Description of the Company's Securities
EXHIBIT 4.3
DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY’S SECURITIES
The following summary is a description of the material terms of our capital stock. This summary is not complete and is qualified by reference to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and our amended and restated bylaws, which are filed as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are incorporated by reference herein. We encourage you to read our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, our amended and restated bylaws and the applicable provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law for additional information.
Common Stock
We are authorized to issue up to 500,000,000 shares of common stock. Shares of our common stock have the following rights, preferences and privileges:
Voting
Each holder of common stock is entitled to one vote for each share of common stock held on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders. Any action at a meeting at which a quorum is present will be decided by a majority in voting power of the votes cast (excluding abstentions and broker non-votes), except in the case of any election of directors, which will be decided by a plurality of votes cast. There is no cumulative voting.
Dividends
Holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends when, as and if declared by our board of directors out of funds legally available for payment, subject to the rights of holders, if any, of any class of stock having preference over the common stock. Any decision to pay dividends on our common stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Our board of directors may or may not determine to declare dividends in the future. The board’s determination to issue dividends will depend upon our profitability and financial condition any contractual restrictions, restrictions imposed by applicable law and the SEC, and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant.
Liquidation Rights
In the event of a voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the company, the holders of our common stock will be entitled to share ratably on the basis of the number of shares held in any of the assets available for distribution after we have paid in full, or provided for payment of, all of our debts and after the holders of all outstanding series of any class of stock have preference over the common stock, if any, have received their liquidation preferences in full.
Other
Our issued and outstanding shares of common stock are fully paid and nonassessable. Holders of shares of our common stock are not entitled to preemptive rights. Shares of our common stock are not convertible into shares of any other class of capital stock, nor are they subject to any redemption or sinking fund provisions.
Preferred Stock
We are authorized to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock. Our certificate of incorporation authorizes the board to issue these shares in one or more series, to determine the designations and the powers, preferences and relative, participating, optional or other special rights and the qualifications, limitations and restrictions thereof, including the dividend rights, conversion or exchange rights, voting rights (including the number of votes per share), redemption rights and terms, liquidation preferences, sinking fund provisions and the number of shares constituting the series. Our board of directors could, without stockholder approval, issue preferred stock with voting and other rights that could adversely affect the voting power and other rights of the holders of common stock and which could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire, or of discouraging a third party from attempting to acquire, a majority of our outstanding voting stock.
Warrants
License Termination Warrants
As of March 31, 2024, we have outstanding warrants to purchase 1,600,000 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.001 per share expiring January 2029. The shares underlying the warrant are subject to a lockup agreement for a period of six months after the closing of our IPO with respect to 12.5% of the shares issued and twelve months after the closing of our IPO for the remainder of the shares. We have agreed to register the resale of the shares of common stock underlying the warrant.
Pre-IPO Warrants
As of March 31, 2024, we have outstanding warrants to purchase 4,084,804 shares of our common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $0.02 per share expiring through March 2032 and warrants to purchase 500,000 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $1.00 per share expiring through October 2028. The foregoing warrants provide that no holder of these warrants will be permitted to exercise such warrants to the extent that the holder or any of its affiliates would beneficially own in excess of 4.99% of our common stock after such exercise.
Selling Agent Warrants
In connection with our IPO, we issued 59,765 shares of our common stock issuable upon exercise of warrants issued to the selling agent in our IPO (the “Selling Agent’s Warrants”). The Selling Agent’s Warrants are exercisable commencing six months after the date of commencement of sales in our IPO and will be exercisable until the fifth anniversary of such date. The exercise price for the Selling Agent’s Warrants is $6.25 per share. The Selling Agent’s Warrants are not redeemable.
Limitations on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws limit the liability of our officers and directors and provide that we will indemnify our officers and directors, in each case, to the fullest extent permitted by the Delaware General Corporation Law.
We have entered into separate indemnification agreements with each of our directors and executive officers. Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors or executive officers, we have been informed that in the opinion of the Commission such indemnification is against public policy and is therefore unenforceable.
Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaw Provisions
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include a number of anti-takeover provisions that may have the effect of encouraging persons considering unsolicited tender offers or other unilateral takeover proposals to negotiate with our board of directors rather than pursue non-negotiated takeover attempts. These provisions include:
Advance Notice Requirements. Our bylaws establish advance notice procedures with regard to stockholder proposals relating to the nomination of candidates for election as directors or new business to be brought before meetings of stockholders. These procedures provide that notice of stockholder proposals must be timely and given in writing to our corporate Secretary. Generally, to be timely, notice must be received at our principal executive offices not less than ninety days nor more than one hundred twenty days prior to the one-year anniversary of the preceding year’s annual meeting. The notice must contain the information required by the bylaws, including information regarding the proposal and the proponent.
Special Meetings of Stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation provides that special meetings of stockholders may be called at any time by only the Chairman of the Board, the Chief Executive Officer, the President or the board of directors.
No Written Consent of Stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation provides that any action required or permitted to be taken by stockholders must be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting of stockholders and may not be effected by any consent in writing by such stockholders.
Exclusive Forum Provision. Our certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors or officers to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”), or our certificate of incorporation or the bylaws, and (iv) any action asserting a claim against us governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or Securities Act.
This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. In addition, this forum selection provision may impose additional litigation costs on stockholders in pursuing the claims identified above, particularly if the stockholders do not reside in or near the State of Delaware. Alternatively, a court could find these provisions of our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in respect of one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, which may require us to incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
Amendment of Bylaws. Our stockholders may amend any provisions of our bylaws by obtaining the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of each class of issued and outstanding shares of our voting securities, at a meeting called for the purpose of amending and/or restating our bylaws.
Preferred Stock. Our certificate of incorporation authorizes our board of directors to create and issue rights entitling our stockholders to purchase shares of our stock or other securities. The ability of our board to establish the rights and issue substantial amounts of preferred stock without the need for stockholder approval may delay or deter a change in control of us. See “Preferred Stock” above.
Delaware Takeover Statute
We are subject to Section 203 of the DGCL which, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any “business combination” (as defined below) with any interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date that such stockholder became an interested stockholder, unless: (1) prior to such date, the board of directors of the corporation approved either the business combination or the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder; (2) on consummation of the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of the voting stock of the corporation outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, excluding for purposes of determining the voting stock outstanding those shares owned (a) by persons who are directors and also officers and (b) by employee stock plans in which employee participants do not have the right to determine confidentially whether shares held subject to this plan will be tendered in a tender or exchange offer; or (3) on or subsequent to such date, the business combination is approved by the board of directors and authorized at an annual or special meeting of stockholders, and not by written consent, by the affirmative vote of at least 66 2⁄3% of the outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder.
Section 203 of the DGCL defines generally “business combination” to include: (1) any merger or consolidation involving the corporation and the interested stockholder; (2) any sale, transfer, pledge or other disposition of 10% or more of the assets of the corporation involving the interested stockholder; (3) subject to certain exceptions, any transaction that results in the issuance or transfer by the corporation of any stock of the corporation to the interested stockholder; (4) any transaction involving the corporation that has the effect of increasing the proportionate share of the stock of any class or series of the corporation beneficially owned by the interested stockholder; or (5) the receipt by the interested stockholder of the benefit of any loans, advances, guarantees, pledges or other financial benefits provided by or through the corporation. In general, Section 203 defines an “interested stockholder” as any entity or person beneficially owning 15% or more of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation and any entity or person affiliated with or controlling or controlled by such entity or person.
Transfer Agent
The transfer agent for our common stock is Equity Stock Transfer, LLC.
