Description of Securities

Fluidigm Corporation (“we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company”) has one class of securities registered under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), our Common Stock.

The following description of our Common Stock is a summary and does not purport to be complete. It is subject to and qualified in its entirety by reference to our Eighth Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended (the “Certificate of Incorporation”) and our Amended and Restated Bylaws (the “Bylaws”), each of which are incorporated by reference as an exhibit to the Annual Report on Form 10-K of which this Exhibit 4.5 is a part. We encourage you to read our Certificate of Incorporation, our Bylaws and the applicable provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, for additional information.

Our authorized capital stock consists of 200,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value per share (“Common Stock”), and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock, $0.001 par value per share.

The holders of our Common Stock are entitled to one vote per share on all matters to be voted on by our stockholders. Subject to preferences that may be applicable to any outstanding shares of preferred stock, holders of Common Stock are entitled to receive ratably such dividends as may be declared by our Board of Directors out of funds legally available for that purpose. In the event of our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, the holders of Common Stock are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining after the payment of liabilities, subject to the prior distribution rights of preferred stock then outstanding. Holders of Common Stock have no preemptive, conversion or subscription rights. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to the Common Stock.

Our Board of Directors has the authority, without further action by our stockholders, to designate and issue up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock in one or more series. Our Board of Directors may also designate the rights, preferences and privileges each such series of preferred stock, any or all of which may be greater than or senior to those of the Common Stock. Though the actual effect of any such issuance on the rights of the holders of Common Stock will not be known until our Board of Directors determines the specific rights of the holders of preferred stock, the potential effects of such an issuance include:

•diluting the voting power of the holders of Common Stock;

•reducing the likelihood that holders of Common Stock will receive dividend payments;

•reducing the likelihood that holders of Common Stock will receive payments in the event of our liquidation, dissolution, or winding up; and

•delaying, deterring or preventing a change-in-control or other corporate takeover. 

Holders of our Common Stock are entitled to one vote for each share of Common Stock held by such holder on any matter submitted to a vote at a meeting of stockholders. In addition, our Certificate of Incorporation provides

that certain corporate actions require the approval of our stockholders. These actions, and the vote required, are as follows:

•the removal of a director requires the vote of a majority of the voting power of our issued and outstanding capital stock entitled to vote in the election of directors; and

•the amendment of provisions of our Certificate of Incorporation relating to blank check preferred stock, the classification of our directors, the removal of directors, the filling of vacancies on our Board of Directors, cumulative voting, annual and special meetings of our stockholders and require the vote of 66 2/3% of our then outstanding voting securities.

Certain provisions of Delaware law and our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of the Company. These provisions, which are summarized below, are expected to discourage certain types of coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids. These provisions are also designed in part to encourage anyone seeking to acquire control of us to first negotiate with our Board of Directors. We believe that the advantages gained by protecting our ability to negotiate with any unsolicited and potentially unfriendly acquirer outweigh the disadvantages of discouraging such proposals, including those priced above the then-current market value of our Common Stock, because, among other reasons, the negotiation of such proposals could improve their terms.

Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws include provisions that:

•authorize our board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, up to 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock;

•require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;

•specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our Board of Directors, the Chairman of the Board, the Chief Executive Officer or the President;

•establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder approvals to be brought before an annual meeting of our stockholders, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our Board of Directors;

•provide that directors may be removed only for cause;

•provide that vacancies on our Board of Directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum;

•establish that our Board of Directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II, and Class III, with each class serving staggered terms;

•specify that no stockholder is permitted to cumulate votes at any election of the Board of Directors; and

•require a super majority of votes to amend certain of the above-mentioned provisions.

We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law regulating corporate takeovers (“Section 203”). 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:

•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 for determining the outstanding voting stock owned by the interested stockholder, (i) shares owned by persons who are directors and also officers, and (ii) 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 66 2/3% of the outstanding voting stock which is not owned by the interested stockholder.

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, did own 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 business combinations or other attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares of Common Stock held by our stockholders.

The provisions of Delaware law and our Certificate of Incorporation and 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 could make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.

The transfer agent and registrar for our Common Stock is Computershare Trust Company, N.A. The transfer agent’s address is 462 South 4th Street, Suite 1600, Louisville, KY 40202, and its telephone number is ###-###-#### or ###-###-####.

Our Common Stock is traded on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the trading symbol “FLDM.”