Description of the Registrants Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

The following description of the capital stock of FireEye, Inc. (“us,” “our,” “we” or the “Company”) is a summary of the rights of our capital stock and summarizes certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws. This summary does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, copies of which have been filed as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as to the applicable provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law.

 

Our authorized capital stock consists of 1,100,000,000 shares, with a par value of $0.0001 per share, of which:

 

 

The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote per share on all matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders and do not have cumulative voting rights. Accordingly, holders of a majority of the shares of common stock entitled to vote in any election of directors may elect all of the directors standing for election. Subject to preferences that may be applicable to any preferred stock outstanding at the time, the holders of outstanding shares of common stock are entitled to receive ratably any dividends declared by our board of directors out of assets legally available. Upon our liquidation, dissolution, or winding up, holders of our common stock are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining after payment of liabilities and the liquidation preference of any then outstanding shares of preferred stock. Holders of common stock have no preemptive or conversion rights or other subscription rights. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to the common stock.

Our common stock is listed on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “FEYE.”

 

 

No shares of preferred stock are outstanding. Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our board of directors has the authority, without further action by the stockholders, to issue from time to time up to 100,000,000 shares of preferred stock in one or more series. Our board of directors may designate the rights, preferences, privileges, and restrictions of the preferred stock, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, redemption rights, liquidation preference, sinking fund terms, and the number of shares constituting any series or the designation of any series. The issuance of preferred stock could have the effect of restricting dividends on the common stock, diluting the voting power of the common stock, impairing the liquidation rights of the common stock, or delaying, deterring, or preventing a change in control. Such issuance could have the effect of decreasing the market price of the common stock. We currently have no plans to issue any shares of preferred stock.

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying, deferring, or discouraging another party from acquiring control of us. These provisions and certain provisions of Delaware law, which are summarized below, could discourage takeovers, coercive or otherwise. These provisions are also designed, in part, to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to negotiate first 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.

 

Undesignated Preferred Stock. As discussed above under “Preferred Stock,” our board of directors has the ability to designate and issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could deter hostile takeovers or delay changes in our control or management.

 

Limits on Ability of Stockholders to Act by Written Consent or Call a Special Meeting. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our stockholders may not act by written consent. This limit on the ability of stockholders to act by written consent may lengthen the amount of time required to take stockholder actions. As a result, the holders of a majority of our capital stock are not able to amend the amended and restated bylaws or remove directors without holding a meeting of stockholders called in accordance with the amended and restated bylaws.

 

In addition, our amended and restated bylaws provide that special meetings of the stockholders may be called only by our board of directors, the chairperson of our board of directors, our chief executive officer or our president (in the absence of a chief executive officer). A stockholder may not call 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 contain 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 the board of directors. These advance notice procedures may have the effect of precluding the conduct of certain business at a meeting if the proper procedures are not followed and may also discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect its own slate of directors or otherwise attempt to obtain control of our company.

 

Board Classification. Our board of directors is divided into three classes. The directors in each class serve for a three-year term, one class being elected each year by our stockholders. This system of electing and removing directors may discourage a third party from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us, because it generally makes it more difficult for stockholders to replace a majority of the directors.

 

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 prohibits a publicly held Delaware corporation from engaging, under certain circumstances, in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date the person became an interested stockholder unless:

Generally, a business combination includes a merger, asset or stock sale, or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. An interested stockholder is a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns or, within three years prior to the determination of interested stockholder status, owned 15% or more of a corporation’s outstanding voting stock. We expect the existence of this provision to have an anti-takeover effect with respect to transactions our board of directors does not approve in advance. We also anticipate that Section 203 may discourage attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares of common stock held by stockholders.

 

The provisions of Delaware law and the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could have the effect of discouraging others from attempting hostile takeovers and as a consequence, they might also inhibit temporary fluctuations in the market price of our common stock that often result from actual or rumored hostile takeover attempts. These provisions might also have the effect of preventing changes in our management. It is also possible that these provisions could make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders might otherwise deem to be in their best interests.

 

 

The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC.