generally be prohibited from: (i) ceasing to conduct certain businesses, (ii) entering into certain transactions or series of transactions pursuant to which all or a portion of our common stock would be acquired or all or a portion of certain of our and our subsidiaries’ assets would be acquired, (iii) liquidating, merging or consolidating with any other person, (iv) issuing equity securities beyond certain thresholds, (v) repurchasing our stock other than in certain open-market transactions or (vi) taking or failing to take any other action that would cause the distribution, together with certain related transactions, to fail to qualify as a transaction that is generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) of the Code.
Employee Matters Agreement
In August 2018, we entered into an Employee Matters Agreement with NETGEAR that addresses employment, compensation and benefits matters, including the allocation and treatment of assets and liabilities relating to employees and compensation and benefit plans and programs in which our employees participated in prior to the Distribution, as well as other human resources, employment and employee benefit matters.
The Employee Matters Agreement generally provides, unless otherwise specified, that following July 2, 2018: (1) NETGEAR will be responsible for liabilities associated with employees employed by NETGEAR on and following July 2, 2018 and all former employees of NETGEAR (including former employees of the Arlo business) who terminated employment prior to July 2, 2018 and (2) Arlo will be responsible for liabilities associated with employees employed by Arlo on and following July 2, 2018 and all former employees of Arlo who terminate employment on or following July 2, 2018. Between July 2, 2018 and the date of the Distribution, Arlo employees continued to participate in the NETGEAR health, welfare and retirement benefit plans and the cost of the participation of Arlo employees in such plans will be borne by Arlo.
Generally, subject to limited exceptions, following the effective time of the Distribution Arlo employees participate in Arlo’s health, welfare and retirement plans and Arlo is responsible for all liabilities relating to such plans.
The Employee Matters Agreement also describes how NETGEAR equity-based compensation awards were adjusted in connection with the Distribution.
Intellectual Property Rights Cross-License Agreement
In August 2018, we entered into an Intellectual Property Rights Cross-License Agreement with NETGEAR (the “Cross-License Agreement”), which governs our and NETGEAR’s respective rights, responsibilities and obligations with respect to certain patents, copyrights, trade secret and intellectual property rights (other than trademarks).
Pursuant to the Cross-License Agreement, NETGEAR and Arlo, as the case may be (in such capacity, a “licensor”), granted the other party and its subsidiaries (in such capacity, the “licensee”), subject to certain limitations with respect to patents and certain core software described below, a non-exclusive, royalty free, irrevocable, worldwide license to licensor’s intellectual property rights to permit the licensee to continue the current and future operation of the licensee’s business, including to make, sell and otherwise produce and commercialize its products. The license to the licensor’s intellectual property rights (other than to patents and core software) may be sub-licensed to third parties by the licensee in the ordinary course of licensee’s business.
Our license to NETGEAR and its subsidiaries includes a license to all of our patents and patents arising from our applications that exist at the time of the separation, and NETGEAR’s license to us includes a license to any NETGEAR patent practiced by our business or products and any patent arising from a NETGEAR application related to our business or products as of the time of the separation. The license to a licensor’s patents includes a limitation that the licensee may not sub-license its license to third parties. The license to certain identified software of each party which is core to such party’s products (“core software”) includes the limitation that the licensee may not redistribute or sub-license the source code for such core software to a third party.
The Cross-License Agreement is transferable by a party in a change of control, provided that the licenses to patents and the core software will not extend to the acquiring party’s products or services.
All licenses granted to a licensee extend to any entity that is a subsidiary of the licensee for so long as such entity is a subsidiary. If a subsidiary that is actively engaged in a line of business ceases to be a subsidiary of the licensee (NETGEAR or Arlo, as the case may be), such entity may retain the licenses granted to it, but only with respect to the line of business in which it is engaged at the effective time of it ceasing to be a subsidiary, and provided that such