

 

Risks associated with our business

 

We have a history of operating losses and may incur losses in the future.

 

We reported a net loss from continuing operations of $16.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 . While we reported net income from continuing operations of $8.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 , we also experienced a net loss from continuing operations of approximately $4.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2014 . Our operating expenses were 39.0 percent of net sales in the year ended December 31, 2014 and 30.5 percent of net sales in the year ended December 31, 2015 , but increased to 79.1 percent of net sales in the year ended December 31, 2016 . As of December 31, 2016 , we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $16.6 million and an accumulated deficit of $96.9 million .

In order for us to continue as a going concern and attain sustainable profitability and growth, we will need to effectively implement our cost-cutting and restructuring initiatives. In February 2017, we announced a corporate restructuring initiative designed to streamline operating costs and heighten organizational focus on our healthcare markets. The initiative includes an organizational consolidation of management and oversight functions in order to streamline and better align the organization into more focused, efficient, and cost effective reporting relationships. The restructuring plan includes headcount reductions and office closures and consolidation. We are in the process of evaluating the impact of these expected actions and estimate that approximately $1.1 million in restructuring charges will be recorded during the first quarter of 2017. The combination of our current financial position, liquid resources, and restructuring actions are intended to return us to profitability by the end of 2017 and mitigate the risk that we will not be able to continue as a going concern. The initiative may not achieve these objectives if, for example, we have unanticipated costs, do not generate expected sales or lack sufficient infrastructure to capitalize on growth opportunities.

We will also need to execute our engineering, marketing and sales plans for our energy-efficient LED lighting products, develop new technologies and products that allow us to effectively compete in new markets to expand our customer base and continue to improve our supply chain and organizational structure. Our ability to achieve these goals may be constrained by our lack of available funding. In addition, our 2015 financial performance was due to a significant concentration of our sales to a few customers of our military maritime products for the U.S. Navy. These sales have declined and are no longer expected to be of significance, and we have made increased investments in and recently refocused our infrastructure to expand our sales into targeted commercial markets and with other military maritime customers. In order to generate profits over the long-term, we will need to diversify our customer base and product offerings. Our efforts to expand our offerings and reach additional markets are in their early stages and there can be no assurance we will be successful.

We may require additional financing, and we may not be able to raise funds on favorable terms or at all.

As of December 31, 2016 , we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $16.6 million , and for the year ended December 31, 2016 , we reported a net loss from continuing operations of $16.9 million . During the quarter ended September 30, 2015, we raised approximately $23.6 million from a follow-on offering of 1,500,000 shares of common stock. The proceeds from that offering will continue to provide funding for the near-term, however, there is a risk that we will require additional external financing if our business does not generate adequate cash flow or if our business plans change or require more investment than we currently anticipate.

In addition, we terminated our revolving credit facility effective December 31, 2015 and do not have current plans to enter into a replacement facility.

If we require additional financing, we will evaluate all available external funding sources, but there can be no assurance that we will obtain funding on acceptable terms, in a timely fashion, or at all. Obtaining additional financing contains risks, including:

If we fail to obtain required additional financing to grow our business, we would need to delay or scale back our business plan, further reduce our operating costs, or reduce our headcount, each of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, future prospects, and financial condition.

We derive a significant portion of our revenue from a few customers and the loss of one of these customers, or a reduction in their demand for our products, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

 

Our customer base is highly concentrated and one or a few customers have represented a substantial portion of our net sales. For the year ended December 31, 2016 , total sales of products for the U.S. Navy accounted for approximately 43 percent of our net sales from continuing operations and ADS, a distributor of these products, accounted for approximately 36 percent of net sales from continuing operations. The remainder of our sales of products for the U.S. Navy in 2016 were made pursuant to an indefinite duration, indefinite quantity (“IDIQ”) supply contract we were awarded in 2011. This IDIQ contract expired on August 1, 2016.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, we entered into distribution agreements with ADS and LLS, under which ADS and LLS purchased our products under minimum commitment requirements in regard to the applicable territories in order to maintain exclusivity. While we extended the agreement with ADS through March 31, 2017, the last of these minimum purchase requirements occurred in December 2016. The distribution agreement with LLS continues until November 2017.

We generally do not have long-term contracts with our customers that commit them to purchase any minimum amount of our products or require them to continue to do business with us. Significant customers, including distributors or end-users such as the U.S. Navy, could discontinue purchasing our products at any time. We could lose business from the U.S. Navy or another significant customer for a variety of reasons, many of which are outside of our control. We are no longer the only company whose LED products are certified for the retrofit of U.S. Navy vessels and competing products may be available at a lower cost. Other reasons could include changes in levels of funding available to military maritime customers, our inability to comply with government contracting laws and regulations, changes in customers’ procurement strategies or their lighting retrofit plans, changes in product specifications, additional competitors entering particular markets, our failure to keep pace with technological advances and cost reductions, and damage to our professional reputation, among others.

Many of the products we supply to the U.S. Navy comply with domestic preference standards, which specify that all or a certain portion of the components be produced or the costs associated with manufacturing are incurred in the U.S. Certain exceptions apply and if the standards, or the criteria underlying these standards, were to be relaxed or waived, or exceptions are available, lower cost competitors will have an advantage in the military maritime market. Lower cost competition could reduce our market share and adversely affect our results and the investments we have made in our military maritime business.

We anticipate that a limited number of customers could continue to comprise a substantial portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. If we continue to do business with our significant customers, our concentration can cause variability in our results because we cannot control the timing or amounts of their purchases. If a significant end-user like the U.S. Navy, for example, changes the scope or timing of its energy efficiency initiatives, or our distributors alter inventory or pricing levels, these events can occur with little or no notice and could adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows in particular periods.

Depressed general economic conditions may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

Our business is sensitive to changes in general economic conditions, both inside and outside the United States. Slow growth in the economy or an economic downturn, particularly one affecting construction and building renovation, or that cause end-users to reduce or delay their purchases of lighting products, services, or retrofit activities, would have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. LED lighting retrofit projects, in particular, tend to require a significant capital commitment, which is offset by cost savings achieved over time. As such, a lack of available capital, whether due to economic factors or conditions in the capital or debt markets, could have the effect of reducing demand for our products. A decrease in demand could adversely affect our ability to meet our working capital requirements and growth objectives, or could otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our inability to diversify our customer base could adversely impact our business and operating results, and expanding to new target markets may open us up to additional risks and challenges.

Our efforts to penetrate additional markets are generally in the early stages, and we cannot provide any assurance we will be successful. Our initial sales cycle is long, generally six to twelve months or more, and each targeted market may require us to develop different expertise and sales, supply, or distribution channels. We may dedicate significant resources to a targeted

customer or industry before we achieve meaningful results or are able to effectively evaluate our success. As we target new customers and industries, we will also face different technological, pricing, supply, regulatory and competitive challenges that we may not have experience with, or that may evolve more rapidly than we can address. As a result, our efforts to expand to new markets may not succeed, may divert management resources from our existing operations and may require significant financial commitments to unproven areas of our business, all of which may harm our financial performance.

 

If we are unable to manage future growth effectively, our profitability and liquidity could be adversely affected.

Our ability to achieve our desired growth depends on the adoption of LEDs within the general lighting market and our ability to affect and adapt to this rate of adoption. The pace of continued growth in this market is uncertain, and in order to grow, we will need to:

These efforts to grow our business, both in terms of size and in diversity of customer bases served, will require rapid expansion in certain functional areas and put a significant strain on our resources. We may incur significant expenses as we attempt to scale our resources and make investments in our business that we believe are necessary to achieve long-term growth goals. Such investments take time to become fully operational, and we may not be able to expand quickly enough to exploit targeted market opportunities. In addition to our own manufacturing capacity, we are increasingly utilizing contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers (“ODMs”) to produce our products for us. There are also inherent execution risks in expanding product lines and production capacity, whether through our facilities or that of a third-party manufacturer, that could increase costs and reduce our operating results, including design and construction cost overruns, poor production process yields and reduced quality control. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, our expenses could increase without a proportionate increase in revenue, our margins could decrease, and our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our results of operations, financial condition and business could be harmed if we are unable to balance customer demand and capacity.

As customer demand for our products changes, we must be able to adjust our production capacity to meet demand. We are continually taking steps to address our manufacturing capacity needs for our products. If we are not able to increase or decrease our production capacity at our targeted rate or if there are unforeseen costs associated with adjusting our capacity levels, we may not be able to achieve our financial targets. In addition, as we introduce new products and further develop product generations, we must balance the production and inventory of prior generation products with the production and inventory of new generation products, whether manufactured by us or our contract manufacturers, to maintain a product mix that will satisfy customer demand and mitigate the risk of incurring cost write-downs on the previous generation products, related raw materials and tooling.

Due to investment in long lead time items and our leaner operations following our February 2017 restructuring initiative, if demand does not materialize at the rate forecasted, we may not be able to scale back our manufacturing expenses or overhead costs to correspond to the demand. This could result in lower margins and adversely impact our business and results of operations. Additionally, if product demand decreases or we fail to forecast demand accurately, our results may be adversely impacted due to higher costs resulting from lower factory utilization, causing higher fixed costs per unit produced. Further, we may be required to recognize impairments on our long-lived assets or recognize excess inventory write-off charges, as we did in the fourth quarter of 2016. We may in the future be required to recognize excess capacity charges, which would have a negative impact on our results of operations. In addition, our efforts to improve quoted delivery lead-time performance may result in corresponding reductions in order backlog. A decline in backlog levels could result in more variability and less predictability in our quarter-to-quarter net sales and operating results.

Our operating results may fluctuate due to factors that are difficult to forecast and not within our control.

Our past operating results may not be accurate indicators of future performance, and you should not rely on such results to predict our future performance. Our operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past, and could fluctuate in the future. Factors that may contribute to fluctuations include:

Customers may be unable to obtain financing to make purchases from us.

Some of our customers require financing in order to purchase our products and the initial investment is higher than is required with traditional lighting products. The potential inability of these customers to access the capital needed to finance purchases of our products and meet their payment obligations to us could adversely impact the appeal of our products relative to those with lower upfront costs and have a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that third party finance companies will provide capital to our customers.

A significant portion of our business is dependent upon the existence of government funding, which may not be available into the future and could result in a reduction in sales and harm to our business.

 

We target sales to entities that are dependent on governmental funding, including foreign allied navies and U.S. military bases. If the U.S. Navy or any of these other target customers abandon, curtail, or delay planned LED lighting retrofit projects as a result of the levels of funding available to them or changes in budget priorities, it would adversely affect our opportunities to generate product sales.

 

If LED lighting technology fails to gain widespread market acceptance or we are unable to respond effectively as new lighting technologies and market trends emerge, our competitive position and our ability to generate revenue, and profits may be harmed.

 

To be successful, we depend on continued market acceptance of our existing LED technology. Although adoption of LED lighting continues to grow, the use of LED lighting products for general illumination is in its early stages, is still limited, and faces significant challenges. Potential customers may be reluctant to adopt LED lighting products as an alternative to traditional lighting technology because of its higher initial cost or perceived risks relating to its novelty, reliability, usefulness, light quality, and cost-effectiveness when compared to other established lighting sources available in the market. Changes in economic and market conditions may also make traditional lighting technologies more appealing. For example, declining energy prices in certain regions or countries may favor existing lighting technologies that are less energy-efficient, reducing the rate of adoption for LED lighting products in those areas. Notwithstanding continued performance improvements and cost reductions of LED lighting, limited customer awareness of the benefits of LED lighting products, lack of widely accepted standards governing LED lighting products and customer unwillingness to adopt LED lighting products could significantly limit the demand for LED lighting products. Even potential customers that are inclined to adopt energy-efficient lighting technology may defer investment as LED lighting products continue to experience rapid technological advances. Any of the foregoing could adversely impact our results of operations and limit our market opportunities.

In addition, we will need to keep pace with rapid changes in LED technology, changing customer requirements, new product introductions by competitors and evolving industry standards, any of which could render our existing products obsolete if we fail to respond in a timely manner. The development, introduction, and acceptance of new products incorporating advanced technology is a complex process subject to numerous uncertainties, including:

We have previously experienced, and could in the future experience, delays in the introduction of new products. We could also devote substantial resources to the development of new technologies or products that are ultimately not successful.

If effective new sources of light other than LEDs are discovered, our current products and technologies could become less competitive or obsolete. If others develop innovative proprietary lighting technology that is superior to ours, or if we fail to accurately anticipate technology and market trends, respond on a timely basis with our own development of new and reliable products and enhancements to existing products, and achieve broad market acceptance of these products and enhancements, our competitive position may be harmed and we may not achieve sufficient growth in our net sales to attain or sustain profitability.

If we are not able to compete effectively against companies with greater resources, our prospects for future success will be jeopardized.

The lighting industry is highly competitive. In the high-performance lighting markets in which we sell our advanced lighting systems, our products compete with lighting products utilizing traditional lighting technology provided by many vendors. For sales of military products, we compete with a small number of qualified military lighting lamp and fixture suppliers, and a newly certified supplier to the U.S. Navy for LED lighting products. In certain commercial applications, we typically compete with LED systems produced by large lighting companies. Our primary competitors include Royal Philips, CREE, Inc., Osram Sylvania, GE, Inc., LED Smart, and Revolution Lighting Technologies. Some of these competitors offer products with performance characteristics similar to those of our products. For example, we are no longer the only company whose LED products are certified for the retrofit of U.S. Navy vessels and competing products may be available at a lower cost. Many of our competitors are larger, more established companies with greater resources to devote to research and development, manufacturing and marketing, as well as greater brand recognition. In addition, larger competitors who purchase greater unit volumes from component suppliers may be able to negotiate lower bill of material costs, thereby enabling them to offer lower pricing to end customers. Moreover, the relatively low barriers to entry into the lighting industry and the limited proprietary nature of many lighting products also permit new competitors to enter the industry easily and with lower costs.

 

In each of our markets, we also anticipate the possibility that LED manufacturers, including those that currently supply us with LEDs, may seek to compete with us. Our competitors’ lighting technologies and products may be more readily accepted by customers than our products will be. Moreover, if one or more of our competitors or suppliers were to merge, the change in the competitive landscape could adversely affect our competitive position. Additionally, to the extent that competition in our markets intensifies, we may be required to reduce our prices in order to remain competitive. If we do not compete effectively, or if we reduce our prices without making commensurate reductions in our costs, our net sales, margins, and profitability and our future prospects for success may be harmed.

 

If we are unable to obtain and adequately protect our intellectual property rights or are subject to claims that our products infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, our ability to commercialize our products could be substantially limited.

 

We consider our technology and processes proprietary. If we are not able to adequately protect or enforce the proprietary aspects of our technology, competitors may utilize our proprietary technology. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected. We protect our technology through a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, and similar means. Despite our efforts, other parties may attempt to disclose, obtain, or use our technologies. Our competitors may also be able to independently develop products that are substantially equivalent or superior to our products or slightly modify our products. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights as fully as do the laws of the United States. As a result, we may not be able to protect our proprietary rights adequately in the United States or abroad. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that we will be issued patents for which we have applied or obtain additional patents, or that we will be able to obtain licenses to patents or other intellectual property rights of third parties that we may need to support our business in the future.

The inability to obtain certain patents or rights to third-party patents and other intellectual property rights in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

Our industry is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights and positions, which may result in protracted and expensive litigation. We have engaged in litigation in the past and litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Litigation may also be necessary to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity by others. Additionally, we could be required to defend against individuals and groups who have been purchasing intellectual property assets for the sole purpose of making claims of infringement and attempting to extract settlements from companies like ours. Litigation could delay development or sales efforts and an adverse outcome in litigation or any similar proceedings could subject us to significant liabilities, require us to license disputed rights from others or require us to cease marketing or using certain products or technologies. We may not be able to obtain any licenses on acceptable terms, if at all, and may attempt to redesign those products that contain allegedly infringing intellectual property, which may not be possible. We also may have to indemnify certain customers if it is determined that we have infringed upon or misappropriated another party’s intellectual property. The costs of addressing any intellectual property litigation claim, including legal fees and expenses and the diversion of management resources, regardless of whether the claim is valid, could be significant and could materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may be subject to confidential information theft or misuse, which could harm our business and results of operations.

We face attempts by others to gain unauthorized access to our information technology systems on which we maintain proprietary and other confidential information. Our security measures may be breached as the result of industrial or other espionage actions of outside parties, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, and as a result, an unauthorized party may obtain access to our systems. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to access our confidential information through other means, for example by fraudulently inducing our employees to disclose confidential information. We actively seek to prevent, detect and investigate any unauthorized access, which occasionally occurs despite our best efforts. We might be unaware of any such access or unable to determine its magnitude and effects. The theft and/or unauthorized use or publication of our trade secrets and other confidential business information as a result of such an incident could adversely affect our competitive position and the value of our investment in research and development could be reduced. Our business could be subject to significant disruption and we could suffer monetary or other losses.

If critical components and finished products that we currently purchase from a small number of third-party suppliers become unavailable or increase in price, or if our suppliers or delivery channels fail to meet our requirements for quality, quantity, and timeliness, our revenue and reputation in the marketplace could be harmed, which would damage our business.

 

In an effort to reduce manufacturing costs, we have outsourced the production of certain parts and components, as well as finished goods in our product lines, to a small number of vendors in various locations throughout the world, primarily in the United States and China. We generally purchase these sole or limited source items with purchase orders, and we have limited guaranteed supply arrangements with such suppliers. While we believe alternative sources for these components and products are available, we have selected these particular suppliers based on their ability to consistently provide the best quality product at the most cost effective price, to meet our specifications, and to deliver within scheduled time frames. We do not control the time and resources that these suppliers devote to our business, and we cannot be sure that these suppliers will perform their obligations to us. If our suppliers fail to perform their obligations in a timely manner or at satisfactory quality levels, we may suffer lost sales, reductions in revenue and damage to our reputation in the market, all of which would adversely affect our business. As our demand for our products fluctuates and can be hard to predict, we may not need a sustained level of inventory, which may cause financial hardship for our suppliers or they made need to divert production capacity elsewhere. We may be vulnerable to unanticipated price increases and payment term changes. Significant increases in the prices of sourced components and products could cause our product prices to increase, which may reduce demand for our products or make us more susceptible to competition. Furthermore, in the event that we are unable to pass along increases in operating costs to our customers, margins and profitability may be adversely affected. Accordingly, the loss of all or one of these suppliers could have a material adverse effect on our operations until such time as an alternative supplier could be found.

 

Additionally, consolidation in the lighting industry could result in one or more current suppliers being acquired by a competitor, rendering us unable to continue purchasing key components and products at competitive prices. We may be subject to various import duties applicable to materials manufactured in foreign countries and may be affected by various other import and export restrictions, as well as other considerations or developments impacting upon international trade, including economic or political instability, shipping delays and product quotas. These international trade factors will, under certain circumstances, have an impact on the cost of components, which will have an impact on the cost to us of the manufactured product and the wholesale and retail prices of our products.

We rely on arrangements with independent shipping companies for the delivery of our products from vendors abroad. The failure or inability of these shipping companies to deliver products or the unavailability of shipping or port services, even

temporarily, could have a material adverse effect on our business. We may also be adversely affected by an increase in freight surcharges due to rising fuel costs and added security costs.

We depend on independent distributors and sales representatives for a substantial portion of our net sales, and the failure to manage our relationships with these third parties, or the termination of these relationships, could cause our net sales to decline and harm our business.

 

While we are also building our sales force to market and sell directly to end clients, we rely significantly on indirect sales channels to market and sell our products. Most of our products are sold through third-party independent distributors and sales representatives. In particular, sales of our products for the U.S. Navy, which have accounted for a substantial portion of our net sales in recent periods, were made through ADS and LLS, as an independent distributor and a sales representative, respectively. In addition, these parties provide technical sales support to end-users. The agreement with ADS expires on March 31, 2017. During 2016, ADS had minimum quarterly purchase commitments under the agreement that exceeded demand during the year. The representative agreement with LLS ended in November 2016, but the distribution agreement continues until November 2017. Other than our agreement with ADS, our current agreements with distributors and sales representatives are generally non-exclusive, meaning they can sell products of our competitors. Any such agreements we enter into in the future may be on similar terms. Furthermore, our agreements are generally short-term, and can be cancelled by these sales channels without significant financial consequence. Inability to negotiate extensions of these contracts on acceptable terms could adversely impact sales of our products. We cannot control how these distributors or sales representatives perform or manage their inventory levels and cannot be certain that we or end-users will be satisfied by their performance. If these distributors and sales representatives significantly change their terms with us, or change their historical pattern of ordering products from us, there could be a significant impact on our net sales and profits.

 

Our products could contain defects or they may be installed or operated incorrectly, which could reduce sales of those products or result in claims against us.

 

Despite product testing, defects may be found in our existing or future products. This could result in, among other things, a delay in the recognition or loss of net sales, the write-down or destruction of existing inventory, insurance recoveries that fail to cover the full costs associated with product recalls, significant warranty, support, and repair costs, diversion of the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts, and damage to our relationships with our customers. The occurrence of these problems could also result in reputational damage or the delay or loss of market acceptance of our lighting products, and would likely harm our business. In addition, our customers may specify quality, performance, and reliability standards that we must meet. If our products do not meet these standards, we may be required to replace or rework the products. In some cases, our products may contain undetected defects or flaws that only become evident after shipment. Even if our products meet standard specifications, our customers may attempt to use our products in applications for which they were not designed or in products that were not designed or manufactured properly, resulting in product failures and creating customer satisfaction issues.

Some of our products use line voltages (such as 120 or 240 AC), which involve enhanced risk of electrical shock, injury or death in the event of a short circuit or other malfunction. Defects, integration issues or other performance problems in our lighting products could result in personal injury or financial or other damages to end-users or could damage market acceptance of our products. Our customers and end-users could also seek damages from us for their losses. A product liability claim brought against us, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time consuming and costly to defend and the adverse publicity generated by such a claim against us or others in our industry could negatively impact our reputation.

We provide warranty periods ranging from one to ten years on our products. The standard warranty on nearly all of our new LED lighting products, which now represent the majority of our revenue, is ten years. Although we believe our reserves are appropriate, we are making projections about the future reliability of new products and technologies, and we may experience increased variability in warranty claims. Increased warranty claims could result in significant losses due to a rise in warranty expense and costs associated with customer support.

  Our business may suffer if we fail to comply with government contracting laws and regulations.

We derive a portion of our revenues from direct and indirect sales to U.S., state, local, and foreign governments and their respective agencies. In particular, sales of our products to the U.S. Navy or to distributors for the U.S. Navy have accounted for a substantial portion of our net sales in recent periods. Contracts with government customers are subject to various procurement laws and regulations, business prerequisites to qualify for such contracts, accounting procedures, intellectual property process,

and contract provisions relating to their formation, administration and performance, which may provide for various rights and remedies in favor of the governments that are not typically applicable to or found in commercial contracts. Failure to comply with these laws, regulations, or provisions in our government contracts could result in litigation, the imposition of various civil and criminal penalties, termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, or suspension from future government contracting. If our government contracts are terminated, if we are suspended from government work, or if our ability to compete for new contracts is adversely affected, our business could suffer due to, among other factors, lost sales, the costs of any government action or penalties, damages to our reputation and the inability to recover our investment in developing and marketing products for military maritime use.

The ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

 

We have significant U.S. net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards (the “Tax Attributes”). Under federal tax laws, we can carry forward and use our Tax Attributes to reduce our future U.S. taxable income and tax liabilities until such Tax Attributes expire in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “IRC”). Section 382 and Section 383 of the IRC provide an annual limitation on our ability to utilize our Tax Attributes, as well as certain built-in-losses, against future U.S. taxable income in the event of a change in ownership, as defined under the IRC. Share issuances in connection with our past financing transactions or other future changes in our stock ownership, which may be beyond our control, could result in changes in ownership for purposes of the IRC. Such changes in ownership could further limit our ability to use our Tax Attributes. Accordingly, any such occurrences could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

 

The cost of compliance with environmental, health, safety, and other laws and regulations could adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.

 

We are subject to a broad range of environmental, health, safety, and other laws and regulations. These laws and regulations impose increasingly stringent environmental, health, and safety protection standards and permit requirements regarding, among other things, air emissions, wastewater storage, treatment, and discharges, the use and handling of hazardous or toxic materials, waste disposal practices, the remediation of environmental contamination, and working conditions for our employees. Some environmental laws, such as Superfund, the Clean Water Act, and comparable laws in U.S. states and other jurisdictions world-wide, impose joint and several liability for the cost of environmental remediation, natural resource damages, third party claims, and other expenses, without regard to the fault or the legality of the original conduct, on those persons who contributed to the release of a hazardous substance into the environment. We may also be affected by future laws or regulations, including those imposed in response to energy, climate change, geopolitical, or similar concerns. These laws may impact the sourcing of raw materials and the manufacture and distribution of our products and place restrictions and other requirements on the products that we can sell in certain geographical locations.

 

We have international operations and are subject to risks associated with operating in international markets.

 

We outsource the production of certain parts and components, as well as finished goods in certain product lines, to a small number of vendors in various locations outside of the United States, including China. We also have limited operations in Taiwan to support our vendor relationships in Asia. Although we do not currently generate significant sales from customers outside the United States, we are targeting foreign allied navies as a potential opportunity to generate additional sales of our military products.

International business operations are subject to inherent risks, including, among others:

 

 

If we do not anticipate and effectively manage these risks, these factors may have a material adverse impact on our business operations.

 

If we are unable to attract or retain qualified personnel, our business and product development efforts could be harmed.

 

To a large extent, our future success will depend on the continued contributions of certain employees, such as our current Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, and Chief Financial Officer. We have had significant turnover in our management team since 2013 and cannot be certain that these and other key employees will continue in their respective capacities for any period of time, and these employees may be difficult to replace. Our future success will also depend on our ability to attract and retain qualified technical, sales, marketing, and management personnel, for whom competition is very intense. As we attempt to rapidly grow our business, it could be especially difficult to attract and retain sufficient qualified personnel. The loss of, or failure to attract, hire, and retain any such persons could delay product development cycles, disrupt our operations, increase our costs, or otherwise harm our business or results of operations.

We believe that certification and compliance issues are critical to adoption of our lighting systems, and failure to obtain such certification or compliance would harm our business.

 

We are required to comply with certain legal requirements governing the materials in our products. Although we are not aware of any efforts to amend any existing legal requirements or implement new legal requirements in a manner with which we cannot comply, our net sales might be adversely affected if such an amendment or implementation were to occur.

 

Moreover, although not legally required to do so, we strive to obtain certification for substantially all our products. In the United States, we seek certification on substantially all of our products from UL®, Intertek Testing Services (ETL®), or DesignLights Consortium (DLC™). Where appropriate in jurisdictions outside the United States and Europe, we seek to obtain other similar national or regional certifications for our products. Although we believe that our broad knowledge and experience with electrical codes and safety standards have facilitated certification approvals, we cannot ensure that we will be able to obtain any such certifications for our new products or that, if certification standards are amended, that we will be able to maintain such certifications for our existing products. Moreover, although we are not aware of any effort to amend any existing certification standard or implement a new certification standard in a manner that would render us unable to maintain certification for our existing products or obtain ratification for new products, our net sales might be adversely affected if such an amendment or implementation were to occur.

As a public reporting company, we are subject to complex regulations concerning corporate governance and public disclosure that require us to incur significant expenses, divert management resources, and expose us to risks of non-compliance.

We are faced with complicated and evolving laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure. To comply with these requirements and operate as a public company, we incur legal, financial, accounting and administrative costs and other related expenses. As a smaller reporting company, these expenses may be significant to our financial results. In addition, due to our limited internal resources, we must devote substantial management and other resources to compliance efforts. As we attempt to rapidly grow our business, compliance efforts could become more complex and put additional strain on our resources. Despite our efforts, we cannot guarantee that we will effectively meet all of the requirements of these laws and regulations. If we fail to comply with any of the laws, rules and regulations applicable to U.S. public companies or with respect to publicly-traded stock, we may be subject to regulatory scrutiny, possible sanctions or higher risks of shareholder litigation, all of which could harm our reputation, lower our stock price or cause us to incur additional expenses.

 

Any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting could, if not remediated, result in material misstatements in our financial statements.

 

As a public company reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, including section 404(a) that requires that we annually evaluate and report on our systems of internal controls.

 

Management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework set forth in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission as of December 31, 2014. Based on this evaluation, management concluded that there was a material weaknesses identified in our internal controls as of December 31, 2014. The material weaknesses related to a lack of effective controls over revenue recognition. Management developed and implemented certain controls during 2014 and the first quarter of 2015, which it believes remediated this identified material weakness, including additional review systems, standardized sales terms and conditions, and education and training.

If these remedial measures are not effective, or if additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal controls are discovered or occur in the future, our financial statements may contain material misstatements and we could be required to restate our financial results. This could result in a decrease in our stock price, securities litigation, and the diversion of significant management and financial resources.

If we cease to meet the criteria to be considered a “smaller reporting company,” we will also become subject to section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires an auditor attestation of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. This additional requirement will increase our financial, accounting and administrative costs, and other related expenses, which may be significant to our financial results. In addition, due to our limited internal resources, further compliance efforts put additional strain on our resources. Despite our efforts, if our auditors are unable to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls, we may be subject to regulatory scrutiny and higher risk of shareholder litigation, which could harm our reputation, lower our stock price or cause us to incur additional expenses.

 

We may be subject to legal claims against us or claims by us which could have a significant impact on our resulting financial performance.

 

At any given time, we may be subject to litigation or claims related to our products, suppliers, customers, employees, stockholders, distributors, sales representatives, intellectual property, and sales of our assets, among other things, the disposition of which may have an adverse effect upon our business, financial condition, or results of operation. The outcome of litigation is difficult to assess or quantify. Lawsuits can result in the payment of substantial damages by defendants. If we are required to pay substantial damages and expenses as a result of these or other types of lawsuits our business and results of operations would be adversely affected. Regardless of whether any claims against us are valid or whether we are liable, claims may be expensive to defend and may divert time and money away from our operations. Insurance may not be available at all or in sufficient amounts to cover any liabilities with respect to these or other matters. A judgment or other liability in excess of our insurance coverage for any claims could adversely affect our business and the results of our operations.

We rely heavily on information technology in our operations and any material failure, weakness, interruption or breach of security could prevent us from effectively operating our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

We rely heavily on our information technology systems, including our enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) software, across our operations and corporate functions, including for management of our supply chain, payment of obligations, data warehousing to support analytics, finance systems, accounting systems, and other various processes and procedures, some of which are handled by third parties.

 

Our ability to efficiently and effectively manage our business depends significantly on the reliability and capacity of these systems. Our business and results of operations may be adversely affected if we experience system usage problems. The failure of these systems to operate effectively, maintenance problems, system conversions, back-up failures, problems or lack of resources for upgrading or transitioning to new platforms or damage or interruption from circumstances beyond our control, including, without limitation, fire, natural disasters, power outages, systems failure, security breaches, cyber-attacks, viruses or human error could result in, among other things, transaction errors, processing inefficiencies, loss of data, inability to generate timely SEC reports, loss of sales and customers and reduce efficiency in our operations. Additionally, we and our customers could suffer financial and reputational harm if customer or Company proprietary information is compromised by such events. Remediation of such problems could result in significant unplanned capital investments and any damage or interruption could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

Risks associated with an investment in our common stock

As a “thinly-traded” stock with a relatively small public float, the market price of our common stock is highly volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance.

Our common stock is “thinly-traded” and we have a relatively small public float, which increases volatility in the share price and makes it difficult for investors to buy or sell shares in the public market without materially affecting our share price. Since our listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market in August 2014, our market price has ranged from a low of $2.95 to a high of $29.20 and has recently experienced significant volatility. Broad market and industry factors also may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. Factors that could cause wide fluctuations in our stock price may include, among other things:

Because our common stock is thinly-traded, investors seeking to buy or sell a certain quantity of our shares in the public market may be unable to do so within one or more trading days and it may be difficult for stockholders to sell all of their shares in the market at any given time at prevailing prices. Any attempts to buy or sell a significant quantity of our shares could materially affect our share price. In addition, because our common stock is thinly-traded and we have a relatively small public float, the market price of our shares may be disproportionately affected by any news, commentary or rumors regarding us or our industry, regardless of the source or veracity, which could also result in increased volatility.

In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities litigation has often been instituted against these companies. Volatility in the market price of our shares could also increase the likelihood of regulatory scrutiny. Securities litigation, if instituted against us, or any regulatory inquiries or actions that we face could result in substantial costs, diversion of our management’s attention and resources and unfavorable publicity, regardless of the merits of any claims made against us or the ultimate outcome of any such litigation or action.

We could issue additional shares of common stock without stockholder approval.

 

We are authorized to issue 30,000,000 shares of common stock, of which 11,710,549 shares were issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2016 . Our Board of Directors has the authority, without action or vote of our stockholders, to issue authorized but unissued shares subject to the rules of the NASDAQ Capital Market. In addition, in order to raise capital or acquire businesses in the future, we may need to issue securities that are convertible or exchangeable for shares of our common stock. Any such issuances could be made at a price that reflects a discount to the then-current trading price of our common stock. These issuances could be dilutive to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

 

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they downgrade our stock, the price of our stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock is likely to be influenced by any research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of these analysts downgrades our stock or publish unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. There are currently a limited number of analysts covering us, which could increase the influence of particular analysts or reports. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease and cause our stock price and trading volume to decline. Any of these effects could be especially significant because our common stock is “thinly-traded” and we have a relatively small public float.

Our failure to comply with the continued listing requirements of the NASDAQ Capital Market could adversely affect the price of our common stock and its liquidity.

We must comply with NASDAQ’s continued listing requirements related to, among other things, stockholders’ equity, market value, minimum bid price, and corporate governance in order to remain listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market. Although we expect to meet the continued listing requirements, there can be no assurance we will continue to do so in the future. If we do not remain compliant with these continued listing requirements, we could be delisted. If we were delisted, it would be likely to have a negative impact on our stock price and liquidity. The delisting of our common stock could also deter broker-dealers from making a market in or otherwise generating interest in or recommending our common stock, and would adversely affect our ability to attract investors in our common stock. Furthermore, our ability to raise additional capital would be impaired. As a result of these factors, the value of the common stock could decline significantly.

We have never paid dividends on our common stock, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid dividends on our common stock, nor do we anticipate paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain future earnings, if any, to finance the operations and expansion of our business. Any future determination to pay cash dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will be dependent upon the earnings, financial condition, operating results, capital requirements and other factors as deemed necessary by our Board of Directors.

The elimination of monetary liability against our directors under Delaware law and the existence of indemnification rights held by our directors, officers, and employees may result in substantial expenditures by the Company and may discourage lawsuits against our directors, officers, and employees.

 

Our Certificate of Incorporation eliminates the personal liability of our directors to our Company and our stockholders for damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a director to the extent permissible under Delaware law. Further, our Bylaws provide that we are obligated to indemnify any of our directors or officers to the fullest extent authorized by Delaware law and, subject to certain conditions, advance the expenses incurred by any director or officer in defending any action, suit or proceeding prior to its final disposition. Those indemnification obligations could result in the Company incurring substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against our directors or officers, which we may be unable to recoup. These provisions and resultant costs may also discourage us from bringing a lawsuit against any of our current or former directors or officers for breaches of their fiduciary duties, and may similarly discourage the filing of derivative litigation by our stockholders against our directors and officers even though such actions, if successful, might otherwise benefit us or our stockholders.