Morphic Holding (MORF) 10-K 2020 FY Annual report

Exhibit 4.3

DESCRIPTION OF REGISTRANT’S SECURITIES REGISTERED UNDER SECTION 12 OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED

General

Our authorized capital stock consists of 400,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, and 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, $0.0001 par value per share. The following description summarizes the most important terms of our capital stock. Because it is only a summary, it does not contain all the information that may be important to you. For a complete description, you should refer to our restated certificate of incorporation, our restated bylaws, as amended (collectively referred to herein as our restated bylaws), and our investors’ rights agreement, which are included as exhibits to our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and to the applicable provisions of Delaware law.

Common Stock

Dividend Rights

Subject to preferences that may apply to any shares of preferred stock outstanding at the time, the holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends out of funds legally available if our board of directors, in its discretion, determines to issue dividends and then only at the times and in the amounts that our board of directors may determine.

Voting Rights

Holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders. We have not provided for cumulative voting for the election of directors in our restated certificate of incorporation, which means that holders of a majority of the shares of our common stock will be able to elect all of our directors. Our restated certificate of incorporation establishes a classified board of directors, divided into three classes with staggered three-year terms. Only one class of directors will be elected at each annual meeting of our stockholders, with the other classes continuing for the remainder of their respective three-year terms.

No Preemptive or Similar Rights

Our common stock is not entitled to preemptive rights, and is not subject to conversion, redemption or sinking fund provisions.

Right to Receive Liquidation Distributions

Upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding-up, the assets legally available for distribution to our stockholders would be distributable ratably among the holders of our common stock and any participating preferred stock outstanding at that time, subject to prior satisfaction of all outstanding debt and liabilities and the preferential rights of and the payment of liquidation preferences, if any, on any outstanding shares of preferred stock.

Registration Rights

Certain of our common stock holders are entitled to certain registration rights with respect to the sale of such shares under the Securities Act. We refer to these shares as registrable securities. These rights are provided under the terms of an investors’ rights agreement between us and the holders of these shares, which was entered into in connection with our preferred stock financings, and include demand registration rights, short-form registration rights and piggyback registration rights.

The registration rights terminate, with respect to any particular holder of these rights, on the earliest to occur of (a) the closing of a deemed liquidation event, as defined in our restated certificate of incorporation, (b) at such time that all of the holder's registrable securities can be sold without limitation in any three-month period without registration in compliance with Rule 144 or a similar exemption under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and (c) seven years following the completion of our initial public offering.

Demand Registration Rights

Beginning 180 days after the completion of our initial public offering, if the holders of not less than 40% of the then-outstanding registrable securities may request the registration under the Securities Act of any registrable securities, if the anticipated aggregate offering price, net of selling expenses, would exceed $10.0 million, we are obligated to provide notice of such request to all holders of registration rights and, as soon as practicable and in any event within 60 days, file a Form S-1 registration statement under the Securities Act covering all registrable securities that the initiating holders requested to be registered and any additional registrable securities requested to be included in such registration by any other holders. We are only required to file two registration statements that are declared effective upon exercise of these demand registration rights. We may postpone taking action with respect to such filing not more than twice during any 12-month period for a period of not more than 120 days, if after receiving a request for registration, we furnish to the holders requesting such registration a certificate signed by our Chief Executive Officer stating that, in the good faith judgment of our board of directors, it would be materially detrimental to us and our stockholders.

Piggyback Registration Rights

If we register any of our securities for public sale, holders of then-outstanding registrable securities or their permitted transferees will have the right to include their registrable securities in the registration statement. However, this right does not apply to a registration relating to any of our employee benefit plans, a corporate reorganization or transaction under Rule 145 of the Securities Act, a registration that requires information that is not substantially the same, or a registration in which the only common stock being registered is common stock issuable upon conversion of debt securities that are also being registered. In an underwritten offering, if the total number of securities requested by stockholders to be included in the offering exceeds the number of securities to be sold (other than by the us) that the underwriters determine in their reasonable discretion is compatible with the success of the offering, then we will be required to include only that number of securities that the underwriters and us, in our sole discretion, determine will not jeopardize the success of the offering. If the underwriters determine that less than all the securities requested to be registered cab be included in the offering, the number of shares to be registered will be apportioned pro rata among the selling holders, according to the total number of registrable securities owned by each holder, or in a manner mutually agreed upon by all such selling holders. However, the number of shares to be registered by these holders cannot be reduced unless all other securities (other than the securities to be sold by us) are excluded entirely and may not be reduced below 30% of the total number of securities included in such offering, except for in connection with an initial public offering, in which case the underwriters may exclude these holders entirely.

Form S-3 Registration Rights

The holders of at least 10% of the then-outstanding registrable securities can request that we register all or part of their shares on Form S-3 if we are eligible to file a registration statement on Form S-3 and if the aggregate price to the public of the shares offered, net of selling expenses, is at least $3.0 million. The stockholders may only require us to effect two registration statements on Form S-3 in a 12-month period. We may postpone taking action with respect to such filing twice during any 12-month period for a period of not more than 120 days if our board of directors determines in its good faith judgment that the filing would be materially detrimental to us and our stockholders.

Anti-Takeover Provisions

The provisions of the DGCL, our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws could have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another person from acquiring control of our company. These provisions, which are summarized below, may have the effect of discouraging takeover bids. They are also designed, in part, to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to negotiate first with our board of directors. We believe that the benefits of increased protection of our potential ability to negotiate with an unfriendly or unsolicited acquirer outweigh the disadvantages of discouraging a proposal to acquire us because negotiation of these proposals could result in an improvement of their terms.

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Delaware Law

We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL regulating corporate takeovers. In general, DGCL Section 203 prohibits a publicly-held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the person became an interested stockholder unless:

·      prior to the date of the transaction, the board of directors of the corporation approved either the business combination or the transaction which resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder;

·      the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of the voting stock of the corporation outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, excluding for purposes of determining the voting stock outstanding, but not the outstanding voting stock owned by the interested stockholder, (i) shares owned by persons who are directors and also officers and (ii) shares owned by employee stock plans in which employee participants do not have the right to determine confidentially whether shares held subject to the plan will be tendered in a tender or exchange offer; or

·      at or subsequent to the date of the transaction, the business combination is approved by the board of directors of the corporation and authorized at an annual or special meeting of stockholders, and not by written consent, by the affirmative vote of at least 66.67% of the outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder.

Generally, a business combination includes a merger, asset or stock sale, or other transaction or series of transactions together resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. An interested stockholder is a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns or, within three years prior to the determination of interested stockholder status, did own 15% or more of a corporation's outstanding voting stock. We expect the existence of this provision to have an anti-takeover effect with respect to transactions our board of directors does not approve in advance. We also anticipate that Section 203 may also discourage attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares of common stock held by stockholders.

Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Restated Bylaws Provisions

Our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws include a number of provisions that could deter hostile takeovers or delay or prevent changes in control of our company, including the following:

·      Board of Directors Vacancies. Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws authorize only our board of directors to fill vacant directorships, including newly created seats. In addition, the number of directors constituting our board of directors is permitted to be set only by a resolution adopted by a majority vote of our entire board of directors. These provisions would prevent a stockholder from increasing the size of our board of directors and then gaining control of our board of directors by filling the resulting vacancies with its own nominees. This makes it more difficult to change the composition of our board of directors but promotes continuity of management.

·      Classified Board. Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws provide that our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors, each with staggered three-year terms. A third party may be discouraged from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us as it is more difficult and time consuming for stockholders to replace a majority of the directors on a classified board of directors.

·      Stockholder Action; Special Meetings of Stockholders. Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that our stockholders may not take action by written consent, but may only take action at annual or special meetings of our stockholders. As a result, a holder controlling a majority of our capital stock would not be able to amend our restated bylaws or remove directors without holding a meeting of our stockholders called in accordance with our restated bylaws. Further, our restated bylaws provides that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by a majority of our board of directors, the chairman of our board of directors, our Chief Executive Officer or our President, thus prohibiting a stockholder from calling a special meeting. These provisions might delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or for stockholders controlling a majority of our capital stock to take any action, including the removal of directors.

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·      Advance Notice Requirements for Stockholder Proposals and Director Nominations. Our restated bylaws provides advance notice procedures for stockholders seeking to bring business before our annual meeting of stockholders or to nominate candidates for election as directors at our annual meeting of stockholders. Our restated bylaws also specifies certain requirements regarding the form and content of a stockholder's notice. These provisions might preclude our stockholders from bringing matters before our annual meeting of stockholders or from making nominations for directors at our annual meeting of stockholders if the proper procedures are not followed. We expect that these provisions might also discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer's own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company.

·      No Cumulative Voting. The DGCL provides that stockholders are not entitled to the right to cumulate votes in the election of directors unless a corporation’s certificate of incorporation provides otherwise. Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws do not provide for cumulative voting.

·      Directors Removed Only for Cause. Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that stockholders may remove directors only for cause and only by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding common stock.

·      Amendment of Charter Provisions. Any amendment of the above provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation requires approval by holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding common stock.

·      Issuance of Undesignated Preferred Stock. Our board of directors has the authority, without further action by the stockholders, to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock with rights and preferences, including voting rights, designated from time to time by our board of directors. The existence of authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock would enable our board of directors to render more difficult or to discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a merger, tender offer, proxy contest or other means.

·      Choice of Forum. Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our restated certificate of incorporation or our restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Our restated bylaws also provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America are, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or the Federal Forum Provision. While there can be no assurance that federal or state courts will follow the holding of the Delaware Supreme Court which recently found that such provisions are facially valid under Delaware law or determine that the Federal Forum Provision should be enforced in a particular case, application of the Federal Forum Provision means that suits brought by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act must be brought in federal court and cannot be brought in state court. Neither the exclusive forum provision nor the Federal Forum Provision applies to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, actions by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder also must be brought in federal court. Our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the regulations promulgated thereunder. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to our exclusive forum provisions, including the Federal Forum Provision. These provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of their choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees.

Exchange Listing

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “MORF.”

Transfer Agent and Registrar

The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is Computershare Trust Company, N.A.

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