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PART I |
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Item 1. | | 4 |
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Item 1A. | | 10 |
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Item 1B. | | 21 |
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Item 1C. | | 21 |
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Item 2. | | 22 |
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Item 3. | | 23 |
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Item 4. | | 23 |
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PART II |
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Item 5. | | 23 |
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Item 6. | | 24 |
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Item 7. | | 24 |
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Item 7A. | | 33 |
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Item 8. | | 34 |
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Item 9. | | 65 |
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Item 9A. | | 65 |
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Item 9B. | | 67 |
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Item 9C. | | 67 |
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PART III |
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Item 10. | | 67 |
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Item 11. | | 67 |
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Item 12. | | 68 |
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Item 13. | | 68 |
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Item 14. | | 68 |
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PART IV |
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Item 15. | | 68 |
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Item 16. | | 70 |
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10‑K, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7, contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy, prospective products, product approvals, research and development costs, timing and likelihood of success, plans and objectives of management for future operations and future results of anticipated products, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K are only predictions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10‑K and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions described under the sections in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K titled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified and some of which are beyond our control, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.
As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “Forian,” “registrant,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Forian Inc. and its subsidiaries unless the context indicates otherwise.
PART I
Overview
Forian Inc. is a leading provider of healthcare data. Forian connects organizations to analytics-ready information they can depend on to improve medical outcomes. Forian provides a unique suite of data management capabilities, proprietary enriched information and analytics solutions to optimize and measure operational, clinical and financial performance for its healthcare customers. Our subscription and services-based solutions cover the life sciences, pharma services and healthcare payer and provider industries.
Forian was founded on October 15, 2020, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Medical Outcomes Research Analytics, LLC (“MOR”), which was founded on May 6, 2019, in connection with the business combination transactions described below. On October 16, 2020, Forian entered into a definitive agreement with Helix Technologies, Inc. (“Helix”) and MOR, pursuant to which DNA Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Forian (“Merger Sub”), merged with and into Helix, with Helix surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Forian (the “Merger”). On March 2, 2021, Forian entered into a definitive agreement with the equity holders of MOR pursuant to which the equity holders of MOR contributed their interests in MOR to Forian in exchange for shares of Forian common stock (the “Contribution” and together with the Merger, the “Business Combination”). Following consummation of the Business Combination on March 2, 2021, Forian became the parent company of both Helix and MOR. On March 3, 2021, Forian’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, commenced trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) under the ticker symbol “FORA.”
On February 10, 2023, Helix completed the sale of 100% of the outstanding capital stock of its wholly owned subsidiary, Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc., a Florida corporation (“BioTrack”), to BT Assets Group Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Alleaves Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Alleaves”) (the “BioTrack Transaction”). BioTrack’s primary business was the provision of software solutions to state governments and licensees within the cannabis industry. As a result of the BioTrack Transaction, as of February 10, 2023, we no longer provide software solutions to the cannabis industry; however, we retained certain license rights with respect to transactional data processed by the BioTrack point of sale software solution for use in our information offerings. The results of the BioTrack business, together with the prior security monitoring and web services businesses sold on March 3, 2022 and October 31, 2022, respectively (collectively, the “Helix Businesses”), are presented as discontinued operations in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and, as such, have been excluded from continuing operations. Refer to “Note 4 – Discontinued Operations” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Our principal executive offices are located at 41 University Drive, Suite 400, Newtown, Pennsylvania 18940 and our primary website address is www.forian.com. The reference to the Forian website address does not constitute incorporation by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K of the information contained at or available through our website.
Our Business
Forian is derived from Greek work, plirofoía, meaning information or intelligence. At Forian, we are a leading provider of high-fidelity, analytics-ready healthcare informatics and solutions. We leverage our expertise in data management and data science to cleanse, link and enhance structured and unstructured datapoints to generate information products for healthcare customers. Our solutions sit atop a massive and perpetually growing expanse of large-scale data assets in our cloud-based proprietary data factory. We create data-based subscription products that have a wide breadth of use across the fragmented U.S. healthcare ecosystem. Our offerings include, but are not limited to, innovative commercial, Real World Evidence (“RWE”) and market access solutions and proprietary data-driven insights to optimize the operational, clinical and financial performance of our customers.
As the costs of healthcare delivery and research rapidly increase, entities within the healthcare ecosystem are increasingly interested in understanding the healthcare professional and patient journeys. This understanding helps them grasp the costs, value and efficacy of healthcare products and services. By comprehending these healthcare journeys, which is done from a data-first approach, entities can enhance their commercial effectiveness. They can better target and segment customers and understand how access to products and services based on insurance coverage impacts health outcomes differently. Additionally, emerging therapeutics are increasingly becoming part of the patient journey and may offer greater pharmacoeconomic benefit and generate superior outcomes. However, adoption of alternative therapies is consistently thwarted by a lack of trusted information. Forian is uniquely positioned to overcome this challenge by leveraging different sources of linked data to provide mission critical clinical and commercial intelligence to customers across traditional healthcare and emerging therapeutic markets. Our agile structure has allowed us to build market-driven product and service offerings, as described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, that deliver value to customers at various stages of maturity by providing proprietary data insights to drive business and product innovation.
Our Markets
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. healthcare spending is roughly 17% of GDP and the market has been expanding and evolving rapidly over the past decade due to an aging population, innovations in treatments and a reimagining of service delivery. There has been a growing emphasis on digitizing medical records and providing access to those records to providers and patients in support of more efficient and effective care. Disparate, unconnected systems, new diagnostics and treatment protocols are all generating new sources of data. In addition, data is being generated from retailers, social media and the internet. Collectively, the expansion of the volume and type of data has created challenges in making information interoperable and actionable. New and existing sources of data are often unstructured, preventing the seamless ability to derive valuable insights. New systems and solutions are needed to provide accessible and statistically significant data sets that offer the ability to conduct longitudinal analyses. The derived information and business intelligence is relevant to all healthcare stakeholders, and we believe there is an increasing need for the aggregation and integration of the large clinical data sets, irrespective of the source (e.g., traditional healthcare systems or emerging technologies).
We view the market for healthcare analytics in three principal segments: clinical analytics, commercial analytics and technology platform solutions. The market for clinical analytics includes RWE, health economics, outcomes research databases and analytic platforms as well as clinical data capture, clinical analytics and research services, investigator site and patient recruitment, observation studies and pharmacoeconomics. The market for commercial analytics includes customer segmentation and targeting, campaign measurement, longitudinal patient analytics and payer market access analytics. The market for technology platform solutions includes information technology, data management, data warehousing, IT outsourcing and software development.
We believe that RWE continues to drive value for all healthcare stakeholders. The proliferation of information technology and analytics extends well beyond life sciences. Information is critical to the ability for payers to manage and price risk effectively. The emergence of new data assets and technology have enabled better risk stratification, treatment protocol development and decision making relating to coverage of existing and emerging therapies. The ability to enter into value-based contracts is predicated on access to RWE related data and analytics.
Similarly, the healthcare delivery system is changing rapidly with telehealth and remote based monitoring become critical. As such, providers require more information to inform treatment decisions. This requires connectivity and access to their patients’ information including the use of over-the-counter and unapproved pharmaceutical treatments. Absent standards and the ability to capture and integrate these data into their medical records, they will lack the information required to guide the most effective treatments.
The use of cannabis and alternative therapies for medical purposes is gaining momentum worldwide due to recent legalization and emerging research into therapeutic value and efficacy. Medical cannabis is used for the treatment of a growing array of diseases and chronic conditions, including but not limited to pain, inflammation, arthritis, anxiety, depression, epilepsy and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Life science companies’ understanding of the patient journey may be incomplete without extending the interaction of emerging therapeutics, including cannabis-based treatments into their research. Governments, manufacturers, cultivators and distributors as well as dispensaries need information on the safety and efficacy of cannabis in both medical and adult use settings. As a result of our proprietary licensed data, we believe that we will be uniquely positioned to meet the needs of these markets as legalization and usage of alternate therapy’s expands.
We provide our information solutions both as an enabling technology to consultants and service providers serving the healthcare and life sciences industries, as well as to end users in the healthcare and life sciences industries.
Our Offerings
We are a leading healthcare information provider. Our mission is to provide our clients with superior information and analytical solutions that promote safer, more efficient and profitable business operations. Additionally, we strive to improve the health outcomes of patients by enabling our clients to serve their customers more comprehensively. Our ultimate goal is to empower our clients to make a positive impact on both their businesses and their customers’ well-being through the use of large scale data.
We have developed a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HIPAA”), compliant repository of linked longitudinal de-identified patient health information in the United States. Our databases are updated daily, weekly or monthly and include billions of de-identified patient events dating back to 2014 and represent the majority of the U.S. population. We consistently look to acquire incremental sources to further enrich our offerings through our data factory. Our data factory processes, enhances, standardizes and integrates complex and disparate transactional data, such as medical, hospital and pharmacy claims, healthcare payer remittances, retail point of sale transactions and consumer demographics as well as social determinants of health. With deep domain knowledge, our team architected our technology platform to meet and exceed the strictest data privacy requirements in highly regulated industries, while being agile to deliver with best-in-class speed and flexibility. These integrated data are used to power multiple existing and in-development information products and services for customers across the healthcare and life sciences industries.
We provide information products to service providers and directly to end markets within the healthcare and life sciences industries. Our licenses to service providers allow us to quickly scale our business and penetrate market segments by leveraging our expertise in data management and our partners’ presence in an end market. We also provide both customized or productized solutions directly to healthcare and life sciences companies. A significant portion of our revenues are generated through multi-year contracts providing for the provision of an information product which is updated over time.
Our products will assist our clients to better understand the value and efficacy of healthcare and emerging alternative therapeutics while providing critical business insights into our customers’ products, services, customers and the dynamics of a rapidly changing marketplace.
Our information products provide a more complete patient treatment care pathways with comprehensive overviews of therapeutic interventions. By leveraging HIPAA-compliant processes, proprietary algorithms and technology, we have created a suite of comprehensive, linked, and standardized information product offerings integrating data from siloed, disparate sources and platforms. We believe these information offerings deliver unique and innovative key insights and value to our customers. We have contracted with multiple third-party data providers to license structured and unstructured data that we believe is necessary to provide our information offerings. We provide action ready, digestible information sets that enable our clients solutions to drive clinical and commercial performance improvements without having to source, standardize, cleanse and aggregate from multiple other sources. Our information products are largely subscription based, multiyear contracts providing solutions tailored to specific client needs to power innovative solutions for the healthcare market or used internally for commercial and clinical analytics. Information products are also purchased on a one-time basis as a custom report to meet a specific analytic need. These products typically provide normalized and aggregated market measures which our clients use to make investment, product, clinical, or other commercial decisions to maximize their return on investment.
In the creation of our information products, we leverage various deterministic and probabilistic matching techniques that work on hashed and encrypted data to both ensure accurate patient matching and enumeration while maintaining patient/customer privacy. As new patients/customers are constantly entering the system, this is not a moment-in-time function, but rather an ongoing process that needs to be carefully managed and continuously tested to ensure low rates of false positive and false negative matches.
We continue to develop RWE and data management solutions to assist customers seeking to understand the safety, efficacy, and therapeutics of traditional and emerging therapies. Our project-based RWE solutions and analytics are designed to enable the integration otherwise unconnected and disparate data to enable near real-time surveillance of adverse events and to study the clinical economic and social impacts of various therapeutic alternatives, including those derived from cannabinoids and psychedelics. These solutions will enable up to clinical-grade observational research to be conducted to evaluate the impact of emerging therapies on patient outcomes and as alternatives to existing therapies and will support:
| • | the delivery of evidence-based insight into the safety and efficacy of ethical pharmaceuticals and emerging therapies to pharmaceutical manufacturers, physicians, caregivers, payers and patients with credible evidence to improve patient care and health outcomes; |
| • | the empowerment of regulators to more-granularly assess the safety, health, social and economic outcomes associated with all therapeutic options as the cannabis market scales and emerging therapies are adopted as mainstream therapeutic alternatives; and |
| • | the creation of new standards for product and treatment classification in emerging therapeutic markets where no existing or widely adopted standards exist today. |
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe our key competitive strengths include:
| • | Flexible and scalable approach to privacy-focused analytics software and solutions. Our solutions are purpose-built and delivered in an analytics-ready form to address the needs of stakeholders across the patient journey. We can provide client-centric deliverables that address a specific need that may be satisfied with linked healthcare data, SDoH data and other permutations of integrated offerings. The ability to offer a unified data asset due to our linkage and data factory capabilities allows for a deeper analysis with less human and processing costs, human agency, and time in precuring the disparate data sources. Our technology and processes allow quick, flexible and accurate delivery, which differentiates our offerings larger incumbents that have longer contracting, pricing, and rigid delivery systems. |
| • | Deep domain expertise. Our knowledge base in large transactional database platforms, commercial analytics, consumer and physician marketing, market access and healthcare economics and pharmacoeconomics in healthcare enables us to develop solutions that address the unique demands of the industries we serve. Through the incorporation of industry best practices into solutions that are curated for our stakeholders, our customers enjoy enhanced analytical solutions to drive their informed business decisions. Across various disciplines, our team has deep industry expertise in life sciences that translates into solutions by design that enable our clients to solve problems unique to their sector. |
| • | Diverse customer base. Our customer base extends across to a broad range of stakeholders within the healthcare industry carrying the mission to better understand and improve the patient journey. This diverse customer set offers us a uniquely informed point of view from each customer vantage point of how our solutions can best assist in optimizing performance. While we serve the continuum of healthcare ecosystem as clients, we have only started to penetrate pharmaceuticals. We believe there our products are uniquely suited for large pharma service and other companies servicing the life sciences market today and will be increasingly attractive to pharmaceutical clients as our product offerings continues to evolve. Our information services team is defined by the innovative spirit of allowing the problems our healthcare customers face to shape the solutions that are best for our customers. |
| • | Large integrated longitudinal database and technology. Our data factory processes, integrates, deidentifies and standardizes medical, hospital and pharmacy claims datasets along with point of sale data, consumer behavior and demographic-level data and other datasets to produce a longitudinal database that encompass the vast majority of the U.S. population. We will continue to invest in and integrate unique data sources to further strengthen and differentiate our solutions. |
Our Growth Strategies
We strive to improve our customers’ commercial and clinical business performance and in turn the efficiencies and safety of therapeutic products through our customers’ adoption of our information solutions. We intend to continue investing in commercial sales, research and development and our strategic partnerships. We believe that we are well positioned to achieve our growth objectives across multiple industry verticals. Key elements of our strategy include:
| • | Innovate and advance our platform and services. We have a history of technological innovation, and plan to release new features and upgrades on a regular basis. We intend to continue making significant investments in all information products, reporting and analytics solutions, database architecture and data science talent to further differentiate our products and increase sales. In improving our ability to integrate with partners, we enable ourselves to capitalize on new data and services that add value to our customers and create further differentiation of our data assets and proprietary offerings. |
| • | Drive growth by acquiring new customers. We believe that nearly all organizations that discover, develop, produce and market healthcare products or services must embrace data driven analytics to compete effectively. As such, the opportunity to continue growing our customer base is significant. |
| • | Increase usage and upsell within our existing customer base. We plan to continue investing in sales and marketing, with a focus on cross selling additional information solutions to deliver more value to and expand our relationships with our customers, leading to scale and operating leverage for our business. Many of our customers buy data or information products from different sources, and have an ability to buy more from us as we bring new offerings to market. |
| • | Leverage our products into new markets. Our information solutions provide innovative benefits to life sciences, payer and provider customers as well as consulting and service providers to these customers. We believe there is significant opportunity to deploy the use of linked proprietary solutions in adjacent industries, such as media, government as well as the financial services markets. |
| • | Expand our data and strategic partner network. Our information products are derived partly from data acquired from strategic data partners. As part of our growth strategy, we may seek to acquire assets, data-driven products or companies that are synergistic with our business and add value to our data assets and offering sets. |
| • | Grow offerings through selective investments and acquisitions. We may seek out companies and opportunities that complement our core strengths and can help us expand our capabilities, reach and impact. Our approach is deliberate and strategic, ensuring that each investment or acquisition is thoroughly vetted and aligned with our long-term goals. |
Our Technology Platform
Our data ingestion, transformation, delivery services and business intelligence platforms are managed entirely via cloud-based data centers located in the United States. We leverage third parties to provide our computing infrastructure and configure their architecture to optimize data operations. For example, we utilize Amazon Web Services for data storage and several components of our processing framework. This architecture allows us to capitalize on the physical integrity, security, reliability and scalability of Amazon Web Services while building and processing proprietary data methodologies. Our core databases are sourced primarily through second and third parties and are maintained within an architecture that complies with HIPAA and applicable state privacy laws. We standardize our solutions methodologies and carefully separate customer data to ensure compliance, security and performance.
We maintain a reliable business continuity plan, where data replication and disaster recovery procedures minimize internal warehousing and customer delivery impact in the event of incident. We continuously monitor our infrastructure for unauthorized access and functional abnormalities to prevent or minimize system disruption. We maintain active System and Organization Controls Type 2 (SOC 2) across all five trust service categories (i.e., security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy), which are reviewed by an independent third party on an annual basis.
Competition
While the healthcare industry includes well-capitalized, experienced competitors, we believe our unique data assets, synergies, intellectual property and experienced leadership offer us competitive advantages. In general, our competitors include a variety of entities such as information and clinical analytics providers such as ICON plc, information and commercial analytics providers such as IQVIA, technology and services provers such as Veeva Systems, Inc. and Definitive Healthcare Corp. and client in-house developed technologies.
Government Regulation
The products and services we offer include the license of information products that contain medical, hospital and pharmacy claims data, retail point of sale transaction data and consumer demographic data that have been de-identified in accordance with the requirements of applicable federal and state privacy laws, including HIPAA, and therefore are largely beyond the scope of these laws. However, we may receive personal data, including protected health information, for purposes of de-identifying such information prior to integrating the de-identified data into the environment that informs our information products. In addition, compliance with recently enacted and anticipated state privacy laws could require additional investment and management attention and may subject us to significant liabilities if we or our data suppliers do not comply appropriately with new and potentially conflicting laws and regulations. If there is a future change in these laws, we may also face limitations on our ability to use de-identified information that could harm our business.
Intellectual Property
In addition to our expansive data sets described above, we develop and use a number of proprietary methodologies, analytics, systems, technologies, software and other intellectual property in the conduct of our business. We rely upon a combination of legal, technical and administrative safeguards to protect our proprietary and confidential information and trade secrets, and patent, copyright and trademark laws to protect other intellectual property rights. We consider our trademark and related names, marks and logos to be of material importance to our business, and we have registered or applied for registration for certain of these trademarks in the United States and will aggressively seek to protect them. Trademarks and service marks generally may be renewed indefinitely so long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained, and so long as they have not been found to have become generic. The technology and other intellectual property rights owned and licensed by us are of importance to our business, although our management believes that our business, as a whole, is not dependent upon any one intellectual property or group of such properties.
Human Capital Resources
The foundation of our software, data and analytics solutions is our people, and the level of our success in helping our customers solve problems is a direct function of our commitment to our employees. Our intent is to continue to build a first-class organization premised on the importance of our contribution to customer success while remaining ever conscious of our responsibility to our employees and the communities in which we operate.
We are committed to equity and fairness in honoring our commitment to our employees. As set forth in our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, diversity across gender, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sexual orientation, age, experience and thought enhances our ability to support our customers, suppliers, partners and employees. In fostering a culture of inclusion, we enable each of us to present our authentic selves in our dealings with the people with whom we interact, and in so doing allow us to be more effective and impactful in the performance of our responsibilities. We embrace the opportunity to enable our customers to better serve their customers and continually seek to improve the value we bring, all while maintaining a critical balance between our employees’ work with colleagues and customers and their lives outside of Forian.
In order to prioritize the health and safety of our employees, following the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, we transitioned to remote work and continue to engage with and support our employees as they serve one another and our customers remotely.
As of March 26, 2024, we had 37 employees, all but one of whom are full time. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement or are represented by a labor union. We have not experienced any organized work stoppages, and we consider the relationships with our employees to be positive.
Available Information
We make available, free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC through the investor relations section of our website at https://forian.com/investors/sec-filings. The information found on our website is not incorporated into this or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC.
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before making an investment in our common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially and adversely affected if any of these risks occurs, and as a result, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Related to our Business Operations
We have a limited operating and financial history.
We are an emerging growth company and face all of the risks and uncertainties associated with an early-stage and unproven business. We incorporated in October 2020 in anticipation of the Business Combination and had no operating history or revenues prior to their closing. We are faced with risks inherent in operating a new business, including difficulties often encountered in developing, producing and commercializing new technologies; developing the markets for our products and technologies; and attracting and retaining qualified management, sales and/or marketing and technical staff, in addition to the risks described below.
We may need additional capital to fund our operations.
We may require additional capital to fund our current operations and anticipated expansion of our business and to pursue targeted revenue opportunities. There is no assurance that additional capital to fund our operations can be raised. Additional capital may not be available, the terms of any such capital raising may be uncertain, and the terms of any prospective equity capital may not be acceptable. In addition, any future sale of equity securities would dilute the ownership and control of the then-current stockholders and could be at prices substantially below prices at which our shares currently trade or may trade. The inability to raise capital could require us to significantly curtail or terminate operations.
We could lose our access to data from external sources, which could prevent us from providing our solutions.
We depend upon data from external sources to create our information products. In general, we do not own the data that powers our information offerings. Our data sources could withdraw or increase the price for their data for a variety of reasons, and we could also become subject to legislative, judicial or contractual restrictions on the use of such data, in particular if such data are not collected by the third parties in a way that allows us to legally use and/or process the data. Additionally, the length of our licenses with our data suppliers and our ability to extend these licenses varies across suppliers, some of whom may offer similar products or services to certain categories of our customers and prospective customers. Our competitors could also enter into exclusive contracts with our data sources, which although atypical may preclude us from receiving certain data from these suppliers or restrict us in our use of such data, which would give our competitors an advantage. If a substantial number of data sources, or certain key sources, were to withdraw, limit or be unable to provide their data, or if we were to lose access to data due to government regulation or if the collection of data became uneconomical, our ability to provide our information solutions to our customers could be impacted, which could materially adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
We may make acquisitions as a component of our growth strategy. We may not be able to identify suitable acquisition candidates or consummate acquisitions on acceptable terms, or we may be unable to successfully integrate acquisitions, which could disrupt our operations and adversely impact our business and operating results.
A component of our growth strategy is to acquire complementary businesses in order to enhance the solutions we offer to our customers. We continue to pursue acquisitions of complementary technologies, products, data sources and businesses as a component of our growth strategy. Acquisitions involve certain known and unknown risks that could cause our actual growth or operating results to differ from our expectations. For example, we may not be able to identify suitable acquisition candidates or to consummate acquisitions on acceptable terms; we may not be able to obtain the necessary financing, on favorable terms or at all, to finance any or all of our potential acquisitions; and acquired technologies, products or businesses may not perform as we expect and we may fail to realize anticipated revenue and profits. In addition, our acquisition strategy may divert management’s attention away from our existing business, resulting in the loss of key customers or employees, and expose us to unanticipated problems or legal liabilities, including responsibility as a successor for undisclosed or contingent liabilities of acquired businesses or assets.
If we fail to conduct due diligence on our potential targets effectively, for example, we may not identify problems at target companies or fail to recognize incompatibilities or other obstacles to successful integration. Our inability to successfully integrate future acquisitions could impede us from realizing all of the benefits of those acquisitions and could severely weaken our business operations. The integration process may disrupt our business and, if new technologies, products or businesses are not implemented effectively, may preclude the realization of the full benefits expected by us and could harm our results of operations. In addition, the overall integration of new technologies, products or businesses may result in unanticipated problems, expenses, liabilities and competitive responses.
Further, even if the operations of an acquisition are integrated successfully, we may not realize the full benefits of the acquisition, including the synergies, cost savings or growth opportunities that we expect. These benefits may not be achieved within the anticipated time frame, or at all. Further, acquisitions may cause us to issue common stock that would dilute our current stockholders’ ownership percentage, use a substantial portion of our cash resources, experience volatility in earnings due to changes in contingent consideration related to acquisition earn-out liability estimates or become subject to litigation.
If we do not successfully develop and deploy new products and technologies to address the needs of our customers, our business and results of operations could suffer.
Our success is based on our ability to design information products that enable the integration of data into a common operating environment to facilitate advanced data analysis, knowledge management and collaboration. We are also heavily reliant on our information technology infrastructure, processes and procedures and will devote significant resources to ensuring we have competitive informational technology systems. Information technology changes rapidly, however, and we may not be able to stay ahead of such advances. If we are unable to introduce new or upgraded products, services or technology that users and collaborators recognize as valuable, we may fail to generate additional engagement on our platforms, attract and retain customers or monetize the activity on our platforms. We have spent substantial amounts of time and money researching and developing new technologies and enhanced versions of existing features to meet customers’ and potential customers’ rapidly evolving needs and our efforts to develop new and upgraded products, services or technology will require us to continue to incur significant costs. We cannot guarantee current or prospective users and customers will respond favorably to new or improved products, services or technology.
The introduction of new products and services by competitors or the development of entirely new technologies to replace existing offerings could make our platforms obsolete or adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may experience difficulties with software development, design, or marketing that delay or prevent our development, introduction, or implementation of new platforms, features, or capabilities. Any delays could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenue or market acceptance, or claims by customers, any of which could harm our business. Moreover, the design and development of new platforms or new features and capabilities to existing platforms may require substantial investment, and there is no assurance that such investments will be successful. If customers do not widely adopt our new platforms, experiences, features, and capabilities, we may not be able to realize a return on our investment and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.
New and existing platforms and changes to existing platforms could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
| • | the failure to predict market demand accurately in terms of product functionality and to supply offerings that meet this demand in a timely fashion; |
| • | product defects, errors or failures or our inability to satisfy customer service level requirements; |
| • | negative publicity or negative private statements about the security, performance or effectiveness of our platforms or product enhancements; |
| • | delays in releasing to the market new offerings or enhancements to existing offerings; |
| • | the introduction or anticipated introduction of competing platforms or functionalities by competitors; |
| • | the inability of our platforms or product enhancements to scale and perform to meet customer demands; and |
| • | receiving qualified or adverse opinions in connection with security or penetration testing, certifications or audits, such as those related to IT controls and security standards and frameworks or compliance. |
If we are not able to continue to identify challenges faced by our customers and develop, license or acquire new features and capabilities to our offerings in a timely and cost-effective manner, or if such enhancements do not achieve market acceptance, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may suffer and anticipated revenue growth may not be achieved.
We depend on computing infrastructure operated by third parties to support some of our solutions and customers, and any errors, disruption, performance problems, or failure in their or our operational infrastructure could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The software, internal applications and systems underlying our products and services are inherently complex and may contain defects or errors, particularly when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. The development, expansion, operation and maintenance of our technology and network infrastructure is expensive and complex and requires significant internal and external resources. If we do not successfully develop, expand, operate or maintain our technology and network infrastructure, or if we experience operational failures, our reputation could be harmed, and we could lose current and prospective customers and service providers, which could adversely impact the business, financial condition or results of operations.
We rely on third parties for certain services made available to users of our platforms, which could limit our control over the quality of the user experience and our cost of providing services.
Our ability to generate revenue will be affected by the amount of time it takes to complete and enhance our platform. Additionally, there are multiple third-party vendors and service providers that must continue to provide us access to their application programming interfaces and operating systems, and we will rely on cooperation from third parties to integrate with their systems. Should third-party vendors, service providers and collaborators not perform as expected, cooperate with us or deliver their work as planned, we may not be able to release our products and services in a timely manner.
We utilize third-party software in our product and service offerings and expect to continue to do so. The correction of these errors and defects will be dependent on these third parties, so it may be difficult for us to correct them. Further, we cannot be certain that third-party licensors will continue to make their software available to us on acceptable terms, or invest the appropriate levels of resources in their software to maintain and enhance our capabilities or remain in business.
We may not be able to successfully manage our intellectual property and we may be subject to infringement claims.
Part of our success will depend on our ability to protect our proprietary rights in the technologies used in our products. We will consider trade secrets, including confidential and unpatented technology, important to the maintenance of our competitive position. However, trade secrets and know-how are difficult to protect. Further, if any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent that competitor from using the technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position could be materially and adversely harmed. Additionally, if we are unable to protect our proprietary rights adequately, our business could be harmed.
There has been substantial litigation in internet and software-related industries regarding patent, trademark and copyrights and other intellectual property rights and, from time to time, third parties may claim infringement by us of their intellectual property rights. If we were found to be infringing on the intellectual property rights of any third party, we could be subject to liabilities for such infringement, which could have a material adverse impact on our profitability. In addition, any such claims could distract management from conducting the business.
Real or perceived errors, failures, defects or bugs in our platforms, products or services could adversely affect our results of operations and growth prospects.
Because we offer very complex platforms, products and services, undetected errors, defects, failures or bugs may occur, especially when platforms or capabilities are first introduced or when new versions or other product or infrastructure updates are released. These platforms are often installed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, software products and equipment, and data source and network configurations, which may cause errors or failures in our platforms or may expose undetected errors, failures, or bugs in our platforms. The platforms often have different versions and updates based off of specific-state requirements. Despite testing, errors, failures, or bugs may not be found in new software or releases until after commencement of commercial shipments. Errors can also delay the development or release of new platforms or capabilities or new versions of platforms, adversely affect our reputation and our customers’ willingness to buy our platforms, and adversely affect market acceptance or perception of these platforms. Many customers use these platforms, products and services in applications that are critical to their businesses or missions and may have a lower risk tolerance to defects in our platforms, products and services than to defects in other, less critical, software products. Any errors or delays in releasing new software or new versions of platforms, products and services or allegations of unsatisfactory performance or errors, defects or failures in released software could cause us to lose revenue or market share, increase our service costs, result in substantial costs in redesigning the software, result in the loss of significant customers, subject us to liability for damages and divert company resources from other tasks, any one of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, our platforms could be perceived to be ineffective for a variety of reasons outside of our control. Hackers or other malicious parties could circumvent our or customers’ security measures, and customers may misuse our platforms resulting in a security breach or perceived product failure.
Real or perceived errors, failures, or bugs in our platforms, products and services, or dissatisfaction with those services or outcomes, could result in customer terminations and/or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct any such errors, failures, or bugs.
In a dynamic industry like ours, our success and growth depend on our ability to attract, recruit, retain and develop qualified employees.
Our business functions at the intersection of rapidly changing technological, social, economic and regulatory developments that require a wide-ranging set of expertise and intellectual capital. To continue to successfully compete and grow, we must attract, recruit, develop and retain the necessary personnel who can provide the needed expertise across the entire spectrum of our intellectual capital needs. While we have a number of key personnel who have substantial experience with our operations, we must also develop our personnel to provide succession plans capable of maintaining continuity in the midst of the inevitable unpredictability of human capital. The market for qualified personnel is competitive, and we may not succeed in recruiting additional personnel or may fail to effectively replace current personnel who depart with qualified or effective successors. Our effort to retain and develop personnel may also result in significant additional expenses, which could adversely affect our profitability. There can be no assurances that qualified employees will continue to be employed or that we will be able to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future. Failure to retain or attract key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting which, if not timely remediated, may adversely affect the accuracy and reliability of our financial statements and our reputation, business and stock price, as well as lead to a loss of investor confidence in us.
As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal control. Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), requires that we furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment is required to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. Our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC following the later of the date we are deemed to be an “accelerated filer” or a “large accelerated filer,” each as defined in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or the date we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act enacted in April 2012 (“JOBS Act”). If we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated.
As described under “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures,” we concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2023, and that we had, as of such date, material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting related to the lack of properly designed general information technology controls surrounding logical access, change management, and vendor application management. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
We intend to remediate these material weaknesses. While we believe the steps we take to remediate these material weaknesses will improve the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and will remediate the identified deficiencies, if our remediation efforts are insufficient to address the material weaknesses or we identify additional material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future, our ability to analyze, record and report financial information accurately, to prepare our financial statements within the time periods specified by the rules and forms of the SEC and to otherwise comply with our reporting obligations under the federal securities laws may be adversely affected. The occurrence of, or failure to remediate, these material weaknesses and any future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting may adversely affect the accuracy and reliability of our financial statements and have other consequences that could materially and adversely affect our business, including an adverse impact on the market price of our common stock. In addition, we could become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.
If our internal control over financial reporting or our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our stock price.
We rely on financial reporting and data analytics that must be accurate in order to make real-time management decisions, accurately manage our cash position, and maintain adequate inventory levels while conserving adequate cash to fund operations. In the event of a systems failure, a process breakdown, the departure of key management or fraud, we would be unable to efficiently manage these items and may experience liquidity shortfalls that our cash position or revolving credit facility may not be able to accommodate. In such a situation, we also may not be able to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our stock price.
We may be unable to accurately forecast our operating results and growth rate, which may adversely affect our reported results and stock price.
We may not be able to accurately forecast our operating results and growth rate. We use a variety of factors in our forecasting and planning processes, including historical results, recent history and assessments of economic and market conditions. Our growth rates may not be sustainable, and our growth depends on the continued growth of demand for the products we offer. Lower demand caused by changes in customer preferences, a weakening of the economy or other factors may result in decreased revenues or growth. Furthermore, many of our expenses and investments are fixed, and we may not be able to adjust our spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in our operating results. Failure to accurately forecast our operating results and growth rate could cause our actual results to be materially lower than anticipated. If our growth rate declines as a result, investors’ perceptions of our business may be adversely affected, and the market price of our common stock could decline.
Consolidation in the industries in which our customers operate may reduce the volume of services purchased by consolidated customers following an acquisition or merger, which could materially harm our operating results and financial condition.
Mergers or consolidations among our customers could in the future reduce the number of our customers and potential customers. When companies consolidate, overlapping services previously purchased separately are usually purchased only once by the combined entity, leading to loss of revenue. Other services that were previously purchased by one of the merged or consolidated entities may be deemed unnecessary or cancelled. If our customers merge with or are acquired by other entities that are not our customers, or that use fewer of our services, they may discontinue or reduce their use of our services. There can be no assurance as to the degree to which we may be able to address the revenue impact of such consolidation. Any of these developments could materially harm our operating results and financial condition.
Risks Related to Regulatory and Legal Matters
Federal and state privacy and data protection laws are evolving and compliance with applicable requirements may increase our operating costs or adversely impact our ability to service our customers and market our products and services.
Federal and state laws and regulations regarding the collection, retention, security, use, disclosure and transfer of personal data (collectively, “Privacy Laws”) are changing, increasing in number and expanding in scope. Existing Privacy Laws include HIPAA, which regulates protected health information (“PHI”) created or received by or on behalf of health care providers, health plans, and other covered entities. The recently enacted Washington My Health My Data Act gives Washington consumers rights with respect to consumer health data, which is defined expansively. In recent years, several states have adopted Privacy Laws that regulate the privacy and security of personal data much more broadly than U.S. laws have in the past. The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, the Connecticut Act Concerning Personal Data Privacy and Online Monitoring, the Colorado Privacy Act, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act all went into effect in 2023. Nine additional states (i.e., Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas) have passed comprehensive Privacy Laws that will go into effect from 2024 through 2026, and several additional states are considering similar laws. It is possible that these Privacy Laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our data practices. Establishing and maintaining compliance with these various Privacy Laws could cause us or the third parties that license us data to incur substantial costs or require changes in business practices that are adverse to our business.
The products and services we offer include the license of information products that contain data that have been de-identified in accordance with the requirements of applicable Privacy Laws, including HIPAA, and therefore are largely beyond the scope of current Privacy Laws. However, we may receive personal data, including PHI, for purposes of de-identifying such information prior to integrating the de-identified data into the environment that informs our information products. These state Privacy Laws are very recent and thus far there has been little interpretation of these laws by regulators or courts. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to whether the de-identification requirements under the more recent Privacy Laws conform with the HIPAA de-identification standards. Compliance with state Privacy Laws could require additional investment and management attention and may subject us to significant liabilities if we or our data suppliers do not comply appropriately with new and potentially conflicting laws and regulations. If there is a future change in Privacy Laws, we may also face limitations on our ability to use de-identified information that could harm our business. There is also a risk that the third parties that license us data and de-identification software may fail to properly de-identify PHI under HIPAA or personal data under applicable state Privacy Laws, some of which may impose different standards for de-identification than those required by HIPAA.
The privacy, security and breach notification rules promulgated under HIPAA establish a set of national privacy and security standards for the protection of PHI by health plans, health care clearinghouses and certain health care providers, referred to as “covered entities,” and the third parties with which such covered entities contract for services, referred to as “business associates,” that engage in creating, receiving, maintaining or transmitting PHI. While we generally do not consider our products and services to subject us to HIPAA, both because the healthcare data contained within our information products are de-identified to remove PHI before being ingested into our environments and because we do not constitute a covered entity, in certain scenarios, we may nevertheless be contractually obligated to comply with certain HIPAA obligations as a business associate of a covered entity, including the various requirements of the HIPAA de-identification rules. Additionally, if PHI is inadvertently introduced into our environments without being properly de-identified, we may be directly liable for failing to meet the obligations of a business associate under HIPAA. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights may impose penalties for a failure to comply with applicable requirement of HIPAA. Penalties will vary significantly depending on factors such as the date of the violation, whether the business associate knew or should have known of the failure to comply, or whether the business associate’s failure to comply was due to willful neglect. Mandatory penalties for HIPAA violations can be significant. A single breach incident can result in violations of multiple standards. If a person knowingly or intentionally obtains or discloses PHI in violation of HIPAA requirements, criminal penalties may also be imposed.
We have implemented practices and procedures to facilitate our continued compliance with applicable Privacy Laws, which steps include engaging third parties to provide guidance with respect to the de-identification of the data that informs our information products and certification at least annually as to the privacy and security frameworks we have established (e.g., with respect to de-identification under HIPAA and system and organization controls). In addition to our reliance on those third parties, we are dependent on the third parties that license us data to deliver information to us in a form and in a manner that complies with applicable Privacy Laws. There is no assurance that the safeguards and controls employed by us or the third parties that license us data and de-identification software will be sufficient to prevent a breach of applicable Privacy Laws, or that claims will not be filed against us or these third parties despite such safeguards and controls. Data suppliers might decide to modify or discontinue their services without adequate notice, which may cause additional expense in arranging new services and could harm our reputation, business, operating results and financial condition.
Many Privacy Laws protect more than health-related information, and although they vary by jurisdiction, these laws can extend to employee information, business information, healthcare provider information and other information relating to identifiable individuals. Recently enacted comprehensive state Privacy Laws impose enhanced data privacy obligations for entities that fall within the scope of these laws and create individual privacy rights for residents, including the right to access and delete their personal information, the right to opt-out of certain sharing and sales of their personal information and the right to opt-in to the sharing of sensitive personal information, including information about health and race. These regulations and legislative developments have potentially far-reaching consequences and may require us to modify our data management practices and to incur substantial expense in order to comply. Failure to comply with these laws may result in, among other things, civil and criminal liability, negative publicity, damage to our reputation and liability under contractual provisions. These Privacy Laws may also increase our compliance costs and influence or limit the types of products and services that we can provide. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could impact our ability to provide the same level of service to our customers, require us to modify our offerings or increase our costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition to the increase in states enacting Privacy Laws and the potential for the scope of those laws to materially affect our compliance obligations, continued public policy discussions regarding whether the current standards for the de-identification of health information are sufficient to adequately protect individual patient privacy may present potential risks to our business. These discussions may lead to further restrictions on the use of de-identified data. There can be no assurance that these initiatives or future initiatives will not adversely affect our ability to continue to license the data that informs our current and future information offerings.
Further, regulatory authorities around the world have enacted and are considering a number of legislative proposals concerning privacy and data protection, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act of 2018 and Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Although our business is not currently subject to these global requirements, as we expand we may become subject to the laws of additional jurisdictions, domestic and foreign. It is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our data management practices. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, any increase in the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, applicable legislative and regulatory initiatives may limit our ability to collect, aggregate or use data to inform our information products. Moreover, complying with various global Privacy Laws could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business.
Security breaches and unauthorized use of our systems and information could expose us, our customers, our data suppliers or others to risk of loss.
We rely on information technology systems and networks, and those of third-party vendors, to ensure the continuity of our business operations and to process and store data, including proprietary data, personal data that may be subject to legal protection and de-identified data that may be subject to contractual security obligations. Despite our efforts to protect our systems, cybersecurity threats pose a risk to the security and availability of our systems and networks and the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our data. One or more cyber threats might defeat the measures that we take to anticipate, detect, avoid or mitigate such threats. Certain techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, introduce malicious software, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems may be designed to remain dormant until a triggering event and we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures since techniques change frequently or are not recognized until launched, and because cyberattacks can originate from a wide variety of sources. Although we take steps to manage and avoid these risks and to prevent their recurrence, our preventive and remedial actions may not be successful. Such attacks, whether successful or unsuccessful, could result in our incurring costs related to, for example, rebuilding internal systems, defending against litigation, responding to regulatory inquiries or actions, paying damages or fines, or taking other remedial steps with respect to third parties. Publicity about vulnerabilities and attempted or successful incursions could damage our reputation with clients and data suppliers and reduce demand for our services.
To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss or damage to our data, an inappropriate disclosure of proprietary or sensitive information, an inability to access data sources, or an inability to process data or provide our offerings to our customers, it could cause significant damage to our reputation, affect our relationships with our data suppliers and customers (including loss of data suppliers and customers), lead to claims against us and ultimately harm our business. We may be required to incur significant costs to alleviate, remedy or protect against damage caused by these disruptions or security breaches in the future. We may also face inquiry or increased scrutiny from government agencies as a result of any such disruption or breach. While we have insurance coverage for certain instances of a cyber security breach, our coverage may not be sufficient if we suffer a significant attack or multiple attacks. Any such breach or disruption could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and our reputation as a service provider.
Also, our data suppliers have responsibility for security of their own computer and communications environments. These third parties face risks relating to cyber security similar to ours, which could disrupt their businesses and therefore materially impact ours. Accordingly, we are subject to any flaw in or breaches to their computer and communications systems or those that they operate for us, which could result in a material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial results.
If we fail to perform our services in accordance with contractual requirements, regulatory standards and ethical considerations, we could be subject to significant costs or liability and our reputation could be harmed.
We maintain and process a large amount of data. This data is often accessed through transmissions over public and private networks, including the internet. Despite our physical security measures, implementation of technical controls and contractual precautions designed to identify, detect and prevent the unauthorized access, alteration, use or disclosure of our data, there is no guarantee that these measures or any other measures can provide absolute security. Systems that access or control access to our services and databases may be compromised as a result of criminal activity, including cyber-attacks and other intentional business disruptions, negligence or otherwise. Unauthorized disclosure or use, or loss or corruption, of our data or inability of our users to access our systems could disrupt the operations, subject us to substantial legal liability, result in a material loss of business, cause us to incur significant cost and significantly harm our reputation.
Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock
The market price of our common stock may be volatile, and holders of our common stock could lose a significant portion of their investment due to drops in the market price of our common stock.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile and stockholders may not be able to resell their Forian common stock at or above the price at which they are deemed to have acquired the Forian common stock pursuant to the Business Combination or otherwise due to fluctuations in our market price, including changes in price caused by factors unrelated to our operating performance or prospects.
Specific factors that may have a significant effect on the market price for our common stock include, among others, the following:
| • | changes in stock market analyst recommendations or earnings estimates regarding our common stock, other companies comparable to us or companies in the industries we serve; |
| • | actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results or future prospects; |
| • | reaction to our public announcements; |
| • | strategic actions taken by us or our competitors, such as any contemplated business separation, acquisitions or restructurings; |
| • | adverse conditions in the financial market or general U.S. or international economic conditions, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism and responses to such events; and |
| • | sales of common stock by us, members of our management team or significant stockholders. |
We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock, so any returns will be limited to the value of our stock.
We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. In addition, we may enter into agreements that prohibit us from paying cash dividends without prior written consent from our contracting parties, or which other terms prohibiting or limiting the amount of dividends that may be declared or paid on our common stock. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the appreciation of their stock, which may never occur.
The directors and management of Forian own a significant percentage of our common stock and are able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval.
Our directors and officers beneficially own approximately 45% of our outstanding common stock. These stockholders may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents or approval of any merger, sale of assets or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for Forian common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders. The interests of this group of stockholders may not always coincide with your interests or the interests of other stockholders and they may act in a manner that advances their best interests and not necessarily those of other stockholders, including seeking a premium value for their common stock, and might affect the prevailing market price for our common stock.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
We may seek additional capital through a combination of public and private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could involve certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms unfavorable to us.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock by our existing stockholders in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.
If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
Our bylaws contain forum limitations for certain disputes between us and our stockholders that could limit the ability of stockholders to bring claims against us or our directors, officers and employees in jurisdictions preferred by stockholders.
Our bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative lawsuit brought on our behalf, (ii) any lawsuit against our current or former directors, officers, employees, stockholders or agents asserting a breach of a duty (including any fiduciary duty) owed by any such current or former director, officer, stockholder, employee or agent to us or our stockholders, (iii) any lawsuit asserting a claim against us or any of our current or former director, officer, employee, stockholder or agent arising out of or relating to any provision of the DGCL, our charter or bylaws (each, as in effect from time to time), or (iv) any lawsuit asserting a claim against us or any of our current or former directors, officers, employees, stockholders or agents governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the State of Delaware. The foregoing forum provisions do not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act, or the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Our bylaws also provide that, unless Forian consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. The foregoing forum provisions may prevent or limit a stockholder’s ability to file a lawsuit in a judicial forum that it prefers for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees, stockholders or agents, which may discourage such lawsuits, make them more difficult or expensive to pursue, and result in outcomes that are less favorable to such stockholders than outcomes that may have been attainable in other jurisdictions, although though stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
There is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such a forum selection provision as written in connection with claims arising under the Securities Act because Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act claims.
In addition, notwithstanding the inclusion of the foregoing forum provisions in the bylaws, courts may find the foregoing forum provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable in certain cases that the foregoing forum provisions purport to address, including claims brought under the Securities Act. If this were to occur in any particular lawsuit, Forian may incur additional costs associated with resolving such lawsuit in other jurisdictions or resolving lawsuits involving similar claims in multiple jurisdictions, all of which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the closing of the Business Combination, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which requires the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates to exceed $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to not “opt out” of this exemption from complying with new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will adopt new or revised accounting standards at the time private companies adopt the new or revised accounting standard and will do so until such time that we either (i) irrevocably elect to “opt out” of such extended transition period or (ii) no longer qualify as an emerging growth company.
Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company,” which would allow us to continue to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our periodic reports and proxy statements. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
We may be at an increased risk of securities class action litigation.
Historically, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. If we were to be sued, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.
Item 1B. | Unresolved Staff Comments |
None.
We believe that a strong cybersecurity program is vital to effective cybersecurity risk management. Since our formation, we have prioritized the implementation and maintenance of robust cybersecurity measures to help safeguard sensitive information and our business operations and to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our information systems and the nonpublic information transmitted, processed and stored on our systems or those of third-party service providers.
Our Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing our cybersecurity program and includes members with diverse skills and experience, including risk management, technology and finance, which the Board considers to be helpful in overseeing cybersecurity risks. Our Board of Directors regularly assesses material developments with respect to the risks from cybersecurity threats in connection with its evaluation of our business operations on a quarterly basis. Our Board of Directors has established oversight mechanisms that are intended to promote effective governance in managing risks associated with cybersecurity threats in recognition of the significance these threats present to our operational integrity and the information stored on our and our third-party providers’ information systems.
Our Vice President of Data and Process Enablement provides management with information regarding our cybersecurity program and potential cybersecurity threats or incidents, which information is then provided to our Board of Directors as required. In addition, our Vice President of Data and Process Enablement is empowered to escalate material cybersecurity threats or incidents and strategic risk management decisions to the Board of Directors so that they can provide appropriate oversight and guidance on these critical cybersecurity issues within the context of our overall strategic objectives and business operations.
Our management team is responsible for ensuring that we have appropriate policies and procedures in place to help identify, measure, monitor and control potentially significant business risks. In connection with these responsibilities, our management team meets regularly to assess our information technology policies and review the architecture of our information system infrastructure in the management of cybersecurity related risks to our business.
Our management works closely with their information technology and security counterparts to evaluate and address cybersecurity threats in alignment with our business objectives and operational needs. We also maintain an enterprise-wide information systems security program that applies to all employees. All employees are expected to assist in safeguarding our information systems and to assist in the discovery and reporting of cybersecurity incidents. This program is intended to identify and assess internal and external cyber and information security risks that may threaten the security or integrity of nonpublic information stored on our and our third-party providers’ information systems from unauthorized access, use or other malicious acts.
Additionally, our Vice President of Data and Process Enablement plays an important role in the prevention, detection, mitigation, and remediation of cybersecurity incidents and in informing management and our Board of Directors on cybersecurity risks and issues. Regular annual assessments include the evaluation of (a) the confidentiality of nonpublic information and the integrity and security of our information systems; (b) cybersecurity policies and procedures; (c) material cybersecurity risks; (d) the effectiveness of our cybersecurity program; and (e) any material cybersecurity incidents.
We regularly engage with a range of external experts, including cybersecurity assessors, risk management professionals and other consultants, in evaluating and testing our risk management systems given the complexity and evolving nature of cybersecurity threats. These engagements enable us to leverage specialized knowledge and insights and assist with our goal of maintaining cybersecurity strategies and processes that are consistent with industry best practices.
We are aware of the risks associated with third-party service providers and have implemented policies and processes to oversee and assist with managing these risks. Our management team evaluates third-party providers before engagement and monitors these providers on an ongoing basis commensurate with the level of risk and complexity of the relationship with, and the activities performed by, such providers. This approach is designed to help identify and mitigate risks related to data breaches or other cybersecurity incidents originating from third-parties in order to better protect our assets and data.
We have not encountered cybersecurity threats or incidents that have materially and adversely affected, or are reasonably likely to materially and adversely affect, our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. Notwithstanding the defensive approach we take to cybersecurity, we may not be successful in preventing or mitigating a cybersecurity incident that could have a material adverse effect on us. While we maintain cybersecurity insurance, the costs related to cybersecurity threats, incidents or disruptions may not be fully insured. For more information regarding the risks we face from cybersecurity threats, see Part I, Item 1A, “
Risk Factors –
Security breaches and unauthorized use of our systems and information could expose us, our customers, our data suppliers or others to risk of loss.”
Our headquarters are in Newtown, Pennsylvania. We currently lease additional office space in Boston, Massachusetts. As of the closing of the BioTrack Transaction, we no longer lease office spaces in Florida, Colorado or Washington. We believe our currently leased space is sufficient to meet our current needs, and that any additional space we may require will be available on commercially reasonable terms.
From time to time we may be involved in claims that arise during the ordinary course of business. For any matters where management currently believes it is probable that we will incur a loss and that the probable loss or range of loss can be reasonably estimated, we record reserves in the consolidated financial statements based on our best estimate of such loss. In other instances, because of the uncertainties related to either the probable outcome or the amount or range of loss, management is unable to make a reasonable estimate of a liability, if any. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can be costly and time consuming, and it can divert management’s attention from important business matters and initiatives, negatively impacting our overall operations. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not currently have any pending litigation to which we are a party or to which our property is subject that we believe to be material, except for the below.
Audet v. Green Tree International, et. al.
On February 14, 2020, John Audet filed a complaint in 15th Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida against multiple parties, including Green Tree International (“GTI”), an indirect subsidiary of the Company, claiming that he owned 10% of GTI. The complaint seeks unspecified monetary damages equivalent to the value a 10% shareholder of GTI would have received in the subsequent Helix and Forian transactions, along with an equitable accounting and constructive trust to determine if Audet suffered any loss of profit distributions. On March 8, 2024, the parties entered into a Settlement Agreement and General Release, which included a release of GTI, the Company and its subsidiaries and all related parties. The parties filed a Joint Stipulation to Dismiss with Prejudice with respect to this matter on March 18, 2024. The Court entered a Final Order of Dismissal with Prejudice with respect to this matter on March 27, 2024.
Grant Whitus et al. v. Forian Inc., Zachary Venegas and Scott Ogur
On July 30, 2021, four former Helix employees filed a lawsuit in the Arapahoe County, Colorado District Court against the Company and Helix’s former managers asserting claims of breach of contract, promissory estoppel, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, civil theft and conversion, fraudulent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, and unjust enrichment / quantum meruit, all relating to the plaintiffs’ claims that they were promised equity interest in Helix or compensation that they never received. The original complaint was never served, and in November 2021, the plaintiffs filed and served an amended complaint adding a fifth plaintiff and seeking over $27.5 million in damages as well as attorneys’ fees and costs. The Company removed the matter to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in December 2021, and both the Company and the individual defendants filed motions to dismiss on January 20, 2022. Plaintiffs subsequently amended their complaint on April 21, 2022, adding Helix TCS LLC and Helix Technologies, Inc. as defendants and advancing additional claims for breach of fiduciary duty and violation of the Colorado Wage Claims Act. The Company and the individual defendants filed separate motions to dismiss on June 1, 2022, which were granted in part and denied in part by the Court on February 28, 2023. Plaintiffs supplemented their complaint on March 3, 2023, consistent with the Court’s ruling. Discovery has been completed, and dispositive motions are currently being briefed. The Company believes the lawsuit is wholly without merit and intends to defend vigorously against the claims in the lawsuit.
Item 4. | Mine Safety Disclosure |
Not applicable.
PART II
Item 5. | Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities |
Market Information
Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “FORA”.
As of March 27, 2024, there were approximately 307 holders of record of shares of our common stock. This number does not reflect the beneficial holders of our common stock who hold shares in street name through brokerage accounts or other nominees.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to support our operations and finance the growth and development of our business. We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Period | | (a) Total Number of Shares (or Unit) Purchased | | | (b) Average Price Paid per Share (or Unit) | | | (c) Total Number of Shares (or Units) Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | | | (d) Maximum Number (for Approximate Dollar Value) of Shares (or Units) that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs | |
October 1, 2023 through October 31, 2023 | | | 1,604,676 | | | $ | 2.15 | | | | - | | | | - | |
November 1, 2023 through November 30, 2023 | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | |
December 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | | | | - | |
Item 7. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
Cautionary Statement for Forward-Looking Information
The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the notes to those statements that are included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our discussion includes forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties, including our plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and those set forth under “Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements.” Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those set forth under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We use words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “continuing,” “ongoing,” “expect,” “believe,” “intend,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements.
Overview
Forian Inc. (the “Company,” “Forian,” “we” or “us”) was incorporated in Delaware on October 15, 2020 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Medical Outcomes Research Analytics, LLC (“MOR”) for the purpose of effecting the business combination with Helix Technologies, Inc. (“Helix”). Forian provides a unique suite of data management capabilities and proprietary information and analytics solutions to optimize and measure operational, clinical and financial performance for customers within the healthcare and life sciences industries.
The business combination with Helix was accounted for as a reverse acquisition using the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 805, Business Combinations (“ASC 805”), with the Company deemed the accounting acquirer for financial reporting purposes. Helix provided software and analytics solutions to state governments and licensed operators within the cannabis industry, primarily through its subsidiary, Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc. (“BioTrack”), until its sale of BioTrack in 2023.
On February 10, 2023, Helix completed the sale of 100% of the outstanding capital stock of BioTrack; on March 3, 2022, Helix completed the sale of the assets of its security monitoring business; and on October 31, 2022, Helix completed the sale of 100% of the outstanding membership interest of its Engeni LLC subsidiary (these businesses are referred to collectively as the “Helix Businesses”). As a result of these transactions, Helix has no remaining active operations and the Company no longer provides products or services to the cannabis industry. The results of the Helix Businesses are presented as discontinued operations in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and, as such, have been excluded from continuing operations. Further, the Company reclassified the assets and liabilities of the Helix Businesses to discontinued operations in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2022. The Company will continue to provide analytics solutions to customers within the healthcare and life sciences industries.
Financial Operations Overview
The following discussion sets forth certain components of our statements of operations as well as factors that impact those items.
Revenues
Revenues are derived from licensing fees for the Company’s proprietary information products. The Company recognizes revenues from information products as performance obligations under customer contracts are satisfied. Services revenues are primarily from contracts with government agencies and revenue is recognized upon completion of the various milestones within the contract. Sales in 2023 by Country as a percentage of total sales were: United States, 89%; Canada, 4% and Australia, 7%.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues is generated from direct costs associated with the delivery of our products and services to our customers. The cost of revenues relates primarily to labor costs, information licensing, hosting and infrastructure costs and client service team costs. We record the cost of direct fulfillment as cost of revenues.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of employee-related expenses, subcontractor and third-party consulting fees and hosted infrastructure costs. The Company continues to focus research and development efforts on adding new features and applications to our product offerings.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expense is primarily salaries and related expenses, including commissions, for our sales, marketing and product management staff. Marketing program costs are also recorded as sales and marketing expense including advertising, market research and events (such as trade shows, corporate communications, brand building, etc.). The Company plans to continue investing in marketing and sales by expanding selling and marketing staff, building brand awareness, attracting new clients and sponsoring additional marketing events. The timing of these marketing events may affect marketing costs in any particular quarter.
General and Administrative Expenses
General and administrative expenses include salaries, benefits and other costs of departments serving administrative functions, such as executives, finance and accounting and human resources. In addition, general and administrative expense includes non-personnel costs, such as professional fees, legal fees, accounting and finance advisory fees and other supporting corporate expenses not allocated to cost of revenues, product and development or sales and marketing.
Depreciation and Amortization Expenses
Depreciation and amortization relate to long lived assets used in our business. Depreciation expense relates primarily to furniture and equipment and computers.
Results of Operations For the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022
The following table summarizes the results of operations for the periods indicated:
| | For the Years Ended December 31, | |
| | 2023 | | | 2022 | |
Revenues | | $ | 20,481,330 | | | $ | 16,418,141 | |
Costs and Expenses | | | | | | | | |
Cost of revenues | | | 5,477,032 | | | | 5,049,701 | |
Research and development | | | 1,407,580 | | | | 4,009,769 | |
Sales and marketing | | | 4,884,267 | | | | 3,949,026 | |
General and administrative | | | 13,633,193 | | | | 16,879,858 | |
Separation expenses | | | 599,832 | | | | 5,417,043 | |
Depreciation and amortization | | | 74,438 | | | | 65,554 | |
Operating loss from continuing operations | | $ | (5,595,012 | ) | | $ | (18,952,810 | ) |
Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022
Revenues
Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $20,481,330, which represented an increase of $4,063,189, compared to revenues of $16,418,141 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase is primarily due to increased sales of information products to new and existing customers in the healthcare industry.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023 was $5,477,032, which represented an increase of $427,331 compared to total cost of revenues of $5,049,701 for the year ended December 31, 2022. Cost of revenues increased at a lower rate than revenue, as many data infrastructure costs are fixed or semi-variable in nature. As a result, gross profit as a percentage of revenues increased to 73% for the for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to 69% for the same period in 2022.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $1,407,580, which represented a decrease of $2,602,189 compared to total research and development expenses of $4,009,769 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease is due to lower personnel, subcontracted labor and infrastructure costs related to new product development, which resulted from the Company’s shift in focus to the healthcare analytics market.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $4,884,267, which represented an increase of $935,241 compared to total sales and marketing expenses of $3,949,026 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase is due to higher salaries, commissions and expenses related to scaling the Company’s products.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $13,633,193, which represented a decrease of $3,246,665 compared to general and administrative expenses of $16,879,858 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease is primarily due to lower personnel costs, consulting and insurance costs.
Separation Expenses
Effective February 10, 2023, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Class II member of the Board of Directors resigned. In connection with the resignation, the Company entered into a separation agreement providing for, among other things, (i) salary continuation for 12 months and (ii) accelerated vesting of 106,656 unvested restricted shares of the Company common stock. Separation expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023 include $250,000 related to the salary continuation and $349,832 related to the accelerated vesting of stock.
On March 2, 2022, the Company and two advisors mutually agreed not to renew special advisor agreements between the advisors and the Company. The advisors were the former chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Helix who were granted stock options in conjunction with their respective advisory agreements that were entered into upon the completion of the Helix acquisition. The services provided by these advisors included transition planning and consulting services related to integration of the business operations of Helix and Forian. Per the terms of the agreements, options to purchase 366,166 shares of common stock continued to vest according to their original terms through March 2, 2023, and unvested stock options to purchase 732,332 shares of common stock were forfeited. The advisors were not required to perform services to the Company beyond the non-renewal date of March 2, 2022. As a result, the Company recorded $5,417,043 of stock compensation expense during March 2022 related to the options that vested through March 2, 2023.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K the Company has provided a non-GAAP measure, which is defined as financial information that has not been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”). The non-GAAP financial measure provided herein is earnings before interest, taxes, non-cash and other items (“Adjusted EBITDA”), which should be viewed as supplemental to, and not as an alternative for, net income or loss calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP (referred to below as “net loss”).
Adjusted EBITDA is used by management as an additional measure of the Company’s performance for purposes of business decision-making, including developing budgets, managing expenditures and evaluating potential acquisitions or divestitures. Period-to-period comparisons of Adjusted EBITDA help management identify additional trends in the Company’s financial results that may not be shown solely by period-to-period comparisons of net loss. In addition, management may use Adjusted EBITDA in the incentive compensation programs applicable to some employees in order to evaluate the Company’s performance. Management recognizes that Adjusted EBITDA has inherent limitations because of the excluded items, particularly those items that are recurring in nature. In order to compensate for those limitations, management also reviews the specific items that are excluded from Adjusted EBITDA, but included in net loss, as well as trends in those items contained in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Management believes that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors in their analysis of the Company’s results for reasons similar to those believed by management, Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA helps facilitate investor understanding of decisions made by management in light of the performance metrics used in making those decisions. As more fully described below, management believes that providing Adjusted EBITDA, together with a reconciliation of net loss to Adjusted EBITDA, helps investors make comparisons between the Company and other companies that may have different capital structures, different effective income tax rates and tax attributes, different capitalized asset values and/or different forms of employee compensation. However, Adjusted EBITDA is not intended as a substitute for comparisons based on net loss. In making any comparisons to other companies, investors should be aware that companies use different non-GAAP measures to evaluate their financial performance. Investors should pay close attention to the specific definition being used and to the reconciliation between such measures and the corresponding U.S. GAAP measures provided by each company under applicable SEC rules.
The following is an explanation of the items excluded from Adjusted EBITDA but included in net loss from continuing operations:
| • | Depreciation and Amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense is a non-cash expense relating to capital expenditures and intangible assets arising from acquisitions that are expensed on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful life of the related assets. The Company excludes depreciation and amortization expense from Adjusted EBITDA because management believes that (i) the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of the business operations and (ii) such expenses can vary significantly between periods as a result of new acquisitions and full amortization of previously acquired tangible and intangible assets. Accordingly, management believes that this exclusion assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons of operating performance. Investors should note that the use of tangible and intangible assets contributed to revenue in the periods presented and will contribute to future revenue generation and should also note that such expense will recur in future periods. |
| • | Stock-Based Compensation Expense. Stock-based compensation expense is a non-cash expense arising from the grant of stock-based awards to employees. Management believes that excluding the effect of stock-based compensation from Adjusted EBITDA assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons in the Company’s operating performance because (i) the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of business operations and (ii) such expenses can vary significantly between periods as a result of the timing of grants of new stock-based awards, including grants in connection with acquisitions. Stock-based compensation expense includes certain separation expenses related to the vesting of stock options. Effective February 10, 2023, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Class II member of the Board of Directors resigned. In connection with the resignation, the Company entered into a separation agreement providing for, among other things, accelerated vesting of 106,656 unvested restricted shares of the Company common stock. Stock based compensation expense for 2023 includes $349,832 related to the accelerated vesting of stock, which is recognized in separation expenses in the consolidated statements of operations. On March 2, 2022, the Company and the former chief executive officer and the former chief financial officer of Helix mutually agreed not to renew special advisor agreements. Per the terms of the agreements, options to purchase 366,166 shares of common stock continued to vest according to their original terms through March 2, 2023, and unvested stock options to purchase 732,332 shares of common stock were forfeited. The advisors were not required to perform services to the Company beyond the non-renewal date of March 2, 2022. As a result, management recorded $5,417,043 of stock compensation expenses during March 2022 related to the options that vested through the twelve months ending March 2, 2023, which is recognized in separation expenses in the consolidated statements of operations. Management believes that excluding stock-based compensation from Adjusted EBITDA assists management and investors in making meaningful comparisons between the Company’s operating performance and the operating performance of other companies that may use different forms of employee compensation or different valuation methodologies for their stock-based compensation. Investors should note that stock-based compensation is a key incentive offered to employees whose efforts contributed to the operating results in the periods presented and are expected to contribute to operating results in future periods. Investors should also note that such expenses will recur in the future. |
| • | Interest Expense. Interest expense is associated with the convertible notes entered into on September 1, 2021 in the amount of $24,000,000 (the “Notes”). The Notes are due on September 1, 2025, and accrue interest at an annual rate of 3.5%. Management excludes interest expense from Adjusted EBITDA (i) because it is not directly attributable to the performance of business operations and, accordingly, its exclusion assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons of operating performance and (ii) to assist management and investors in making comparisons to companies with different capital structures. Investors should note that interest expense associated with the Notes will recur in future periods. |
| • | Investment Income. Investment income is associated with the level of marketable debt securities and other interest-bearing accounts in which we invest. Interest and investment income can vary over time due to changes in interest rates and level of investments. Management excludes interest and investment income from Adjusted EBITDA (i) because these items are not directly attributable to the performance of business operations and, accordingly, their exclusion assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons of operating performance and (ii) to assist management and investors in making comparisons to companies with different capital structures. Investors should note that interest income will recur in future periods. |
| • | Other Items. The Company engages in other activities and transactions that can impact net income (loss). In the periods reported, these other items included (i) change in fair value of warrant liability relating to warrants assumed in the acquisition of Helix; (ii) gain on sale of investment relating to the sale of a minority equity interest; (iii) gain on debt redemption which relates to a gain on the early retirement of a portion of the convertible notes (for further discussion, refer to “Note 10 – Warrant Liability” and “Note 12 – Convertible Notes” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K) and (iv) litigation related expenses. Litigation related expenses relate to certain litigation related to entities acquired in the Helix merger (for further discussion, refer to “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” and “Note 18 – Commitments and Contingencies” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K). Management excludes these other items from Adjusted EBITDA because management believes these activities or transactions are not directly attributable to the performance of business operations and, accordingly, their exclusion assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons of operating performance. Investors should note that some of these other items may recur in future periods. |
| • | Severance expenses. Effective February 10, 2023, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Class II member of the Board of Directors resigned. In connection with the resignation, the Company entered into a separation agreement providing for, among other things, (i) salary continuation for twelve months and (ii) accelerated vesting of 106,656 unvested restricted shares of the Company common stock. Severance expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023 includes $250,000 related to the salary continuation. Managements excludes these other items from Adjusted EBITDA because management believes these costs are not recurring and not directly attributable to the performance of business operations and, accordingly, their exclusion assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons of operating performance. In addition, the Company records normal course of business severance expenses in the operating expense line item related to our employees’ activities. |
| • | Income tax expense. Management excludes the income tax expense from Adjusted EBITDA (i) because management believes that the income tax expense is not directly attributable to the underlying performance of business operations and, accordingly, its exclusion assists management and investors in making period-to-period comparisons of operating performance and (ii) to assist management and investors in making comparisons to companies with different tax attributes. |
Limitations on the use of non-GAAP financial measures
There are limitations to using non-GAAP financial measures because non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures provided by other companies.
The non-GAAP financial measures are limited in value because they exclude certain items that may have a material impact upon reported financial results. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by management about which items are adjusted to calculate non-GAAP financial measures. Management compensates for these limitations by analyzing current and future results on a U.S. GAAP basis as well as a non-GAAP basis and also by providing U.S. GAAP measures in the Company’s public disclosures.
Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Management encourages investors and others to review the Company’s financial information in its entirety, not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate the business and to view non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures.
The following table reconciles the specific items excluded from U.S. GAAP metrics in the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA for the periods shown below:
| | For the Years Ended December 31, | |
| | 2023 | | | 2022 | |
Revenue | | $ | 20,481,330 | | | $ | 16,418,141 | |
| | | | | | | | |
Net Income (loss) from continuing operations | | | 1,733,430 | | | | (19,191,990 | ) |
| | | | | | | | |
Depreciation and amortization | | | 74,438 | | | | 65,554 | |
Stock based compensation expense | | | 6,573,969 | | | | 11,920,575 | |
Change in fair value of warrant liability | | | (3,984 | ) | | | (364,687 | ) |
Interest and investment income | | | (2,327,974 | ) | | | (266,213 | ) |
Interest expense | | | 834,785 | | | | 846,100 | |
Gain on sale of investment | | | (5,805,858 | ) | | | — | |
Gain on debt redemption | | | (111,151 | ) | | | — | |
Severance expense | | | 250,000 | | | | — | |
Litigation related expenses | | | 1,032,985 | | | | 258,872 | |
Income tax expense | | | 85,740 | | | | 23,980 | |
| | | | | | | | |
Adjusted EBITDA - continuing operations | | $ | 2,336,380 | | | $ | (6,707,809 | ) |
Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022
Adjusted EBITDA - continuing operations
Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2023 was $2,336,380 compared to a loss of $6,707,809 for the years ended December 31, 2022, an increase of $9,044,189. The increase is primarily due to higher revenues and the lower research and development and general and administrative expenses discussed above, as well as a decrease in stock based compensation.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since the Company’s inception in 2020, most of the Company’s resources have been devoted to building research and development, sales, marketing and management infrastructure, resulting in net losses and negative cash flows from operations through 2022. However, the Company has generated net income of $11,106,687, net cash from operating activities of $728,818 and Adjusted EBITDA of $2,336,380 for the year ended December 31, 2023 resulting from higher revenues from its healthcare information business and lower operating expenses from the streamlining of its operations after the divestiture of BioTrack. Historically, the Company’s operations have been financed primarily from cash proceeds received from equity issuances and the issuance of the Notes. On February 10, 2023, the Company sold BioTrack for $30,000,000 consisting of $20,000,000 in cash at closing and twelve unconditional monthly payments aggregating $10,000,000 thereafter. On July 21, 2023, the Company sold a minority equity interest in a customer for cash proceeds of $5,805,858 and future contingent earnout payments aggregating up to $3,600,000 in 2025 and 2026. These transactions have provided additional cash and liquidity to the Company. As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s balance of cash and marketable securities aggregated $48,339,575 and outstanding principal and accrued interest on the Notes, due September 1, 2025, aggregated $24,870,181. The Company expects to continue to fund its operations and potential future acquisitions through a combination of cash flow generated from operating activities, available cash and marketable securities, debt financing and/or additional equity issuances.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes selected information about sources and uses of cash and cash equivalents for the periods presented:
| | For the Years Ended December 31, | |
| | 2023 | | | 2022 | |
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities - continuing operations | | $ | 787,893 | | | $ | (6,071,014 | ) |
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities - continuing operations | | | 7,119,943 | | | | (4,797,267 | ) |
Net cash used in financing activities - continuing operations | | | (4,601,518 | ) | | | (100,528 | ) |
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents - continuing operations | | $ | 3,306,318 | | | $ | (10,968,809 | ) |
Net Cash Provided By (Used in) Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities increased to $787,893 for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to cash used in operating activities of $6,071,014 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase was primarily the result of an increased Adjusted EBITDA, compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss in the prior year, partially offset by a decrease in deferred revenue of $2,111,460, a decrease of $5,346,605 in stock-based compensation, an increase of $2,322,312 in contract assets, and other working capital accounts related to the timing of cash flows from operations.
Net Cash Provided By (Used in) Investing Activities
Net cash provided by investing activities of $7,119,943 increased by $11,917,210 for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to cash used in investing activities of $4,797,267 for the year ended December 31, 2022. This is primarily the result of an increase in net purchases of marketable securities of $144,077,731, offset by an increase in cash received from the sale of discontinued operations of $24,413,595, the sale of marketable securities of $121,053,714, and proceeds from the sale of investment of $5,805,858.
Net Cash Used in Financing Activities
Net cash used in financing activities of $4,601,518 for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $4,500,990 compared to cash used in financing activities of $100,528 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase was primarily driven by the repurchase of common stock in the amount of $3,450,053, $960,000 cash used to redeem convertible securities, and changes in cash used to fund income tax withholding payments on vesting of employee restricted stock which was settled by surrendering shares to the Company.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Management’s discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations are based upon the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements that have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“US GAAP”). The preparation of these financial statements requires the Company to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities.
On an on-going basis, the Company evaluates its estimates, including those related to revenues, stock-based compensation, income taxes, contingencies and litigation.
The Company bases its estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The Company believes the following critical accounting policies and estimates used in the preparation of its Consolidated Financial Statements affect its more significant judgments and estimates.
The Company utilizes judgement to determine whether performance obligations in a contract are distinct and whether they are delivered at a point in time or over time. Judgement is also necessary to assess revenue recognized under contingent revenue arrangements.
Under the fair value recognition provision, stock-based compensation cost is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized as expense on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period. We make certain assumptions in order to value and expense our various share-based payment awards.
The Company utilizes judgement and estimates in assessing the need for the valuation allowance related to deferred tax assets, including net operating loss carry-forwards. In the event the Company were to determine that it would not be able to realize all or part of its net deferred tax assets, an adjustment to the deferred tax assets would be charged to income in the period such determination was made.
Discontinued Operations
In accordance with ASC 205-20 Discontinued Operations, the results of the Helix Businesses are presented as discontinued operations in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and, as such, have been excluded from continuing operations. Further, the Company reclassified the assets and liabilities of the Helix Businesses as assets and liabilities of discontinued operations in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2022, and recorded a gain on the sale of discontinued operations, net of tax during the year ended December 31, 2023. The Company evaluated the divestitures of the Helix Business in accordance with ASC 205-20 and determined that transactions in aggregate represented a strategic shift that had a major impact on the Company. Accounting for discontinued operations and the related gain on sale of discontinued operations requires us to make estimates and judgements regarding the allocation of costs and net asset values to discontinued operations.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13—Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326) – Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. This standard is intended to improve financial reporting by requiring earlier recognition of credit losses on financing receivables and other financial assets in scope, such as trade receivables. The amendment is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022. The Company adopted the update effective January 1, 2023 and the adoption of the standard did not have a material impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements.
In October 2021, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2021-08, Accounting for Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities from Contracts with Customers (“ASU 2021-08”). The FASB issued ASU 2021-08 to improve the accounting for acquired revenue contracts with customers in a business combination by addressing diversity in practice and inconsistency related to recognition of an acquired contract liability and payment terms and their effect on subsequent revenue recognized by the acquirer. ASU 2021-08 was adopted on January 1, 2023. The adoption of ASU 2021-08 did not have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.
In December 2023, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures (“ASU 2023-09”). ASU 2023-09 requires additional disclosures related to rate reconciliation, income taxes paid, and other disclosures. Under ASU 2023-09, for each annual period presented, public entities are required to (1) disclose specific categories in the tabular rate reconciliation and (2) provide additional information for reconciling items that meet a quantitative threshold. In addition, ASU 2023-09 requires all reporting entities to disclose on an annual basis the amount of income taxes paid disaggregated by federal, state, and foreign taxes as well as the amount of income taxes paid by individual jurisdiction. ASU 2023-09 is effective for public business entities for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024 and can be applied on a prospective basis with an option to apply the standard retrospectively. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of ASU 2023-09 on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures
The Company has considered all other recently issued accounting pronouncements and does not believe the adoption of such pronouncements will have a material impact on our financial statements.
JOBS Act
On April 5, 2012, the JOBS Act was signed into law. The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, reduce certain reporting requirements for an “emerging growth company.” As an “emerging growth company,” the Company is electing to take advantage of the extended transition period afforded by the JOBS Act for the implementation of new or revised accounting standards.
Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, as an “emerging growth company,” the Company is not required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis), and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation-related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the chief executive officer’s compensation to median employee compensation. These exemptions will apply until the fifth anniversary of the business combination or until we no longer meet the requirements for being an “emerging growth company,” whichever occurs first.
Item 7A. | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk |
This item is not required.