Why We are Submitting the Share Increase Amendment
As disclosed in the Proxy Statement, more than 95% of our currently authorized shares are either issued and outstanding or are reserved for future issuance pursuant to outstanding equity awards and warrants, future grants under our amended and restated 2011 stock plan (“Stock Plan”) and convertible instruments. As a result, less than 5% of our currently authorized shares are available for strategic, business and financial purposes in the future.
We are considering a proposed U.S. IPO.
As disclosed in the Proxy Statement and the U.S. IPO Disclosure, the Company is considering whether to pursue an initial public offering in the United States, which, if we determined to proceed, would consist of the offer and sale of shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”). While the timing and terms of any such potential offering will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to market conditions in the United States, the Company believes that increasing the authorized shares pursuant to the Share Increase Amendment will provide greater flexibility to pursue a potential offering should favorable conditions arise. As disclosed in the Proxy Statement, we currently have 100,000,000 shares of common stock authorized pursuant to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, of which only approximately 4,984,060 shares (or less than 5.0% of the total authorized shares) are unreserved and available for future issuance. If we were to proceed with a U.S. IPO of US$100 million as described in the U.S. IPO Disclosure, we would exhaust substantially all of these unreserved shares based on the U.S. dollar equivalent of recent market prices of our CDIs on ASX. In addition, it is typical for newly public U.S. technology companies to implement a higher authorized shares threshold at the time of an initial public offering, which we estimate to average over 2,600,000,000 shares. In considering the appropriateness of the Share Increase Amendment, we believe stockholders should consider that the request for stockholder approval for 500,000,000 authorized shares represents less than 1/5th of the average number of authorized shares for other newly public U.S. technology companies.
We may require additional authorized shares for strategic transactions and equity incentives.
In addition, as disclosed in the Proxy Statement, the Board believes it is appropriate to increase our authorized shares of common stock to provide additional flexibility to promptly and appropriately use our common stock for strategic, business and financial purposes in the future, as well as to have sufficient shares available to provide appropriate equity incentives for our employees and other eligible service providers. The Company has significant near term and demonstrated historical uses for its authorized shares. For example, the Company has in recent years undertaken multiple opportunistic strategic transactions, such as the acquisitions of Jio, Inc. in September 2021 and Tile, Inc. in January 2022, in order to increase stockholder value. In fact, a portion of our currently reserved shares underlie the convertible notes associated with the Jiobit acquisition and without sufficient authorized shares we may be unable to pursue similar acquisitions, or collaborative or partnering arrangements with other companies. In addition, in order to provide equity incentives to current and future employees, officers, directors and/or consultants, our stockholders have previously approved an “evergreen” provision in the Stock Plan, which provides that the total number of shares subject to the Stock Plan may be increased on January 1 of each year pursuant to a specified formula, but this approval is limited to the availability of sufficient authorized shares under our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation.
We are listed in Australia and incorporated in Delaware. While we are only required to seek stockholder approval to increase our authorized share count because we are incorporated in Delaware, Australian incorporated companies listed on the ASX are not subject to a share count limit.
The constitutions of Australian incorporated companies listed on the ASX typically confer a blanket authority on the board to issue new shares or other equity securities. Under Australian law, they must exercise that authority, as part of their directors’ duties, in the best interests of the company and its shareholders as a whole. As such, Australian companies do not have a limit on the number of shares that the board may issue. Companies that are incorporated in Australia and listed on the ASX are not required to—and do not—seek shareholder approval to increase their authorized shares. Given the Company is incorporated in Delaware, the Board’s ability to issue shares or securities convertible into shares is constrained by the authorized share capital. As such, the proposed increase to the authorized share count brings the Company in line with other Australian-incorporated companies listed on the ASX.