This report on Form 10-Q includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements in this report, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements for purposes of these provisions, including any projections of earnings, revenues or other financial items, any statements of the plans and objectives of management for future operations, any statements concerning proposed new products or services, any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance, and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. All forward-looking statements included in this report are made as of the date hereof and are based on information available to us as of such date. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “believes,” “estimates,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative thereof or other comparable terminology. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained herein are based upon reasonable assumptions at the time made, there can be no assurance that any such expectations or any forward-looking statement will prove to be correct. Our actual results will vary, and may vary materially, from those projected or assumed in the forward-looking statements. Future financial condition and results of operations, as well as any forward-looking statements, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, many of which we cannot predict with accuracy and some of which we might not anticipate, including, without limitation, product recalls and product liability claims; infringement of our technology or assertion that our technology infringes the rights of other parties; termination of supplier relationships, or failure of suppliers to perform; inability to successfully manage growth; delays in obtaining regulatory approvals or the failure to maintain such approvals; concentration of our revenue among a few customers, products or procedures; development of new products and technology that could render our products obsolete; market acceptance of new products; introduction of products in a timely fashion; price and product competition, availability of labor and materials, cost increases, and fluctuations in and obsolescence of inventory; volatility of the market price of our common stock; foreign currency fluctuations; changes in key personnel; work stoppage or transportation risks; integration of business acquisitions; and other factors referred to in our reports filed with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. All subsequent forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Additional factors that may have a direct bearing on our operating results are discussed in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
ClearOne is a global Company that designs, develops and sells conferencing, collaboration, and AV networking solutions for voice and visual communications. The performance and simplicity of our advanced, comprehensive solutions offer a high level of functionality, reliability and scalability. We derive a major portion of our revenue from audio conferencing products and microphones by promoting our products in the professional audio-visual channel. We have extended our total addressable market from the installed audio conferencing market to adjacent complementary markets – microphones, video collaboration and AV networking. We have achieved this through strategic technological acquisitions as well as by internal product development.
During the first quarter of 2020, we announced two new additions to our COLLABORATE Versa family of products. COLLABORATE® Versa Room CT, provides all the equipment and accessories needed for exceptional room cloud-based conferencing. At the heart of the system, is the USB audio-enabled Beamforming Mic Array Ceiling Tile (BMA CTH). Thanks to its onboard processing, the BMA CTH performs acoustic echo cancellation, noise cancellation, and beam selection, so no external DSP mixer is required. The array’s adaptive steering (think of it as smart switching) provides impeccable room coverage. The Versa Room CT brings cost-effective professional conferencing audio to small and mid-sized meeting rooms.
COLLABORATE Versa Lite CT is a USB audio enabled BMA CTH room solution. This solution dramatically enhances the audio experience for any cloud-collaboration application such as COLLABORATE Space, Zoom™, Microsoft® Teams, and Webex™, without the need for a DSP mixer. The system can be easily and quickly configured using ClearOne’s CONSOLE® AI Lite software with Audio Intelligence™ and Auto Connect™. A laptop or a desktop PC can be connected to the BMA CTH directly through the USB port on the USB Expander to share room audio. The included 50-foot CAT6 cable connects the USB Expander to the BMA CTH.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
During February 2020, we announced a new Touch-Panel Controller, a highly intuitive 10-inch touch-screen device, designed for ClearOne’s CONVERGE® Pro 2 audio DSP mixers as well as COLLABORATE Live video conferencing room systems. Paired with CONVERGE Pro 2 DSP mixers, users can make and receive PSTN and/or VoIP conference calls, and multiparty calls with the easy-to-use on-screen dialpad. When paired with COLLABORATE Live, users can make and receive video calls as well as manage content sharing options.
COLLABORATE Space, our powerful cloud-based collaboration solution from ClearOne (NASDAQ:CLRO), added two new valuable features - webinar hosting and Web RTC. COLLABORATE Space Pro and Enterprise meeting plans can be upgraded to include the new Webinar feature allowing session hosts to conduct video and audio presentations for up to 1000 participants. The new Web RTC feature works with all popular browsers including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox. The new Web RTC feature enables users to easily join full-featured COLLABORATE Space audio and video meetings using a browser with no downloads or plug-ins required. Users can accept meeting, webinar, and classroom invitations and join with a single click; easily sharing and viewing content within a browser window.
COLLABORATE Space also added a feature where Microsoft Teams users can now enjoy a richer collaboration than that available within the Teams environment today. This richer collaboration experience includes better video quality, support for multiple cameras, support for multiple displays, and a persistent meeting space where chats, audio and video recordings, documents, meeting minutes, whiteboard sessions, and more can be shared in private or public channels for later access. Users can easily initiate a Space video meeting or join an existing Space video meeting within the MS Teams environment.
During the first three months of 2020, we continued our efforts, primarily through litigation, to stop the infringement of our strategic patents. We also continued our programs to cut costs and to speed up product development that we believe will enable us to get back to a growth path.
Overall revenue declined by 9% in the first quarter of 2020 when compared to the first quarter of 2019, primarily due to a decline in revenue from video products. Pro audio products enjoyed year over year growth due to recently introduced BMA-CT even though the revenue from pro audio products are far below the levels prior to infringement of our patents. Our revenue performance reflects an impact of the on-going harm of infringement of ClearOne’s despite the preliminary injunction granted against Shure as we believe Shure continues to infringe our patents and violates the preliminary injunction. The patent infringement also has negatively impacted directly the revenue from ClearOne’s other products not related to the infringed patents. Our gross profit margin increased to 49% during the first quarter of 2020 from 43% during the first quarter of 2019. Net loss decreased from $2.3 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2020. The decrease was mainly due to reduction in operating costs and increased gross margin.
We believe the decision by the U.S. District Court in August 2019 granting our request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Shure from manufacturing, marketing, and selling its competing ceiling microphone array in an infringing configuration is an incredibly valuable ruling for ClearOne and its business. The decision validates the strength and importance of ClearOne’s intellectual property rights, recognizes ClearOne’s innovations in this space, and stops Shure from further infringing the Graham patent pending a full trial. Although there can be no assurance of any outcome of a full trial, we believe this ruling will help pave the way for ClearOne’s recovery from the immense harm inflicted by Shure's infringement of our valuable patents. However, we are not getting the full benefits of the Court’s extraordinary remedy in the form of the preliminary injunction granted against Shure with respect to infringement of our ’806 Patent as we believe that Shure, still infringes ClearOne’s patent. We have sought a Court order holding Shure in contempt for marketing and selling their new design in violation of the preliminary injunction.
Industry conditions
We operate in a very dynamic and highly competitive industry which is dominated on the one hand by a few players with respect to certain products like traditional video conferencing appliances while on the other influenced heavily by a fragmented reseller market consisting of numerous regional and local players. The industry is also characterized by venture capitalist funded start-ups and private companies willing to fund cumulative cash losses in order to gain market share and achieve certain non-financial goals.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Economic conditions, challenges and risks
The audio-visual products market is characterized by intense competition and rapidly evolving technology. Our competitors vary within each product category. Our installed professional audio conferencing products, which is our flagship product category, continue to be ahead of the competition despite the reduction in revenues. Our strength in this space is largely due to our fully integrated suite of products consisting of DSP mixers, wide range of professional microphone products and video collaboration products. Despite our strong leadership position in the installed professional audio conferencing market, we face challenges to revenue growth due to the limited size of the market and pricing pressures from new competitors attracted to the commercial market due to higher margins.
Revenue from our video products are critical to our long-term growth due to significantly larger available market space for video products. We face intense competition in this market from well-established market leaders, emerging players rich with marketing funds and information technology giants offering free products and services. We expect our strategy of combining COLLABOATE Space, our cloud-based video conferencing product with COLLABORATE Live, our appliance-based media collaboration product, UNITE, our high-quality professional cameras, and our high-end audio conferencing technology will generate high growth in the near future. We believe we are also well positioned to capitalize on the continuing migration away from the traditional hardware-based video conferencing systems to software-based video conferencing applications.
We derive a major portion of our revenue (approximately 46% for the year ended December 31, 2019) from international operations and expect this trend to continue in the future. Most of our revenue from outside the U.S. is billed in U.S. dollars and is not exposed to any significant currency risk. However, we are exposed to foreign exchange risk if the U.S. dollar is strong against other currencies as it will make U.S. Dollar denominated prices of our products less competitive.
In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was first reported in Wuhan, China. The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to spread and has already caused severe global disruptions. The extent of COVID-19’s effect on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration, spread and intensity of the pandemic, all of which are uncertain and difficult to predict considering the rapidly evolving landscape. If the pandemic continues to evolve into a severe worldwide health crisis, the disease could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows and adversely impact the trading price of our common stock.
Deferred Revenue
Deferred revenue remained almost the same at $0.21 million at March 31, 2020 compared to $0.17 million at December 31, 2019.
A detailed discussion of our results of operations follows below.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Results of Operations for the first quarter of 2020
The following table sets forth certain items from our unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations (dollars in thousands) for the three months ended March 31, 2020 (“2020-Q1”) and 2019 ("2019-Q1"), respectively, together with the percentage of total revenue which each such item represents:
| | Three months ended March 31, | |
| | 2020 | | | 2019 | | | Percentage Change 2020 vs 2019 | |
Revenue | | $ | 5,734 | | | $ | 6,305 | | | | -9 | % |
Cost of goods sold | | | 2,896 | | | | 3,601 | | | | -20 | % |
Gross profit | | | 2,838 | | | | 2,704 | | | | -5 | % |
Sales and marketing | | | 1,739 | | | | 1,953 | | | | -11 | % |
Research and product development | | | 1,344 | | | | 1,587 | | | | -15 | % |
General and administrative | | | 1,506 | | | | 1,555 | | | | -3 | % |
Total operating expenses | | | 4,589 | | | | 5,095 | | | | -10 | % |
Operating loss | | | (1,751 | ) | | | (2,391 | ) | | | 27 | % |
Other income (expense), net | | | (73 | ) | | | 42 | | | | -274 | % |
Loss before income taxes | | | (1,824 | ) | | | (2,349 | ) | | | 22 | % |
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes | | | 23 | | | | — | | | | — | % |
Net loss | | $ | (1,847 | ) | | $ | (2,349 | ) | | | 21 | % |
Revenue
Our revenue decreased to $5.7 million in 2020 compared to $6.3 million in 2019 primarily due to a decline of 46% in revenue in the video products category. Audio conferencing and microphones categories registered revenue growth rates of 3% and 2% respectively. Revenue from video products was impacted by a decline in demand for all video products. The increase in revenue from audio conferencing category came through revenue growth in personal products and pro audio products partially offset by decline in revenues from tabletop and premium conferencing products. The recently introduced BMA CT along with ceiling mics enjoyed revenue growth while wireless mics suffered a sharp decline in revenues. The share of audio conferencing products in our product mix increased from 43% in 2019-Q1 to 49% in 2020-Q1. The share of microphones increased from 33% to 37%. The share of video products in the revenue mix declined from 24% to 14%.
During 2020-Q1 revenue declined in all regions except the Canada, Japan, and Europe. The decline was more pronounced in Australia, the Middle East and USA. The Asia Pacific, including the Middle East declined by 24%, Europe and Africa increased by 42% and the Americas declined by 11%.
We believe, although there can be no assurance, that we will return to a growth path if we are able to successfully implement our strategic initiatives focused on product innovation, cost reduction and defense of our intellectual property.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Costs of Goods Sold and Gross Profit
Cost of goods sold includes expenses associated with finished goods purchased from outsourced manufacturers, the repackaging of our products, our manufacturing and operations organization, property and equipment depreciation, warranty expense, freight expense, royalty payments, and the allocation of overhead expenses.
Our gross profit margin increased to 49% during 2020-Q1 from 43% during 2019-Q1. The gross profit margin increased primarily due to increase of higher-margin professional audio conferencing products in the revenue mix, reduction in overhead costs and reduction in inventory adjustments.
Our profitability in the near-term continues to depend significantly on our revenues from professional installed audio-conferencing products. We hold long-term inventory and if we are unable to sell our long-term inventory, our profitability might be affected by inventory write-offs and price mark-downs. Our long-term inventory includes approximately $1.3 million of wireless microphone-related finished goods and assemblies, $1.3 million of Converge Pro and Beamforming microphone array products, $0.5 million of network media streaming products and about $2.2 million of raw materials that will be used for manufacturing professional audio conferencing products. Any business changes that are adverse to these product lines could potentially impact our ability to sell our long-term inventory in addition to our current inventory.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses include sales and marketing (“S&M”) expenses, research and product development (“R&D”) expenses and general and administrative (“G&A”) expenses. Total operating expenses were $4.6 million for 2020-Q1 compared to $5.1 million for 2019-Q1. The following contains a more detailed discussion of expenses related to sales and marketing, research and product development, general and administrative, and other items.
Sales and Marketing - S&M expenses include selling, customer service, and marketing expenses such as employee-related costs, allocations of overhead expenses, trade shows, and other advertising and selling expenses.
S&M expenses for 2020-Q1 decreased to $1.7 million from $2.0 million for 2019-Q1. The decrease was mainly due to decreases in employee-related costs including benefits and commissions, travel related expenses, advertising and promotions costs, and independent rep commissions partially offset by an increase in trade-show related expenses.
Research and Product Development - R&D expenses include research and development, product line management, engineering services, and test and application expenses, including employee-related costs, outside services, expensed materials, depreciation, and an allocation of overhead expenses.
R&D expenses were approximately $1.3 million for 2020-Q1, as compared to $1.6 million for 2019-Q1. The decrease was primarily due to reductions in employee-related costs.
General and Administrative - G&A expenses include employee-related costs, professional service fees, allocations of overhead expenses, litigation costs, and corporate administrative costs, including costs related to financing and human resources.
G&A expenses declined to $1.5 million in 2020-Q1 compared to $1.6 million in 2019-Q1. The decline was mainly due to decreases in stock-based compensation expenses, employee-related costs, and travel related expenses partially offset by increase in legal expenses.
Other income (expense), net
Other income (expense), net, includes interest income, interest expense, and foreign currency changes. Interest income did not vary much between the first quarter of 2020 and 2019. Interest expense in the first quarter of 2020 was $0.1 million compared to no interest expense in the first quarter of 2019. Interest expense was incurred due to issuance of senior convertibles notes with a face value of $3.0 million in December 2019.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Provision for income taxes
During the first quarters of 2019 and 2020, we did not recognize any benefit from the losses incurred due to setting up of full valuation allowance. Income tax expense recognized in the first quarter of 2020 relates to foreign jurisdictions.
LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
As of March 31, 2020, our cash and cash equivalents were approximately $2.9 million compared to $4.1 million as of December 31, 2019. Our working capital was $16.8 million and $18.9 million as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.
Net cash provided by operating activities was approximately $0.5 million in 2020-Q1, an increase of cash provided of approximately $1.8 million from $1.3 million of cash used in operating activities in 2019-Q1. The increase in cash inflow was due to positive change in operating assets and liabilities of $1.3 million and a decrease in net loss by $0.5 million.
Net cash used in investing activities was $1.7 million for 2020-Q1 compared to net cash used in investing activities of $5.6 million during the 2019-Q1, a decrease in cash used of $3.9 million. The decrease in cash used in investing activities was primarily due to a decrease in net cash outflows from marketable securities of approximately $4.4 million partially offset by an increase in capitalized patent defense costs by $0.5 million.
Capitalization of patent defense costs. We capitalize external legal costs incurred in the defense of our patents when we believe that a significant, discernible increase in value will result from the defense and a successful outcome of the legal action is probable. When we capitalize patent defense costs we amortize the costs over the remaining estimated useful life of the patent, which is 15 to 17 years. During 2020-Q1 we spent $1.7 million on legal costs related to the defense of our patents and capitalized the entire amount.
We are currently pursuing all available legal remedies to defend our strategic patents from infringement. We have already spent approximately $15.3 million from 2016 through March 31, 2020 towards this litigation and may be required to spend more to continue our legal defense. We believe the decision by the U.S. District Court in August 2019 granting our request for a preliminary injunction to prevent our competitor from manufacturing, marketing, and selling its competing ceiling microphone array in an infringing configuration is an incredibly valuable ruling for ClearOne and its business. We believe that the decision validates the strength and importance of ClearOne’s intellectual property rights, recognizes ClearOne’s innovations in this space, and stops our competitor from further infringing our Graham patent (U.S. Patent No.9,813,806) pending a full trial. We believe this ruling will help pave way for ClearOne’s recovery from the immense harm inflicted by our competitor's infringement of our valuable patents. However, we are not getting the full benefits of the Court’s extraordinary remedy in the form of the preliminary injunction granted against Shure with respect to infringement of our ’806 Patent as we believe that Shure, still infringes ClearOne’s patent. We have sought a Court order holding Shure in contempt for marketing and selling their new design in violation of the preliminary injunction.
We have been actively engaged in preserving cash by suspending our dividend program and allowing our share repurchase program to expire in 2018 and implementing company-wide cost reduction measures. During 2018, we raised additional proceeds of $9.9 million (net of issuance costs) from the Rights Offering. During December 2019 we raised approximately $2.7 million (net of issuance costs) from the issue of senior convertible notes. We also believe additional cash will be generated as we consume our inventory and bring it down to historical levels.
We also believe that the measures taken by us will yield higher revenues in the future. We believe all of these and effective management of working capital will provide the liquidity needed to meet our operating needs through at least May 20, 2021. We also believe that our strong portfolio of intellectual property and our solid brand equity in the market will enable us to raise additional capital if and when needed to meet our short and long-term financing needs; however, there can be no assurance that, if needed, we will be successful in obtaining the necessary funds through equity or debt financing. If we need additional capital and are unable to secure financing, we may be required to further reduce expenses, delay product development and enhancement, or revise our strategy regarding ongoing litigation.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
At March 31, 2020, we had open purchase orders of approximately $1.4 million for purchase of inventory.
At March 31, 2020, we had inventory totaling $16.1 million, of which non-current inventory accounted for $5.7 million. This compares to total inventories of $17.7 million and non-current inventory of $6.3 million as of December 31, 2019.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
The following table summarizes our contractual obligations as of March 31, 2020 (in millions):
| | Payment Due by Period | |
| | Total | | | Less Than 1 Year | | | 1-3 Years | | | 3-5 Years | | | More than 5 years | |
Senior Convertible Notes | | $ | 3.0 | | | $ | 0.1 | | | $ | 1.2 | | | $ | 1.7 | | | $ | — | |
Operating lease obligations | | | 2.8 | | | | 0.6 | | | | 1.4 | | | | 0.8 | | | | — | |
Purchase obligations | | | 1.4 | | | | 1.4 | | | | — | | | | — | | | | — | |
Total | | $ | 7.2 | | | $ | 2.1 | | | $ | 2.6 | | | $ | 2.5 | | | $ | — | |
OFF-BALANCE SHEET ARRANGEMENTS
We have no off-balance-sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future material effect on our financial condition, changes in financial conditions, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources, results of operations or liquidity.
CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES
Our discussion and analysis of our results of operations and financial position are based upon our unaudited consolidated financial statements included under Item 1 of this Form 10-Q, which have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. We review the accounting policies used in reporting our financial results on a regular basis. We believe certain of our accounting policies are critical to understanding our financial position and results of operations. There have been no changes to the critical accounting policies as explained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.
RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS
For a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements, see Note 1: “Business Description, Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies” in the notes to our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included under Item 1 of this Form 10-Q.