ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the consolidated financial statements and related notes, which could materially affect our business, financial condition or future results. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects could be materially and adversely harmed. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks, and, as a result, you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have incurred losses to date, anticipate continuing to incur losses in the future, and may never achieve or sustain profitability.

We have incurred significant losses in each year since our inception and believe that we will continue to incur losses and negative cash flows from operations for at least the next 12 months following the issuance of the financial statements. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $1.2 billion and had cash and cash equivalents of $57.1 million. We have significant outstanding debt, a significant working capital deficit and contractual obligations related to capital and operating leases, as well as purchase commitments of $18.3 million. As of December 31, 2017, our debt totaled $165.4 million, net of discount and issuance costs of $30.4 million, of which $56.9 million is classified as current. Our debt service obligations over the next twelve months are significant, including $16.9 million of anticipated interest payments (excluding interest paid in kind by adding to outstanding principal) and may include potential early conversion payments of up to $5.4 million (assuming all note holders convert) under our outstanding 9.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2019 (the “2015 144A Notes”). Furthermore, our debt agreements contain various financial and operating covenants, including restrictions on business that could cause us to be at risk of defaults. We expect to incur additional costs and expenses related to the continued development and expansion of our business, including construction and operation of our manufacturing facilities, contract manufacturing, research and development operations, and operation of our pilot plants. There can be no assurance that we will ever achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

Our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2017 have been prepared on the basis that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. We have incurred significant losses since our inception and we expect that we will continue to incur losses as we aim to successfully execute our business plan and will be dependent on additional public or private financings, collaborations or licensing arrangements with strategic partners, or additional credit lines or other debt financing sources to fund continuing operations. Based on our cash balances and recurring losses since inception, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that these financial statements are issued. Our operating plans for 2018 contemplate a significant reduction in our net operating cash outflows as compared to the year ended December 31, 2017 resulting from (i) revenue growth from sales of existing and new products with positive gross margins, (ii) significantly increased royalty streams (previously referred to as value share revenues), (iii) reduced production costs as a result of manufacturing and technology developments, and (iv) cash inflows from grants and collaborations. In addition, as noted below, for our 2018 operating plan, we may depend on funding from sources that are not subject to existing commitments. We may need to obtain additional funding from equity or debt financings, which may require us to agree to burdensome covenants, grant further security interests in our assets, enter into collaboration and licensing arrangements that require us to relinquish commercial rights, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable. No assurance can be given at this time as to whether we will be able to achieve our expense reduction or fundraising objectives, regardless of the terms. If we are unable to raise additional financing, or if other expected sources of funding are delayed or not received, our ability to continue as a going concern would be jeopardized and we may be forced to delay, scale back or eliminate some of our general and administrative, research and development, or production activities or other operations and reduce investment in new product and commercial development efforts in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations. If any of these events occurs, our ability to achieve our development and commercialization goals would be adversely affected. In addition, if we are unable to continue as a going concern, we may be unable to meet our obligations under our existing debt facilities, which could result in an acceleration of our obligation to repay all amounts outstanding under those facilities, and we may be forced to liquidate our assets. In such a scenario, the value we receive for our assets in liquidation or dissolution could be significantly lower than the value reflected in our financial statements.

Our consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and cause investors to suffer the loss of all or a substantial portion of their investment.

We will require significant cash inflows from the sales of renewable products, licenses and royalties, and grants and collaborations and, if needed, financings to fund our anticipated operations and to service our debt obligations and may not be able to obtain such funding on favorable terms, if at all.

Our planned working capital needs and operating and capital expenditures for 2018, and our ability to service our outstanding debt obligations, are dependent on significant inflows of cash from grants and collaborations, licenses and royalties, and product sales and, if needed, additional financing arrangements. We will continue to need to fund our research and development and related activities and to provide working capital to fund production, procurement, storage, distribution and other aspects of our business. Some of our anticipated funding sources, such as research and development collaborations, are subject to the risks that we may not be able to meet milestones, or that collaborations may end prem aturely for reasons that may be outside of our control (including technical infeasibility of the project or a collaborator’s right to terminate without cause). The inability to generate sufficient cash flow, as described above, could have an adverse effect on our ability to continue with our business plans and our status as a going concern.

If we are unable to raise additional funding, or if other expected sources of funding are delayed or not received, our ability to continue as a going concern would be jeopardized and we would take the following actions:

Implementing this plan could have a negative impact on our ability to continue our business as currently contemplated, including, without limitation, delays or failures in our ability to:

Furthermore, any inability to scale-back operations as necessary, and any unexpected liquidity needs, could create pressure to implement more severe measures. Such measures could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet contractual requirements and increase the severity of the consequences described above.

Our existing financing arrangements may cause significant risks to our stockholders and may impact our ability to pursue certain transactions and operate our business.

As of December 31, 2017, our debt totaled $165.4 million, net of discount and issuance costs of $30.4 million, of which $56.9 million is classified as current. Our cash balance is substantially less than the principal amount of our outstanding debt, and we will be required to generate cash from operations or raise additional working capital through future financings or sales of assets to enable us to repay this indebtedness as it becomes due. There can be no assurance that we will be able to do so.

In addition, we have agreed to significant covenants in connection with our debt financing transactions, including restrictions on our ability to incur future indebtedness, and customary events of default, including failure to pay amounts due, breaches of covenants and warranties, material adverse effect events, certain cross defaults and judgements, and insolvency. A failure to comply with the covenants and other provisions of our debt instruments, including any failure to make a payment when required would generally result in events of default under such instruments, which could permit acceleration of such indebtedness and could result in a material adverse effect on us. If such indebtedness is accelerated, it would generally also constitute an event of default under our other outstanding indebtedness, permitting acceleration of a substantial portion of our indebtedness. Any required repayment of our indebtedness as a result of acceleration or otherwise would lower our current cash on hand such that we would not have those funds available for use in our business or for payment of other outstanding indebtedness.

If we are at any time unable to generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our indebtedness when payment is due, we may be required to attempt to renegotiate the terms of the instruments relating to the indebtedness, seek to refinance all or a portion of the indebtedness or obtain additional financing. There can be no assurance that we would be able to successfully renegotiate such terms, that any such refinancing would be possible or that any additional financing could be obtained on terms that are favorable or acceptable to us, if at all. Any debt financing that is available could cause us to incur substantial costs and subject us to covenants that significantly restrict our ability to conduct our business. If we seek to complete additional equity financings, the interests of existing equity holders may be diluted.

In addition, the covenants in our debt agreements materially limit our ability to take certain actions, including our ability to pay dividends, make certain investments and other payments, undertake certain mergers and consolidations, and encumber and dispose of assets. For example, the purchase agreement for convertible notes that we sold in separate closings in October 2013 and January 2014, which we refer to as the Tranche Notes, requires us to obtain the consent of the holders of a majority of these notes before completing any change of control transaction or purchasing assets in one transaction or a series of related transactions in an amount greater than $20.0 million, in each case while the Tranche Notes are outstanding. In addition, certain of our existing investors, including the investors that purchased the Tranche Notes, have pro rata rights to invest in equity securities that we issue in certain financings, which could delay or prevent us from completing such financings. Furthermore, certain of our other outstanding securities (e.g., the Tranche Notes, the 2015 144A Notes, and warrants issued in May and August 2017), contain anti-dilution adjustment provisions which may be triggered by future issuances of equity or equity-linked instruments in financing transactions. If such adjustment provisions are triggered, the conversion or exercise price of such securities will decrease and/or the number of shares issuable upon conversion or exercise of such securities will increase. In such event, existing stockholders will be further diluted and the effective issuance price of such equity or equity-linked instruments will be reduced, which may harm our ability to engage in future financing transactions to fund our business.

Our substantial leverage may place us at a competitive disadvantage in our industry.

We continue to have substantial debt outstanding and we may incur additional indebtedness from time to time to finance working capital, product development efforts, strategic acquisitions, investments and partnerships, or capital expenditures, or for other general corporate purposes, subject to the restrictions contained in our debt agreements. Our significant indebtedness and debt service requirements could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and may limit our ability to take advantage of potential business opportunities. For example, our high level of indebtedness presents the following risks: 

Future revenues are difficult to predict, and our failure to predict revenue accurately may cause our results to be below our expectations or those of analysts or investors and could result in our stock price declining.

Our revenues are comprised of product revenues, and grants and collaborations revenues. We generate the substantial majority of our product revenues from sales to collaborators and distributors, and only a small portion from direct sales. Our collaboration, supply and distribution agreements do not usually include any specific purchase obligations. The sales volume of our products in any given period has been difficult to predict. A significant portion of our product sales is dependent upon the interest and ability of third party distributors to create demand for, and generate sales of, such products to end-users. For example, if such distributors are unsuccessful in creating pull-through demand for our products with their customers, such distributors may purchase less of our products from us than we expect.

In addition, many of our new and novel products are intended to be a component of other companies’ products; therefore, sales of our products may be contingent on our collaborators’ and/or customers’ timely and successful development and commercialization of end-use products that incorporate our products, and price volatility in the markets for such end-use products, which may include commodities, could adversely affect the demand for our products and the margin we receive for our product sales, which could harm our financial results. While we maintain certain clawback rights to our technology in the event our collaboration partners are unable or unwilling to commercialize the products we create for them, we may be restricted from or unable to market or sell such products or technologies to other potential collaboration partners, which could hinder the growth of our business. In addition, certain of our collaboration partners have the right to terminate their agreements with us if we undergo a change of control or a sale of our business, which could discourage a potential acquirer from making an offer to acquire us.

Further, we have in the past entered into, and expect in the future to enter into, research and development collaboration arrangements pursuant to which we receive payments from our collaborators. Some of such collaboration arrangements include advance payments in consideration for grants of exclusivity or research and development activities to be performed by us. It has in the past been difficult for us to know with certainty when we will sign a new collaboration arrangement and receive payments thereunder. As a result, achievement of our quarterly and annual financial goals has been difficult to forecast with certainty. Once a collaboration agreement has been signed, receipt of cash payments and/or recognition of related revenues may depend on our achievement of research, development, production or cost milestones, which may be difficult to predict. In addition, a portion of the advance payments we receive under our collaboration agreements is typically classified as deferred revenue and recognized over multiple quarters or years.

Furthermore, we have begun to market and sell some of our products directly to end-consumers, initially in the cosmetics market. Because we have little experience in marketing and selling directly to consumers, it is difficult to predict how successful our efforts will be and we may not achieve the product sales we expect to achieve on the timeline we anticipate, if at all. These factors have made it difficult to predict future revenues and have resulted in our revenues being below our previously announced guidance or analysts’ estimates. We continue to face these risks in the future, which may cause our stock price to decline.

Our financial results could vary significantly from quarter to quarter and are difficult to predict.

Our revenues and results of operations could vary significantly from quarter to quarter because of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Factors that could cause our quarterly results of operations to fluctuate include: 

Due to the factors described above, among others, the results of any quarterly or annual period may not meet our expectations or the expectations of our investors and may not be meaningful indications of our future performance.

A limited number of customers, collaboration partners and distributors account for a significant portion of our revenues, and the loss of major customers, collaboration partners or distributors could harm our operating results.

Our revenues have varied significantly from quarter to quarter and are dependent on sales to, and collaborations with, a limited number of customers, collaboration partners and/or distributors. We cannot be certain that customers, collaboration partners and/or distributors that have accounted for significant revenues in past periods, individually or as a group, will continue to generate similar revenues in any future period. If we fail to renew with, or if we lose, a major customer, collaborator or distributor, or group of customers, collaborators or distributors, our revenues could decline if we are unable to replace the lost revenues with revenues from other sources. Further, since our business model depends in part on such collaboration agreements, it may also be difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenues through additional collaborations in any period, as revenue from such new collaborations will often be recognized over multiple quarters or years.

If we do not meet technical, development and commercial milestones in our collaboration agreements, our future revenues and financial results will be adversely impacted.

We have entered into a number of agreements regarding the further development of certain of our products and, in some cases, for ultimate sale of certain products to the customer under the agreement. Most of these agreements affirmatively obligate the other party to purchase specific quantities of any products, and most contain important conditions that must be satisfied before additional research and development funding or product purchases would occur. These conditions include research and development milestones and technical specifications that must be achieved to the satisfaction of our collaborators, which we cannot be certain we will achieve. If we do not achieve these contractual milestones, our revenues and financial results will be adversely affected.

If we are not able to successfully commence, scale up or sustain operations at existing and planned manufacturing facilities, our customer relationships, business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

A substantial component of our planned production capacity in the near and long term depends on successful operations at existing and potential large-scale production plants. Delays or problems in the construction, start-up or operation of these facilities will cause delays in our ramp-up of production and hamper our ability to reduce our production costs. Delays in construction can occur due to a variety of factors, including regulatory requirements and our ability to fund construction and commissioning costs. For example, in 2012 we determined it was necessary to delay further construction of our large-scale manufacturing facility with São Martinho S.A. (São Martinho) in order to focus on the construction and commissioning of the Brotas facility. We have since proposed to complete construction of the facility to initially support production of our alternative sweetener products. In 2016 and 2017, we produced at capacity at the Brotas facility, and therefore, we needed to identify and secure access to additional production capacity based on anticipated volume requirements, either by constructing a new custom-built facility, acquiring an existing facility from a third party, retrofitting an existing facility operated by a current or potential partner or increasing our use of contract manufacturing facilities. In December 2016, we acquired a production facility in Leland, North Carolina, which facility had been previously operated by our partner Glycotech to perform chemical conversion and production of our end-products, and which facility was subsequently transferred to our newly-formed joint venture with Nikko, as further described in Note 7, “Variable-interest Entities and Unconsolidated Investments” to our consolidated financial statements included in this report. In addition, in February 2017 we broke ground on a second custom-built production facility adjacent to our existing Brotas facility. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to complete such facility or the proposed alternative sweetener facility on our expected timeline, if at all. In December 2017, we sold our first purpose-built, large-scale production plant in Brotas, Brazil to DSM and concurrently entered into a supply agreement with DSM for us to purchase output from the facility. See Note 13, “Divestiture” in “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information.

Once our large-scale production facilities are built, acquired or retrofitted, we must successfully commission them, if necessary, and they must perform as we expect. If we encounter significant delays, cost overruns, engineering issues, contamination problems, equipment or raw material supply constraints, unexpected equipment maintenance requirements, safety issues, work stoppages or other serious challenges in bringing these facilities online and operating them at commercial scale, we may be unable to produce our renewable products in the time frame and at the cost we have planned. It is difficult to predict the effects of scaling up production of industrial fermentation to commercial scale, as it involves various risks to the quality and consistency of our molecules. In addition, in order to produce molecules at existing and potential future plants, we have been and may in the future be required to perform thorough transition activities, and modify the design of the plant. Any modifications to the production plant could cause complications in the operations of the plant, which could result in delays or failures in production. If any of these risks occur, or if we are unable to create or obtain additional manufacturing capacity necessary to meet existing and potential customer demand, we may need to continue to use, or increase our use of, contract manufacturing sources, which generally entail greater cost to us to produce our products and would therefore reduce our anticipated gross margins and may also prevent us from accessing certain markets for our products. Further, if our efforts to increase (or commence, as the case may be) production at these facilities are not successful, our partners may decide not to work with us to develop additional production facilities, demand more favorable terms or delay their commitment to invest capital in our production. If we are unable to create and sustain manufacturing capacity and operations sufficient to satisfy the existing and potential demand of our customers and partners, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Loss or termination of contract manufacturing relationships could harm our ability to meet our production goals.

In December 2017, we sold our first purpose-built, large-scale production plant in Brotas, Brazil to DSM and concurrently entered into a supply agreement with DSM for us to purchase output from the facility, which represents a significant portion of our expected supply needs. See Note 13, “Divestiture” in “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information. In addition, we rely on other contract manufacturers to produce and/or provide downstream processing of our products. If we are unable to secure the services of contract manufacturers when and as needed, we may lose customer opportunities and the growth of our business may be impaired. We cannot be sure that contract manufacturers will be available when we need their services, that they will be willing to dedicate a portion of their capacity to our projects, or that we will be able to reach acceptable price and other terms with them for the provision of their production services. If we shift priorities and adjust anticipated production levels (or cease production altogether) at contract manufacturing facilities, such adjustments or cessations could also result in disputes or otherwise harm our business relationships with contract manufacturers. In addition, reliance on external sources for our other target molecules could create a risk for us if a single source or a limited number of sources of manufacturing runs into operational issues, creating risk of loss of sales and profitability. Reducing or stopping production at one facility while increasing or starting up production at another facility generally results in significant losses of production efficiency, which can persist for significant periods of time. Also, in order for production to commence under our contract manufacturing arrangements, we generally must provide equipment for such operations, and we cannot be assured that such equipment can be ordered or installed on a timely basis, at acceptable costs, or at all. Further, in order to establish operations at new contract manufacturing facilities, we need to transfer our yeast strains and production processes from our labs to commercial plants controlled by third parties, which may pose technical or operational challenges that delay production or increase our costs.

Our use of contract manufacturers exposes us to risks relating to costs, contractual terms and logistics.

In addition to our production contracts, we must also commercially produce, process and manufacture farnesene and certain specialty molecules through the use of contract manufacturers, and we anticipate that we will continue to use contract manufacturers for the foreseeable future for chemical conversion and production of end-products. In December 2017, we sold our first purpose-built, large-scale production plant in Brotas, Brazil to DSM and concurrently entered into a supply agreement with DSM for us to purchase output from the facility. See Note 13, “Divestiture” in “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information. Establishing and operating contract manufacturing facilities requires us to make significant capital expenditures, which reduces our cash and places such capital at risk. Also, contract manufacturing agreements may contain terms that commit us to pay for capital expenditures and other costs and amounts incurred or expected to be earned by the plant operators and owners, which can result in contractual liability and losses for us even if we terminate a particular contract manufacturing arrangement or decide to reduce or stop production under such an arrangement.

The locations of contract manufacturers can pose additional cost, logistics and feedstock challenges. If production capacity is available at a plant that is remote from usable chemical finishing or distribution facilities, or from customers, we will be required to incur additional expenses in shipping products to other locations. Such costs could include shipping costs, compliance with export and import controls, tariffs and additional taxes, among others. In addition, we may be required to use feedstock from a particular region for a given production facility. The feedstock available in such region may not be the least expensive or most effective feedstock for production, which could significantly raise our overall production cost or reduce our product’s quality until we are able to optimize the supply chain.

We face challenges producing our products at commercial scale or at reduced cost and may not be able to commercialize our products to the extent necessary to make a profit or sustain and grow our current business.

To commercialize our products, we must be successful in using our yeast strains to produce target molecules at commercial scale and at a commercially viable cost. If we cannot achieve commercially-viable production economics for enough products to support our business plan, including through establishing and maintaining sufficient production scale and volume, we will be unable to achieve a sustainable products business. A significant portion of our production capacity is through a purpose-built, large-scale production plant in Brotas, Brazil. This plant commenced operations in 2012, and scaling and running the plant has been a technically complex process. In December 2017, we sold the Brotas facility to DSM and concurrently entered into a supply agreement with DSM for us to purchase output from the facility. See Note 13, “Divestiture” in “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information. In February 2017, we broke ground on a second custom-built production facility adjacent to the existing Brotas facility and also have plans to complete construction of an additional manufacturing facility in Pradópolis, Brazil initially focused on our alternative sweetener products. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to complete such facilities on our expected timeline, if at all. Even if we are successful in completing such facilities, there can be no assurance that we will be able to scale and operate such facilities to allow us to meet our operational goals, which could harm our ability to grow our business.

In order to be competitive in the markets we are targeting, our products must have superior qualities or be competitively priced relative to alternatives available in the market. Currently, our costs of production are not low enough to allow us to offer some of our planned products at competitive prices relative to alternatives available in the market. Our production costs depend on many factors that could have a negative effect on our ability to offer our planned products at competitive prices, including, in particular, our ability to establish and maintain sufficient production scale and volume, and feedstock cost.

We face financial risk associated with scaling up production to reduce our production costs. To reduce per-unit production costs, we must increase production to achieve economies of scale and to be able to sell our products with positive margins. However, if we do not sell production output in a timely manner or in sufficient volumes, our investment in production will harm our cash position and generate losses. Additionally, we may incur added costs in storage and we may face issues related to the decrease in quality of our stored products, which could adversely affect the value of such products. Since achieving competitive product prices generally requires increased production volumes and our manufacturing operations and cash flows from sales are in their early stages, we have had to produce and sell products at a loss in the past, and may continue to do so as we build our business. If we are unable to achieve adequate revenues from a combination of product sales and other sources, we may not be able to invest in production and we may not be able to pursue our business plans. In addition, in order to attract potential collaboration or joint venture partners, or to meet payment milestones under existing or future collaboration agreements, we have in the past and may in the future be required to guarantee or meet certain levels of production costs. If we are unable to reduce our production costs to meet such guarantees or milestones, our net cash flow will be further reduced.

Our ability to establish substantial commercial sales of our products is subject to many risks, any of which could prevent or delay revenue growth and adversely impact our customer relationships, business and results of operations.

There can be no assurance that our products will be approved or accepted by customers, or that we will be able to sell our products profitably at prices and with features sufficient to establish demand. The potential customers for our molecules generally have well developed manufacturing processes and arrangements with suppliers of the chemical components of their products and may have a resistance to changing these processes and components. These potential customers frequently impose lengthy and complex product qualification procedures on their suppliers, influenced by consumer preference, manufacturing considerations such as process changes and capital and other costs associated with transitioning to alternative components, supplier operating history, established business relationships and agreements, regulatory issues, product liability and other factors, many of which are unknown to, or not well understood by, us. Satisfying these processes may take many months. Additionally, we may be subject to product safety testing and may be required to meet certain regulatory and/or product safety standards. Meeting these standards can be a time consuming and expensive process, and we may invest substantial time and resources into such qualification efforts without ultimately securing approval. If we are unable to convince these potential customers (and the consumers who purchase products containing such chemicals) that our products are comparable to the chemicals that they currently use or that the use of our products is otherwise to their benefit, we will not be successful in entering these markets and our business will be adversely affected.

The price and availability of sugarcane and other feedstocks can be volatile as a result of changes in industry policy and may increase the cost of production of our products.

In Brazil, Conselho dos Produtores de Cana, Açúcar e Álcool (Council of Sugarcane, Sugar and Ethanol Producers or Consecana), an industry association of producers of sugarcane, sugar and ethanol, sets market terms and prices for general supply, lease and partnership agreements for sugarcane. If Consecana makes changes to such terms and prices, it could result in higher sugarcane prices and/or a significant decrease in the volume of sugarcane available for the production of our products. In addition, if the availability of sugarcane juice or syrup or other feedstocks is restricted or limited due to weather conditions, land conditions or any other reason, we may not be able to manufacture our products in a timely or cost-effective manner, or at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

We expect to face competition for our products from existing suppliers, including from price declines in petroleum and petroleum-based products, and if we cannot compete effectively against these companies, products or prices, we may not be successful in bringing our products to market, demand for some of our renewable products may decline, or we may be unable to further grow our business.

We expect that our renewable products will compete with both the traditional products that are currently being used in our target markets and with the alternatives to these existing products that established enterprises and new companies are seeking to produce. In the markets that we have entered, and in other markets that we may seek to enter in the future, we will compete primarily with the established providers of ingredients currently used in products in these markets. Producers of these incumbent products include global health and nutrition companies, large international chemical companies and companies specializing in specific products, such as flavor or fragrance ingredients, squalane or essential oils. We may also compete in one or more of these markets with products that are offered as alternatives to the traditional products being offered in these markets.

With the emergence of many new companies seeking to produce products from renewable sources, we may face increasing competition from such companies. As they emerge, some of these companies may be able to establish production capacity and commercial partnerships to compete with us. If we are unable to establish production and sales channels that allow us to offer comparable products at attractive prices, we may not be able to compete effectively with these companies.

We believe the primary competitive factors in our target markets are:

•         product price;

•         product performance and other measures of quality;

•         sustainability; and

•         dependability of supply.

The global health and nutrition companies, large international chemical companies and companies specializing in specific products with whom we compete are much larger than us, have, in many cases, well developed distribution systems and networks for their products, have valuable historical relationships with the potential customers we are seeking to serve and have much more extensive sales and marketing programs in place to promote their products. In order to be successful, we must convince customers that our products are at least as effective as the traditional products they are seeking to replace and we must provide our products on a cost basis that does not greatly exceed these traditional products and other available alternatives. Some of our competitors may use their influence to impede the development and acceptance of renewable products of the type that we are seeking to produce.

While most of our products do not compete with, and do not serve as alternatives to, petroleum-based products, we anticipate that some of our renewable products will be marketed as alternatives to corresponding petroleum-based products. We believe that for our renewable products to succeed in the market, we must demonstrate that our products are comparable or better alternatives to existing products and to any alternative products that are being developed for the same markets based on some combination of product cost, availability, performance, and consumer preference characteristics. Declining oil prices, or the perception of a sustained or future decline in oil prices, has adversely affected the prices or demand for such products in the past and may continue to do so. During sustained periods of lower oil prices, we may be unable to sell such products at anticipated levels, which could negatively impact our operating results.

We are subject to risks related to our reliance on collaboration arrangements to fund development and commercialization of our products and the success of such products is uncertain, and our financial results may be adversely impacted, if we fail to meet technical, development or commercial milestones in such agreements.

For most product markets we are seeking to enter, we have collaboration partners to fund the research and development, commercialization and production efforts required for the target products. Typically, we provide limited exclusive rights and revenue sharing with respect to the production and sale of particular products in specific markets in exchange for such up-front funding. These exclusivity, revenue-sharing and other similar terms limit our ability to commercialize our products and technology, and may impact the size of our business or our profitability in ways that we do not currently envision. In addition, none of these agreements affirmatively obligates the other party to purchase specific quantities of any products, and most contain important conditions that must be satisfied before additional research and development funding or product purchases would occur. These conditions include research and development programs and milestones, and technical specifications that must be achieved to the satisfaction of our collaborators. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential discovery efforts, product targets or candidates that require substantial technical, financial and human resources which we cannot be certain we will achieve.

Revenues from these types of relationships are a key part of our cash plan for 2018 and beyond. If we fail to collect expected collaboration revenues, or to identify and add sufficient additional collaborations to fund our planned operations, we may be unable to fund our operations or pursue development and commercialization of our planned products. To achieve our collaboration revenue targets from year to year, we may be forced to enter into agreements that contain less favorable terms. As part of our current and future collaboration arrangements, we may be required to make significant capital investments at our existing or new facilities in order to produce molecules or other products. Any failure or difficulties in establishing, building up or retooling our operations could have a significant negative impact on our business, including our ability to achieve commercial viability for our products, lead to the inability to meet our contractual obligations and could cause us to allocate capital, personnel and other resources from our organization which could adversely affect our business and reputation.

Our collaboration arrangements may restrict or prevent our future business activity in certain markets or industries, which could harm our ability to grow our business.

As part of our collaboration arrangements in the ordinary course of business, we may grant to our partners exclusive rights with respect to the development, production and/or commercialization of particular products or types of products in specific markets in exchange for up-front funding and/or downstream value sharing arrangements. These rights might inhibit potential collaboration or strategic partners or potential customers from entering into negotiations with us about further business opportunities, and we may be restricted or prevented from engaging with other partners or customers in those markets, which may limit our ability to grow our business.

In the past, we have had to grant concessions to existing partners in exchange for such partners waiving or modifying their exclusive rights with respect to a particular product, type of product or market so that we could engage with a third party with respect to such product, product type or market. There can be no assurance that existing partners will be willing to grant waivers of or modify their exclusive rights in the future on favorable terms, if at all. If we are unable to engage other potential partners with respect to particular product types or markets for which we have previously granted exclusive rights, our ability to grow our business would be harmed and our results of operations may be adversely affected.

We have limited control over our joint ventures.

We do not have the right or power to control the management of our joint ventures, and our joint venture partners may take action contrary to our interests or objectives. If our joint venture partners act contrary to our interest, it could harm our brand, business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, operating a joint venture often requires additional organizational formalities and time-consuming procedures for sharing information and making decisions, which can divert management resources, and if a joint venture partner changes or relationships deteriorate, our success in the joint venture may be materially adversely affected, which could harm our business.

Third parties may misappropriate our yeast strains.

Third parties, including collaborators, contract manufacturers, other contractors and shipping agents, often have custody or control of our yeast strains. If our yeast strains were stolen, misappropriated or reverse engineered, they could be used by other parties who may be able to reproduce the yeast strains for their own commercial gain. If this were to occur, it would be difficult for us to challenge and prevent this type of use, especially in countries where we have limited intellectual property protection or that do not have robust intellectual property law regimes.

Our relationship with Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. exposes us to financial and commercial risks.

In June 2016, we entered into an initial strategic partnership agreement with Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. (Ginkgo), pursuant to which we licensed certain intellectual property to Ginkgo in exchange for a license fee and royalty, and agreed to pursue the negotiation and execution of a definitive partnership agreement setting forth the terms of a long-term commercial partnership and collaboration arrangement between us and Ginkgo, and in September 2016 we executed a definitive collaboration agreement with Ginkgo setting forth the terms of a commercial partnership under which the parties would collaborate to develop, manufacture and sell commercial products and would share in the value of such products. In connection with the entry into such commercial agreements, we received a waiver under, and subsequently entered into an amendment of, our senior secured credit facility, the agent and lender under which is an affiliate of Ginkgo, which amendment extended, subject to certain conditions which were satisfied in January 2017, the maturity of the loans under the senior secured credit facility, eliminated principal repayments under the facility prior to maturity, subject to the requirement that we apply certain monies received by us under the collaboration agreement with Ginkgo to repay the outstanding loans under the facility, and waived the covenant in the senior secured loan facility requiring the Company to maintain unrestricted, unencumbered cash in defined U.S. bank accounts in an amount equal to at least 50% of the principal amount outstanding under the facility until the maturity date. In November 2017, we amended the partnership with Ginkgo to reduce the scope of our commercial relationship, and in connection therewith we agreed to guarantee certain minimum payments to Ginkgo under the partnership and issued a $12 million promissory note to Ginkgo. For more details on our transactions with Ginkgo, please see Note 4, “Debt” in “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

There can be no assurance that our partnership with Ginkgo, as amended, will be successful. In addition, negative developments in our commercial partnership with Ginkgo could negatively affect our relationship with the agent and lender under our senior secured credit facility, an affiliate of Ginkgo, which could adversely impact our ability to incur additional indebtedness in the future or take other actions the consent for which would be required from the agent and lender under the facility. In such event, our financial condition and business operations could be adversely affected.

Certain rights we have granted to Total, DSM and other existing stockholders, including in relation to our future securities offerings, could have substantial impacts on our company.

Under certain agreements between us and Total related to Total’s original investment in our capital stock, for as long as Total owns 10% of our voting securities, it has rights to an exclusive negotiation period if our board of directors decides to sell our company. In addition, in connection with Total’s investments in Amyris, our certificate of incorporation includes a provision that excludes Total from prohibitions on business combinations between Amyris and an “interested stockholder.” These provisions could have the effect of discouraging potential acquirers from making offers to acquire us, and give Total more access to Amyris than other stockholders if Total decides to pursue an acquisition.

In addition, Total, DSM and certain other investors have the right to designate one or more directors to serve on our board of directors pursuant to agreements between us and such investors.

In May 2017, we entered into an agreement with DSM, which was amended and restated in August 2017, pursuant to which we agreed (i) that for as long as there is a DSM-designated director serving on our board of directors, we will not engage in certain commercial or financial transactions or arrangements without the consent of such director, and (ii) to provide DSM with certain exclusive negotiating rights in connection with certain future commercial projects and arrangements. These provisions could discourage other potential partners from approaching us with business opportunities, and could restrict, delay or prevent us from pursuing or engaging in such opportunities, which could adversely affect our business.

Additionally, in connection with investments in Amyris, we granted certain investors, including Total and DSM, a right of first investment if we propose to sell securities in certain financing transactions. With these rights, such investors may subscribe for a portion of any such new financing and require us to comply with certain notice periods, which could discourage other investors from participating in, or cause delays in our ability to close, such a financing. Further, in certain cases such investors have the right to pay for any securities purchased in connection with an exercise of their right of first investment by canceling all or a portion of our debt held by them. To the extent such investors exercise these rights, it will reduce the cash proceeds we may realize from the relevant financing.

A significant portion of our operations are centered in Brazil, and our business will be adversely affected if we do not operate effectively in that country.

For the foreseeable future, we will be subject to risks associated with the concentration of essential product sourcing and operations in Brazil. The Brazilian government has changed in the past, and may change in the future, monetary, taxation, credit, tariff, labor and other policies to influence the course of Brazil's economy. For example, the government's actions to control inflation have involved interest rate adjustments. We have no control over, and cannot predict what policies or actions the Brazilian government may take in the future. Our business, financial performance and prospects may be adversely affected by, among others, the following factors: 

We cannot predict whether the current or future Brazilian government will implement changes to existing policies on taxation, exchange controls, monetary strategy, labor relations, social security and the like, nor can we estimate the impact of any such changes on the Brazilian economy or our operations.

Brazil’s economy has recently experienced quarters of slow or negative gross domestic product growth and has, until 2017, experienced high inflation and a growing fiscal deficit of its federal government accounts. In addition, major corruption scandals involving members of the executive, state-controlled enterprises and large private sector companies have been disclosed and are the subject of ongoing investigation by federal authorities. The final outcome of these investigations and their impact on the Brazilian economy is not yet known and cannot be predicted with certainty.

In addition, President Trump has made comments suggesting that he is not supportive of certain existing international trade agreements as well as that he might take action to restrict or tax products imported into the U.S. from foreign jurisdictions. At this time, it remains unclear what actions President Trump will or will not take with respect to these international trade agreements or U.S. trade policy. If President Trump takes action to withdraw from or materially modify international trade agreements or place restrictions or tariffs on products imported from Brazil, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We maintain operations in foreign jurisdictions other than Brazil, and may in the future expand our operations to additional foreign jurisdictions. Many, if not all of the above-mentioned risks also apply to our operations in such jurisdictions. If any of these risks were to occur, our operations and business would be adversely affected.

Ethical, legal and social concerns about products using genetically modified microorganisms could limit or prevent the use of our products and technologies and could harm our business.

Our technologies and products involve the use of genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs). Public perception about the safety of, and ethical, legal or social concerns over, genetically engineered products, including GMMs, could affect public acceptance of our products. If we are not able to overcome any such concerns relating to our products, our technologies may not be accepted by our customers or end-users. In addition, the use of GMMs has in the past received negative publicity, which could lead to greater regulation or restrictions on imports of our products. Further, there is a risk that products produced using our technologies could cause adverse health effects or other adverse events. If our technologies and products are not accepted by our customers or their end-users due to negative publicity or lack of public acceptance, our business could be significantly harmed.

Our use of genetically-modified feedstocks and yeast strains to produce our products subjects us to risks of regulatory limitations and rejection of our products.

The use of GMMs, such as our yeast strains, is subject to laws and regulations in many countries, some of which are new and some of which are still evolving. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regulates the commercial use of GMMs as well as potential products produced from GMMs. Various states or local governments within the United States could choose to regulate products made with GMMs as well. While the strain of genetically modified yeast that we currently use for the development and commercial production of our target molecules,  S. cerevisiae , is eligible for exemption from EPA review because it is generally recognized as safe, we must satisfy certain criteria to achieve this exemption, including but not limited to use of compliant containment structures and safety procedures, and we cannot be sure that we will meet such criteria in a timely manner, or at all. If exemption of  S. cerevisiae  is not obtained, our business may be substantially harmed. In addition to  S. cerevisiae , we may seek to use different GMMs in the future that will require EPA approval. If approval of different GMMs is not secured, our ability to grow our business could be adversely affected.

In Brazil, GMMs are regulated by the National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio). We have obtained approvals from CTNBio to use GMMs in a contained environment in our Brazil facilities for research and development purposes as well as at contract manufacturing facilities in Brazil. In addition, we have obtained initial commercial approvals from CTNBio for three of our yeast strains. As we continue to develop new yeast strains and deploy our technology at new production facilities in Brazil, we will be required to obtain further approvals from CTNBio in order to use these strains in commercial production in Brazil. We may not be able to obtain approvals from relevant Brazilian authorities on a timely basis, or at all, and if we do not, our ability to produce our products in Brazil would be impaired, which would adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

In addition to our production operations in the United States and Brazil, we have been party to contract manufacturing agreements with parties in other production locations around the world, including Europe. The use of GMM technology is regulated in the European Union, which has established various directives for member states regarding regulation of the use of such technology, including notification processes for contained use of such technology. We expect to encounter GMM regulations in most, if not all, of the countries in which we may seek to establish production capabilities and/or conduct sales to customers or end-use consumers, and the scope and nature of these regulations will likely be different from country to country. If we cannot meet the applicable requirements in other countries in which we intend to produce or sell products using our yeast strains, or if it takes longer than anticipated to obtain such approvals, our business could be adversely affected. Furthermore, there are various governmental, non-governmental and quasi-governmental organizations that review and certify products with respect to the determination of whether products can be classified as “natural” or other similar classifications. While the certification from such governmental, non-governmental and quasi-governmental organizations is generally not mandatory, some of our current or prospective customers, collaborators or distributors may require that we meet the standards set by such organizations as a condition precedent to purchasing or distributing our products. We cannot be certain that we will be able to satisfy the standards of such organizations, and any delay or failure to do so could harm our ability to sell or distribute some or all of our products to certain customers and prospective customers, which could have a negative impact on our business.

We may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for the sale of our renewable products.

Our renewable chemical products may be subject to government regulation in our target markets. In the United States, the EPA administers the Toxic Substances Control Act (the TSCA), which regulates the commercial registration, distribution, and use of many chemicals. Before an entity can manufacture or distribute a new chemical subject to the TSCA, it must file a Pre-Manufacture Notice, or PMN, to add the chemical to a product. The EPA has 90 days to review the filing but may request additional data, which could significantly extend the timeline for approval. As a result, we may not receive EPA approval to list future molecules on the TSCA registry as expeditiously as we would like, resulting in delays or significant increases in testing requirements. A similar program exists in the European Union, called REACH. Under this program, chemicals imported or manufactured in the European Union in certain quantities must be registered with the European Chemicals Agency, and this process could cause delays or entail significant costs. To the extent that other countries in which we are producing or selling (or seeking to produce or sell) our products, such as Brazil and various countries in Asia, rely on TSCA or REACH (or similar laws and programs) for chemical registration or regulation in their jurisdictions, delays with the United States or European authorities, or any relevant authorities in such other countries, may delay entry into these markets as well. In addition, some of our Biofene-derived products are sold for the cosmetics market, and some countries may impose additional regulatory requirements or permits for such uses, which could impair, delay or prevent sales of our products in those markets. Also, certain of our current or proposed products in the Health and Nutrition and Personal Care markets, including alternative sweeteners, nutraceuticals, Flavors & Fragrances ingredients, skincare ingredients and cosmetic actives, may be subject to the approval of and regulation by the FDA, as well as similar agencies of states and foreign jurisdictions where these products are sold or proposed to be sold.

We expect to encounter regulations in most, if not all, of the countries in which we may seek to produce, import or sell our products (and our customers may encounter similar regulations in selling end-use products to consumers), and we cannot assure you that we (or our customers) will be able to obtain necessary approvals in a timely manner or at all. If our products do not meet applicable regulatory requirements in a particular country, then we (or our customers) may not be able to commercialize our products in such country and our business will be adversely affected. In addition, any enforcement action taken by regulators against us or our products could cause us to suffer adverse publicity, which could harm our reputation and our relationship with our customers and vendors.

In addition, many of our products are intended to be a component of our collaborators’ and/or customers’ (or their customers’) end-use products. Such end-use products may be subject to various regulations, including regulations promulgated by the EPA, the FDA, or the European Food Safety Authority. If our company or our collaborators and customers (or their customers) are not successful in obtaining any required regulatory approval for their end-use products that incorporate our products, or fail to comply with any applicable regulations for such end-use products, whether due to our products or otherwise, demand for our products may decline and our revenues will be adversely affected.

Changes in government regulations, including subsidies and economic incentives, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The markets where we sell our products are heavily influenced by foreign, federal, state and local government regulations and policies. Changes to existing or adoption of new domestic or foreign federal, state and local legislative initiatives that impact the production, distribution or sale of products may harm our business. The uncertainty regarding future standards and policies may also affect our ability to develop our products or to license our technologies to third parties and to sell products to our end customers. Any inability to address these requirements and any regulatory or policy changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Furthermore, the production of our products will depend on the availability of feedstock, especially sugarcane. Agricultural production and trade flows are subject to government policies and regulations. Governmental policies affecting the agricultural industry, such as taxes, tariffs, duties, subsidies, incentives and import and export restrictions on agricultural commodities and commodity products can influence the planting of certain crops, the location and size of crop production, whether unprocessed or processed commodity products are traded, the volume and types of imports and exports, and the availability and competitiveness of feedstocks as raw materials. Future government policies may adversely affect the supply of feedstocks, restrict our ability to use sugarcane or other feedstocks to produce our products, or encourage the use of feedstocks more advantageous to our competitors, which would put us at a commercial disadvantage and could negatively impact our future revenues and results of operations.

We may incur significant costs to comply with environmental laws and regulations, and failure to comply with these laws and regulations could expose us to significant liabilities.

We use intermediate substances, hazardous chemicals and radioactive and biological materials in our business, and such materials are subject to a variety of federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, generation, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these materials in the United States, European Union and Brazil. Although we have implemented safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials and related waste products in an effort to comply with these laws and regulations, we cannot be sure that our safety measures and those of our contractors will prevent accidental injury or contamination from the use, storage, handling or disposal of hazardous materials. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our insurance coverage. There can be no assurance that violations of environmental, health and safety laws will not occur in the future as a result of human error, accident, equipment failure or other causes. Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and the failure to comply with past, present, or future laws could result in the imposition of fines, third party property damage, product liability and personal injury claims, investigation and remediation costs, the suspension of production, or a cessation of operations, and our liability may exceed our total assets. Liability under environmental laws can be joint and several, without regard to comparative fault, and may be punitive in nature. Furthermore, environmental laws could become more stringent over time, imposing greater compliance costs and increasing risks and penalties associated with violations, which could impair our research, development or production efforts and otherwise harm our business.

Our proprietary rights may not adequately protect our technologies and product candidates.

Our commercial success will depend substantially on our ability to obtain patents and maintain adequate legal protection for our technologies and product candidates in the United States and other countries. As of December 31, 2017, we had 474 issued United States and foreign patents and 315 pending United States and foreign patent applications that were owned or co-owned by or licensed to us. We will be able to protect our proprietary rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our proprietary technologies and future products are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets.

We apply for patents covering both our technologies and product candidates, as we deem appropriate. However, filing, prosecuting, maintaining and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States are less extensive than those in the United States. We may also fail to apply for patents on important technologies or product candidates in a timely fashion, or at all. Our existing and future patents may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from practicing our technologies or from designing products around our patents or otherwise developing competing products or technologies. In addition, the patent positions of companies like ours are highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of patent claims has emerged to date in the United States and the landscape is expected to become even more uncertain in view of recent rule changes by the United States Patent Office, or USPTO. Additional uncertainty may result from legal decisions by the United States Federal Circuit and Supreme Court as they determine legal issues concerning the scope and construction of patent claims and inconsistent interpretation of patent laws or from legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress. The patent situation outside of the United States is even less predictable. As a result, the validity and enforceability of patents cannot be predicted with certainty. Moreover, we cannot be certain whether: 

We do not know whether any of our pending patent applications or those pending patent applications that we license will result in the issuance of any patents. Even if patents are issued, they may not be sufficient to protect our technology or product candidates. The patents we own or license and those that may be issued in the future may be challenged, invalidated, rendered unenforceable, or circumvented, and the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with proprietary protection or competitive advantages. Moreover, third parties could practice our inventions in territories where we do not have patent protection or in territories where they could obtain a compulsory license to our technology where patented. Such third parties may then try to import products made using our inventions into the United States or other territories. Accordingly, we cannot ensure that any of our pending patent applications will result in issued patents, or even if issued, predict the breadth, validity and enforceability of the claims upheld in our and other companies' patents.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries do not favor the enforcement of patents or other intellectual property rights, which could hinder us from preventing the infringement of our patents or other intellectual property rights. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in the United States or foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert patent infringement or other claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license from third parties.

Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our products or technology. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult, and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our technology, particularly in certain foreign countries where the local laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States or may provide, today or in the future, for compulsory licenses. If competitors are able to use our technology, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed. Moreover, others may independently develop and obtain patents for technologies that are similar to, or superior to, our technologies. If that happens, we may need to license these technologies, and we may not be able to obtain licenses on reasonable terms, if at all, which could cause harm to our business.

We rely in part on trade secrets to protect our technology, and our failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.

We rely on trade secrets to protect some of our technology, particularly where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are difficult to maintain and protect. Our strategy for contract manufacturing and scale-up of commercial production requires us to share confidential information with our international business partners and other parties. Our product development collaborations with third parties, including with Total and Ginkgo, require us to share certain confidential information,. While we use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our or our business partners' employees, consultants, contractors or scientific and other advisors may unintentionally or willfully disclose our proprietary information to competitors. Enforcement of claims that a third party has illegally obtained and is using trade secrets is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. In addition, foreign courts are sometimes less willing than United States courts to protect trade secrets. If our competitors independently develop equivalent knowledge, methods and know-how, we would not be able to assert our trade secrets against them.

We require new employees and consultants to execute proprietary information and inventions agreements upon the commencement of an employment or consulting arrangement with us. We additionally require contractors, advisors, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators and other third parties that may receive trade secret information to execute such agreements. These agreements generally require that all confidential information developed by the individual or made known to the individual by us during the course of the individual's relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties. These agreements also generally provide that inventions conceived by the individual in the course of rendering services to us shall be our exclusive property. Nevertheless, our proprietary information may be disclosed, or these agreements may be unenforceable or difficult to enforce. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent such third party, or those to whom they communicate such technology or information, from using that technology or information to compete with us. Additionally, trade secret law in Brazil differs from that in the United States, which requires us to take a different approach to protecting our trade secrets in Brazil. Some of these approaches to trade secret protection may be novel and untested under Brazilian law and we cannot guarantee that we would prevail if our trade secrets are contested in Brazil. If any of the above risks materializes, our failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position

If we or one of our collaborators is sued for infringing intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights of third parties, litigation could be costly and time consuming and could prevent us from developing or commercializing our future products.

Our commercial success depends on our and our collaborators’ ability to operate without infringing the patents and proprietary rights of other parties and without breaching any agreements we have entered into with regard to our technologies and product candidates. We cannot determine with certainty whether patents or patent applications of other parties may materially affect our ability to conduct our business. Our industry spans several sectors, including biotechnology, renewable fuels, renewable specialty chemicals and other renewable compounds, and is characterized by the existence of a significant number of patents and disputes regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. Because patent applications can take several years to issue, there may currently be pending applications, unknown to us, that may result in issued patents that cover our technologies or product candidates. There may be a significant number of patents and patent applications relating to aspects of our technologies filed by, and issued to, third parties. The existence of third-party patent applications and patents could significantly reduce the coverage of patents owned by or licensed to us and our collaborators and limit our ability to obtain meaningful patent protection. If we wish to make, use, sell, offer to sell, or import the technology or compound claimed in issued and unexpired patents owned by others, we may need to obtain a license from the owner, develop or obtain alternative technologies, enter into litigation to challenge the validity of the patents or incur the risk of litigation in the event that the owner asserts that we infringe its patents. If patents containing competitive or conflicting claims are issued to third parties and these claims are ultimately determined to be valid, we and our collaborators may be enjoined from pursing research, development, or commercialization of products, or be required to obtain licenses to these patents, or to develop or obtain alternative technologies.

If a third party asserts that we infringe upon its patents or other proprietary rights, we could face a number of issues that could seriously harm our competitive position, including: 

The industries in which we operate, and the biotechnology industry in particular, are characterized by frequent and extensive litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Many biotechnology companies have employed intellectual property litigation as a way to gain a competitive advantage. If any of our competitors have filed patent applications or obtained patents that claim inventions also claimed by us, we may have to participate in interference proceedings declared by the relevant patent regulatory agency to determine priority of invention and, thus, the right to the patents for these inventions in the United States. These proceedings could result in substantial cost to us even if the outcome is favorable. Even if successful, an interference proceeding may result in loss of certain claims. Our involvement in litigation, interferences, opposition proceedings or other intellectual property proceedings inside and outside of the United States, to defend our intellectual property rights, or as a result of alleged infringement of the rights of others, may divert management time from focusing on business operations and could cause us to spend significant resources, all of which could harm our business and results of operations.

Many of our employees were previously employed at universities, biotechnology, specialty chemical or oil companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel and be enjoined from certain activities. A loss of key research personnel or their work product could hamper or prevent our ability to commercialize our product candidates, which could severely harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and demand on management resources.

We may need to commence litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, which would divert resources and management's time and attention and the results of which would be uncertain.

Enforcement of claims that a third party is using our proprietary rights without permission is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. Significant litigation would result in substantial costs, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us and would divert management's attention from our business objectives. In addition, an adverse outcome in litigation could result in a substantial loss of our proprietary rights and we may lose our ability to exclude others from practicing our technology or producing our product candidates.

The laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in certain foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology and/or bioindustrial technologies. This could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or misappropriation of our other intellectual property rights. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Moreover, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate.

We do not have exclusive rights to intellectual property we develop under U.S. federally funded research grants and contracts, including with DARPA and DOE, and we could ultimately share or lose the rights we do have under certain circumstances.

Some of our intellectual property rights have been or may be developed in the course of research funded by the U.S. government, including under our agreements with DARPA and DOE. As a result, the U.S. government may have certain rights to intellectual property embodied in our current or future products pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. Government rights in certain inventions developed under a government-funded program include a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable worldwide license to use inventions for any governmental purpose. In addition, the U.S. government has the right to require us, or an assignee or exclusive licensee to such inventions, to grant licenses to any of these inventions to a third party if they determine that: (i) adequate steps have not been taken to commercialize the invention; (ii) government action is necessary to meet public health or safety needs; (iii) government action is necessary to meet requirements for public use under federal regulations; or (iv) the right to use or sell such inventions is exclusively licensed to an entity within the U.S. and substantially manufactured outside the U.S. without the U.S. government’s prior approval. Additionally, we may be restricted from granting exclusive licenses for the right to use or sell our inventions created pursuant to such agreements unless the licensee agrees to additional restrictions (e.g., manufacturing substantially all of the invention in the U.S.). The U.S. government also has the right to take title to these inventions if we fail to disclose the invention to the government and fail to file an application to register the intellectual property within specified time limits. In addition, the U.S. government may acquire title in any country in which a patent application is not filed within specified time limits. Additionally, certain inventions are subject to transfer restrictions during the term of these agreements and for a period thereafter, including sales of products or components, transfers to foreign subsidiaries for the purpose of the relevant agreements, and transfers to certain foreign third parties. If any of our intellectual property becomes subject to any of the rights or remedies available to the U.S. government or third parties pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, this could impair the value of our intellectual property and could adversely affect our business.

Loss of, or inability to secure government contract revenues could impair our business.

We have contracts or subcontracts with certain governmental agencies or their contractors, including DARPA and DOE. Generally, these agreements, as they may be amended or modified from time to time, have fixed terms and may be terminated, modified or be subject to recovery of payments by the government agency under certain conditions (such as failure to comply with detailed reporting and governance processes or failure to achieve milestones). Under these agreements, we are also subject to audits, which can result in corrective action plans and penalties up to and including termination. If these governmental agencies terminate these agreements with us, it could reduce our revenues which could harm our business. Additionally, we anticipate securing additional government contracts as part of our business plan for 2018 and beyond. If we are unable to secure such government contracts, it could harm our business.

Our products subject us to product-safety risks, and we may be sued for product liability.

The design, development, production and sale of our products involve an inherent risk of product liability claims and the associated adverse publicity. Our potential products could be used by a wide variety of consumers with varying levels of sophistication. Although safety is a priority for us, we are not always in control of the final uses and formulations of the products we supply or their use as ingredients. Our products could have detrimental impacts or adverse impacts we cannot anticipate. Despite our efforts, negative publicity about Amyris, including product safety or similar concerns, whether real or perceived, could occur, and our products could face withdrawal, recall or other quality issues. In addition, we may be named directly in product liability suits relating to our products, even for defects resulting from errors of our commercial partners, contract manufacturers, chemical finishers or customers or end users of our products. These claims could be brought by various parties, including customers who are purchasing products directly from us or other users who purchase products from our customers. We could also be named as co-parties in product liability suits that are brought against the contract manufacturers with whom we partner to produce our products. Insurance coverage is expensive, may be difficult to obtain and may not be available in the future on acceptable terms. We cannot be certain that our contract manufacturers or the sugar and ethanol producers who partner with us to produce our products will have adequate insurance coverage to cover against potential claims. Any insurance we do maintain may not provide adequate coverage against potential losses, and if claims or losses exceed our liability insurance coverage, our business would be adversely impacted. In addition, insurance coverage may become more expensive, which would harm our results of operations.

We may become subject to lawsuits or indemnity claims in the ordinary course of business, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

From time to time, we may in the ordinary course of business be named as a defendant in lawsuits, indemnity claims and other legal proceedings. These actions may seek, among other things, compensation for alleged personal injury, employment discrimination, breach of contract, property damage and other losses or injunctive or declaratory relief. In the event that such actions, claims or proceedings are ultimately resolved unfavorably to us at amounts exceeding our accrued liability, or at material amounts, the outcome could materially and adversely affect our reputation, business and results of operations. In addition, payments of significant amounts, even if reserved, could adversely affect our liquidity position. For more information regarding our current legal proceedings, please refer to the section entitled “Legal Proceedings” in Part I, Item 3 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Loss of key personnel, including key management personnel, and/or failure to attract and retain additional personnel could delay our product development programs and harm our research and development efforts and our ability to meet our business objectives.

Our business involves complex, global operations across a variety of markets and requires a management team and employee workforce that is knowledgeable in the many areas in which we operate. As we continue to build our business, we will need to hire and retain qualified research and development, management and other personnel to succeed. The process of hiring, training and successfully integrating qualified personnel into our operations, in the United States, Brazil and other countries in which we may seek to operate, is a lengthy and expensive one. The market for qualified personnel is very competitive because of the limited number of people available who have the necessary technical skills and understanding of our technology and products, particularly in Brazil. Our failure to hire and retain qualified personnel could impair our ability to meet our research and development and business objectives and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

The loss of any key member of our management or key technical and operational employees, or the failure to attract or retain such employees, could prevent us from developing and commercializing our products for our target markets and executing our business strategy. In addition, we may not be able to attract or retain qualified employees in the future due to the intense competition for qualified personnel among biotechnology and other technology-based businesses. Furthermore, reductions to our workforce as part of potential cost-saving measures, such as those discussed above with respect to our 2018 operating plan, may make it more difficult for us to attract and retain key employees. If we do not maintain the necessary personnel to accomplish our business objectives, we may experience staffing constraints that will adversely affect our ability to meet the demands of our collaborators and customers in a timely fashion or to support our internal research and development programs and operations. In particular, our product and process development programs depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled technical and operational personnel. Competition for such personnel from numerous companies and academic and other research institutions may limit our ability to do so on acceptable terms. All of our employees are “at-will” employees, which means that either the employee or we may terminate their employment at any time.

We may not be able to fully enforce covenants not to compete with and not to solicit our employees, and therefore we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of such employees.

Our proprietary information and inventions agreements with our employees contain non-compete and non-solicitation provisions. These provisions prohibit our employees from competing directly with our business or proposed business or working for our competitors during their term of employment, and from directly or indirectly soliciting our employees or consultants to leave our company for any purpose. Under applicable U.S. and Brazilian law, we may be unable to enforce these provisions. If we cannot enforce these provisions with our employees, we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of such employees. Even if these provisions are enforceable, they may not adequately protect our interests. The defection of one or more of our employees to a competitor could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and ability to capitalize on our proprietary information.

Our operations rely on sophisticated information technology and equipment systems, a disruption of which could harm our operations.

We rely on various information technology and equipment systems, some of which are dependent on services provided by third parties, to manage our technology platform and operations. These systems provide critical data and services for internal and external users, including research and development activities, procurement and inventory management, transaction processing, financial, commercial and operational data, human resources management, legal and tax compliance and other processes necessary to operate and manage our business. These systems are complex and are frequently updated as technology improves, and include software and hardware that is licensed, leased or purchased from third parties. If our information technology and equipment systems experience breaches or other failures or disruptions, our systems and the information contained therein could be compromised. While we have implemented security measures and disaster recovery plans designed to mitigate the effects of any failures or disruption of these systems, such measures may not adequately prevent adverse events such as breaches or failures from occurring or mitigate their severity if they do occur. If our information technology or equipment systems are breached, damaged or fail to function properly due to internal errors or defects, implementation or integration issues, catastrophic events or power outages, we may experience a material disruption in our ability to manage our business operations. Failure or disruption of these systems could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

Growth may place significant demands on our management and our infrastructure.

We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, expansion of our business as we continue to make efforts to develop and bring our products to market. We have grown from 18 employees at the end of 2005 to 414 full-time employees at December 31, 2017. Our growth and diversified operations have placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. In particular, continued growth could strain our ability to: 

Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely impacted.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting which, if not corrected, could affect the reliability of our consolidated financial statements and have other adverse consequences.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Section 404) and related SEC rules require management to assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Based on the assessment as of December 31, 2017, our management believes that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective at that date due to a material weakness we identified. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of control deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness we identified relates to (i) an insufficient number of trained resources with assigned responsibility and accountability over the design and operation of internal controls related to complex, significant non-routine transactions as well as routine transactions and financial statement presentation and disclosure, (ii) ineffective risk assessment processes to identify and analyze necessary changes in significant accounting policies and practices that were responsive to changes in business operations resulting from complex, significant non-routine transactions, implementation of new accounting standards and related disclosures, and completeness and adequacy of required disclosures, and (iii) an ineffective information and communication process to ensure that processes and controls were effectively documented and disseminated to enable financial personnel to effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities. See Part II, Item 9A “Controls and Procedures” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information. If not remediated, the material weakness could result in a material misstatement to our annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Our management has developed, and begun to implement, a plan to remediate the material weakness. We cannot, however, assure you that we will be able to implement the plan, or to remediate the material weakness in a timely manner. Furthermore, during the course of re-design of existing processes and controls, implementation of additional processes and controls and testing of the operating effectiveness of such re-designed and additional processes and controls, we may identify additional control deficiencies that could give rise to other material weaknesses, in addition to the currently identified material weakness. We expect the remediation plan to extend over multiple financial reporting periods in 2018. If our remedial measures are insufficient to address the material weakness, or if additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal controls are discovered or occur in the future, we may be unable to report our financial results accurately or on a timely basis, which could cause our reported financial results to be materially misstated and result in the loss of investor confidence and adversely affect the market price of our common stock and our ability to access the capital markets, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ), the SEC or other regulatory authorities.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to report our financial results accurately or in a timely manner or prevent fraud; in that case, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which would harm our business and could negatively impact the price of our stock.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and help us to prevent fraud. The process of implementing our internal controls and complying with Section 404 is expensive and time consuming, and requires significant attention of management. We cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future. In addition, to the extent we create joint ventures or have any variable interest entities and the financial statements of such entities are not prepared by us, we will not have direct control over their financial statement preparation. As a result, we will, for our financial reporting, depend on what these entities report to us, which could result in us adding monitoring and audit processes and increase the difficulty of implementing and maintaining adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future and could lead to delays in our external reporting. In particular, this may occur where we are establishing such entities with commercial partners that do not have sophisticated financial accounting processes in place, or where we are entering into new relationships at a rapid pace, straining our integration capacity. Additionally, if we do not receive the information from the joint venture or variable interest entity on a timely basis, it could cause delays in our external reporting. Even if we conclude in the future that our internal control over financial reporting provides reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect fraud or misstatements. Failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations, which could reduce the market’s confidence in our financial statements and harm our stock price.

Our international operations expose us to the risk of fluctuation in currency exchange rates and rates of foreign inflation, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

We currently incur significant costs and expenses in Brazilian real and may in the future incur additional expenses in foreign currencies and derive a portion of our revenues in the local currencies of customers throughout the world. As a result, our revenues and results of operations are subject to foreign exchange fluctuations, which we may not be able to manage successfully. During the past few decades, the Brazilian currency in particular has faced frequent and substantial exchange rate fluctuations in relation to foreign currencies mostly because of political and economic conditions. There can be no assurance that the Brazilian real will not significantly appreciate or depreciate against the United States dollar in the future. We also bear the risk that the rate of inflation in the foreign countries where we incur costs and expenses or the decline in value of the United States dollar compared to those foreign currencies will increase our costs as expressed in United States dollars. For example, future measures by the Central Bank of Brazil to control inflation, including interest rate adjustments, intervention in the foreign exchange market and actions to fix the value of the real, may weaken the United States dollar in Brazil. Whether in Brazil or elsewhere, we may not be able to adjust the prices of our products to offset the effects of inflation or foreign currency appreciation on our cost structure, which could increase our costs and reduce our net operating margins. If we do not successfully manage these risks through hedging or other mechanisms, our revenues and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our U.S. GAAP operating results could fluctuate substantially due to the accounting for embedded derivatives in our convertible promissory notes and convertible preferred stock.

Features in several of our outstanding convertible debt instruments are accounted for under Accounting Standards Codification 815, Derivatives and Hedging, or ASC 815, as embedded derivatives. For instance, with respect to the 2015 144A Notes, if the holders elect to convert their 2015 144A Notes, such converting holders will receive an early conversion payment equal to the present value of the remaining scheduled payments of interest that would have been made on the 2015 144A Notes being converted through April 15, 2019, the maturity date of the 2015 144A Notes. The early conversion payment features of the 2015 144A Notes are accounted for under ASC 815 as embedded derivatives. ASC 815 requires companies to bifurcate conversion options from their host instruments and account for them as free standing derivative financial instruments according to certain criteria. The fair value of the derivative is remeasured to fair value at each balance sheet date, with a resulting non-cash gain or loss related to the change in the fair value of the derivative being charged to earnings (loss). We have determined that we must bifurcate and account for the early conversion payment features of some of our debt instruments, including the 2015 144A Notes, as well as certain other features of our other convertible debt instruments, as embedded derivatives in accordance with ASC 815. We have recorded these embedded derivative liabilities as non-current liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet with a corresponding discount at the date of issuance that is netted against the principal amount of the 2015 144A Notes or other convertible debt instrument, as applicable. The derivative liabilities are remeasured to fair value at each balance sheet date, with a resulting non-cash gain or loss related to the change in the fair value of the derivative liabilities being recorded in other income or loss. There is no current observable market for this type of derivative and, as such, we determine the fair value of the embedded derivatives using the binomial lattice model. The valuation model uses the stock price, conversion price, maturity date, risk-free interest rate, estimated stock volatility and estimated credit spread. Changes in the inputs for these valuation models may have a significant impact on the estimated fair value of the embedded derivative liabilities. For example, an increase in our stock price results in an increase in the estimated fair value of the embedded derivative liabilities. The embedded derivative liabilities may have, on a U.S. GAAP basis, a substantial effect on our balance sheet from quarter to quarter and it is difficult to predict the effect on our future U.S. GAAP financial results, since valuation of these embedded derivative liabilities are based on factors largely outside of our control and may have a negative impact on our earnings and balance sheet. The effects of these embedded derivatives may cause our U.S. GAAP operating results to be below expectations, which may cause our stock price to decline.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code), a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-ownership change net operating loss carryforwards (NOLs) to offset future taxable income. During the three years ended December 31, 2017, changes in our share ownership resulted in a significant reduction in our NOLs. Future changes in our stock ownership, some of which are outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code; if that occurs, our ability to utilize NOLs could be further limited by Section 382 of the Code. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations under Section 382 of the Code. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of our NOLs as of December 31, 2017, even if we attain profitability, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

If we fail to comply with our obligations as a public company, our business may be adversely affected.

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses in connection with our obligations under applicable securities laws, including the internal and external costs of maintaining the system of internal controls discussed above as well as the costs of preparing and distributing periodic public reports, including financial statements and footnotes. In addition, changing laws, rules and regulations relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including regulations implemented by the SEC and NASDAQ, increase our legal and financial costs, including costs relating to monitoring, evaluating and complying with such laws, rules and regulations. These laws, rules and regulations are subject to varying interpretations and may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies, which may result in increased compliance and governance costs and the diversion of management resources. If our efforts to comply with such laws, rules and regulations are not successful, we could be subject to fines, penalties or regulatory proceedings, which can be time consuming and costly to litigate and could lead to negative publicity about our company. These events could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, executive officers and other employees. If any of these risks occur, or if these requirements divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our stock price may be volatile.

The market price of our common stock has been, and we expect it to continue to be, subject to significant volatility, and it has declined significantly from our initial public offering price. As of December 31, 2017, the reported closing price of our common stock on NASDAQ was $3.75 per share. Market prices for securities of early stage companies have historically been particularly volatile. Such fluctuations could be in response to, among other things, the factors described in this “Risk Factors” section, or other factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as: 

Furthermore, stock markets have experienced price and volume fluctuations that have affected, and continue to affect, the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions, such as recessions, interest rate changes and international currency fluctuations, may negatively affect the market price of our common stock.

In the past, many companies that have experienced volatility and sustained declines in the market price of their stock have become subject to securities class action and derivative action litigation. We were involved in two such lawsuits which were dismissed in 2014, were involved in one such lawsuit that was dismissed in September 2017, and are currently involved in four such lawsuits, as described in more detail below under “Legal Proceedings,” and we may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.

If our common stock is delisted from NASDAQ, our business, financial condition, results of operations and stock price could be adversely affected, and the liquidity of our stock and our ability to obtain financing could be impaired.

On June 14, 2016, we received a notice from NASDAQ notifying us that we were not in compliance with the requirement of NASDAQ Listing Rule 5450(a)(1) for continued listing on The NASDAQ Global Market (the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule), as a result of the closing bid price of our common stock being below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. In accordance with NASDAQ Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we had 180 calendar days, or until December 12, 2016, to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule. To regain compliance, the closing bid price of our common stock had to be at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days. On November 1, 2016, we received a notice from NASDAQ that we had regained compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule. Subsequently, on December 19, 2016, we received a notice from NASDAQ notifying us that we were again not in compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule as a result of the closing bid price of our common stock being below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. In accordance with NASDAQ Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we had 180 calendar days, or until June 19, 2017, to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule. On June 5, 2017, after receiving board and stockholder approval, we amended our certificate of incorporation to implement a 1-for-15 reverse stock split of our common stock as well as a reduction of the total number of authorized shares of our common stock from 500,000,000 to 250,000,000. On June 20, 2017, we received a letter from NASDAQ notifying us that we had regained compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule as a result of the closing bid price of our common stock being at $1.00 per share or greater for the 10 consecutive business days from June 6, 2017 to June 19, 2017. There can be no assurance that we will maintain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Listing Rule in the future or that our common stock will remain listed on NASDAQ.

Any delisting of our common stock from NASDAQ could adversely affect our ability to attract new investors, decrease the liquidity of our outstanding shares of common stock, reduce our flexibility to raise additional capital, reduce the price at which our common stock trades, and increase the transaction costs inherent in trading such shares with overall negative effects for our stockholders. In addition, the delisting of our common stock could deter broker-dealers from making a market in or otherwise seeking or generating interest in our common stock, and might deter certain institutions and persons from investing in our securities at all. Furthermore, the delisting of our common stock from NASDAQ would constitute a breach under certain of our financing agreements, including agreements governing our outstanding convertible indebtedness, which could result in an acceleration of such indebtedness. If such indebtedness is accelerated, it would generally also constitute an event of default under our other outstanding indebtedness, permitting acceleration of such other outstanding indebtedness as well. For these reasons and others, the delisting of our common stock from NASDAQ could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The concentration of our capital stock ownership with insiders will limit the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and presents risks related to the operations of our significant stockholders.

As of December 31, 2017, the company’s significant stockholders held an aggregate total of 51.2% of the company’s total common shares outstanding, as follows: DSM (19%), Foris Ventures, LLC (Foris) (9.4%), Total (9.4%), Maxwell (Mauritius) Pte Ltd (Temasek) (7.2%) and Vivo Capital LLC (Vivo) (6.2%). Furthermore, DSM, Foris, Total, Temasek and Vivo each hold convertible preferred stock, convertible promissory notes and/or warrants, pursuant to which they may acquire additional shares of our common stock and thereby increase their ownership interest in our company. This significant concentration of share ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock because investors often perceive disadvantages in owning stock in companies with stockholders with significant interests. Also, these stockholders, acting together, may be able to control or significantly influence our management and affairs and matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and the approval of significant corporate transactions, such as mergers, consolidations or the sale of all or substantially all of our assets, and may not act in the best interests of our other stockholders. Consequently, this concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control, or a change in our management or board of directors, or discouraging a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company, even if such actions would benefit our other stockholders.

The concentration of our capital stock ownership also presents risks related to the operations of our significant stockholders, including their international operations. For example, certain affiliates of Total that we do not control and that may be deemed to be our affiliates solely due to their control by Total may be deemed to have engaged in certain transactions or dealings with the government of Iran in 2017, for which Total has provided disclosure under Section 13(r) of the Exchange Act. Such disclosure is set forth in Exhibit 99.1 to this annual report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference. Disclosure of such activity, even if such activity is not subject to sanctions under applicable law, and any sanctions actually imposed on Total as a result of these activities or for other violations of applicable laws, such as anti-bribery laws, could harm our reputation and have a negative impact on our business.

In addition, certain of our significant stockholders are also commercial partners, including DSM and Total, and have various rights in connection with their security ownership in us. These stockholders may have interests that are different from those of our other stockholders, including with respect to our company’s commercial transactions. While we have a related-party transactions policy that requires certain approvals of any transaction between our company and a significant stockholder or its affiliates, there can be no assurance that our significant stockholders will act in the best interests of our other stockholders, which could harm our results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.

The market price of our common stock could be negatively affected by future sales of our common stock.

If our existing stockholders, particularly our largest stockholders, our directors, their affiliates, or our executive officers, sell a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, the market price of our common stock could decrease significantly. The perception in the public market that these stockholders might sell our common stock could also depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our future ability to obtain capital, especially through an offering of equity securities.

We have in place, or have agreed to file, registration statements for the resale of certain shares of our common stock held by, or issuable to, certain of our largest stockholders. All of our common stock sold pursuant to an offering covered by such registration statements will be freely transferable. In addition, shares of our common stock issued or issuable under our equity incentive plans have been registered on Form S-8 registration statements and may be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, except for shares held by affiliates who have certain restrictions on their ability to sell.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

We do not expect to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.

We do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. In addition, certain of our equipment leases and credit facilities currently restrict our ability to pay dividends. Consequently, investors may need to rely on sales of their shares of our common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our common stock.

Anti-takeover provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our company. These provisions could also make it more difficult for stockholders to nominate directors and take other corporate actions. These provisions include: 

Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law prohibits, subject to some exceptions, “business combinations” between a Delaware corporation and an “interested stockholder,” which is generally defined as a stockholder who becomes a beneficial owner of 15% or more of a Delaware corporation’s voting stock, for a three-year period following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder. We have agreed to opt out of Section 203 through our certificate of incorporation, but our certificate of incorporation contains substantially similar protections to our company and stockholders as those afforded under Section 203, except that we have agreed with Total that it and its affiliates will not be deemed to be “interested stockholders” under such protections.

In addition, we have an agreement with Total which provides that, so long as Total holds at least 10% of our voting securities, we must inform Total of any offer to acquire us or any decision of our board of directors to sell our company, and we must provide Total with information about the contemplated transaction. In such events, Total will have an exclusive negotiating period of fifteen business days in the event the board of directors authorizes us to solicit offers to buy our company, or five business days in the event that we receive an unsolicited offer to purchase us. This exclusive negotiation period will be followed by an additional restricted negotiation period of ten business days, during which we are obligated to continue to negotiate with Total and will be prohibited from entering into an agreement with any other potential acquirer.

These and other provisions in our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and in our agreements with Total could discourage potential takeover attempts, reduce the price that investors are willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock and result in the market price of our common stock being lower than it would be without these provisions.