UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
Form
10-K
ý ANNUAL REPORT
UNDER SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF
1934
For the
fiscal year ended December 31,
2008
¨ TRANSITION REPORT UNDER
SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF
1934
For the
transition period from
to _______.
Commission
file number: 001-33899
Digital Ally,
Inc.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Nevada
|
20-0064269
|
(State
or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
|
(I.R.S.
Employer Identification No.)
|
7311 W. 130th, Suite 170, Overland Park,
KS 66213
|
(Address
of principal executive
offices) (Zip
Code)
|
Registrant’s
telephone, including area code: (913)
814-7774
|
Securities
registered under Section 12(b) of the Exchange
Act: None.
Securities
registered under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act:
Common Stock, $0.001 par
value
|
NASDAQ
|
(Title
of class)
|
(Name
of each exchange on which
registered)
|
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in
Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes ¨ No ý
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to
Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No ý
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be
filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the past 12 months (or
for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports),
and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90
days. Yes ý No ¨
Indicate
by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of
Regulation S-K (229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will
not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive
proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this
Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an
accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting
company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,”
“accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the
Exchange Act.
Large
accelerated filer ¨ Accelerated
filer ¨
Non-accelerated
filer ¨ (Do not check if a
smaller reporting
company) Smaller
reporting company ý
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule
12b-2 of the Exchange Act).
Yes ¨ No ý
As of
June 30, 2008, the aggregate market value of the Company’s common equity held by
non-affiliates computed by reference to the closing price ($8.52)
was: $122,320,856.
The
number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 2, 2009 was: 15,715,717.
Documents
Incorporated by Reference: Parts of our definitive proxy statement to
be prepared and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than
120 days after December 31, 2008 are incorporated by reference into Part III of
this Form 10-K.
FORM
10-K
DIGITAL
ALLY, INC.
DECEMBER
31, 2008
Table
of Contents
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|
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Page
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Item
1.
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Business
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3
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Item
1a.
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Risk
Factors
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9
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Item
1b.
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Unresolved
Staff Comments
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17
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Item
2.
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Properties
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17
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Item
3.
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Legal
Proceedings
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18
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Item
4.
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Submission
of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
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18
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Item
5.
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Market
for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer
Purchases of Equity Securities
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18
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Item
6.
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Selected
Financial Data
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21
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Item
7.
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Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations
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21
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Item
7a.
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Quantitative
and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
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32
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Item
8.
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Financial
Statements and Supplementary Data
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32
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Item
9.
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Changes
In and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial
Disclosure
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32
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Item
9A.
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Controls
and Procedures
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32
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Item
9B.
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Other
Information
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34
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Item
10.
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Directors,
Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
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34
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Item
11.
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Executive
Compensation
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34
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Item
12.
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35
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Item
13.
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Certain
Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director
Independence
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35
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Item
14.
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Principal
Accounting Fees and Services
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35
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Item
15.
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Exhibits,
Financial Statement Schedules
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36
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Signature
Page
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Note
Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This
annual report contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases,
you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may,"
"should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates,"
"predicts," "potential," "continue," "intends," and other variations of these
words or comparable words. In addition, any statements that refer to
expectations, projections or other characterizations of events, circumstances or
trends and that do not relate to historical matters are forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are based largely on our
expectations or forecasts of future events, can be affected by inaccurate
assumptions, and are subject to various business risks and known and unknown
uncertainties, a number of which are beyond our control. Therefore,
actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements
contained in this document, and readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on such forward-looking statements. These statements are
only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, including the risks in the section entitled “Risk Factors” that may
cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or
achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements.
Although
we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are
reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance
or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this
report. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update or
revise any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to
actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
As used
in this annual report, “Digital Ally,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer
to Digital Ally, Inc., unless otherwise indicated.
PART
I
Digital
Ally produces digital video imaging and storage products for use in law
enforcement and security applications. Our current products are a low
cost, easy-to-install, in-car digital video rear view mirror and a digital video
flashlight. These products make self-contained video and audio
recordings onto flash memory cards that are incorporated in the body of the
digital video rear view mirror and the flashlight. We sell our
products to law enforcement agencies and other security organizations and for
consumer and commercial applications through direct sales and third-party
distributors. We currently have several new and derivative products
in research and development that are anticipated to go into commercial
production during 2009, including products designed for motorcycle, boat, ATV,
taxi cab, fleet vehicle and school bus applications.
We intend
to also produce other digital video devices in the future. We believe
that the same high-performance digital video recording may be incorporated into
a wide array of other products; therefore, we plan to offer our technology on an
original equipment manufacturing basis to those non-competing manufacturers who
may have existing products and distribution capabilities.
Corporate
History
We were
incorporated in Nevada on December 13, 2000 as Vegas Petra,
Inc. From that date until November 30, 2004, when we entered
into a Plan of Merger with Digital Ally, Inc., a Nevada corporation which was
formerly known as Trophy Tech Corporation (the “Acquired Company”), we had not
conducted any operations and were a closely-held company. In the
merger, the stockholders of the Acquired Company received one of our shares of
common stock for each three shares of the Acquired Company they owned, resulting
in the issuance of 5,000,000 shares of our common stock to stockholders of the
Acquired Company. Our original stockholders retained 1,500,000 shares
of our common stock after they transferred 1,000,000 of their shares to a former
officer, director and principal stockholder of the Acquired Company, in
connection with, but not as a part of, the merger. We were renamed
Digital Ally, Inc. after the merger.
The
Acquired Company, which was incorporated on May 16, 2003, engaged in the
design, development, marketing and sale of bow hunting-related
products. Its principal product was a digital video recording system
for use in the bow hunting industry. It changed its business plan in
2004 to adapt its digital video recording system for use in the law enforcement
and security markets. We began shipments of our in-car digital
video rear view mirror in March 2006 and have enjoyed significant growth in
sales since commencement of shipments. We are also shipping units of
our digital video flashlights; however, our digital mirror product has been our
predominant source of revenues to date.
On May 3,
2007, our registration statement on Form SB-2 was declared effective by the
Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which registered 6,733,750 shares of
our common stock for resale. On January 2, 2008, we commenced trading on the
NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “DGLY.” We conduct our
business from 7311 West 130th Street, Suite 170, Overland Park, Kansas
66213. Our telephone number is (913) 814-7774.
Products
We
currently produce and sell two products: an in-car digital video rear
view mirror and a digital video flashlight that is used primarily in law
enforcement applications, both of which use the core competency of our
technology in digital video compression, recording and storage. We
are also developing derivative products using our digital video compression,
recording and storage knowledge that can be used in motorcycle, boat, ATV,
school bus, taxi cab, and fleet vehicle applications. We intend to
launch these derivative products in 2009 and 2010. We also
intend to produce and sell other digital video devices in the
future. All of these products incorporate our standards-based digital
compression capability that allows the recording of significant time periods on
a chip and circuit board that can be designed into small form
factors. In addition to selling our products directly to our
customers, we may in the future sell assemblies or complete units containing our
technology incorporating digital video and sound recording for use in
non-competing products to OEM (original equipment manufacturer)
customers.
In-Car
Digital Video System
In-car
video systems for patrol cars are now a necessity and have generally become
standard. Current systems are digital and VHS-based with cameras
mounted in the windshield and the recording device generally in the
trunk. Most manufacturers have already developed or are at least have
begun transitioning to digital video, but many have had problems obtaining the
appropriate technology.
Our
digital video rear view mirror unit is a self-contained video recorder,
microphone and digital storage that is integrated into a rear-view mirror, with
a monitor, GPS and 900 MHz audio transceiver.
Our
in-car digital video rear view mirror has the following features:
·
|
wide
angle zoom color camera;
|
·
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standards-based
video and audio compression and
recording;
|
·
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system
is concealed in the rear view mirror, replacing factory rear view
mirror;
|
·
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monitor
in rear-view mirror is invisible when not
activated;
|
·
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eliminates
need for analog tapes to store and
catalogue;
|
·
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easily
installs in any vehicle;
|
·
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archive
to computers, servers, DVDs, CD-ROMs, or file
servers;
|
·
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900
MHz audio transceiver with automatic
activation;
|
·
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marks
exact location of incident with integrated
GPS;
|
·
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playback
using Windows Media Player;
|
·
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proprietary
software protects the chain of custody;
and
|
·
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records
to rugged and durable solid state
memory.
|
We
believe there are several other markets and industries which may find our in-car
digital video rear view mirror unit useful, such as the school bus, mass transit
and delivery service industries among others. We intend to address
this market with the DVM-250 Pro Event Recorder in 2009. These
potential markets could find our units attractive from a feature and cost
perspective compared to other providers.
Digital
Video Flashlight
The
digital video flashlight is a high-quality police-type flashlight with a
built-in digital video and audio recording system. All recorded data
is stored in an on-board flash memory for later download to a
computer. From the computer, the images and sound can be stored,
reviewed or burned to a DVD or CD. Storage can take place at the
police station or transmitted through the internet to a service provider or
central storage and recording facility. Each frame of the video can
be date and time stamped to provide evidence that protects the officer and the
individual involved.
The unit
is a high-quality, water-resistant, machined aluminum body, law
enforcement-style flashlight that integrates a complete digital video and audio
recording system. The system is so compact that the size, shape and
weight of the digital video flashlight are virtually the same as a traditional
flashlight. This allows the continued use of the flashlight as a
standard tactical flashlight or as a defense baton if necessary. As a
self contained unit, the digital video flashlight does not rely on transmitters,
cables, external batteries or a separate recorder. The digital video
flashlight provides room for the digital video system by replacing regular
flashlight bulbs with new ultra-bright light-emitting diode (“LED”) technology,
as opposed to fragile conventional lamps. The small physical size and
mechanical ruggedness of the LED makes it ideal for use in professional
flashlights.
We
believe that the brightness and light quality of the LED is superior to
incandescent bulbs. Our digital video recording system is extremely
easy to use and requires only one button to start and stop
recording. There are no complicated controls or distracting displays
to interfere with a police officer’s normal activities or compromise his or her
safety. All internal settings are controlled through an on-board USB
interface or by plugging into an external video monitor. The digital
video flashlight includes proprietary software for downloading and managing
video.
In
addition to law enforcement, the digital video flashlight has potential
applications in lighter-duty activities that require a less rugged flashlight as
compared to law enforcement applications. Such lighter-duty
applications include private security, the insurance industry, homeland security
and underground inspections of telephone, cable, water and sewer
lines. Home inspectors can use the digital video flashlight to record
and explain property defects or features. Private security firms can
use the digital video flashlight to record rounds and provide evidence of
inspection and presence, replacing the current system of time clocks and punch
cards. Other potential users are the military, fire departments,
coast guard, border patrol and customs inspectors.
Our
digital video flashlight product has the following features:
·
|
virtually
the same size and shape as a traditional
flashlight;
|
·
|
easy
to use, requiring one button to start and stop
recording;
|
·
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on-board
flash memory card;
|
·
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extra-wide
field of view for digital video and audio
recording;
|
·
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each
frame of video can be date and time
stamped;
|
·
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LED
flashlight bulb is an improvement over conventional bulbs;
and
|
·
|
proprietary
chain of custody software to protect delivery of data back to the police
station.
|
Other
Products
During
the last year, we have increased our research and development efforts to meet
the varying needs of our customers, enhance our existing products and commence
development of new products and product categories. Our research and
development efforts are intended to maintain and enhance our competitiveness in
the market niche we have carved out, as well as positioning us to compete in
diverse markets outside of law enforcement.
Original
Equipment Manufacturers
Built-in
digital video recording is growing in multiple uses. For example,
Taser International, Inc. has demonstrated the use of digital video recording
for its hand held stun gun. Applications exist in many sports
products, such as baseball and tennis speed measuring
instruments. Medical practitioners are recording procedures for
liability and teaching purposes, many with recording capabilities built into
their devices. Medical laboratories are recording digital photographs
and video of slides and samples to provide proof of results and to transmit to
other researchers.
Rather
than encouraging the creation of technology that could prospectively compete
with us, we may sell our board-level components or complete units for inclusion
in non-competing products marketed under other brand names. By making
it easy for other companies to obtain digital video technology, we can provide a
bridge between the large semiconductor companies and smaller businesses with
distinct and effective marketing skills.
We expect
that our role in original equipment manufacturing operations will be to utilize
our design and production expertise to provide subsystems that can be
incorporated into the customer’s product. Once a design is accepted,
fabrication can be done by one of our subcontractors. Our original
equipment manufacturing operations are not expected to be a significant part of
our revenue and profitability in our early stages.
Currently,
we have no agreements with original equipment manufacturing customers for
incorporating our technology into their products. In such a
relationship, we might supply product labeled with the customer’s brand or
license others to use our technology. This may be a potentially
lucrative market for us in the future. To date, we have concentrated
our time and resources in the development of our own technology and
brand. Our intention in the near term is to pursue those
opportunities that provide synergies with our existing products and make minimal
demands on our staff. In the future, as resources become available
and as we identify appropriate market niches, we may decide to devote a portion
of our efforts to the active acquisition and servicing of original equipment
manufacturing accounts.
Market
and Industry Overview
A new
adaptation of technology usually determines its own market size. The
number of potential uses of the digital video flashlight and other products make
it difficult to quantify. We intend to pursue initial markets in the
law enforcement community, private security companies, homeland security market,
general consumer and commercial markets and the original equipment manufacturing
market.
Law
Enforcement
We
believe that one of the most valuable uses of our digital video flashlight may
be in the recording of roadside DWI sobriety tests. According to the
Department of Justice, in 2003 there were almost 14 million arrests, with
approximately 10%, or 1.4 million of those arrests for DWI
(Source: FBI Crime Reports, Crime in the United States,
annually.) Without some form of video or audio recording, court
proceedings usually consist of the police officer’s word against the
suspect’s. Records show that where there is video evidence to back up
officer testimony, conviction rates increase substantially. Video
evidence also helps to protect police departments against frivolous
lawsuits.
The
largest source of police video evidence today is in-car
video. Unfortunately, some police cars still do not have in-car
video, and in those that do, the camera usually points forward rather than to
the side of the road where the sobriety test takes place. The in-car
video is typically of little use for domestic violence investigations, burglary
or theft investigations, disorderly conduct calls or physical
assaults. In all of these cases, the digital video flashlight may
provide recorded evidence of the suspect’s actions and reactions to police
intervention.
Additionally,
motorcycle patrolmen rarely have video systems. The digital video
flashlight can become an essential tool for the motorcycle policeman to provide
the evidence that previously had not been available. We are also
developing a mobile application of our digital video recording system that can
be used specifically by motorcycle police and water patrol.
Crime
scene investigations, including detailed photography, take up a large part of
the budgets of metropolitan police forces. The digital video
flashlight may record a significant portion of such evidence at a much lower
cost, for gathering, analyzing and storing data/evidence.
There are
approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United
States. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, Census of State
and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2000.) Smaller departments
with 20 or fewer officers account for the majority of sworn
officers. (Source: National Institute of Justice, Law Enforcement Technology – Are
Small and Rural Agencies Equipped and Trained?, June 2004.)
Private
Security Companies
There are
approximately 10,000 private security agencies in the United States who employ
over two million guards. (Source: International Association of Chiefs
of Police, President’s
Message: Building Partnerships between Private-Sector Security and Public-Sector
Police, 2004.) In 1997, Americans were spending over $90
billion a year on private security services. (Source: National Center
for Policy Analysis, citing “Welcome to the New World of Private Security,”
Economist,
April 17, 1997.) Police forces use video systems for proof of
correct conduct by officers, but private security services usually have no such
tool.
The
digital video flashlight presents an excellent management tool for these
companies to monitor conduct and timing of security rounds. In
addition to the digital video flashlight, the digital video security camera can
provide fill-in security when guards have large areas to cover or in areas that
do not have to be monitored around the clock.
Homeland
Security Market
In
addition to government spending, American corporations are spending heavily for
protection against the potential of terrorist attacks. In 2004, the
New York Times reported on the “Homeland Security-Industrial
Complex.” That report indicated that private-sector outlays for
antiterrorism measures and to guard against other forms of violence may be as
much as $40 billion to $50 billion per year, or two to three times higher than
the annual rate prior to September 11, 2001. (Source: Louis
Uchitelle, The Rise of the
Homeland Security-Industrial Complex, NEW YORK TIMES, October 17,
2004.) As of 2004, the federal government’s expenditure for security
has also passed $40 billion per year, double what it was before
9/11. (Source: Congressional Budget Office, Federal Funding for Homeland
Security, April 30, 2004.) Estimates for the fiscal year
of 2005 are for the federal government to spend $47 billion and state and local
governments to spend an additional $7 billion for antiterrorism
security. (Source: Congressional Budget Office, Federal Funding for Homeland
Security, April 30, 2004.)
Commercial
and Other Markets
There are
numerous potential applications for the digital video flashlight and digital
video security camera products. We believe that other markets for our
digital video systems, including the derivatives currently being developed,
include private investigators, SWAT team members, taxi cabs, over-the-road
trucking fleets, the U.S. Coast Guard, municipal fire departments, and the U.S.
military. Other commercial markets for our digital video systems
include real estate appraisers, plumbers and electricians.
Manufacturing
We have
entered into contracts with manufacturers for the assembly of the circuit boards
used in our products. Dedicated circuit board manufacturers are
well-suited to the assembly of circuit boards with the complexity found in our
products. Dedicated board manufacturers can spread the extensive
capital equipment costs of circuit board assembly among multiple projects and
customers. Such manufacturers also have the volume to enable the
frequent upgrade to state-of-the-art equipment. We have identified
multiple suppliers who meet our quality, cost, and performance
criteria. We intend to use more than one source for circuit board
assembly to ensure a reliable supply over time. We will continue to
perform final assembly and testing in-house. Due to the complexity of
our products, we believe that it is important to maintain a core of
knowledgeable production personnel for consistent quality and to limit the
dissemination of sensitive intellectual property.
License
Arrangements
We have
entered into several software license agreements with Ingenient Technologies,
Inc. (“Ingenient”), Nuvation Research Corporation (“Nuvation”) and Z-3
Technology, LLC (“Z-3”) regarding the license of certain software products to be
used in our video products. The licensors have written certain
software for specific Texas Instrument chips which are included in our
products. The licenses generally require upfront payments and contain
automatic renewal provisions unless either party notifies the other of its
intent to not renew prior to expiration or unless the agreement is terminated
due to a material breach by the other party. Following is a
summary of license agreements to which we are a party as of December 31,
2008:
LicenseType
|
Effective
Date
|
Expiration
Date
|
Terms
|
Production
software license agreement
|
April,
2005
|
April,
2009
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Production
license agreement
|
October,
2008
|
October,
2011
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Software
sublicense agreement
|
October,
2007
|
October,
2010
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Technology
license agreement
|
July,
2007
|
July,
2010
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Limited
license agreement
|
August,
2008
|
Perpetual
|
May
be terminated by either party.
|
Limited
license agreement
|
January,
2009
|
Perpetual
|
May
be terminated by either
party.
|
Sales
and Marketing
We use
our direct sales force and third party distributors to market our
products. Our key promotional activities include:
·
|
attendance
at industry trade shows and
conventions;
|
·
|
use
of a cut-away police car model to demonstrate the digital video rear view
mirror product at trade shows, conventions and other marketing
venues;
|
·
|
direct
sales, with a force of industry-specific sales people who will identify,
call upon and build on-going relationships with key purchasers and
targeted industries;
|
·
|
support
of our direct sales with passive sales systems, including inside sales and
e-commerce;
|
·
|
print
advertising in journals with specialized industry
focus;
|
·
|
direct
mail campaigns targeted to potential
customers;
|
·
|
web
advertising, including supportive search engines and website and
registration with appropriate sourcing
entities;
|
·
|
public
relations, industry-specific venues, as well as general media, to create
awareness of our brand and our products, including membership in
appropriate trade organizations;
and
|
·
|
brand
identification through trade names associated with us and our
products.
|
Competition
The law
enforcement and security surveillance markets are extremely
competitive. Competitive factors in these industries include ease of
use, quality, portability, versatility, reliability, accuracy and
cost. Our primary competitors include companies with substantially
greater financial, technological, marketing, personnel and research and
development resources than we currently have. There are direct
competitors with competitive technology and products in the law enforcement and
surveillance markets for all of our products and those we have in
development. We will also compete with any company making
surveillance devices for residential and commercial use. There can be
no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully in this
market. Further, there can be no assurance that new and existing
companies will not enter the digital video and security surveillance markets in
the future. See “Risk Factors - Competition.”
Intellectual
Property
Our
ability to compete effectively will depend on our success in protecting our
proprietary technology, both in the United States and abroad. We have
filed for patent protection in the United States and certain other countries to
cover certain design aspects of our products. However, we license the
critical technology on which our products are based from third
parties: Ingenient Technologies, Inc., Nuvation Research Corporation
and Z-3 Technology, LLC.
These
patent applications are under review by the U.S. Patent Office and therefore we
have not been issued any patents in the United States. No assurance
can be given that any patents relating to our existing technology will be issued
from the United States or any foreign patent offices, that we will receive any
patents in the future based on our continued development of our technology, or
that our patent protection within and/or outside of the United States will be
sufficient to deter others, legally or otherwise, from developing or marketing
competitive products utilizing our technologies.
In
addition to seeking patent protection, we will rely on trade secrets, know-how
and continuing technological advancement to seek to achieve and thereafter
maintain a competitive advantage. Although we have entered into or
intend to enter into confidentiality and invention agreements with our
employees, consultants and advisors, no assurance can be given that such
agreements will be honored or that we will be able to effectively protect our
rights to our unpatented trade secrets and know-how. Moreover, no
assurance can be given that others will not independently develop substantially
equivalent proprietary information and techniques or otherwise gain access to
our trade secrets and know-how.
Employees
We had
117 full-time employees as of December 31, 2008. Our employees are
not covered by any collective bargaining agreement and we have never experienced
a work stoppage. We believe that our relations with our employees are
good.
ITEM
1A.Risk
Factors.
You
should carefully consider the following risk factors in evaluating our business
and us. The factors listed below represent certain important factors
that we believe could cause our business results to differ. These
factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the general or specific
risks that may affect us. It should be recognized that other risks
may be significant, presently or in the future, and the risks set forth below
may affect us to a greater extent than indicated. If any of the
following risks occur, our business, financial condition or results of
operations could be materially and adversely affected. You should
also consider the other information included in this Annual Report and
subsequent quarterly reports filed with the SEC.
Risk
Factors
We
have a short operating history.
From May
2003 through March 2006, we were a development stage company. In
March 2006, we started selling our products and became an operating
company. We have retained earnings of $344,516 as of
December 31, 2008, which includes our net income of $3,353,630 for 2008 and
$4,523,334 for 2007, as noted in our audited financial statements. We
have a limited operating history upon which investors may rely to evaluate our
prospects; however, we reported substantial net income in both 2008 and
2007. Our future prospects must be considered in light of the
problems, expenses, delays and complications associated with a relatively new
business and products, including research and development expenditures,
production development costs, establishing and maintaining a supply chain for
material and component parts for new products, and hiring, training and
retaining a labor force, including marketing, sales, distribution and management
personnel. At December 31, 2008, we had working capital of
approximately $14 million. Losses prior to 2007 resulted principally
from costs incurred in the research and development of our technology and
products, salaries and general and administrative costs when revenues were not
being produced.
If
we are unable to manage our rapid expansion in business, our prospects may be
limited and our future profitability may be adversely affected.
We have
experienced rapid expansion during 2008 resulting from the success of our
marketing activities and the overall acceptance of our products by the
market. We expanded our production capabilities and capacity
significantly and more than doubled our workforce during 2008, which has
strained our managerial, financial and other resources. We will need
to continually improve our operations, financial and other internal systems to
manage our growth effectively, and any failure to do so may lead to
inefficiencies and redundancies which may result in reduced growth prospects and
profitability.
There
are risks related to dealing with governmental entities as
customers.
One of
the principal target markets for our products is the law enforcement
community. In this market, the sale of products will be subject to
budget constraints of governmental agencies purchasing these products, which
could result in a significant reduction in our anticipated
revenues. These agencies also may experience political pressure that
dictates the manner in which they spend money. As a result, even if
an agency wants to acquire our products, it may be unable to purchase them due
to budgetary or political constraints. We cannot assure investors
that such governmental agencies will have the necessary funds to purchase our
products even though they may want to do so. Further, even if such
agencies have the necessary funds, we may experience delays and relatively long
sales cycles due to their internal decision making policies and
procedures.
The
current economic and real estate market downturns will likely depress state and
local tax revenues from sales, use, income and property tax sources. The
reduction in such revenues will likely reduce funding to law enforcement
agencies that represent our primary customers.
The
overall economy is currently in a recession, which will likely result in lower
tax collections by state and local taxing authorities. Police
agencies rely on funding from state and local tax sources to purchase our
products. Therefore, the recession will generally decrease our
primary customers’ ability to purchase our systems unless they can find other
sources of funding to cover the shortfall. The recently enacted
Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 may provide a source of alternative funding;
however, the amount and timing of such alternative funding is uncertain at this
time. Demand for our product may be substantially reduced unless this
source of alternative funding does cover shortfalls created by the current
recession’s impact on state and local tax revenues. We cannot assure
investors that such governmental agencies will have the necessary funds to
purchase our products even though they may want to do so.
We
are operating in a developing market and there is uncertainty as to market
acceptance of our technology and products.
The
markets for our products and technology are developing and rapidly evolving and
are characterized by an increasing number of market entrants who have developed
or are developing a wide variety of products and technologies, a number of which
offer certain of the features that our products offer. Because of
these factors, demand and market acceptance for new products are subject to a
high level of uncertainty. There can be no assurance that our
technology and products will become widely accepted. It is also
difficult to predict with any assurance the future growth rate, if any, and size
of the market. If a substantial market fails to develop, develops
more slowly than expected or becomes saturated with competitors or if our
products do not achieve or continue to achieve market acceptance, our business,
operating results and financial condition will be materially and adversely
affected.
Our
technology is also intended to be marketed and licensed to device manufacturers
for inclusion in the products and equipment they market and sell as an embedded
solution. As with other new products and technologies designed to
enhance or replace existing products or technologies or change product designs,
these potential partners may be reluctant to integrate our digital video
recording technology into their systems unless the technology and products are
proven to be both reliable and available at a competitive price. Even
assuming product acceptance, our potential partners may be required to redesign
their systems to effectively use our digital video recording
technology. The time and costs necessary for such redesign could
delay or prevent market acceptance of our technology and products. A
lack of, or delay in, market acceptance of our digital video recording
technology and products would adversely affect our operations. There
can be no assurance that we will be able to market our technology and products
successfully or that any of our technology or products will be accepted in the
marketplace.
We
expend significant resources in anticipation of a sale due to our lengthy sales
cycle and may receive no revenue in return.
Generally,
law enforcement and other agencies that may consider using our products must
analyze a wide range of issues before committing to purchase products like ours,
including training costs, product reliability and budgetary
constraints. The length of our sales cycle may range from sixty days
to a year or more. We may incur substantial selling costs and expend
significant effort in connection with the evaluation of our products by
potential customers before they place an order. Initial orders by
agencies typically are for a small number of units that are used to evaluate the
products. If these potential customers do not purchase our products,
we will have expended significant resources and receive no revenue in
return.
Our
market is characterized by new products and rapid technological
change.
The
market for our products is characterized by rapidly changing technology and
frequent new product introductions. Our future success will depend in
part on our ability to enhance our existing technologies and products and to
introduce new products and technologies to meet changing customer
requirements. We are currently devoting, and intend to continue to
devote, significant resources toward the development of new digital video
recording technology and products both as stand-alone products and embedded
solutions in third party products and systems. There can be no
assurance that we will successfully complete the development of these
technologies and related products in a timely fashion or that our current or
future products will satisfy the needs of the digital video recording
market. There can also be no assurance that digital video recording
products and technologies developed by others will not adversely affect our
competitive position or render our products or technologies non-competitive or
obsolete.
We
substantially depend on sales from our DVM-500 product and if this product
becomes obsolete or not widely accepted, our growth prospects will be
diminished.
In the
years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, we derived our revenues predominantly
from sales of our DVM-500 digital video rear view mirror and accessories and
expect to depend on sales of this product during 2009, although we intend to
introduce new products during 2009 that we anticipate will lead to diversifying
our revenue sources. A decrease in the prices of, or the demand for,
this product, or the failure to achieve broad market acceptance of our new
product offerings, would significantly harm our growth prospects, operating
results and financial condition.
We
substantially depend on our research and development activities to design new
products and upgrades to existing products and if these products are not widely
accepted, or we encounter difficulties and delays in launching these new
products, our growth prospects will be diminished.
We have a
number of active research and development projects underway at the current time
that are intended to launch new products or upgrades to existing
products. We may incur substantial costs and/or delays in completion
of these activities that may not result in viable products or may not be
received well by our potential customers. We have incurred $3,127,143
and $1,518,914 in research and development expenses during the years ended
December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, which represents a substantial expense
as compared to our total revenues and net income. If we are
unsuccessful in bringing these products from the engineering prototype phase to
commercial production, we could incur additional expenses (in addition to those
already spent) without receiving revenues from the new
products. Also, these new products may fail to achieve broad market
acceptance and may not generate revenue to cover expenses incurred to design,
develop, produce and market the new product offerings. Should these
conditions occur the effect would significantly harm our growth prospects,
operating results and financial condition.
If
we are unable to compete in our market, you may lose all or part of your
investment.
Our
market is highly competitive and highly fragmented. The law
enforcement and security surveillance markets are extremely
competitive. Competitive factors in these industries include ease of
use, quality, portability, versatility, reliability, accuracy, cost and other
factors. Our primary competitors include: L-3
Mobile-Vision, Inc., Watchguard, Kustom Signals, International Police
Technologies, Inc. and a number of other competitors who sell or may in the
future sell in-car video systems to law enforcement agencies. There
are direct competitors who have competitive technology and products for all of
our products. Many of these competitors have significant advantages
over us, including greater financial, technical, marketing and manufacturing
resources, more extensive distribution channels, larger customer bases and
faster response times to adapt new or emerging technologies and changes in
customer requirements. As a result, our competitors may develop
superior products or beat us to market with products similar to
ours. Further, there can be no assurance that new companies will not
enter our markets in the future. Although we believe that our
products will be distinguishable from those of our competitors on the basis of
their technological features and functionality at an attractive value
proposition, there can be no assurance that we will be able to penetrate any of
our anticipated competitors’ portions of the market. Many of our
anticipated competitors may have existing relationships with equipment or device
manufacturers which may impede our ability to market our technology to those
potential customers and build market share. There can be no assurance
that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future
competitors or that competitive pressures will not have a material adverse
effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. If
we are not successful in competing against our current and future competitors,
you could lose your entire investment. See “Description of Business -
Competition.”
Digital
video has yet to be widely accepted as admissible scientific evidence in
court.
Videos
from analog mobile-in-car video systems have long been accepted by the courts as
reliable scientific evidence. However, because of their relatively
recent introduction, digital video systems, in general, and our products,
specifically, have not undergone the rigorous scientific testing that courts may
demand before recognizing their reliability. If video files from
digital in-car video units are not admissible in a court of law, law enforcement
agencies are not likely to purchase our products.
Defects
in our products could impair our ability to sell our products or could result in
litigation and other significant costs.
Detection
of any significant defects in our products may result in, among other things,
delay in time-to-market, loss of market acceptance and sales of our products,
diversion of development resources, and injury to our reputation, or increased
warranty costs. Because our products are technologically complex,
they may contain defects that cannot be detected prior to
shipment. These defects could harm our reputation and impair our
ability to sell our products. The costs we may incur in correcting
any product defects may be substantial and could decrease our profit
margins. Additionally, errors, defects or other performance problems
could result in financial or other damages to our customers, which could result
in litigation. Product liability litigation, even if we prevail,
would be time consuming and costly to defend. Our product liability
insurance may not be adequate to cover claims. Our product liability
insurance coverage per occurrence is $1,000,000, with a $2,000,000 aggregate for
our general business liability coverage and an additional $1,000,000 per
occurrence. Our excess or umbrella liability coverage per occurrence
is $2,000,000, with an aggregate of $4,000,000.
Product
defects can be caused by design errors, programming bugs, or defects in
component parts or raw materials. This is common to every product
manufactured which is based on modern electronic and computer
technology. Because of the extreme complexity of digital in-car video
systems, one of the key concerns is operating software
robustness. Some of the software modules are provided to us by
outside vendors under license agreements, while other portions are developed by
our own software engineers. As with any software-dependant product,
“bugs” can occur, even with rigorous testing before release of the
product. The software included in our digital video rear view mirror
and digital video flashlight products is designed to be “field upgradeable” so
that changes or fixes can be made by the end user by downloading new software
through the internet. We intend to incorporate this technology into
any future products as well, providing a quick resolution to potential software
issues that may arise over time.
As with
all electronic devices, hardware issues can arise from many
sources. The component electronic parts we utilize come from many
sources around the world. We attempt to mitigate the possibility of
shipping defective products by fully testing sub-assemblies and thoroughly
testing assembled units before they are shipped out to our
customers. Because of the nature and complexity of some of the
electronic components used, such as microprocessor chips, memory systems, and
zoom video camera modules, it is not technically or financially realistic to
attempt to test every single aspect of every single component and their
potential interactions. By using components from reputable and
reliable sources, and by using professional engineering, assembly, and testing
methods, we seek to limit the possibility of defects slipping
through. In addition to internal testing, we now have thousands of
units in the hands of police departments and in use every day. Over
the past year of field use, we have fixed many subtle issues and made many
changes as requested by the end-user.
We
are dependent on key personnel.
Our
success will be largely dependent upon the efforts of our executive officers,
Stanton E. Ross, Kenneth L. McCoy and Robert D. Haler. We do not have
employment agreements with Messrs. Ross, McCoy or Haler. The loss of
the services of these individuals could have a material adverse effect on our
business and prospects. There can be no assurance that we will be
able to retain the services of such individuals in the future. We
have obtained and will maintain key-man life insurance policies on Messrs. Ross
and Haler in the amount of $500,000 each. We are also dependent to a
substantial degree on our technical and development staff. Our
success will be dependent upon our ability to hire and retain additional
qualified technical, research, management, marketing and financial
personnel. We will compete with other companies with greater
financial and other resources for such personnel. Although we have
not to date experienced difficulty in attracting qualified personnel, there can
be no assurance that we will be able to retain our present personnel or acquire
additional qualified personnel as and when needed.
We
rely on third party distributors and representatives for our marketing
capability.
Our
distribution strategy is to pursue sales through multiple channels with an
emphasis on independent distributors and representatives. Our
inability to recruit and retain police equipment distributors and
representatives who can successfully sell our products would adversely affect
our sales. In addition, our arrangements with our distributors and
representatives are generally short-term. If we do not competitively
price our products, meet the requirements of our distributors and
representatives or end-users, provide adequate marketing and technical support,
or comply with the terms of our distribution arrangements, our distributors and
representatives may fail to aggressively market our products or may terminate
their relationships with us. These developments would likely have a
material adverse effect on our sales. Our reliance on the sales of
products by others also makes it more difficult to predict our revenues, cash
flow and operating results.
We
are dependent on manufacturers and suppliers.
We
currently purchase, and intend to continue to purchase, substantially all of the
components for our products from a limited number of manufacturers and
suppliers. Our internal process is principally to assemble the
various components and subassemblies manufactured by our suppliers and test the
assembled product prior to shipping to our customers. We do not
intend to directly manufacture any of the equipment or parts to be used in our
products. Our reliance upon outside manufacturers and suppliers is
expected to continue and involves several risks, including limited control over
the availability of components, delivery schedules, pricing and product
quality. We may experience delays, additional expenses and lost sales
if we are required to locate and qualify alternative manufacturers and
suppliers.
A few of
the semiconductor chip components for our products are produced by a very small
number of specialized manufacturers. Currently, we purchase one
essential semiconductor chip from a single manufacturer. While we
believe that there are alternative sources of supply, if, for any reason, we are
precluded from obtaining such a semiconductor chip from this manufacturer, we
may experience long delays in product delivery due to the difficulty and
complexity involved in producing the required component and we may also be
required to pay higher costs for our components.
While we
do the final assembly, testing, packaging, and shipment of our products
in-house, several component parts are being manufactured by
subcontractors. These subcontractors include: raw circuit board
manufacturers, circuit board assembly houses, injection plastic molders, metal
parts fabricators, and other custom component providers. While we are
dependent upon these subcontractors to the extent that they are producing custom
subassemblies and components necessary for manufacturing our products, we still
own the designs and intellectual property involved. This means that
the failure of any one contractor to perform may cause delays in
production. However, we can mitigate potential interruptions by
maintaining “buffer stocks” of critical parts and subassemblies and by using
multiple sources for critical components. We also have the ability to
move our subcontracting to alternate providers. Being forced to use a
different subcontractor could cause production interruptions ranging from
negligible, such as a few weeks, to very costly, such as four to six
months.
There is
only one component group that would require a complete redesign of our digital
video electronics package: the Texas Instruments chips. While there
are competitive products available, each chip has unique characteristics that
would require extensive tailoring of product designs to use it. The
Texas Instrument chips are the heart of our video processing
system. If Texas Instruments became unwilling or unable to provide us
with these chips, we would be forced to redesign our digital video encoder and
decoder systems. Such a complete redesign could take substantial time
(i.e. over six months) to complete. We attempt to mitigate the
potential for interruption by maintaining continuous stocks of these chips to
support several months’ worth of production. In addition, we
regularly check on the end-of-life status of these parts to make sure that we
will know well in advance of any decisions by Texas Instruments to discontinue
these parts. There are other semiconductors that are integral to our
product design and which could cause delays if discontinued, but not to the same
scale as the Texas Instrument chips.
We
are uncertain of our ability to protect technology through patents.
Our
ability to compete effectively will depend on our success in protecting our
proprietary technology, both in the United States and abroad. We have
filed for patent protection in the United States and certain other countries to
cover certain design aspects of our products. We license the critical
technology on which our products are based from Ingenient, Inc., Nuvation and
Z-3 pursuant to license agreements. However, the technology licensed
from these licensors is only critical in that it is the basis of our current
product design. We may choose to use other video encoding and
decoding technology in future products, thus lessening our dependence on our
licenses with these companies.
Our
patent applications are under review by the U.S. Patent Office and therefore we
have not been issued any patents in the United States. No assurance
can be given that any patents relating to our existing technology will be issued
from the United States or any foreign patent offices, that we will receive any
patents in the future based on our continued development of our technology, or
that our patent protection within and/or outside of the United States will be
sufficient to deter others, legally or otherwise, from developing or marketing
competitive products utilizing our technologies.
If our
patents were to be denied as filed, we would seek to obtain different patents
for other parts of our technology. If our main patent, which relates
to the placement of the in-car video system in a rear view mirror, is denied, it
could potentially allow our competitors to build very similar
devices. However, we believe that very few of our competitors would
be capable of this because of the level of technical sophistication and level of
miniaturization required. Even if we obtain patents, there can be no
assurance that they will be enforceable to prevent others from developing and
marketing competitive products or methods. If we bring an
infringement action relating to any future patents, it may require the diversion
of substantial funds from our operations and may require management to expend
efforts that might otherwise be devoted to our
operations. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that we will be
successful in enforcing our patent rights.
Further,
if any patents issue there can be no assurance that patent infringement claims
in the United States or in other countries will not be asserted against us by a
competitor or others, or if asserted, that we will be successful in defending
against such claims. If one of our products is adjudged to infringe
patents of others with the likely consequence of a damage award, we may be
enjoined from using and selling such product or be required to obtain a
royalty-bearing license, if available on acceptable
terms. Alternatively, if a license is not offered, we might be
required, if possible, to redesign those aspects of the product held to infringe
so as to avoid infringement liability. Any redesign efforts
undertaken by us might be expensive, could delay the introduction or the
re-introduction of our products into certain markets, or may be so significant
as to be impractical.
We
are uncertain of our ability to protect our proprietary technology and
information.
In
addition to seeking patent protection, we will rely on trade secrets, know-how
and continuing technological advancement to seek to achieve and thereafter
maintain a competitive advantage. Although we have entered into or
intend to enter into confidentiality and invention agreements with our
employees, consultants and advisors, no assurance can be given that such
agreements will be honored or that we will be able to effectively protect our
rights to our unpatented trade secrets and know-how. Moreover, no
assurance can be given that others will not independently develop substantially
equivalent proprietary information and techniques or otherwise gain access to
our trade secrets and know-how.
Risks
related to our license arrangements.
We have
licensing agreements with Ingenient, Nuvation and Z-3 regarding certain software
used as the platform for the proprietary software we have developed for use in
our products. Each of these licensing agreements have specified terms
and are renewable on an annual basis unless both parties determine not to renew
them and provided the parties are in compliance with the
agreements. If we fail to make the payments under these licenses or
if these licenses are not renewed for any reason, it would cause us significant
time and expense to redevelop our software on a different software platform,
which would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results
and financial condition.
Our
revenues and operating results may fluctuate unexpectedly from quarter to
quarter, which may cause our stock price to decline.
Our
revenues and operating results have varied significantly in the past and may
vary significantly in the future due to various factors that are both within and
outside our control. As a result, we believe that period-to-period
comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful in the short-term,
and our performance in a particular period may not be indicative of our
performance in any future period.
Coalitions
of a few of our larger stockholders have sufficient voting power to make
corporate governance decisions that could have significant effect on us and the
other stockholders.
Our
officers, directors and principal stockholders (greater than five percent
stockholders) together control approximately 41%, including options vested or to
vest within sixty days, of our outstanding common stock. As a result,
these stockholders, if they act together, will be able to exert a significant
degree of influence over our management and affairs and over matters requiring
stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of
significant corporate transactions. In addition, this concentration
of ownership may delay or prevent a change in our control and might affect the
market price of our common stock, even when a change in control may be in the
best interest of all stockholders. Furthermore, the interests of this
concentration of ownership may not always coincide with our interests or the
interests of other stockholders. Accordingly, these stockholders
could cause us to enter into transactions or agreements that we would not
otherwise consider.
Risks
Relating to our Common Stock
The
possible issuance of common stock subject to options may dilute the interest of
stockholders.
We have
granted options to purchase a total of 5,369,627 shares of our common stock for
issuance under our stock option and restricted stock plans which remain
outstanding and unexercised as of December 31, 2008. To the extent
that outstanding stock options are exercised, dilution to the interests of our
stockholders may occur. Moreover, the terms upon which we will be
able to obtain additional equity capital may be adversely affected since the
holders of the outstanding options can be expected to exercise them at a time
when we would, in all likelihood, be able to obtain any needed capital on terms
more favorable to us than those provided in such outstanding
options.
We
have never paid dividends and have no plans to in the future.
Holders
of shares of our common stock are entitled to receive such dividends as may be
declared by our board of directors. To date, we have paid no cash
dividends on our shares of common stock and we do not expect to pay cash
dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We intend to
retain future earnings, if any, to provide funds for operation of our
business. Therefore, any return investors in our common stock will
have to be in the form of appreciation, if any, in the market value of their
shares of common stock.
We
have additional securities available for issuance, which, if issued, could
adversely affect the rights of the holders of our common stock.
Our
articles of incorporation authorize the issuance of 75,000,000 shares of our
common stock. The common stock can be issued by our board of
directors, without stockholder approval. Any future issuances of our
common stock would further dilute the percentage ownership of our Company held
by our public stockholders.
Our
stock price is likely to be highly volatile because of several factors,
including a limited public float.
The
market price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile because there
has been a relatively thin trading market for our stock, which causes trades of
small blocks of stock to have a significant impact on our stock
price. You may not be able to resell shares of our common stock
following periods of volatility because of the market’s adverse reaction to
volatility.
Other
factors that could cause such volatility may include, among other
things:
·
|
digital
video in-car recording products not being accepted by the law enforcement
industry or digital video recording not being accepted as evidence in
criminal proceedings;
|
·
|
actual
or anticipated fluctuations in our operating
results;
|
·
|
the
potential absence of securities analysts covering us and distributing
research and recommendations about
us;
|
·
|
we
expect our actual operating results to fluctuate widely as we increase our
sales and production capabilities and other
operations;
|
·
|
we
may have a low trading volume for a number of reasons, including that a
large amount of our stock is closely
held;
|
·
|
overall
stock market fluctuations;
|
·
|
economic
conditions generally and in the law enforcement and security industries in
particular;
|
·
|
announcements
concerning our business or those of our competitors or
customers;
|
·
|
our
ability to raise capital when we require it, and to raise such capital on
favorable terms;
|
·
|
changes
in financial estimates by securities analysts or our failure to perform as
anticipated by the analysts;
|
·
|
announcements
of technological innovations;
|
·
|
conditions
or trends in the industry;
|
·
|
changes
in market valuations of other similar
companies;
|
·
|
announcements
by us or our competitors of new products or of significant technical
innovations, contracts, acquisitions, strategic partnerships or joint
ventures;
|
·
|
future
sales of common stock;
|
·
|
actions
initiated by the SEC or other regulatory
bodies;
|
·
|
existence
or lack of patents or proprietary
rights;
|
·
|
departure
of key personnel or failure to hire key personnel;
and
|
·
|
general
market conditions.
|
Any of
these factors could have a significant and adverse impact on the market price of
our common stock. In addition, the stock market in general has at
times experienced extreme volatility and rapid decline that has often been
unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular
companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the
trading price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating
performance.
Indemnification
of officers and directors.
Our
articles of incorporation and the bylaws contain broad indemnification and
liability limiting provisions regarding our officers, directors and employees,
including the limitation of liability for certain violations of fiduciary
duties. Our stockholders therefore will have only limited recourse
against such individuals.
ITEM
1B.Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
ITEM
2.
|
Description
of Properties.
|
Our
executive office consists of approximately 8,500 square feet and is located at
7311 West 130th Street,
Suite 170, Overland Park, Kansas 66213. The lease will terminate on
October 31, 2012 and its current monthly rent is $13,734.
We lease
approximately 24,000 square feet of office and warehouse space at 1210, 1212 and
1218 Valley Ridge Drive, Grain Valley, Missouri 64029 under four different lease
agreements. We use this facility for engineering, warehousing,
assembling and shipping of our finished product. The leases on these
facilities terminate in June 2010 and the aggregate monthly rent is
$16,877. We have an option to renew these leases for one additional
year at expiration.
We lease
approximately 5,000 square feet of warehouse space at 624 Valley Ridge Court,
Grain Valley, Missouri 64029. We use this facility for warehousing
and shipping of our finished product and for storage of a portion of our raw
material and component parts. The lease on this facility terminates
in June 2010 and the monthly rent is $2,500. We have an option to renew these
leases for one additional year at expiration.
We
believe that our current facilities are adequate to meet our operational needs
for the upcoming year.
ITEM
3.
|
Legal
Proceedings.
|
On April
9, 2008, Thomas DeHuff filed suit against the Company and Charles A. Ross in the
Chancery Court of Lincoln County, Mississippi. Charles A. Ross, Jr.
(“Ross”) is the son of Charles A. Ross and was a former officer and director of
the Company. The complaint alleges that on or about April 8, 2005,
the plaintiff entered into a verbal agreement with Ross, whom the plaintiff
maintains was acting for and on behalf of the Company, under which he
purportedly was to receive 150,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to
resolve certain claims to compensation the plaintiff maintains was due from the
Company. The lawsuit also claims that the plaintiff advanced funds to
Ross, believing that he was purchasing the Company’s common stock which was
never issued. Plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages and punitive
damages and attorney’s fees in addition to requiring the Company to issue the
common stock. The Company has successfully removed the case from the
Chancery Court of Lincoln County, Mississippi to the United States District
Court located in Jackson Mississippi. The Company has filed a motion
to dismiss the case, which is currently pending in the United States District
Court. The Company believes that the lawsuit is without merit and
will continue to vigorously defend itself.
On July
11, 2008, L-3 Communications Mobile-Vision, Inc. filed suit against the Company
and Trisquare Communications, Inc., a vender of the Company that supplies
wireless microphones included in the Company’s products, in the U.S. District
Court in the District of New Jersey. The complaint alleged that the
Company infringed on a patent issued to the Plaintiff that covered certain
elements of the wireless microphone component of in-car video
systems. The lawsuit sought a permanent injunction regarding the use
of this technology, including damages, treble damages and attorney’s
fees. On October 8, 2008, the Company and L-3 Communications
Mobile-Vision, Inc. entered into a settlement agreement that resolved all
litigation pertaining to Mobile-Vision's allegations that the Company’s current
DVM-500 products infringe Mobile-Vision's patent. Based on technical
disclosures and representations provided by the Company to Mobile-Vision, the
parties agreed that the current DVM-500 products do not infringe Mobile-Vision's
patent and that no damages are payable based on those technical disclosures and
representations. Each party agreed to bear its own costs and
attorney's fees. The other terms of the resolution are
confidential.
On July
11, 2008, L-3 Communications Mobile-Vision, Inc. also filed a complaint against
the Company, Trisquare Communications, Inc., and eight other parties requesting
that the United States International Trade Commission (“ITC”) commence an
investigation pursuant to Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The
Plaintiff sought to have the ITC issue a permanent cease and desist order
prohibiting the importation into the United States of all articles that infringe
on its patent that allegedly covers certain elements of the wireless microphone
component of in-car video systems. This litigation was also resolved
and dismissed under the same terms described previously.
ITEM
4.
|
Submission
of Matters to a Vote of Security
Holders.
|
No
matters were submitted to a vote of our shareholders during the fourth quarter
of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008.
PART
II
ITEM
5.
|
Market
for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer
Purchases of Equity Securities.
|
Market
Prices
Our
common stock commenced trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market on January 2, 2008
under the symbol “DGLY.” From July 2007 until we became listed on the
NASDAQ Capital Market, our common stock was traded on the OTC Bulletin Board and
prior to that it was quoted in the “Pink Sheets.”
The
high/low closing prices of our common stock were as follows for the periods
below. The quotations below reflect inter-dealer bid prices without
retail markup, markdown, or commission and may not represent actual
transactions:
|
|
High Close
|
|
|
Low Close
|
|
Year Ended December 31,
2008
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1st
Quarter
|
|
$ |
7.41 |
|
|
$ |
6.91 |
|
2nd
Quarter
|
|
$ |
9.84 |
|
|
$ |
6.80 |
|
3rd
Quarter
|
|
$ |
9.10 |
|
|
$ |
6.72 |
|
4th
Quarter
|
|
$ |
6.90 |
|
|
$ |
2.61 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year Ended December 31,
2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1st
Quarter
|
|
$ |
1.80 |
|
|
$ |
1.45 |
|
2nd
Quarter
|
|
$ |
2.70 |
|
|
$ |
1.65 |
|
3rd
Quarter
|
|
$ |
3.45 |
|
|
$ |
2.00 |
|
4th
Quarter
|
|
$ |
7.35 |
|
|
$ |
3.70 |
|
Holders
of Common Stock
As of
December 31, 2008, we had approximately 115 shareholders of record for our
common stock.
Dividend
Policy
To date,
we have not declared or paid cash dividends on our shares of common
stock. The holders of our common stock will be entitled to
non-cumulative dividends on the shares of common stock, when and as declared by
our board of directors, in its discretion. We intend to retain all
future earnings, if any, for our business and do not anticipate paying cash
dividends in the foreseeable future.
Any
future determination to pay cash dividends will be at the discretion of our
board of directors and will be dependent upon our financial condition, results
of operations, capital requirements, general business conditions and such other
factors as our board of directors may deem relevant.
Stock Repurchase
Plan.
During
June 2008, the Board of Directors approved a program that authorizes the
repurchase of up to $10 million of the Company’s common stock in the open
market, or in privately negotiated transactions, through July 1,
2010. The repurchases, if and when made, will be subject to market
conditions, applicable rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission and other
factors. The repurchase program will be funded using a portion of
cash and cash equivalents, along with cash flow from
operations. Purchases may be commenced, suspended or discontinued at
any time. The Company has repurchased 210,360 shares at a total cost
of $1,624,353 (average cost of $7.72 per share) under this program as of
December 31, 2008 all of which occurred during the quarter ended September 30,
2008.
Securities
Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
Our board
of directors adopted the 2005 Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan (the “2005
Plan”) on September 1, 2005. The 2005 Plan authorizes us to
issue 2,500,000 shares of our common stock for issuance upon exercise of options
and grant of restricted stock awards. We have issued all of the
options available under the 2005 Plan. Options totaling 54,677 under the 2005
Plan have been surrendered/forfeited since they were originally granted and now
are available for grant.
On
January 17, 2006, our board of directors adopted the 2006 Stock Option and
Restricted Stock Plan (the “2006 Plan”). The 2006 Plan authorizes us
to reserve 1,500,000 shares for future grants under it. We have
issued all 1,500,000 of the options available under the 2006
Plan. Options totaling 7,500 under the 2006 Plan have been
surrendered/forfeited since they were originally granted and now are available
for grant.
On
January 24, 2007, our board of directors adopted the 2007 Stock Option and
Restricted Stock Plan (the “2007 Plan”). The 2007 Plan authorizes us
to reserve 1,500,000 shares for future grants under it. We have
issued 1,493,600 of the options available under the 2007
Plan. Options totaling 32,496 under the 2007 Plan have been
surrendered/forfeited since they were originally granted and, together with the
6,400 shares that are authorized but have never been granted, are now available
for grant.
On
January 2, 2008, our board of directors adopted the 2008 Stock Option and
Restricted Stock Plan (the “2008 Plan”). The 2008 Plan authorizes us
to reserve 1,000,000 shares for future grants under it. We have
issued 958,000 of the options available under the 2008 Plan, with 42,000
remaining available for future grant.
The 2005
Plan, 2006 Plan, 2007 Plan and 2008 Plan are referred to as the
“Plans.”
The Plans
authorize us to grant (i) to the key employees incentive stock options
(except for the 2007 Plan) to purchase shares of common stock and
non-qualified stock options to purchase shares of common stock and restricted
stock awards, and (ii) to non-employee directors and consultants’
non-qualified stock options and restricted stock. Our Compensation
Committee administers the Plans by making recommendations to the board or
determinations regarding the persons to whom options or restricted stock should
be granted and the amount, terms, conditions and restrictions of the
awards.
The Plans
allow for the grant of incentive stock options (except for the 2007 Plan),
non-qualified stock options and restricted stock awards. Incentive
stock options granted under the Plans must have an exercise price at least equal
to 100% of the fair market value of the common stock as of the date of
grant. Incentive stock options granted to any person who owns,
immediately after the grant, stock possessing more than 10% of the combined
voting power of all classes of our stock, or of any parent or subsidiary
corporation, must have an exercise price at least equal to 110% of the fair
market value of the common stock on the date of grant. Non-statutory
stock options may have exercise prices as determined by our Compensation
Committee.
The
Compensation Committee is also authorized to grant restricted stock awards under
the Plans. A restricted stock award is a grant of shares of the
common stock that is subject to restrictions on transferability, risk of
forfeiture and other restrictions and that may be forfeited in the event of
certain terminations of employment or service prior to the end of a restricted
period specified by the Compensation Committee.
On July
31, 2008, we filed registration statements on Form S-8 and an amendment to a
previously filed Form S-8 with the SEC which registered 6,500,000 shares to be
issued upon exercise of the stock options underlying the 2005 Plan, 2006 Plan,
2007 Plan and 2008 Plan.
The
following table sets forth certain information regarding the stock option plans
adopted by the Company as of December 31, 2008:
Plan
category
|
|
Number of securities
to
be issued upon
exercise
of
outstanding
options,
warrants
and rights
(a)
|
|
Weighted-average
exercise
price of
outstanding
options,
warrants
and
rights
(b)
|
|
Number
of securities
remaining available
for
future issuance
under
equity
compensation
plans
(excluding
securities
reflected
in column (a)
(c)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Equity
compensation plans approved by stockholders
|
|
3,867,087
|
|
|
$
2.76
|
|
104,177
|
Equity
compensation plans not approved by stockholders
1
|
|
1,502,540
|
|
|
$ 2.26
|
|
38,896
|
Total
|
|
5,369,627
|
|
|
$ 2.62
|
|
143,073
|
Recent
Issuances of Unregistered Securities
Set forth
below is a description of all of our sales of unregistered securities during the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 and 2007. All sales were made to
“accredited investors” as such term as defined in Regulation D promulgated under
the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Act"). All such sales
were exempt from registration under Section 4(2) of the Act, as transactions not
involving a public offering. Unless indicated, we did not pay any
commissions to third parties in connection with the sales.
On May
15, 2007, we issued 500,000 shares of our common stock to Acme Resources, LLC
(“Acme”) upon Acme’s exercise of its right to convert an outstanding $500,000
promissory note at a rate of $1.00 per share.
On April
1, 2007, we issued 50,000 shares of common stock in lieu of cash for consulting
services provided by an independent contractor. Such transaction was
valued at $87,500 or $1.75 per share.
ITEM
6.
|
Selected
Financial Data.
|
Not
applicable.
ITEM
7.
|
Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operation.
|
This
Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,”
“intend,” “estimate,” “may,” “should,” “could,” “will,” “plan,” “future,”
“continue,” and other expressions that are predictions of or indicate future
events and trends and that do not relate to historical matters identify
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are
based largely on our expectations or forecasts of future events, can be affected
by inaccurate assumptions, and are subject to various business risks and known
and unknown uncertainties, a number of which are beyond our
control. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from the
forward-looking statements contained in this document, and readers are cautioned
not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. We
undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise. A wide variety of factors could cause or contribute to
such differences and could adversely impact revenues, profitability, cash flows
and capital needs. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking
statements contained in this document will, in fact, transpire or prove to be
accurate.
Factors
that could cause or contribute to our actual results differing materially from
those discussed herein or for our stock price to be adversely affected include,
but are not limited to: (i) our relatively short operating
history; (ii) macro-economic risks from the economic downturn and decrease in
budget for the law-enforcement community; (iii) our ability to
manage our rapid business expansion; (iv) our operation in a
developing market and uncertainty as to market acceptance of our technology and
new products; (v) our ability to achieve revenues of at least $50 million in
2009 as we have forecast; (vi) our ability to deliver our new product offerings
as scheduled and have them perform as planned or advertised; (vii)
whether there will be commercial markets, domestically and internationally, for
one or more of our new products; (viii) our ability to continue to expand our
share of the in-car video market in the domestic and international law
enforcement communities; (ix) our ability to continue to produce our products in
a cost-effective manner; (x) competition from larger, more established companies
with far greater economic and human resources; (xi) our ability to attract and
retain quality employees; (xii) risks related to dealing with governmental
entities as customers; (xiii) our expenditure of significant resources in
anticipation of a sale due to our lengthy sales cycle and the potential to
receive no revenue in return; (xiv) characterization of our market by new
products and rapid technological change; (xv) our dependence on sales of our
DVM-500 product; (xvi) potential that stockholders may lose all or part of
their investment if we are unable to compete in our market; (xvii) failure
of digital video to yet be widely accepted as admissible scientific evidence in
court; (xviii) defects in our products that could impair our ability to
sell our products or could result in litigation and other significant costs;
(xix) our dependence on key personnel; (xx) our reliance on third
party distributors and representatives for our marketing capability;
(xxi) our dependence on manufacturers and suppliers; (xxii) our
ability to protect technology through patents; (xxiii) our ability to
protect our proprietary technology and information as trade secrets and through
other similar means; (xxiv) risks related to our license arrangements;
(xxv) our revenues and operating results may fluctuate unexpectantly from
quarter to quarter; (xxvi) sufficient voting power by coalitions of a
few of our larger stockholders to make corporate governance decisions that could
have significant effect on us and the other stockholders; (xxvii) sale of
substantial amounts of our common stock that may have a depressive effect on the
market price of the outstanding shares of our common stock;
(xxviii) possible issuance of common stock subject to options and warrants
that may dilute the interest of stockholders; (xxviv) our ability to comply
with Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Section 404; (xxx) our nonpayment of
dividends and lack of plans to pay dividends in the future; (xxxi) future
sale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock that could depress
the trading price of our common stock, lower our value and make it more
difficult for us to raise capital; (xxxii) our additional securities
available for issuance, which, if issued, could adversely affect the rights of
the holders of our common stock; (xxxiii) our stock price which is likely
to be highly volatile because of several factors, including a
relatively limited public float; and (xxxiv) indemnification of
our officers and directors.
Recent Developments for the
Company
Overview
We supply
technology-based products based upon portable digital video and audio recording
capabilities, primarily for the law enforcement and security
industries. We have the ability to integrate electronic, radio,
computer, mechanical, and multi-media technologies to create unique solutions to
customers’ requests.
Since our
inception in 2003 through the second quarter of 2006, we had been considered a
development stage company, with our activities focused on organizational
activities, including design and development of product lines, implementing a
business plan, establishing sales channels, and development of business
strategies. In late March 2006, we sold and shipped our first
completed product, thereby becoming an operating company. We
have experienced significant growth in revenues, whereby our revenues have
increased from $4.1 million in 2006 to $32.6 million in 2008. We have
active research and development projects that we anticipate will result in
several new products being launched during 2009 and beyond.
Off-Balance
Sheet Arrangements
We do not
have any off-balance sheet debt nor did we have any transactions, arrangements,
obligations (including contingent obligations) or other relationships with any
unconsolidated entities or other persons that may have material current or
future effect on financial conditions, changes in the financial conditions,
results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures, capital resources, or
significant components of revenue or expenses. We are a party to
operating leases and license agreements that represent commitments for future
payments (described in Note 8 to the financial statements). In
addition, we have issued purchase orders in the ordinary course of business that
represent commitments to future payments for goods and services.
For the Years Ended December
31, 2008 and 2007
Results
of Operations
Summarized
immediately below and discussed in more detail in the subsequent sub-sections is
an analysis of our operating results for the years ended December 31, 2008 and
2007 represented as a percentage of total revenues for each respective
year:
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2007
|
|
Revenue
|
|
|
100 |
% |
|
|
100 |
% |
Cost
of sales
|
|
|
40 |
% |
|
|
39 |
% |
Gross
profit
|
|
|
60 |
% |
|
|
61 |
% |
Operating
expenses
|
|
|
44 |
% |
|
|
46 |
% |
Operating
income
|
|
|
16 |
% |
|
|
15 |
% |
Other
income
(expense)
|
|
|
-- |
% |
|
|
-- |
% |
Income
before income tax (provision) benefit
|
|
|
16 |
% |
|
|
15 |
% |
Income
tax (provision) benefit
|
|
|
(6 |
%) |
|
|
8 |
% |
Net
income
|
|
|
10 |
% |
|
|
23 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
income per share information:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Basic
|
|
$ |
0.22 |
|
|
$ |
0.33 |
|
Diluted
|
|
$ |
0.19 |
|
|
$ |
0.28 |
|
Revenues
We
commenced delivery and sale of our digital video rear view mirror (DVM-500)
product in March 2006 and have enjoyed revenue growth in every year since our
initial deliveries. We have customers in all 50 states and our
largest single order to date in the amount of $5.1 million was placed by an
international customer. We believe our DVM-500 product has achieved
widespread acceptance in the marketplace. In addition, we intend to expand
our product line significantly in 2009, which we anticipate will contribute to
increasing our 2009 revenues. These new product offerings include new
products for end users other than law enforcement, as well as product upgrades
and new product offerings for law enforcement uses. Sales for the
years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007 were $32,625,477 and $19,391,082,
respectively, an increase of $13,234,395 (68%), due to increased market
penetration. We expect that the current economic downturn in
the overall economy will have some effect on certain state and local tax bases
that will negatively affect our business for 2009. However, we expect that any
increase in federal funding to states and municipalities generated from the
stimulus bill recently enacted by the federal government may partially, if not
totally, offset the impact of lower state and local tax
collections. Our international revenues were $8,588,335, or 26% of
total revenues during 2008 and $5,751,042 or 30% of 2007 revenues. We
believe that our product is particularly well suited for international customers
because of the ease of installation, price, and our two-year warranty, the
simple operation of our equipment and the universal nature of rear view
mirrors. For these reasons, we believe our international business
will grow in terms of total revenue and as a percent of total revenue during
2009, which may partially offset the weakness in our domestic
revenues.
We have
maintained consistent retail pricing on our digital video rear view mirror
system during 2008 and do not plan any increases in the pricing during 2009 for
the legacy DVM-500 system. Our new products include an upgrade to the
DVM-500 model, which will be sold at higher retail pricing levels during 2009
due to increased features. However, international sales are typically
priced at discounted rates because we are not required to provide certain
follow-on technical support and we incur reduced sales commissions on such
sales.
Cost
of Sales
Cost of
sales on units sold for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007 were
$12,980,683 and $7,649,930, respectively, an increase of $5,330,753
(70%). The significant increase is due to the increase in units sold,
as well as a $332,793 increase in the reserve for slow moving and obsolete
inventory during 2008. We believe these reserves are appropriate
given the increased inventory levels we have at December 31, 2008 compared to
2007 and the new product introductions we anticipate during 2009. Our
new product offerings during 2009 will likely increase our cost of goods sold as
a percentage of sales due to costs and inefficiencies related to advancing
engineering prototypes to commercial production. We do not expect
significant capital expenditures to ramp up production of the new products since
our internal process is largely assembling subcomponents, testing and shipping
of completed products. We rely on our subcontractors to produce
finished circuit boards that represent the primary component in our product,
thereby reducing our need to purchase capital equipment. However, we
will need to acquire test and calibration equipment to ensure the completed
product meets our specifications and requirements.
We
primarily order finished component parts, including electronics boards, chips
and camera parts, from outside suppliers. Our internal work consists
of assembly, testing and burn-in of the finished units. We have added
indirect production and purchasing personnel to help manage and to gain
efficiencies in our production process as we continue to significantly increase
our production rates and expand our product line during 2008 and
beyond. We have hired a new purchasing manager in order to
concentrate on improving our raw material and component costs by managing our
supply chain better through quantity purchases and more effective purchasing
practices. We believe that with an increased production rate and
expanded product lines in 2009, we will be able to reduce our component and
supply chain costs by ordering in larger quantities. In addition, we
believe that increased production rates in 2009 will stimulate further
efficiencies in our assembly, testing and burn in process that will lead to cost
of sales improvements. However we expect these supply chain
efficiencies will be less than the impact from the introduction of new products
on our cost of sales during 2009 resulting in an overall increase in cost of
goods sold as a percentage of sales.
Gross
Margin
Gross
margin for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007 was $19,644,794 and
$11,741,152, respectively, an increase of $7,903,642 (67%). The
significant increase is commensurate with the 68% growth in revenues we
experienced during 2008. The gross margin percentages remained
relatively steady at 60% and 61% for the years ended December 31, 2008 and
2007, respectively. Our margins are expected to be lower than normal on
revenues contributed by our new products as we bring these products into
commercial production during 2009. However, as revenues increase from
these products, we will seek to improve our margins from these new
products somewhat from economies of scale and more effectively utilizing
fixed manufacturing overhead components. We plan to concentrate
on managing our supply chain better through quantity purchases and more
effective purchasing practices. However, on an overall basis we expect a slight
decline in our gross margin percentage in 2009 due primarily to the impact
of our new product offerings.
Operating
Expenses
Operating
expenses were $14,544,759 and $8,875,915 for the years ended December 31, 2008
and 2007, respectively, an increase of $5,668,844 (64%). Overall
operating expenses as a percentage of sales declined to 44% in 2008 compared to
46% in 2007. A summary of the significant components of operating expenses are
as follows:
|
|
Year ended December 31,
|
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research
and development expenses
|
|
$ |
3,127,143 |
|
|
$ |
1,518,914 |
|
Stock-based
compensation
|
|
|
1,599,264 |
|
|
|
1,696,959 |
|
Sales
commissions
|
|
|
2,765,058 |
|
|
|
1,333,394 |
|
Professional
fees and expenses
|
|
|
1,165,111 |
|
|
|
660,834 |
|
Selling,
general and administrative salaries
|
|
|
2,217,402 |
|
|
|
1,269,621 |
|
Other
|
|
|
3,670,781 |
|
|
|
2,396,193 |
|
Total
|
|
$ |
14,544,759 |
|
|
$ |
8,875,915 |
|
Research and
Development Expenses. We continue to focus on bringing new
products and updates and revisions to current products to market with these
expenses totaling $3,127,143 and $1,518,914 for the years ended December 31,
2008 and 2007, respectively, an increase of $1,608,229 (106%). The
increase in 2008 was attributable to our continued efforts to develop new
products and line extensions for our current products that we plan to bring to
market during 2009, as well as additional internal staff additions related to
the same activities. We employed a total of 29 engineers at December
31, 2008 as compared to 14 at December 31, 2007, most of which are dedicated to
research and development activities for new products. Research and
development expenses as a percentage of total revenues were 10% in 2008 and 8%
in 2007, illustrating our commitment to bringing new products to market and
expanding our current product line. We have active research and
development projects on several new products designed for the motorcycle, school
bus, mass transit, taxi cab and other markets, as well as upgrades to our
existing product lines. In addition, we have been and are currently
attempting to hire additional engineers to focus on these development
projects. Therefore, we believe that such expense will continue to
increase during 2009, although we expect that such expense as a percentage of
total revenues will likely remain steady or decline as our revenues
increase. We consider our research and development capabilities and
new product focus to be a competitive advantage and will continue to invest in
this area.
Stock based
Compensation Expenses. Stock based compensation expenses
totaled $1,599,264 and $1,696,959 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and
2007, respectively, a decrease of $97,695 (6%). The decrease in 2008
was primarily attributable to the longer vesting periods associated with the
2008 Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan (the “2008 Plan”) offset by the
higher number of options issued in 2007, which had shorter vesting
periods.
On
January 2, 2008, our Board of Directors approved the 2008 Plan, which
reserved 1,000,000 shares to be granted under it. In addition, the
Board of Directors approved the grant of options to purchase 900,000 shares to
executive officers and directors at an exercise price of $6.80 per share,
subject to a graduated, four-year vesting period and to approval of the 2008
Plan by the shareholders. The 2008 Plan was approved by the
shareholders at the 2008 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was held on May
1, 2008, at which time the option value was determined and the amortization of
the option value expense commenced. In addition, 58,000 options were
granted during November 2008, subject to a one year vesting
period. We expect that total stock compensation expense for 2009 will
continue to decline compared to 2008 levels.
Sales
Commissions. Sales commissions totaled $2,765,058 and
$1,333,394 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, an
increase of $1,431,664 (107%). The increase in 2008 was commensurate
with the 68% increase in revenue experienced during the years ended December 31,
2008 compared to 2007. Sales commissions as a percentage of total
revenues were 8.5% during the year ended December 31, 2008, a slight increase
from the 6.9% experienced in 2007. The increased percentage is
attributable to a change involving our largest individual customer during the
third quarter of 2008, whereby this international customer commenced buying
direct from the Company rather than through our international
distributor. In order to effect this change, we began paying
commissions on such sales.
Professional fees
and expenses. Professional fees and expenses totaled
$1,165,111 and $660,834 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007,
respectively, an increase of $504,277 (76%). Professional fees and
expenses, which primarily include legal and accounting expenses, increased
because of our increased reporting and other requirements after becoming an SEC
reporting company in May 2007. In addition, we incurred substantial
legal expenses related to the L-3 Communications Mobile-Vision, Inc. and Dehuff
litigation during 2008 which did not occur in 2007. The L-3
Communications Mobile-Vision, Inc. litigation has been settled; however, the
Dehuff litigation is still pending. We also incurred higher accounting and
auditing fees during 2008 now that we are required to comply with Section 404 of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that we were not subject to previously.
Selling, General
and Administrative Salaries. General and administrative
salaries totaled $2,217,402 and $1,269,621 for the years ended December 31, 2008
and 2007, respectively, an increase of $947,781 (75%). The increase
in 2008 was commensurate with the 68% increase in revenue experienced during the
year ended December 31, 2008 compared to 2007. We have added
administrative personnel during early 2008 in order to build the infrastructure
required for our current and planned growth in 2009 and
beyond. Effective January 2009, we have hired three new sales
employees, including an international sales manager, an inside sales manager and
a national accounts manager, to improve our sales and marketing infrastructure
in anticipation of the new products being launched in 2009 and to increase our
presence internationally. General and administrative salaries as a
percentage of total revenues increased slightly to 6.8% during the year ended
December 31, 2008 compared to 6.5% during 2007.
Other Operating
Expenses. Other operating expenses totaled $3,670,781 and $2,396,193 for
the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, an increase of
$1,274,588 (53%). The increase in 2008 was commensurate with the 68%
increase in revenue experienced during the year ended December 31, 2008 compared
to 2007. In order to support our significant increase in
revenue, we incurred greater facility-related expenses, depreciation, general
and administrative, and travel during 2008. During late 2007, we
combined our corporate offices with our sales and marketing offices into one
facility. The Company has incurred increased travel costs for our
executives to attend investor conferences and meet with potential institutional
investors to expand our base of shareholders during the year ended December 31,
2008, which did not occur in 2007. Other operating expenses as a percentage of
total revenues were 11% during the year ended December 31, 2008 compared to 12%
during 2007.
Operating
Income
For the
reasons previously stated, our operating income was $5,100,035 and $2,865,237
for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, an
improvement of $2,234,798 (78%). Operating income as a percentage of
revenues improved to 16% in 2008 as compared to 15% in 2007. We
believe such positive trends in operating income will continue in 2009 as our
revenue and gross margins dollars increase and management’s continued monitoring
and control over selling general and administrative expenses.
Other
Income (Expense)
Other
income (expense) improved to $78,595 in 2008 from ($4,903) in
2007. Other income (expense) is primarily composed of interest income
and expense. Changes in these items are described as
follows:
Interest
Income. We earned interest income of $78,595 and $34,609
during the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, an
increase of $43,986 (127%). The increase in interest income was a
result of our increased average cash balances during 2008 compared to
2007.
Interest
Expense. Interest expense was $-0- and $28,006 for the years
ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, a decrease of $28,006
(100%). With improved cash flow from business growth, we paid off our
line of credit during early 2007 and the holder of a $500,000 convertible
promissory note exercised his right to exchange such promissory note for 500,000
shares of common stock during May 2007. We have had no interest
bearing debt outstanding since May 2007.
Income
before Income Tax (Provision) Benefit
As a
result of the above, we reported income before income tax (provision) benefit of
$5,178,630 and $2,860,334 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007,
respectively, an improvement of $2,318,296 (81%).
Income
Tax (Provision) Benefit
Our
income tax provision was $1,825,000 for the year ended December 31, 2008 as
compared to an income tax benefit was $1,663,000 for the year ended December 31,
2007. We reduced the deferred tax valuation allowance by $2,725,000
due to the utilization of the net operating loss carryforwards in the year ended
December 31, 2007, the anticipated usage of the remaining net operating loss
carryforward based upon our projected profitability and the reversal of other
deferred tax assets. Prior to 2007, management recorded a 100%
valuation allowance offsetting this tax benefit from prior net operating loss
carryforwards and timing differences due to uncertainty regarding our likelihood
of realizing a material portion of the benefit.
During
the year ended December 31, 2008, we recorded a provision for income taxes at an
effective tax rate of 35%. The majority of our tax provision for 2008
was offset by the Company’s net operating loss carryforwards and by tax
deductions related to the exercise of stock purchase options and warrants during
2008 and therefore did not require cash payments to taxing
authorities. During 2008 , the Company realized an aggregate tax
deduction approximating $6,992,000 relative to the exercise of such stock
options and warrants which generated excess tax benefits of
$2,345,000 that has been allocated directly to additional paid in
capital during the years ended December 31, 2008.
Net
Income
As a
result of the above, for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, we
reported net income of $3,353,630 and $4,523,334, respectively, a decrease of
$1,169,704. The primary reason for the decrease is the one-time
income tax benefit of $2,725,000 recorded in 2007.
Basic
and Diluted Income per Share
The basic
income per share was $0.22 and $0.33 for the years ended December 31, 2008
and 2007, respectively, for the reasons previously noted. The diluted
income per share was $0.19 and $0.28, respectively, for the same
periods. The difference between basic and dilutive income per share
is attributable to the dilutive effect of shares issuable under stock options
and warrants.
Liquidity
and Capital Resources
Overall: During 2008 and 2007,
we funded our operations internally through operations and the exercise of stock
options and related tax benefits. Prior to 2007 and 2008, we provided
for our cash requirements through private placements of our common
stock. In 2005, we raised a net of $4.1 million from the sale of our
common stock and, during the third quarter of 2006, we completed a private
placement of our common stock and common stock purchase warrants, which raised a
net of $1.6 million. During March 2006, we began shipment of our
products and commenced the generation of revenues and operating cash flows to
help support our activities. During the fourth quarter of 2006, we
established a $500,000 revolving line of credit with a bank, which we utilized
to support our activities. In April 2007, we paid off the line of
credit in full, and the bank expanded the line of credit to $1.5
million. The holder of a $500,000 note payable exercised its right to
convert the note to 500,000 shares of common stock, which was completed during
the second quarter of 2007. During February 2009, our bank renewed
our operating line of credit through February 2010 and expanded the borrowing
capacity to $2.5 million. As of December 31, 2008, we had
working capital of $13,942,021 and we had no long-term or short-term interest
bearing debt outstanding. We have not had any interest bearing debt
outstanding since May 2007.
Cash and cash equivalents
balances: As of December 31, 2008, we had cash and cash
equivalents with an aggregate balance of $1,205,947, down from a balance of
$4,255,039 at December 31, 2007. Summarized immediately below and
discussed in more detail in the subsequent sub-sections are the main elements of
the $3,049,092 net decrease in cash during the year ended December 31, 2008:
· Operating activities:
|
$4,469,848 of net cash used in operating
activities, primarily from a substantial increase in accounts receivable
and inventory balances partially offset by cash provided by net income
adjusted for non-cash charges, such as stock based compensation expense
and non-cash credits, such as deferred income tax benefits and increases
in accounts payable and accrued
expenses.
|
· Investing activities:
|
$1,674,863 of net cash used in investing activities,
primarily to acquire equipment to expand our research, development and
production capabilities and the purchase of technology licenses utilized
in our products.
|
· Financing activities:
|
$3,095,619 of net cash provided by
financing activities, representing the proceeds from stock option
and warrants exercised and the related excess tax benefit offset by the
purchase of common shares for
treasury.
|
Operating
activities: Net cash used in operating activities was
$4,469,848 for the year ended December 31, 2008, compared to net cash
provided by operating activities of $4,870,409 for the year ended
December 31, 2007, a decrease of $9,340,257. The negative cash
flow from operations for the year ended December 31, 2008 is primarily the
result of a substantial increase in trade accounts receivable ($5,781,071) and
inventory ($5,728,656) during 2008. Accounts receivable balances
increased because of two individual accounts totaling $2,889,645 which were not
collected until after December 31, 2008. Excluding these two large
receivables, our average days’ sales outstanding was 36 days at December 31,
2008. The build-up in inventory is attributable to a shortfall
in our fourth quarter sales versus expectations that resulted in substantially
higher levels of finished goods, totaling $2,798,269 at December 31, 2008
compared to $214,685 at December 31, 2007. In addition, our raw
materials and component parts balance was approximately $6.0 million,
representing an increase of $3.1 million from December 31, 2007, which is
attributable to inventory acquired for the new products that will be introduced
in 2009 and inventory acquired to meet sales forecasts for the fourth quarter of
2008 and first quarter 2009. Offsetting the negative cash flows
described above is our 2008 net income of $3,353,630, an increase in accounts
payable ($1,782,734) and accrued expenses ($545,929), and non-cash charges of
$1,904,088, which were primarily related to stock based compensation
($1,599,264), and depreciation and amortization ($455,255).
Investing
activities: Cash used in investing activities was $1,674,863
and $562,978 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007,
respectively. In both 2008 and 2007, we purchased production,
research and development equipment and office furniture and fixtures to support
our activities. During 2008, we acquired several licenses for
technology utilized in our products and included in intangible
assets.
Financing
activities: During the year ended December 31, 2008, net
cash provided by financing activities was $3,095,619, which is attributable to
proceeds from the exercise of stock purchase options and warrants of $2,374,972
and the related excess tax benefit totaling $2,345,000. During 2008,
we purchased common shares for treasury in the amount of
$1,624,353. We have not had any outstanding debt since May
2007.
The net
result of these activities was a decrease in cash of $3,049,092 to $1,205,947
for the year ended December 31, 2008.
Commitments:
We had
$1,205,947 of cash and cash equivalent balances and net positive working capital
approximating $14 million as of December 31, 2008. Accounts
receivable balances represented $6,242,306 of our net working capital at
December 31, 2008. We expect our outstanding receivables will be
collected timely and the overall level to be reduced substantially during 2009,
which will provide positive cash flows to support our operations in
2009. Inventory represents $8,359,961 of our net working capital at
December 31, 2008. We are actively managing the overall level of
inventory and expect that such levels will be reduced substantially during 2009,
which will provide cash flow to help support our operations in
2009. In addition, in February 2009 we renewed our revolving line of
credit for an additional one year term until February 2010 and increased our
maximum available borrowings to $2,500,000. The renewed line of
credit bears variable interest at the bank’s prime rate less 0.50%, with a floor
of 5.5%. We believe we have adequate cash balances and available
borrowings under our line of credit to support our anticipated cash needs and
related business activities during 2009.
Capital
Expenditures. We had no
material commitments for capital expenditures at December 31, 2008.
Lease
commitments. The Company has several non-cancelable operating
lease agreements for office space and warehouse space. The agreements
expire from June 2010 to October 2012. The Company also has entered
into month-to-month leases for equipment. Rent expense for the year
ended December 31, 2008 and 2007 was $375,321 and $183,306, respectively,
related to these leases.
The future minimum amounts due under
the leases are as follows:
Year
ending December 31:
|
|
|
|
2009
|
|
$ |
397,332 |
|
2010
|
|
|
265,561 |
|
2011
|
|
|
169,086 |
|
2012
|
|
|
140,905 |
|
2013
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
$ |
972,884 |
|
License
agreements. The Company has several license agreements license
agreements under which we have been assigned the rights to certain licensed
materials used in our products. Certain of these agreements require
the Company to pay ongoing royalties based on the number of products shipped
containing the licensed material on a quarterly basis. One license
contains a provision that requires minimum royalty payments equivalent to
$90,000 per year beginning on the date of the first production delivery, which
is expected to occur during the third quarter of 2009. No other
licenses contain provisions requiring minimum royalty
payments. Royalty expense related to these agreements aggregated
$38,646 and $21,739 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007,
respectively.
Following
is a summary of our licenses as of December 31, 2008:
License
Type
|
Effective
Date
|
Expiration
Date
|
Terms
|
Production
software license agreement
|
April,
2005
|
April,
2009
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Production
license agreement
|
October,
2008
|
October,
2011
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Software
sublicense agreement
|
October,
2007
|
October,
2010
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Technology
license agreement
|
July,
2007
|
July,
2010
|
Automatically
renews for one year periods unless terminated by either
party.
|
Limited
license agreement
|
August,
2008
|
Perpetual
|
May
be terminated by either party.
|
Limited
license agreement
|
January,
2009
|
Perpetual
|
May
be terminated by either party.
|
Litigation. On
April 9, 2008, Thomas DeHuff filed suit against the Company and Charles A. Ross
in the Chancery Court of Lincoln County, Mississippi. Charles A.
Ross, Jr., (“Ross”) is the son of Charles A. Ross and was a former officer and
director of the Company. The complaint alleges that on or about April
8, 2005, the plaintiff entered into a verbal agreement with Ross, whom the
plaintiff maintains was acting for and on behalf of the Company, under which he
purportedly was to receive 150,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to
resolve certain claims to compensation the plaintiff maintains was due from the
Company. The lawsuit also claims that the plaintiff advanced funds to
Ross, believing that he was purchasing the Company common stock which was never
issued. Plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages and punitive damages
and attorney fees in addition to requiring the Company to issue the common
shares. The Company has successfully removed the case from the
Chancery Court of Lincoln County, Mississippi to the United States District
Court located in Jackson Mississippi. The Company has filed a motion
to dismiss the case which is currently pending in the United States District
Court. The Company believes that the lawsuit is without merit and
will vigorously defend itself.
401 (k)
Plan. In July 2008, the Company amended and restated its
401(k) retirement savings plan. The amended plan requires the Company
to provide a 100% matching contribution for employees who elect to contribute up
to 3% of their compensation to the plan and a 50% matching contribution for
employee’s elective deferrals between 4% and 5%. The Company has made
matching contributions totaling $65,208 for the year ended December 31,
2008. Each participant is 100% vested at all times in employee and employer
matching contributions.
Stock Repurchase
Program. During September 2008, the Board of Directors approved the Stock
Repurchase Program that authorizes the repurchase of up to $10 million of the
Company’s common stock in the open market, or in privately negotiated
transactions, through July 1, 2010. The repurchases, if and when
made, will be subject to market conditions, applicable rules of the SEC and
other factors. Purchases may be commenced, suspended or discontinued
at any time. A total of 210,360 shares have been repurchased under
this program as of December 31, 2008 at a total cost of $1,624,353 ($7.72 per
share average). We used cash available to make such
purchases. In the future, we plan to use available cash and cash
equivalent balances, together with cash generated by future operations, to fund
any purchases of the shares. Management believes that the prudent
repurchase of our common stock from time-to-time represents an efficient way to
improve shareholder value as compared to the current 1.0% interest
earned on our cash balances and will not inhibit our ability to fund current and
anticipated future product line expansions.
Critical
Accounting Estimates
Certain
accounting estimates used in the preparation of our financial statements require
us to make judgments and estimates and the financial results we report may vary
depending on how we make these judgments and estimates. Our critical
accounting estimates are set forth below and have not changed during the year
ended December 31, 2008 and 2007.
Revenue
Recognition/Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Nature of estimates
required. The allowance for doubtful accounts represents our
estimate of uncollectible accounts receivable at the balance sheet
date. We monitor our credit exposure on a regular basis and assess
the adequacy of our allowance for doubtful accounts on a quarterly
basis.
Assumptions and approach
used. We estimate our required allowance for doubtful accounts
using the following key assumptions:
·
|
Historical
collections – Represented as the amount of historical uncollectible
accounts as a percent of total accounts
receivable.
|
·
|
Specific
credit exposure on certain accounts – Identified based on management’s
review of the accounts receivable portfolio and taking into account the
financial condition of customers that management may deem to be higher
risk of collection.
|
Sensitivity
Analysis. Prior to 2007, we did not consider an allowance for
doubtful accounts necessary. However, with continued monitoring we
determined the need to establish an allowance due to our rapid growth during
2007 and 2008. Even though we do not anticipate bad debt losses based
on our excellent customer payment history, we have established a reserve and
will monitor it regularly.
Inventories
Nature of estimates
required. In our third year of production, we have carried
large quantities of component inventory in order to meet our customers’
demands. This inventory consisted of electronic circuitry, boards and
camera parts. Given the nature of potential obsolescence in this
ever-changing environment, there is a risk of impairment in inventory that is
unsalable, non-refundable, slow moving or obsolete. The use of
estimates is required in determining the salvage value of this
inventory.
Assumptions and approach
used. We estimate our inventory obsolescence reserve at each
balance sheet date based on the following assumptions:
·
|
Slow
moving products – Items identified as slow moving are evaluated on a case
by case basis for impairment.
|
·
|
Obsolete/discontinued
inventory – Products identified that are near or beyond their expiration,
or new models are now available. Should this occur, we estimate
the market value of this inventory as if it were to be
liquidated.
|
·
|
Estimated
salvage value/sales price – Salvage value is estimated using management’s
evaluation of remaining value of this inventory and the ability to
liquidate this inventory.
|
Sensitivity
analysis. At this point in our products’ early life cycles,
coupled with prudent levels of purchasing activity to support the growing
demands for our products, we have developed a methodology to determine slow
moving or obsolete inventory. We will continue to assess the
condition of our inventory and take necessary measures to adjust these values as
deemed appropriate.
Warranties
Nature of estimate
required. In the third year of sales and as the volume of our
sales continues to increase at a rapid pace, we have established a warranty
accrual for future warranty costs related to current sales. We
monitor our warranty costs on a regular basis and assess the adequacy of our
warranty accrued on a quarterly basis.
Assumptions and approach
used. We estimate our required accrual for warranty costs
using the following key assumptions:
|
·
|
Historical
costs - Represented as the amount of historical warranty costs as a
percent of sales.
|
|
·
|
Specific
exposure on certain products or customers - Identified by management’s
review of warranty costs and customer
responses.
|
Sensitivity
analysis. Prior to 2007, we did not consider the need for a
warranty accrual based upon actual warranty costs due to the limited amount of
sales. As sales volume has continued to grow at a rapid pace during
2007 and 2008, there is a greater risk for increased warranty
costs. We will continue to assess the warranty accrual on a quarterly
basis and take the necessary measures to adjust the accrual as deemed
appropriate.
Research
and Development Costs
Nature of estimates
required. We expense all research and development costs as
incurred. We incurred substantial costs related to research and
development as we prepared our products for market, and will continue to incur
these costs as we develop new products and enhance our existing
products.
Assumptions and approach
used. As we moved to production, many of these costs shifted
to expenses related to the production of this product (cost of sales), thus
reducing our research and development expense. However, we continue to provide
support to the development of enhancements to our existing products, as well as
to invest resources in the development of new products.
Sensitivity
analysis. We continually evaluate our efforts in new product
development so that we properly classify costs to either production of existing
product or research and development costs related to bringing new and enhanced
products to market.
Stock
Based Compensation
Nature of estimates
required. The estimates and assumptions pertaining to stock
based compensation pertain to the Black-Scholes valuation model and are noted
above under Critical Accounting Policies.
Assumption and approach
used. For our stock option plans, the assumptions for term,
volatility, interest rate and forfeitures have all been addressed specifically
to the particulars of each option plan in calculating the associated
expense.
The
expected term of each plan has been projected based on the estimated term
(expected time to exercise said options) in relation to the vesting period and
expiration of the options. The expected volatility of award grants is
properly measured using historical stock prices over the expected term of the
award. The risk-free interest rate used is in relation to the
expected term of awards. Finally, forfeitures are based on the history of
cancellation of awards granted.
Sensitivity
analysis. We will continually monitor costs related to stock
based compensation, and adjust analyses for changes in estimates and
assumptions, such as: shifts in expected term caused by shifts in the exercising
of options; expected volatility shifts caused by changes in our historical stock
prices; interest rate shifts in relation to expected term of awards; and, shifts
in forfeitures as we experience potential cancellations of awards caused by loss
of personnel holding such awards.
The
common stock purchase warrants issued to investors in our 2006 private placement
are not accounted for under SFAS No. 150 “Accounting for Certain Financial
Instruments with Characteristics of Both Liabilities and Equity” because the
warrant agreements contain no provision for us to use any of our cash or other
assets to settle the warrants. The stock warrants are not considered
derivatives under SFAS No. 133 “Accounting for Derivative Instruments and
Hedging Activities” (SFAS No. 133) as the warrant agreements meet the scope
exception in paragraph 11.a. of SFAS No. 133 as the stock warrants are
indexed to our common stock and are classified in stockholder’s equity under
Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) 00-19 “Accounting Recognition for Certain
Transactions involving Equity Instruments Granted to Other Than
Employees.” The stock warrants are included with the proceeds from
the issuance of common stock. Warrants issued to non-employees who
are not investors purchasing common stock are accounted for under SFAS
No. 123. The fair value is determined using the Black-Scholes
pricing model and that amount is recognized in the statement of
operations.
Income
Taxes
Nature of estimates
required. We have substantial net operating loss carryforwards
and other deferred tax items for which deferred tax assets are recognized for
financial accounting and reporting purposes. Deferred tax assets are
reduced by a valuation allowance when, in the opinion of management, it is more
likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be
realized. Management must consider the likelihood that such deferred
tax assets will be realized based on our current and projected future operating
results.
Assumptions and approach
used. Historically, management has provided a 100% valuation
allowance against all deferred tax assets because of our history of operating
losses and unproven marketability and profitability of our
products. During 2006, we began shipping products which has resulted
in substantial revenue growth whereby we have generated significant taxable
income in 2008 and 2007. Management has evaluated the likelihood of
our ability to realize our deferred tax assets through principally the current
and anticipated generation of taxable income. Based on that
evaluation, management has determined that the valuation allowance should be
substantially reduced as of December 31, 2007. There was no change in
the valuation allowance during 2008.
Sensitivity
analysis. Management will continually monitor, evaluate and
adjust our evaluation/analyses of the likelihood of our ability to realize our
deferred tax assets based upon projected future financial
results. This evaluation may require changes in the valuation
allowance when and if conditions change that could affect our current and future
operations.
Inflation
and Seasonality
Inflation
has not materially affected us during the past fiscal year. Our
business is not seasonal in nature.
ITEM
7A.
|
Quantitative
and Qualitative Disclosures About Market
Risk.
|
Not
applicable
ITEM
8.
|
Financial
Statements and Supplementary Data.
|
The
financial statements of the Company are included as an exhibit to this Form 10-K
commencing on page F-1.
ITEM
9.
|
Changes
In and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial
Disclosure.
|
None.
Conclusion
Regarding the Effectiveness of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Under the
supervision and with the participation of our management, including our
principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an
evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure
controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Based on their evaluation as of
December 31, 2008, the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on
Form 10-K, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer
concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were
effective at a reasonable assurance level to ensure that the information
required to be disclosed in reports filed or submitted under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, including this Annual Report, were recorded, processed,
summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC's rules and
forms, and was accumulated and communicated to management, including our
principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate to
allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our
management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal
control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial
reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability
of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external
purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and
includes those policies and procedures that:
·
|
Pertain
to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and
fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of our
assets;
|
·
|
Provide
reasonable assurance that the transactions are recorded as necessary to
permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, and that our receipts and expenditures are
being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and
directors; and
|
·
|
Provide
reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have
a material effect on the financial
statements.
|
All
internal control systems, no matter how well designed, have inherent
limitations. Therefore, even those systems determined to be effective
can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement
preparation and presentation. Because of its inherent limitations,
internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect
misstatements. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to
future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate
because of changes in conditions or that the degree of compliance with the
policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In
connection with the filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our
management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial
reporting as of December 31, 2008. In making this assessment,
our management used the criteria set forth by Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control—Integrated
Framework. Based on our assessment using those criteria,
management believes that, as of December 31, 2008, our internal control
over financial reporting is effective based on those criteria.
The
effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of
December 31, 2008 has been audited by McGladrey & Pullen, LLP, an
independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report
following below:
To the
Board of Directors and Stockholders of
Digital
Ally, Inc.
Overland
Park, Kansas
We have
audited Digital Ally, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of
December 31, 2008, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission. Digital Ally, Inc.'s management is responsible
for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its
assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting,
included in the accompanying Management's Report on Internal Control Over
Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on
the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We
conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require
that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether
effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all
material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of
internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material
weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating
effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our
audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary
in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable
basis for our opinion.
A
company's internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to
provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting
and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles. A company's internal
control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that
(a) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail,
accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of
the company; (b) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are
recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in
accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and
expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with
authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (c) provide
reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized
acquisition, use, or disposition of the company's assets that could have a
material effect on the financial statements.
Because
of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting may not
prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation
of the effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls
may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of
compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our
opinion, Digital Ally, Inc. maintained, in all material respects, effective
internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, based on
the criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission.
We have
also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States), the financial statements of Digital Ally, Inc.
and our report dated March 9, 2009 expressed an unqualified
opinion.
|
|
March
9, 2009
Kansas
City, Missouri
|
Changes
in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There
have been no changes in our internal controls over financial reporting during
the quarter ended December 31, 2008, that have materially affected, or are
reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal controls over financial
reporting.
ITEM
9B.
|
Other
Information.
|
None.
PART
III
ITEM
10.
|
Directors,
Executive Officers and Corporate
Governance.
|
The
information concerning the identification and business experience of our
directors and identification of our audit committee financial expert is
incorporated herein by reference to the information set forth in our definitive
proxy statement for the 2009 Annual Meeting of Stockholders under the heading “
Election of Directors”, which proxy statement we expect to file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of our fiscal
year ended December 31, 2008 (the “Proxy Statement”).
The
information concerning the identification and business experience of our
executive officers is incorporated herein by reference to the information set
forth in our Proxy Statement under the heading “Executive
Officers.”
The
information concerning compliance with Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act is
incorporated herein by reference to the information set forth in our Proxy
Statement under the heading “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and
Management – Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting
Compliance.”
The
information concerning significant employees and family relationships is
incorporated herein by reference to the information set forth in our Proxy
Statement under the heading “Significant Employees and Family
Relationships.”
The
information concerning our code of ethics is incorporated herein by reference to
the information set forth in our Proxy Statement under the heading “Code of
Ethics.”
ITEM
11.
|
Executive
Compensation.
|
The
information concerning executive compensation is incorporated herein by
reference to the information set forth in our Proxy Statement under the heading
“ Executive Compensation.”
The
information concerning compensation of directors is incorporated herein by
reference to the information set forth in our Proxy Statement under the heading
“Compensation of Directors.”
ITEM
12.
|
Security
Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related
Stockholder Matters.
|
The
information concerning security ownership of certain beneficial owners and
management is incorporated herein by reference to the information set forth in
our Proxy Statement under the heading “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial
Owners and Management.”
ITEM
13.
|
Certain
Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director
Independence.
|
The
information concerning certain relationships and related party transactions and
director independence is incorporated herein by reference to the information set
forth in our Proxy Statement under the heading “Certain Relationships and
Related Party Transactions and Director Independence.”
ITEM
14.
|
Principal
Accounting Fees and Services.
|
The
information covering principal accountant fees and services required by this
item is incorporated by reference to the information in our Proxy Statement
under the heading “Ratification of Appointment of Independent Registered Public
Accounting Firm”
The
information concerning pre-approval policies for audit and non-audit services
required by this item is incorporated by reference to the information in our
Proxy Statement, under the heading “Audit Committee.”
PART
IV
ITEM
15.
|
Exhibits,
Financial Statement Schedules.
|
Exhibit
Number
|
Description
|
Incorporated by Reference
to:
|
Filed
Herewith
|
|
|
|
|
2.1
|
Plan
of Merger among Vegas Petra, Inc., a Nevada corporation, and Digital Ally,
Inc., a Nevada corporation, and its stockholders, dated November 30,
2004.
|
Exhibit
2.1 of the Company’s Form SB-2, filed October 16, 2006, No. 333-138025
(the “October 2006 Form SB-2).
|
|
3.1
|
Amended
and Restated Articles of Incorporation of Registrant, dated December 13,
2004.
|
Exhibit
3.1 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
3.2
|
Amended
and Restated By-laws of Registrant.
|
Exhibit
3.2 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
3.3
|
Audit
Committee Charter, dated September 22, 2005.
|
Exhibit
3.3 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
3.4
|
Compensation
Committee Charter, dated September 22, 2005
|
Exhibit
3.4 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
3.5
|
Nominating
Committee Charter dated December 27, 2007.
|
Exhibit
3.5 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
4.1
|
Form
of Common Stock Certificate.
|
Exhibit
4.1 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
4.2
|
Form
of Common Stock Purchase Warrant.
|
Exhibit
4.2 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
5.1
|
Opinion
of Quarles & Brady LLP as to the legality of securities being
registered (includes consent).
|
Exhibit
5.1 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
10.1
|
2005
Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.1 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
10.2
|
2006
Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.2 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
10.3
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement (ISO and Non-Qualified) 2005 Stock Option
Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.3 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
10.4
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement (ISO and Non-Qualified) 2006 Stock Option
Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.4 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
10.5
|
Promissory
Note Extension between Registrant and Acme Resources, LLC, dated May 4,
2006, in the principal amount of $500,000.
|
Exhibit
10.5 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
10.6
|
Promissory
Note between Registrant and Acme Resources, LLC, dated September 1, 2004,
in the principal amount of $500,000.
|
Exhibit
10.6 of the Company’s Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2, filed January 31,
2007, No. 333-138025 (“Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2”)
|
|
10.7
|
Promissory
Note Extension between Registrant and Acme Resources, LLC, dated October
31, 2006.
|
Exhibit
10.7 of Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2.
|
|
10.8
|
Software
License Agreement with Ingenient Technologies, Inc., dated March 15,
2004.*
|
Exhibit
10.8 of Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2.
|
|
10.9
|
Software
License Agreement with Ingenient Technologies, Inc., dated April 5,
2005.*
|
Exhibit
10.9 of Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2.
|
|
10.10
|
Stock
Option Agreement with Daniels & Kaplan, P.C., dated September 25,
2006.
|
Exhibit
10.10 of Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2.
|
|
10.11
|
Memorandum
of Understanding with Tri Square Communications (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.
dated November 29, 2005.
|
Exhibit
10.11 of Amendment No. 1 to Form SB-2.
|
|
10.12
|
2007
Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.3 of the Company’s Form S-8, filed October 23, 2007, No.
333-146874.
|
|
10.13
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement (ISO and Non-Qualified) 2007 Stock Option
Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.13 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
10.14
|
Amendment
to 2007 Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.14 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
10.15
|
2008
Stock Option and Restricted Stock Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.15 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
10.16
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement (ISO and Non-Qualified) 2008 Stock Option
Plan.
|
Exhibit
10.16 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
10.17
|
Promissory
Note with Enterprise Bank dated February 13, 2009.
|
Exhibit
10.17 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
10.18
|
First
Amendment to Promissory Note with Enterprise Bank dated February 13,
2009.
|
|
X
|
14.1
|
Code
of Ethics and Code of Conduct.
|
Exhibit
3.5 of the Annual Report on Form 10KSB for the Year ending December 31,
2007.
|
|
23.1
|
Consent
of McGladrey & Pullen LLP
|
|
X
|
23.2
|
Consent
of Quarles & Brady LLP (Included in 5.1 above)
|
Exhibit
5.1 of the October 2006 Form SB-2.
|
|
24.1
|
Power
of Attorney.
|
|
X
|
31.1
|
Certificate
of Stanton E. Ross, Chief Executive Officer, pursuant to Section 302
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
X
|
31.2
|
Certificate
of Thomas J. Heckman, Chief Financial Officer, pursuant to
Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
X
|
32.1
|
Certificate
of Stanton E. Ross, Chief Executive Officer, pursuant to Section 906
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
X
|
32.2
|
Certificate
of Thomas J. Heckman, Chief Financial Officer, pursuant to Section 906 of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
X
|
99.1
|
Audited
Financial Statements of Digital Ally, Inc. as of and for the years ended
December 31, 2008 and 2007.
|
|
X
|
*
|
Information
marked [*] has been omitted pursuant to a Confidential Treatment Request
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Omitted
material for which confidential treatment has been granted has been filed
separately with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
|
Signatures
Pursuant
to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934, the registrant has duly caused this report on Form 10-K to be signed on
its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, this 9th day of
March, 2009.
DIGITAL ALLY, INC.,
a Nevada corporation
By: /s/ Stanton
E. Ross
Stanton E. Ross
President and Chief Executive
Officer
Each
person whose signature appears below authorizes Stanton E. Ross to execute in
the name of each such person who is then an officer or director of the
registrant, and to file, any amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K
necessary or advisable to enable the registrant to comply with the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 and any rules, regulations and requirements of the
Securities and Exchange Commission in respect thereof, which amendments may make
such changes in such Report as such attorney-in-fact may deem
appropriate.
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this
report has been signed below by following persons on behalf of the Registrant
and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
Signature
and Title
|
|
Date
|
|
|
/s/
Stanton E. Ross
|
|
March
9, 2009
|
Stanton
E. Ross, Director and Chief Executive Officer
|
|
|
|
|
/s/
Leroy C. Richie
|
|
March
9, 2009
|
Leroy
C. Richie, Director
|
|
|
|
|
/s/
Edward Juchniewicz
|
|
March
9, 2009
|
Edward
Juchniewicz, Director
|
|
|
|
|
/s/
Elliot M. Kaplan
|
|
March
9, 2009
|
Elliot
M. Kaplan, Director
|
|
|
|
|
/s/
Daniel F. Hutchins
|
|
March
9, 2009
|
Daniel
F. Hutchins, Director
|
|
|
|
|
/s/
Thomas J. Heckman
|
|
March
9, 2009
|
Thomas
J. Heckman, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, Treasurer and Principal
Accounting Officer
|
|
|