In order to improve our liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic, we obtained a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”). The PPP, established as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), provides for loans to qualifying businesses for amounts up to 2.5 times of the average monthly payroll expenses of the qualifying business. We repaid the PPP loan in full in February 2021 from the proceeds of the Business Combination.
In terms of negative impacts, the pandemic has restricted the ability of our employees to travel, demonstrate our products to our potential customers and users, and perform other sales-generating activities. It has also impacted our ability to oversee the activities of our third-party manufacturers and suppliers, make shipments of materials, and pursue collaborations and other business transactions. COVID-19 has also caused the temporary closure of the facilities of certain of our suppliers, manufacturers and customers, and resulted in the implementation of a temporary closure of our offices and the institution of a “work from home” policy. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact have caused a financial strain on our customer base due to decreased funding and other revenue shortfalls. Reductions in budgets have resulted in delays in or decreases in the size of enterprise contracts. Given the lack of historical trends, we are unable to precisely quantify this impact.
Conversely, given those restrictions of access to our customers and “work from home” policy, one noticeable and quantifiable positive impact on our expenses was the reduction in our travel and related expenses, which for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 decreased by approximately $0.4 million, or 71%, year over year.
The COVID-19 pandemic also had a short-term early positive impact on our sales. We saw a spike in orders in March and April of 2020 because point-of-care ultrasound systems, like Butterfly iQ, have been utilized in the monitoring of acute symptoms of COVID-19 in patients through the use of lung ultrasound. Studies suggest that such systems may have a role to play in the assessment of lung involvement in COVID-19. The Butterfly iQ’s lung image quality, portability and ease of disinfection has made it particularly useful in assessing patients impacted by COVID-19. Given the lack of historical trends, we are unable to precisely quantify this impact.
The estimates of the impact on our business may change based on new information that may emerge concerning COVID-19 and the actions to contain it or treat its impact and the economic impact on local, regional, national and international markets.
Despite these headwinds, we believe our business is well-positioned to benefit from the trends, such as telemedicine, that are accelerating digital transformation of the healthcare industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, we have developed a Teleguidance product that aligns with the larger industry trends to remote medicine. Additionally, we believe that our value proposition of improved patient care combined with a reduction in overall cost of service will further enhance adoption of the Butterfly solution.
We have not incurred any significant impairment losses in the carrying values of our assets as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are not aware of any specific related event or circumstance that would require us to revise our estimates reflected in our condensed consolidated financial statements contained in this Form 10-Q.
Recent Developments
On February 12, 2021 we completed the business combination with Longview (the “Business Combination”) pursuant to the terms of the Business Combination Agreement, dated as of November 19, 2020 (the “Business Combination Agreement”), by and among Longview Acquisition Corp. (“Longview”), Clay Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Merger Sub”), and Butterfly Network, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Legacy Butterfly”). The Business Combination was approved by Longview's stockholders at its special meeting held on February 12, 2021. The transaction resulted in the Company being renamed to "Butterfly Network, Inc.," Legacy Butterfly being renamed “BFLY Operations, Inc.” and the Company’s Class A common stock and warrants to purchase Class A common stock commencing trading on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") on February 16, 2021 under the symbol "BFLY" and “BFLY WS”, respectively. As a result of the Business Combination, we received gross proceeds of approximately $589 million.
Key Performance Metrics
We review the key performance measures discussed below, to evaluate business and measure performance, identify trends, formulate plans and make strategic decisions.