Peraso Technologies Inc.
Notes to Financial Statements
For years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
On March 13, 2020, the Company issued 2,750,001 common shares upon conversion of all outstanding Class A preferred shares amounting to $1,978,275 and 43,956,520 common shares upon conversion of all outstanding Class B preferred shares amounting to $31,621,121. The Class A and B preferred shares were converted into common shares based on the original conversion price of CDN$1.00 ($0.72 USD). The outstanding accumulated dividends of $22,732,543 were reclassified into additional paid-in capital.
On March 13, 2020, the Company also issued 65,403,284 common shares amounting to $66,802,718 upon conversion of all outstanding Class C preferred shares based on the amended conversion price of CDN$1.18 ($0.85 USD). As a conversion inducement, the Company amended the ratio for the conversion of the Class C preferred shares into common shares from 1:1 to 1:1.25. The company determined that the additional common shares issuable arising from such modification totaled 13,080,657 with fair value of $11,133,786 and recognized such amount as deemed dividend.
| 11. | Stock-based compensation |
In 2009, the Company adopted the 2009 Share Option Plan (the plan). Under the plan, officers, employees, directors, consultants, and special advisers may be granted stock options to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock; 12,896,147 shares of common stock have been reserved for issuance. Stock options generally vest over terms of four years and expire in ten years.
On September 16, 2020, Board of Directors approved the increase in number of options shares (as defined in Stock option plan) from 10% of outstanding issue to 23,169,644 or 20% of outstanding issue of 115,848,220. As of December 31, 2020, the Company had granted 97,491 more shares than were authorized for grant, however in the first quarter of 2021 this was corrected due to additional forfeitures.
On September 17, 2020, Board of Directors approved the cancellation of stock options totaling 2.6 million with exercise price of CDN$0.60 ($0.47 USD) and original vesting term of 4 years and replaced such awards with option grants that have exercise price of CDN$0.15 ($0.12 USD) and vesting period of one year. The replacement of the option grants was accounted for as modification in accordance with the provisions of ASC 718. The company determined that the incremental fair value of the replacement awards amounted to approximately $530,000 using black-scholes option pricing model. At replacement date, the total unrecognized compensation cost for the replacement awards was determined to be $952,000 and is amortized over the one year vesting term.
Additionally, the Board also approved the grant of stock options to employees to purchase a total of 18.7 million common shares of the Company. The options have an exercise price of CDN$0.15 ($0.12 USD) per share, expire in ten years, and have vesting period of 4 years. The total fair value of these options at grant date was approximately $15.8 million.
In 2019, the Board of Directors approved the grant of stock options to employees to purchase a total of 434,000 common shares of the Company. The options have an exercise price of CDN$0.60 ($0.47 USD) per share, expire in ten years, and have vesting period of 4 years. The total fair value of these options at grant date was approximately $426,000.
The fair value of the stock option is estimated at grant date using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The Company is a private company and lacks company-specific historical and implied volatility information. Therefore, it estimates its expected stock volatility based on the historical volatility of publicly traded set of peer companies within the semiconductor industry with characteristics similar to the Company. The expected term of the Company’s stock options has been determined utilizing the “simplified” method for awards that qualify as “plain-vanilla” options. The risk-free interest rate is determined by reference to the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant of the award for time periods approximately equal to the expected term of the award. Expected dividend yield is zero, based on the fact that the Company has never paid cash dividends and does not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
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