Description of Capital Stock
Exhibit 4.4
DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK
General
Boingo Wireless, Inc. (“we,” “us,” and “our”) has one class of securities registered under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended - our common stock, $0.0001 par value per share.
The following information describes our capital stock, as well as certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws. The summary does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, copies of which have been filed as exhibits to our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Our authorized capital stock consists of 100,000,000 shares of common stock and 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock with a $0.0001 par value per share, all of which shares of preferred stock are undesignated. Our board of directors may establish the rights and preferences of the preferred stock from time to time. As of February 21, 2020, there were 44,280,374 shares of common stock issued and outstanding, held of record by 21 stockholders, although we believe that there may be a significantly larger number of beneficial owners of our common stock. We derived the number of stockholders by reviewing the listing of outstanding common stock recorded by our transfer agent as of February 21, 2020.
Common Stock
The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote per share on all matters to be voted upon by the stockholders. The holders of common stock are entitled to receive ratably such dividends, if any, as may be declared from time to time by the board of directors out of funds legally available, subject to preferences that may be applicable to preferred stock, if any, then outstanding. In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our company, the holders of common stock are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining after payment of liabilities, subject to prior distribution rights of preferred stock, if any, then outstanding. The common stock has no preemptive or conversion rights or other subscription rights. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to the common stock. All outstanding shares of common stock are fully paid and non-assessable.
The rights, preferences and privileges of the holders of our common stock are subject to, and may be adversely affected by, the rights of the holders of shares of any series of preferred stock that we may designate and issue in the future.
Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “WIFI.” The transfer agent and registrar for the common stock is American Stock Transfer & Trust Company. Its address is 6201 15th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11219, and its telephone number is (800)  ###-###-####.
Preferred Stock
Our board of directors is authorized, subject to limitations prescribed by Delaware law, to issue preferred stock in one or more series, to establish from time to time the number of shares to be included in each series, and to fix the designation, powers, preferences, and rights of the shares of each series and any of its qualifications, limitations, or restrictions, in each case without further vote or action by our stockholders. Our board of directors may authorize the issuance of preferred stock with voting or conversion rights that could adversely affect the voting power or other rights of the holders of our common stock. The issuance of preferred stock, while providing flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, could, among other things, have the effect of delaying, deferring, or preventing a change in our control and might adversely affect the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of the holders of our common stock. We have no current plan to issue any shares of preferred stock.
Effect of Certain Provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws
Provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws could have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of us. These provisions, which are summarized below, may have the effect of discouraging takeover bids. These provisions are also designed, in part, to encourage
persons seeking to acquire control of us to first negotiate with our board of directors. We believe that the benefits of increased protection of our potential ability to negotiate with an unfriendly or unsolicited acquirer outweigh the disadvantages of discouraging a proposal to acquire us because negotiation of these proposals could result in an improvement of their terms.
Undesignated preferred stock. Our board of directors has the ability to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to change control of us. These and other provisions may have the effect of deferring hostile takeovers or delaying changes in control or management of our company.
Limits on ability of stockholders to act by written consent or call a special meeting. Our stockholders may not act by written consent, which may lengthen the amount of time required to take stockholder actions. As a result, a holder controlling a majority of our capital stock would not be able to amend our amended and restated bylaws or remove directors without holding a meeting of our stockholders called in accordance with our amended and restated bylaws.
In addition, our amended and restated bylaws provide that special meetings of the stockholders may be called only by the chairperson of our board of directors, our Chief Executive Officer, or our board of directors. Our amended and restated bylaws prohibit a stockholder from calling a special meeting, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or for holders controlling a majority of our capital stock to take any action, including the removal of directors.
Requirements for advance notification of stockholder nominations and proposals. Our amended and restated bylaws establish advance notice procedures with respect to stockholder proposals and the nomination of candidates for election as directors, other than nominations made by or at the direction of our board of directors or a committee of our board of directors. However, our amended and restated bylaws may have the effect of precluding the conduct of certain business at a meeting if the proper procedures are not followed. These provisions may also discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer's own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company.
Board vacancies filled only by majority of directors then in office. Vacancies and newly created seats on our board of directors may be filled only by our board of directors. Only our board of directors may determine the number of directors on our board of directors. The inability of stockholders to determine the number of directors or to fill vacancies or newly created seats on our board of directors makes it more difficult to change the composition of our board of directors, but these provisions promote a continuity of existing management.
No cumulative voting. The Delaware General Corporation Law provides that stockholders are not entitled to the right to cumulate votes in the election of directors unless our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides otherwise. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws do not expressly provide for cumulative voting.
Amendment of charter provisions. The amendment of the above provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires approval by holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding common stock.
Delaware Anti-Takeover Statute
We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law regulating corporate takeovers. In general, Section 203 generally prohibits a publicly-held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the person became an interested stockholder unless:
prior to the date of the transaction, the board of directors of the corporation approved either the business combination or the transaction which resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder;
upon completion 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, but not the outstanding voting stock owned by the interested stockholder, (1) shares owned by persons who are directors and also officers and (2) shares owned by employee stock plans in which employee participants do not have the right to determine confidentially whether shares held subject to the plan will be tendered in a tender or exchange offer; or
at or subsequent to the date of the transaction, the business combination is approved by the board of directors of the corporation and authorized at an annual or special meeting of stockholders, and not by written consent, by the affirmative vote of at least 662/3% of the outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder.
In general, Section 203 defines business combination to include the following:
any merger or consolidation involving the corporation and the interested stockholder;
any sale, lease, exchange, mortgage, transfer, pledge or other disposition of 10% or more of either the assets or outstanding stock of the corporation involving the interested stockholder;
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;
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
the receipt by the interested stockholder of the benefit of any loans, advances, guarantees, pledges or other financial benefits by or through the corporation.
In general, Section 203 defines interested stockholder as an entity or person who, together with affiliates and associates, beneficially owns, or within three years prior to the determination of interested stockholder status did own, 15% or more of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation.
The provisions of Delaware law and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws could have the effect of discouraging others from attempting hostile takeovers and, as a consequence, they may also inhibit temporary fluctuations in the market price of our common stock that often result from actual or rumored hostile takeover attempts. These provisions may also have the effect of preventing changes in our management. It is possible that these provisions may make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.