pursuant to this subparagraph, the Purchaser Party will promptly return all sums that had been advanced pursuant hereto. The indemnity agreements contained herein shall be in addition to any cause of action or similar right of any Purchaser Party against the Company or others and any liabilities the Company may be subject to pursuant to law.
4.9 Reservation of Common Stock.
(a) As of the date hereof, the Company has reserved and the Company shall continue to reserve and keep available at all times, free of preemptive rights, a sufficient number of shares of Common Stock for the purpose of enabling the Company to issue the Shares pursuant to this Agreement, Pre-Funded Warrant Shares pursuant to any exercise of the Pre-Funded Warrants, and Warrant Shares pursuant to any exercise of the Warrants.
(b) The Company covenants that, promptly following the Closing Date, the Company shall take all corporate action necessary to call a meeting of its stockholders (the “Stockholders Meeting”), which shall occur no later than May 1, 2024, for the purpose of seeking approval of the Company’s stockholders (the “Stockholder Approval”) with respect to the issuance of the Class B Warrant Shares issuable upon exercise of the Class B Warrants. In connection therewith, the Company will file with the Commission on or about March 15, 2024 proxy materials (including a proxy statement and form of proxy) for use at the Stockholders Meeting and, after receiving and promptly responding to any comments of the Commission thereon, shall as soon as reasonably practicable mail such proxy materials to the stockholders of the Company (unless the Company elects to utilize the Commission’s Notice and Access for delivering proxy materials to stockholders). The Company will comply with Section 14(a) of the Exchange Act and the rules promulgated thereunder in relation to any proxy statement (as amended or supplemented, the “Proxy Statement”) and any form of proxy to be sent or made available to the Company’s stockholders in connection with the Stockholders Meeting, and the Proxy Statement shall not, on the date that the Proxy Statement (or any amendment thereof or supplement thereto) is first mailed or made available to the Company’s stockholders or at the time of the Stockholders Meeting, contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state any material fact necessary in order to make the statements made therein not false or misleading, or omit to state any material fact necessary to correct any statement in any earlier communication with respect to the solicitation of proxies or the Stockholders Meeting that has become false or misleading. If the Company should discover at any time prior to the Stockholders Meeting, any event relating to the Company or the Subsidiary or any of their respective affiliates, officers or directors that is required to be set forth in a supplement or amendment to the Proxy Statement, in addition to the Company’s obligations under the Exchange Act, the Company will promptly inform the Placement Agents. The Company’s Board of Directors shall recommend to the Company’s stockholders that the stockholders vote in favor of the proposals for Stockholder Approval at the Stockholders Meeting and take all commercially reasonable action (including, without limitation, the hiring of a proxy solicitation firm of nationally recognized standing) to solicit the Stockholder Approval. If the Company does not obtain Stockholder Approval at the Stockholders Meeting, the Company shall call a meeting every three (3) months thereafter to seek stockholder approval until the date that stockholder approval is obtained.
4.10 Listing of Common Stock. The Company hereby agrees to use commercially reasonable best efforts to maintain the listing or quotation of the Common Stock on the Trading Market on which it is currently listed, and concurrently with the Closing, the Company shall have applied to list or quote all of the Shares, Warrant Shares and Pre-Funded Warrant Shares on such Trading Market and promptly secure the listing of all of the Shares, Pre-Funded Warrant Shares and Warrant Shares on such Trading Market except in the case of the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the Company, a merger or reorganization of the Company with one or more other entities in which the Company is not the surviving entity or any transaction or series of related transactions as a result of which any person (together with its Affiliates) acquires the outstanding securities of the Company. The Company further agrees, if the Company applies to have the Common Stock traded on any other Trading Market, it will then include in such application all of the Shares, Pre-Funded Warrant Shares and Warrant Shares, and will take such other action as is necessary to cause all of the Shares, Pre-Funded Warrant Shares and Warrant Shares to be listed or quoted on such other Trading Market as promptly as possible. The Company will then take all action reasonably necessary to continue the listing and trading of its Common Stock on a Trading Market and will comply in all material respects with the Company’s reporting, filing and other obligations under the bylaws or rules of the Trading Market. The Company agrees to maintain the eligibility of the Common Stock for electronic transfer through the Depository Trust Company or another established clearing corporation, including, without limitation, by timely payment of fees to the Depository Trust Company or such other established clearing corporation in connection with such electronic transfer.
4.11 Subsequent Equity Sales
(a) From the date hereof until the later of (i) ninety (90) days after the Closing Date (the “Lock-Up Period”) or (ii) the date that the Stockholder Approval is obtained, neither the Company nor any Subsidiary shall (i) issue, enter into any agreement to issue or announce the issuance or proposed issuance of any shares of Common Stock or Common Stock Equivalents or (ii) file any registration statement or amendment or supplement thereto, other than the Prospectus, filing a registration statement on Form S-4 or Form S-8 in connection with any employee benefit plan or the filing of one or more amendments to the Company’s resale registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-276280).
(b) From the date hereof until one year after the Closing Date, the Company shall be prohibited from effecting or entering into an agreement to effect any issuance by the Company or any of its Subsidiaries of Common Stock or Common Stock Equivalents (or a combination of units thereof) involving a Variable Rate Transaction. “Variable Rate Transaction” means a transaction in which the Company (i) issues or sells any debt or equity securities that are convertible into, exchangeable or exercisable for, or include the right to receive additional shares of Common Stock either (A) at a conversion price, exercise price or exchange rate or other price that is based upon and/or varies with the trading prices of or quotations for the shares of Common Stock at any time after the initial issuance of such debt or equity securities, or (B) with a conversion, exercise or exchange price that is subject to being reset at some future date after the initial issuance of such debt or equity security or upon the occurrence of specified or contingent events directly or indirectly related to the business of the Company or the market for the Common Stock or (ii) enters into, or effects a transaction under, any agreement, including, but not limited to, an equity line of credit or an “at-the-market offering”, whereby the Company may issue securities at a future determined price regardless of whether shares pursuant to such agreement have actually been issued and regardless of whether such agreement is subsequently canceled; provided that, a Variable Rate Transaction shall not include (x) the issuance of shares of our common stock issuable upon exercise of warrants issued in a private placement completed in December 2023 and (y) the 2,221,880 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants in a form substantially identical to the Class B Warrants that the Company has agreed to issue to the investor in the Company’s registered direct and concurrent private placement that closed on December 8, 2023 in consideration of the investor’s waiver for the Offering of its right to prohibit variable rate transactions, with an exercise price to be equal to 150% of the offering price per Unit sold in the Offering, which issuance shall be subject to stockholder approval. Any Purchaser shall be entitled to obtain injunctive relief against the Company to preclude any such issuance, which remedy shall be in addition to any right to collect damages.
(c) Notwithstanding the foregoing, this Section 4.11 shall not apply in respect of an Exempt Issuance, except that no Variable Rate Transaction shall be an Exempt Issuance. “Exempt Issuance” means the issuance of (a) the securities hereunder; (b) shares of Common Stock or options to employees, officers or directors of the Company pursuant to any stock or option plan duly adopted for such purpose, by a majority of the non-employee members of the Board of Directors or a majority of the members of a committee of non-employee directors established for such purpose for services rendered to the Company; (c) securities upon the exercise or exchange of or conversion of securities exercisable or exchangeable for or convertible into shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding on the date of this Agreement or for which there is an obligation on the date of this Agreement to issue securities (including shares to be issued as dividends upon the Company’s preferred stock or preferred stock issued upon exercise of warrants outstanding on the date of this Agreement and the issuance of the Common Stock underlying the preferred stock), provided that such securities have not been amended since the date of this Agreement to increase the number of such securities or to decrease the exercise price, exchange price or conversion price of such securities (other than in connection with stock splits or combinations) or to extend the term of such securities and (d) securities issued pursuant to acquisitions or strategic transactions and the payment of contractor invoices in the ordinary course of business approved by a majority of the disinterested directors of the Company, provided that such securities are issued as “restricted securities” (as defined in Rule 144) and carry no registration rights that require or permit the filing of any registration statement in connection therewith during the Lock-Up Period, and provided that any such issuance shall only be to a Person (or to the equityholders of a Person) which is, itself or through its subsidiaries, an operating company or an owner of an asset in a business synergistic with the business of the Company and shall provide to the Company additional benefits in addition to the investment of funds, but shall not include a transaction in which the Company is issuing securities primarily for the purpose of raising capital or to an entity whose primary business is investing in securities.
4.12 Equal Treatment of Purchasers. No consideration (including any modification of this Agreement) shall be offered or paid to any Person to amend or consent to a waiver or modification of any provision of this Agreement unless the same consideration is also offered to all of the parties to this Agreement. For clarification purposes, this provision constitutes a separate right granted to each Purchaser by the Company and negotiated separately by each Purchaser, and is intended for the Company to treat the Purchasers as a class and shall not in any way be construed as the Purchasers acting in concert or as a group with respect to the purchase, disposition or voting of Securities or otherwise.
4.13 Certain Transactions and Confidentiality. Each Purchaser, severally and not jointly with the other Purchasers, covenants that neither it nor any Affiliate acting on its behalf or pursuant to any understanding with it will execute any purchases or sales, including Short Sales of any of the Company’s securities during the period commencing with the execution of this Agreement and ending at such time that the transactions contemplated by this Agreement are first publicly announced pursuant to the initial press release as described in Section 4.4. Each Purchaser, severally and not jointly with the other Purchasers, covenants that until such time as the transactions contemplated by this Agreement are publicly disclosed by the Company pursuant to the initial press release as described in Section 4.4, such Purchaser will maintain the confidentiality of the existence and terms of this transaction. Notwithstanding the foregoing, and notwithstanding anything contained in this Agreement to the contrary, the Company expressly acknowledges and agrees that (i) no Purchaser makes any representation, warranty or covenant hereby that it will not engage in effecting transactions in any securities of the Company after the time that the transactions contemplated by this Agreement are first publicly announced pursuant to the initial press release as described in Section 4.4, (ii) no Purchaser shall be restricted or prohibited from effecting any transactions in any
24