UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
For the fiscal year ended:
FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM __________ TO __________
Commission file number
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
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(State of Incorporation) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: Common Stock $0.001 par value
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐
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 ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 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.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a
Large accelerated filer | ☐ |
| Accelerated filer | ☐ |
Non-accelerated filer | ☒ |
| Smaller reporting company | |
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| Emerging growth company |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).
Yes
The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1 |
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ITEM 1 |
| Business | 3 |
ITEM 1A |
| Risk Factors | 7 |
ITEM 1B |
| Unresolved Staff Comments | 20 |
ITEM 2 |
| Properties | 20 |
ITEM 3 |
| Legal Proceedings | 20 |
ITEM 4 |
| Mine Safety Disclosures | 20 |
PART II |
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ITEM 5 |
| Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities | 20 |
ITEM 6 |
| Reserved | 21 |
ITEM 7 |
| Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Results of Operations and Financial Condition | 21 |
ITEM 8 |
| Financial Statements and Supplementary Data | 29 |
ITEM 9 |
| Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure | 56 |
ITEM 9A |
| Controls and Procedures | 56 |
ITEM 9B |
| Other Information | 59 |
ITEM 9C |
| Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections | 59 |
PART III |
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ITEM 10 |
| Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance | 59 |
ITEM 11 |
| Executive Compensation | 62 |
ITEM 12 |
| Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters | 66 |
ITEM 13 |
| Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence | 68 |
ITEM 14 |
| Principal Accountant Fees and Services | 68 |
ITEM 15 |
| Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules | 68 |
ITEM 16 |
| Form 10-K Summary | 69 |
SIGNATURES |
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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
General
ABOUT US-
AiAdvertising’s primary focus is to disrupt the digital advertising world by offering a solution that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to enable marketers to increase productivity, efficiency and performance.
OUR MISSION-
Is to partner with marketers who are looking to challenge the “status quo” and empower them with a unified solution to eliminate wasted spend, replace human guesswork with AI-enabled predictions to provide accountability and provide transparency to their marketing budget.
OURSOLUTION-
Our proprietary software empowers marketers by intelligently automating data- driven, repetitive tasks, and improving their ability to make predictions at scale.
What is AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
AI is computer science field that enables computer software to perform human-like intelligence tasks, like speech recognition, image recognition, reasoning, decision making, and learning. AI learns through observation and interaction with the world. It learns, for example, by observing humans interact with objects and people, by observing the objects themselves, and by interacting with humans.
AI isn't magic; it's math. Very advanced math that can help machines perform well-defined intelligence tasks better than humans. AI powers everything from self-driving cars to Amazon recommendations to image recognition that tags your friends on Facebook.
AI is an umbrella term. It encompasses many different subfields and technologies, including neural networks, natural language processing (NLP), natural language generation (NLG), and deep learning.
Machine learning is one of these subfields.
What is machine learning?
Machine learning is AI where the computer software is tasked with learning without being explicitly programmed. An AI system that uses machine learning is not always explicitly programmed with the rules of how to learn. Instead, it is allowed to learn through a combination of instruction from humans and experimentation on its own.
Over time, an AI system using machine learning can get better at the task it was built to do. It can even find its own approaches to completing a task that humans never taught it or intended it to learn. This is why there is so much excitement around AI that uses machine learning:
Unlike traditional software, which has to be manually updated by programmers, AI with machine learning can become smarter on its own. It can improve its performance on tasks over time, which can create powerful results for individuals and companies.
What is the difference between AI and machine learning?
Machine learning is always a type of AI, but AI is not always machine learning. The difference lies in the ability of an AI system to become smarter on its own. If AI can teach itself without explicit human training and get better over time, then it's true machine learning. If it can't, then some may still call it artificial intelligence, but it's more like intelligent automation with a narrow application. It can still solve problems that require human intelligence.
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The AIAD Platform Features
Our software platform harnesses the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to eliminate guesswork, predict what works, and prove advertising's impact on financial results. Key features of our platform include:
Alignment - We start with the end in mind and use a comprehensive discovery process to outline goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to connect them to revenue targets. By aligning on the desired outcomes, our platform renders marketing and content calendars built upon the defined goals and objectives.
Insights - AI Data Services inventories and aggregates data from all of a client’s tools, such as customer relationship management (CRM), sales, marketing, accounting, and customer service tools into a unified data warehouse where it is cleaned, organized, and tagged. This allows the artificial intelligence in our platform to segment customers and prospective customers by revealing patterns, signals, and insights to draw commonalities between points and grouping them into personas (fictional characters used to represent larger groups that share similarities). Once these audiences are segmented, we use unique engagement predictors leveraging psychographic models to identify motivations, behaviors, influences, and interests. These insights inform the type of creative assets these audience segments will most likely respond to. The models are leveraged to find new incremental audiences.
Activate – Our AI platform scores our clients’ existing creative assets and intelligently recommends enhancements to optimize performance. Our AI leverages the audience personas of who will see the ads to accurately personalize and predict more successful creative assets. This predictive engine allows clients to know the likelihood that their ad will resonate with their audiences before placing the ad. Our AI can then dynamically create hundreds or thousands of variations of highly targeted ads based on what our AI knows about the specific audience personas. Combined with our software, our teams then help our clients place these ads through the channels that will produce the highest results.
Decisions – The AiAd dashboard aggregates data from all marketing channels to connect marketing strategies to financial results. Our platform continuously monitors and validates each campaign's impact and provides recommendations to maximize their effectiveness. Leveraging machine learning, it provides ongoing analysis and optimization of behavioral profiles, creative, audience segments, and media activation. Our platform empowers marketers to know what works, what doesn't, what's next, and why so they can make the most informed decisions.
The Market Opportunity
According to Marketing AI Institute:
·McKinsey Global Institute estimates up to a $5.9 trillion annual impact of AI and other analytics on marketing and sales.
·PwC sees a truly global effect from AI, with an estimated 14 percent lift in global GDP possible by 2030, a total contribution of $15.7 trillion to the world economy, thanks to both increased productivity and increased consumption.
·In 2021 alone, Gartner projects AI augmentation will create $2.9 trillion of business value, and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally.
·IDC states that efficiencies driven by AI in CRM could increase global revenues by $1.1 trillion this year, and ultimately lead to more than 800,000 net-new jobs, surpassing those lost to automation.
·The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated AI-powered digital transformation across businesses. Additional research from McKinsey cites that 25 percent of almost 2,400 business leaders surveyed said they increased AI adoption due to the pandemic.
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We believe Google’s recent announcement that it will restrict the use of third-party cookies is very close to a declaration of war against many ad-tech companies and major advertisers. "Today, we're making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products," said David Temkin, Google's director of product management, ads privacy, and trust.
Ad-targeting companies such as Criteo, The Trade Desk and Magnite rely on so-called third-party browser cookies for their data gathering and organization efforts, particularly when ad campaigns are shaped around the specific browsing behavior of specific web users. Thus, we believe Google’s announcement that third-party cookies are going away someday soon was very bad news for the ad-targeting industry. Further, Google took the next step of promising to make it harder to replace cookies with alternative user-tracking technologies.
This is cause for enormous concern within the advertising industry. The Cookie Apocalypse coming in 2022 could wipe out 85% of the digital market according to Data Science Analyst, Roger Kamena. Any data or ad-tech company that captures any information on unidentified users through a data management platform (DMP) will be affected.
We believe that our AIAD platform will deliver a solution that will overcome this problem caused by Google while still ensuring the privacy of users, because our AIAD platform does not rely on the use of browser cookies.
Instead, our platform uses AI to manage “personas” which we believe will now become more important than ever for targeting purposes. Cookies are dead. Also, our use of personas will overcome another challenge for the ad targeting industry created by Apple as soon as it releases its next operating system that will ask users to opt in to share their location on every mobile app. As a result, location data will decrease significantly to the point where it won't be scalable.
A persona is a proxy for a brand’s target audience. A proxy represents someone who has the same interests, priorities and concerns as the brand’s buyers. Within the brand’s target market, there are several ideal customer profiles, and each ideal customer profile could have a multiple number of personas. Developing these personas is based on extensive research and requires the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools.
We believe the AiAdvertising approach is unique, and that it will be disruptive in the ad targeting and ad buying process. Not only will our AI-driven platform overcome the new challenges posed by the actions of big players, such as Google and Apple, but it will ensure user privacy and lead to lower advertising costs.
Past Revenue Model
Historically, we charged a fixed or variable implementation fee to design, build and execute on digital marketing campaigns. These campaigns or custom solutions consisted of professional services fees as well as mark up on media spend. Our professional services were billed at hourly or monthly rates, depending on the customer’s needs.
Future Revenue
Beginning in Q4 of 2021, we pivoted the focus of our business to a software licensing and delivery model, whereby our software is centrally hosted and licensed on a monthly subscription basis. We charge a flat percentage of clients’ monthly ad spend budget for software license fees, and a flat percentage of their monthly ad spend budget for media activation and placement. We believe this provides greater transparency to the client as well as makes the Company’s revenue more consistent and predictable. We believe this shift towards SaaS recurring revenue can potentially be highly valuable to the Company and its shareholders.
Sales and Marketing
To achieve the objective of disrupting the digital advertising world by offering a solution that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence , we have assembled a team of experts working collectively for the best interest of our customers.
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During the client sales process, our team delivers demonstrations, presentations, proposals and contracts. Many new customers have been retained through email marketing, direct sales, and word-of-mouth referrals. Our direct sales efforts are aimed at Chief Marketing Officers, senior marketing and information technology (IT) executives within Consumer, B2B and political organizations who are looking to create or expand their digital operations. Word-of-mouth referrals have been very valuable to us and we intend to continue nurturing our customer and industry relationships to maximize these referrals.
In addition to our direct sales efforts and referrals, we have established and continue to explore channel partnerships to expand our customer base. Prospective channel partners include existing technology companies, hosting providers, enterprise resource planning (or ERP) vendors, and e-commerce marketing professionals.
Competition
We operate in a rapidly growing and rapidly changing market. As a result, we expect competition to continue to increase as other established and emerging companies enter the business analytics market, as customer requirements evolve and as new products and technologies are introduced. We expect this to be particularly true with respect to our SaaS-based offering. This is a relatively new and evolving area of business analytics solutions, and we anticipate competition to increase based on customer demand for these types of products. In addition, we may compete with open source initiatives and custom development efforts.
Many of our competitors, particularly the large software companies named above, have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, professional services or other resources and greater name recognition than we do. In addition, many of our competitors have strong relationships with current and potential customers and extensive knowledge of the business analytics industry. As a result, they may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements, for example by offering a SaaS-based product that competes with our on-premises products or our SaaS product, AiAd Platform, or devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than us. Moreover, many of these competitors are bundling their analytics products into larger deals or maintenance renewals, often at significant discounts. Increased competition may lead to price cuts, alternative pricing structures or the introduction of products available for free or a nominal price, fewer customer orders, reduced gross margins, longer sales cycles and loss of market share. We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors, and our business, results of operations and financial condition will be harmed if we fail to meet these competitive pressures.
Our ability to compete successfully in our market depends on a number of factors, both within and outside of our control. Some of these factors include ease and speed of product deployment and use, discovery and visualization capabilities, analytical and statistical capabilities, performance and scalability, the quality and reliability of our customer service and support, total cost of ownership, return on investment and brand recognition. Any failure by us to compete successfully in any one of these or other areas may reduce the demand for our products, as well as adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Government Regulation
We are subject to various federal, state, and local laws affecting e-commerce and communication businesses. The Federal Trade Commission and equivalent state agencies regulate advertising and representations made by businesses in the sale of their products, which apply to us. We are also subject to government laws and regulations governing health, safety, working conditions, employee relations, wrongful termination, wages, taxes and other matters applicable to businesses in general. Currently, when serving customers in the European Union, we must take precautions to maintain the General Data Protection Regulation requirements. As the United States continues to adopt similar regulations. Our software and services will comply with those requirements.
Employees
As of March 14, 2022 we had 50 full time employees, 7 of whom are employed in administrative positions, 16 in sales and marketing positions, and 27 in technical positions. 19 employees were in Texas, 2 in Utah, 2 in New Jersey, 2 in New York, 14 in Arizona, 1 in Ohio, 2 in Virginia, 2 in California, 1 in Pennsylvania, 1 North Carolina, 1 Colorado, and 3 in Georgia.
All of our employees have executed agreements that impose nondisclosure obligations on the employee and assign to us (to the extent permitted by state and federal laws) all copyrights and other inventions created by the employee during his employment with us. Additionally, we have a trade secret protection policy in place that management believes to be adequate to protect our intellectual property and trade secrets.
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Seasonality
We do not anticipate that our business will be substantially affected by seasonality.
Trademarks
We have registered trademarks for AiAdvertising®.
Company History
The Company, based in San Antonio, Texas, was incorporated in Nevada on January 22, 2002. The Company was formerly known as CloudCommerce, Inc., Warp 9, Inc., Roaming Messenger, Inc., and Latinocare Management Corporation. On July 9, 2015, we changed the name of the Company from Warp 9, Inc. to CloudCommerce, Inc. to reflect a new plan of strategically acquiring profitable data driven marketing solutions providers with strong management teams. Effective August 5, 2021, the Company changed its name to AiAdvertising, Inc.
The Company has six subsidiaries, CLWD Operations, Inc. (formerly Indaba Group, Inc.), Parscale Digital, Inc., which merged with Parscale Creative, Inc., as a result of an acquisition dated August 1, 2017, WebTegrity, LLC (“WebTegrity”), which was acquired November 15, 2017, Data Propria, Inc., which the Company launched February 1, 2018, Giles Design Bureau, Inc., which spun out from Parscale Digital in May, 2018, and aiAdvertising, Inc., which was formed January 14, 2021. References in this report to the “Company,” “AiAdvertising,” “we,” “us”, or “our” include AiAdvertising, Inc. and its subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. An investor should carefully consider the risks described below, together with all of the other information included in this annual report, before making an investment decision. Our business, financial condition or results of operations could suffer as a result of these risks. In that case, the market value of our securities could decline, and an investor may lose all or part of his or her investment.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS
Issues in the use of AI in our offerings may result in reputational harm or liability.
As with many disruptive innovations, AI presents risks and challenges that could affect its adoption, and therefore our business. AI algorithms may be flawed. Datasets may be insufficient or contain biased information. Inappropriate or controversial data practices by us or others could impair the acceptance of AI solutions. These deficiencies could undermine the decisions, predictions, or analysis AI applications produce, subjecting us to competitive harm, legal liability, and brand or reputational harm. Some AI scenarios present ethical issues. If we enable or offer AI solutions that are controversial because of their impact on human rights, privacy, employment, or other social issues, we may experience brand or reputational harm.
We are subject to payment-related risks if customers dispute or do not pay their invoices, and any decreases or significant delays in payments could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. These risks may be heightened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn.
We may become involved in disputes with our customers over the operation of our platform, the terms of our agreements or our billings for purchases made by them through our platform. In the past, certain customers have sought to slow their payments to us or been forced into filing for bankruptcy protection, resulting in delay or cancelation of their pending payments to us. These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic impact, and a number of our customers are experiencing financial difficulties and liquidity constraints. In certain cases, customers have been unable to timely make payments, and we have suffered losses. Certain of our contracts with marketing agencies state that if their customer does not pay the agency, the agency is not liable to us, and we must seek payment solely from their customer, a type of arrangement called sequential liability. Contracting with these agencies, which in some cases have or may develop higher-risk credit profiles, may subject us to greater credit risk than if we were to contract directly with the customer.
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If we are unable to collect customers’ fees on a timely basis or at all, we could incur write-offs for bad debt, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations for the periods in which the write-offs occur. In the future, bad debt may exceed reserves for such contingencies, and our bad debt exposure may increase over time. Any increase in write-offs for bad debt could have a materially negative effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. Even if we are not paid by our customers on time or at all, we may still be obligated to pay for the inventory we have purchased for our customers’ marketing campaigns, and consequently, our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely impacted.
The reliability of some of our product solutions is dependent on data and software from third-parties and the integrity and quality of that data and software.
Some of the data and software that we use is licensed from third-party data suppliers, and we are dependent upon our ability to obtain necessary data licenses on commercially reasonable terms. We could suffer material adverse consequences if our data suppliers were to withhold their data from us. For example, data suppliers could withhold their data from us if there is a competitive reason to do so; if we breach our contract with a supplier; if they are acquired by one of our competitors; if legislation is passed restricting the use or dissemination of the data they provide; or if judicial interpretations are issued restricting use of such data. Additionally, we could terminate relationships with our data suppliers if they fail to adhere to our data quality standards. If a substantial number of data suppliers were to withdraw or withhold their data from us, or if we sever ties with our data suppliers based on their inability to meet our data standards, our ability to provide products and services to our clients could be materially adversely impacted, which could result in decreased revenues.
The reliability of our solutions depends upon the integrity and quality of the data provided us by our clients and that which we can license from third party providers. A failure in the integrity or a reduction in the quality of our data could cause a loss of customer confidence in our solutions, resulting in harm to our brand, loss of revenue and exposure to legal claims. We may experience an increase in risks to the integrity of our database and quality of our data as we move toward real-time, non-identifiable, consumer- powered data through our products. We must continue to invest in our database to improve and maintain the quality, timeliness and coverage of the data if we are to maintain our competitive position. Failure to do so could result in a material adverse effect on our business, growth and revenue prospects.
Our business practices with respect to data and consumer protection could give rise to liabilities or reputational harm as a result of governmental regulation, legal requirements or industry standards relating to consumer privacy, data protection and consumer protection.
Federal, state and international laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of data that we collect. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, self-regulatory requirements and legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection, including those relating to the use of data for marketing purposes. It is possible, however, that these requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. We cannot assure you that our practices have complied, comply, or will comply fully with all such laws, regulations, requirements and obligations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with federal, state or international laws or regulations, including laws and regulations regulating privacy, data security, marketing communications or consumer protection, or other policies, self-regulatory requirements or legal obligations could result in harm to our reputation, a loss in business, and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, consumers, retailers or others. We may also be contractually liable to indemnify and hold harmless performance marketing networks or other third parties from the costs or consequences of noncompliance with any laws, regulations, self-regulatory requirements or other legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection or any inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of data that we store or handle as part of operating our business. Any such proceeding or action, and any related indemnification obligation, could hurt our reputation, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of these proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business and cause consumers and retailers to decrease their use of our marketplace, and may result in the imposition of monetary liability. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the data and privacy laws, regulations, standards and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our clients may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our products.
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A significant breach of the confidentiality of the information we hold or of the security of our or our customers’, suppliers’, or other partners’ computer systems could be detrimental to our business, reputation and results of operations. Our business requires the storage, transmission and utilization of data. Although we have security and associated procedures, our databases may be subject to unauthorized access by third parties. Such third parties could attempt to gain entry to our systems for the purpose of stealing data or disrupting the systems. We believe we have taken appropriate measures to protect our systems from intrusion, but we cannot be certain that advances in criminal capabilities, discovery of new vulnerabilities in our systems and attempts to exploit those vulnerabilities, physical system or facility break-ins and data thefts or other developments will not compromise or breach the technology protecting our systems and the information we possess. Furthermore, we face increasing cyber security risks as we receive and collect data from new sources, and as we and our customers continue to develop and operate in cloud-based information technology environments. In the event that our protection efforts are unsuccessful, and we experience an unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or the security of such information or our systems are compromised, we could suffer substantial harm. Any breach could result in one or more third parties obtaining unauthorized access to our customers’ data or our data, including personally identifiable information, intellectual property and other confidential business information. Such a security breach could result in operational disruptions that impair our ability to meet our clients’ requirements, which could result in decreased revenues. Also, whether there is an actual or a perceived breach of our security, our reputation could suffer irreparable harm, causing our current and prospective clients to reject our products and services in the future and deterring data suppliers from supplying us data. Further, we could be forced to expend significant resources in response to a security breach, including repairing system damage, increasing cyber security protection costs by deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, and litigating and resolving legal claims, all of which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations. In any event, a significant security breach could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
Significant system disruptions, loss of data center capacity or interruption of telecommunication links could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Our product platform is hosted and managed on Microsoft Azure Cloud servers and takes full advantage of open standards for processing, storage, security and big data technology. Significant system disruptions, loss of data center capacity or interruption of telecommunication links could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our business is heavily dependent upon highly complex data processing capability. The ability of our platform hosts and managers to protect these data centers against damage or interruption from fire, flood, tornadoes, power loss, telecommunications or equipment failure or other disasters is beyond our control and is critical to our ability to succeed.
We need to protect our intellectual property or our operating results may suffer.
Third parties may infringe our intellectual property and we may suffer competitive injury or expend significant resources enforcing our rights. As our business is focused on data-driven results and analytics, we rely heavily on proprietary information technology. Our proprietary portfolio consists of various intellectual property including source code, trade secrets, and know-how. The extent to which such rights can be protected is substantially based on federal, state and common law rights as well as contractual restrictions. The steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent the misappropriation of our proprietary information or deter independent development of similar technologies by others. If we do not enforce our intellectual property rights vigorously and successfully, our competitive position may suffer which could harm our operating results.
We could incur substantial costs and disruption to our business as a result of any claim of infringement of another party’s intellectual property rights, which could harm our business and operating results.
From time to time, third parties may claim that one or more of our products or services infringe their intellectual property rights. We analyze and take action in response to such claims on a case-by-case basis. Any dispute or litigation regarding patents or other intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming due to the complexity of our technology and the uncertainty of intellectual property litigation, which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations. A claim of intellectual property infringement could force us to enter into a costly or restrictive license agreement, which might not be available under acceptable terms or at all, or could subject us to significant damages or to an injunction against development and sale of certain of our products or services.
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We may be unable to maintain a competitive technology advantage in the future.
Our ability to generate revenues is substantially based upon our proprietary intellectual property that we own and protect through trade secrets and agreements with our employees to maintain ownership of any improvements to our intellectual property. Our ability to generate revenues now and in the future is based upon maintaining a competitive technology advantage over our competition. We can provide no assurances that we will be able to maintain a competitive technology advantage in the future over our competitors, many of whom have significantly more experience, more extensive infrastructure and are better capitalized than us.
We may not be able to integrate, maintain and enhance our advertising solutions to keep pace with technological and market developments.
The market for digital advertising solutions is characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and services. To keep pace with technological developments, satisfy increasing publisher and advertiser requirements, maintain the attractiveness and competitiveness of our advertising solutions and ensure compatibility with evolving industry standards and protocols, we will need to anticipate and respond to varying product lifecycles, regularly enhance our current advertising solutions and develop and introduce new solutions and functionality on a timely basis. This requires significant investment of financial and other resources. For example, we will need to invest significant resources into expanding and developing our platforms in order to maintain a comprehensive solution. Ad technology platforms and other technological developments may displace us or introduce an additional intermediate layer between us and our customers and digital media properties that could impair our relationships with those customers.
If we default on our credit obligations, our operations may be interrupted and our business and financial results could be adversely affected.
Vendors extend us credit terms for the purchase of advertising inventory. We currently have outstanding payables to existing vendors. If we are unable to pay our publishers in a timely fashion, they may elect to no longer sell us inventory to provide for sale to advertisers. Also, it may be necessary for us to incur additional indebtedness to maintain operations of the Company. If we default on our credit obligations, our lenders and debt financing holders may, among other things:
·require repayment of any outstanding obligations or amounts drawn on our credit facilities;
·terminate our credit;
·stop delivery of ordered equipment;
·discontinue our ability to acquire inventory that is sold to advertisers;
·require us to accrue interest at higher rates; or
·require us to pay significant damages.
If some or all of these events were to occur, our operations may be interrupted and our ability to fund our operations or obligations, as well as our business, financial results, and financial condition, could be adversely affected.
War, terrorism, other acts of violence or natural or manmade disasters such as a global pandemic may affect the markets in which the Company operates, the Company's customers, the Company's delivery of products and customer service, and could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.
The Company's business may be adversely affected by instability, disruption or destruction in the geographic regions in which it operates, regardless of cause, including war, terrorism, riot, civil insurrection or social unrest, and natural or manmade disasters, including famine, food, fire, earthquake, storm or pandemic events and spread of disease (including the recent outbreak of the coronavirus commonly referred to as "COVID- 19"). Such events may cause customers to suspend their decisions on using the Company's services and otherwise affect their ability to meet their obligations to us by making payments on our existing equipment leases, make it impossible to contact our customers and potential customers as well as potential sources of future financing, for our customers to visit our physical locations, and give rise to sudden significant changes in regional and global economic conditions and cycles that could interfere with our existing business as well as our planned expansion into the mobility business. These events also pose significant risks to the Company's personnel and to physical facilities and operations, which could materially adversely affect the Company's financial results.
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We have a history of losses and expect to continue to incur losses.
We have experienced net losses and negative cash flows from operating activities, and we expect such losses and negative cash flows to continue in the foreseeable future. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we incurred net losses of $8,482,771 and $1,270,650, respectively. We may never achieve profitability.
We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.
We have a relatively short operating history and have been delivering AIAD PLATFORM solutions, our proprietary audience-driven business intelligence solution, since January 2018, and are now in the process of building AIAD PLATFORM into a SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution. As a result, it may be difficult to evaluate in an investment in our stock. Furthermore, we operate in an industry that is characterized by rapid technological innovation, intense competition, changing customer needs and frequent introduction of new products, technologies and services. We have encountered, and we will continue to encounter, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by companies in evolving industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in the market, or we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations, and our business could suffer.
Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to, among other things:
| ● | market acceptance of our current and future products and services; |
| ● | improve the performance and capabilities of our products; |
| ● | manage the full automation of our AIAD PLATFORM solution; |
| ● | compete with other companies, custom development efforts and open source initiatives that are currently in, or may in the future enter, the market for our products; |
| ● | technology and data center infrastructure, enhancements to cloud architecture, improved disaster recovery protection, increasing data security, compliance and operations expenses; |
| ● | data center costs as customers increase the amount of data that is available to our platform and the number of users on our platform; |
| ● | the amount and timing of operating expenses, particularly sales and marketing expenses, related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure; |
| ● | write-downs, impairment charges or unforeseen liabilities in connection with intangible assets or acquisitions; |
| ● | our ability to successfully manage any acquisitions; and |
| ● | general economic and political conditions in our domestic and international markets |
11
If we fail to address or manage these risks successfully, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this section, our business will be adversely affected and our results of operations will suffer.
Our success depends on increasing the number and value of enterprise sales transactions, which typically involve a longer sales cycle, greater deployment challenges and additional support and services than sales to individual purchasers of our products.
Growth in our revenues and profitability depends in part on our ability to complete more and larger enterprise sales transactions. These larger transactions may involve significant customer negotiation. Enterprise customers may undertake a significant evaluation process, which can last from several months to a year or longer. For example, in recent periods, excluding renewals, our transactions over $100,000 have generally taken over three months to close. Any individual transaction may take substantially longer than three months to close. If our sales cycle were to lengthen in this manner, events may occur during this period that affect the size or timing of a purchase or even cause cancellations, which may lead to greater unpredictability in our business and results of operations. We will spend substantial time, effort and money on enterprise sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales.
The actual market for our products and services could be significantly smaller than our estimates of our total potential market opportunity, and if customer demand for our products and services does not meet expectations, our ability to generate revenue and meet our financial targets could be adversely affected.
While we expect strong growth in the markets for our products, it is possible that the growth in some or all of these markets may not meet our expectations, or materialize at all. The methodology on which our estimate of our total potential market opportunity includes several key assumptions based on our industry knowledge, market research, and customer experience. If any of these assumptions proves to be inaccurate, then the actual market for our products could be significantly smaller than our estimates of our total potential market opportunity. If the customer demand for our products or the adoption rate in our target markets does not meet our expectations, our ability to generate revenue from customers and meet our financial targets could be adversely affected.
If our new products and product enhancements do not achieve sufficient market acceptance, our results of operations and competitive position will suffer.
We spend substantial amounts of time and money to research and develop new software and enhanced versions of our existing software to incorporate additional features, improve functionality, function in concert with new technologies or changes to existing technologies and allow our customers to analyze a wide range of data sources. When we develop a new product or an enhanced version of an existing product, we typically incur expenses and expend resources upfront to market, promote and sell the new offering. Therefore, when we develop and introduce new or enhanced products, they must achieve high levels of market acceptance in order to justify the amount of our investment in developing and bringing them to market.
Further, we may make changes to our software that our customers do not find useful. We may also discontinue certain features, begin to charge for certain features that are currently free or increase fees for any of our features or usage of our software. We may also face unexpected problems or challenges in connection with new product or feature introductions.
Our new products or product enhancements, such as our AiAd Platform, and changes to our existing software could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
| ● | failure to predict market demand accurately in terms of software functionality and capability or to supply software that meets this demand in a timely fashion; |
| ● | inability to operate effectively with the technologies, systems or applications of our existing or potential customers; |
| ● | defects, errors or failures; |
| ● | negative publicity about their performance or effectiveness; |
| ● | delays in releasing our new software or enhancements to our existing software to the market; |
| ● | the introduction or anticipated introduction of competing products by our competitors; |
| ● | an ineffective sales force; |
| ● | poor business conditions for our end-customers, causing them to delay purchases; and |
| ● | the reluctance of customers to purchase software incorporating open source software. |
12
In addition, because our products are designed to operate on and with a variety of systems, we will need to continuously modify and enhance our products to keep pace with changes in technology. We may not be successful in either developing these modifications and enhancements or in bringing them to market in a timely fashion.
If our new software or enhancements and changes do not achieve adequate acceptance in the market, our competitive position will be impaired, and our revenues could decline. The adverse effect on our results of operations may be particularly acute because of the significant research, development, marketing, sales and other expenses we will have incurred in connection with the new software or enhancements.
Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our software could adversely affect our results of operations and growth prospects.
Because our software is complex, undetected errors, failures or bugs may occur, especially when new versions or updates are released. Our software is often installed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, and equipment and networking configurations, which may cause errors or failures of our software or other aspects of the computing environment into which it is deployed. In addition, deployment of our software into computing environments may expose undetected errors, compatibility issues, failures or bugs in our software. Despite testing by us, errors, failures or bugs may not be found in our software until it is released to our customers. Moreover, our customers could incorrectly implement or inadvertently misuse our software, which could result in customer dissatisfaction and adversely impact the perceived utility of our products as well as our brand. Any of these real or perceived errors, compatibility issues, failures or bugs in our software could result in negative publicity, reputational harm, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our software, loss of competitive position or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct the problem. Alleviating any of these problems could require significant expenditures of our capital and other resources and could cause interruptions, delays or cessation of our licensing, which could cause us to lose existing or potential customers and could adversely affect our results of operations and growth prospects.
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure may adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We may in the future experience performance issues due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website or third-party hosting disruptions or capacity constraints due to a number of potential causes including technical failures, cyber-attacks, security vulnerabilities, natural disasters or fraud. If our security is compromised, our website is unavailable or our users are unable to access our software within a reasonable amount of time or at all, our business could be negatively affected. Moreover, if our security measures, products or services are subject to cyber-attacks that degrade or deny the ability of users to access our website, products or services, our products or services may be perceived as unsecure and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. These cloud-based products are hosted at third-party data centers that are not under our direct control. If these data centers were to be damaged or suffer disruption, our ability to provide these products to our customers could be impaired and our reputation could be harmed.
In addition, it may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our website performance, especially during peak usage times and as our software becomes more complex and our user traffic increases. Adverse consequences could include unanticipated system disruptions, slower response times, degradation in level of customer support and impaired quality of users’ experiences, and could result in customer dissatisfaction and the loss of existing customers. We expect to continue to make significant investments to maintain and improve website performance and security and to enable rapid and secure releases of new features and applications for our software. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our use of open source software could negatively affect our ability to sell our software and subject us to possible litigation.
We use open source software in our software and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. We may face claims from others claiming ownership of, or seeking to enforce the license terms applicable to such open source software, including by demanding release of the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using such software. These claims could also result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our software, any of which would have a negative effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, if the license terms for the open source code change, we may be forced to re-engineer our software or incur additional costs. Finally, we cannot assure you that we have not incorporated open source software into our software in a manner that may subject our proprietary software to an open source license that requires disclosure, to customers or the public, of the source code to such proprietary software. Any such disclosure would have a negative effect on our business and the value of our software.
13
We may require additional capital to fund our business and support our growth..
We intend to continue to make substantial investments to fund our business and support our growth. In addition, we may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new features or enhance our software, improve our operating infrastructure or acquire or develop complementary businesses and technologies. As a result, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to provide the funds required for these and other business endeavors. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. Any debt financing that we may secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. We may not be able to obtain such additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired, and our business may be adversely affected. In addition, our inability to generate or obtain the financial resources needed may require us to delay, scale back, or eliminate some or all of our operations, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
We are dependent on key personnel for our operations. If those key personnel were to leave the Company, operations may suffer.
Our performance is highly dependent on the continued services of our executive officers and other key personnel, the loss of any of whom could materially adversely affect our business. In addition, we need to attract and retain other highly-skilled, technical and managerial personnel for whom there is intense competition. For example, if we are unable to hire or continually train our employees to keep pace with the rapid and continuing changes in technology and the markets we serve or changes in the types of services our clients are demanding, we may not be able to develop and deliver new services and solutions to fulfill client demand. Our inability to attract and retain qualified technical and managerial personnel could materially adversely affect our ability to maintain and grow our business significantly.
If labor costs for key personnel increase, the increase may strain cash flows further.
Competition for labor could substantially increase our labor costs. Although we seek to preserve the contractual ability to pass through increases in labor costs to our clients, not all of our current contracts provide us with this protection, and we may enter into contracts in the future which limit or prohibit our ability to pass through increases in labor costs to our clients. If we are unable to pass costs through to our clients, our financial condition may be materially affected.
Though the Company incurs significant costs while attempting to acquire other businesses, there is no guarantee that such transactions will be consummated
The Company incurs significant costs associated with both searching for companies to acquire and in closing a transaction. These costs include, but are not limited to, airfare, legal, audit and consulting fees. Because the merger/acquisition is not only dependent on both parties being dedicated to the completion of the transaction, but also the operational fit must be right, we may not close on all transactions we pursue. Incomplete transactions may result in significant capital out flows with no benefit to the Company.
We may become a party to litigation involving intellectual property rights, employment violations, breach of contract, or other lawsuit, which may place a burden on management and cash flows.
Third parties may, in the future, assert that our business, the technologies we use, or the business practices we use, infringe on their intellectual property rights or employment rights or that we are in violation of other rights or laws. Defending the Company against such actions may require significant time of management and substantial amounts of money. We cannot predict whether third parties will assert claims in the future or whether any future claims will prevent us from offering our products or services. If we are found to be in the wrong, we may be required to pay a significant amount of money which could include damages and attorneys’ fees.
14
A portion of our services are provided by third parties which we do not control. Such third parties may provide poor service which may harm the relationships we have with our clients.
We currently, and may in the future, rely on third party providers to provide various portions of our service offering. If our business relationship with a third-party provider is negatively affected, or is terminated, we might not be able to deliver the corresponding service offering to our clients, which could cause us to lose clients and future business, reducing our revenues. Any such failure on the part of the third party, may damage our reputation and otherwise result in a material adverse effect upon our business and financial condition.
We target a global marketplace and compete in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive industry which makes our future operating results difficult to predict. If we are unable to enhance products or acquire new products that respond to rapidly changing customer requirements, technological developments or evolving industry standards, our long-term revenue growth will be harmed.
We target the global business intelligence, or BI, marketplace, which is an industry characterized by rapid technological innovation, changing customer needs, substantial competition, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products, enhancements and services. Any of these factors can render our existing software products and services obsolete or unmarketable. We believe that our future success will depend in large part on our ability to successfully:
| ● | support current and future releases of popular hardware, operating systems, computer programming languages, databases and software applications |
| ● | develop new products and product enhancements that achieve market acceptance in a timely manner |
| ● | maintain technological competiveness and meet an expanding range of customer requirements. |
As we encounter increasing competitive pressures, we will likely be required to modify, enhance, reposition or introduce new products and service offerings. We may not be successful in doing so in a timely, cost-effective and appropriately responsive manner, or at all, which may have an adverse effect on our business, quarterly operating results and financial condition. All of these factors make it difficult to predict our future operating results which may impair our ability to manage our business.
Our success is highly dependent on our ability to penetrate the existing market for business analytics software as well as the growth and expansion of that market.
Although the overall market for business analytics software is well-established, the market for business analytics software like ours is relatively new, rapidly evolving and unproven. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to penetrate the existing market for business analytics software, as well as the continued growth and expansion of what we believe to be an emerging market for analytics solutions that are faster, easier to adopt, easier to use and more focused on self-service capabilities. It is difficult to predict customer adoption and renewal rates, customer demand for our products, the size, growth rate and expansion of these markets, the entry of competitive products or the success of existing competitive products. Our ability to penetrate the existing market and any expansion of the emerging market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance and perceived value associated with our products, as well as customers’ willingness to adopt a different approach to data analysis. Furthermore, many potential customers have made significant investments in legacy business analytics software systems and may be unwilling to invest in new software. If we are unable to penetrate the existing market for business analytics software, the emerging market for self-service analytics solutions fails to grow or expand, or either of these markets decreases in size, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
15
Our financial results would suffer if the market for BI software does not continue to grow or if we are unable to further penetrate this market.
Resistance from consumer and privacy groups to increased commercial collection and use of data on spending patterns and other personal behavior and governmental restrictions on the collection and use of personal data may impair the further growth of this market, as may other developments. We cannot be sure that this market will continue to grow or, even if it does grow, that customers will purchase our software products or services. We have spent, and intend to keep spending, considerable resources to educate potential customers about BI software in general and our software products and services in particular. However, we cannot be sure that these expenditures will help our software products achieve any additional market acceptance or enable us to attract new customers or new users at existing customers. A reduction in the demand for our software products and services could be caused by, among other things, lack of customer acceptance, weakening economic conditions, competing technologies and services or decreases in software spending. If the market and our market share fail to grow or grow more slowly than we currently expect, our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.
A large portion of our revenue is concentrated with a small number of clients.
For the year ended December 31, 2021, three clients represented approximately 47% of our service fee revenue. Termination, reduction, or delay of our services under a contract could result from factors unrelated to our work product or the progress of the project such as factors related to business or financial conditions of the client, changes in client strategies or the domestic or global economy generally. Termination, reduction or substantial delay of services any significant client, or nonrenewal of any significant client contract, or the nonpayment of a material amount of our service fees by a significant client, could have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operation and financial condition.
If we do not accurately price our fixed fee projects, the Company may suffer from decreased cash flows.
When making a proposal for, or managing, a fixed-price engagement, we rely on our estimates of costs and timing for delivering our services, which may be based on limited data and could be inaccurate. If we do not accurately estimate our costs and the timing for completion of a fixed-price project, the contract for such a project could prove unprofitable or yield a profit margin that is lower than expected. Losses, if any, on fixed-price contracts are recognized when the loss is determined. Any increased or unexpected costs or unanticipated delays in connection with the performance of fixed-price contracts, including delays caused by factors outside of our control, could make these contracts less profitable or unprofitable and may affect the amount of revenue, profit, and profit margin reported in any period.
Our industry is dependent on quickly evolving technologies and knowledge. If we do not maintain proper technology or knowledge, then our operations may be adversely affected.
To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our services and the underlying network infrastructure. If we are unable to adapt to changing market conditions, client requirements or emerging industry standards, our business could be adversely affected. The internet and e-commerce environments are characterized by rapid technological change, changes in user requirements and preferences, frequent new product and service introductions embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards and practices that could render our technology and systems obsolete. We must continue to address the increasingly sophisticated and varied needs of our clients and respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a cost-effective and timely basis.
In addition, many competitors expend a considerably greater amount of funds on their research and development programs, and those that do not may be acquired by larger companies that would allocate greater resources to competitors’ research and development programs. If we fail to maintain adequate research and development resources or compete effectively with the research and development programs of competitors, our business could be harmed. Our ability to grow is also subject to the risk of future disruptive technologies. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver business intelligence solutions at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely affect our ability to compete.
16
We may not realize the anticipated benefits of past or future acquisitions, and integration of these acquisitions may disrupt our business and management.
Our growth strategy is dependent on the success of our completed acquisitions and in the future we may acquire additional companies, products or technologies or enter into joint ventures or other strategic initiatives. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or any other future acquisition, and any acquisition has numerous risks. These risks include the following:
·difficulty in assimilating the operations and personnel of the acquired company;
·difficulty in effectively integrating the acquired technologies or products with our current technologies;
·difficulty in maintaining controls, procedures and policies during the transition and integration;
·disruption of our ongoing business and distraction of our management and employees from other opportunities and challenges due to integration issues;
·inability to retain key technical and managerial personnel of the acquired business;
·inability to retain key customers, vendors and other business partners of the acquired business;
·inability to achieve the financial and strategic goals for the acquired and combined businesses;
·incurring acquisition-related costs or amortization costs for acquired intangible assets that could impact our operating results;
·potential failure of the due diligence processes to identify significant issues with product quality, intellectual property infringement and other legal and financial liabilities, among other things; and
·potential inability to assert that internal controls over financial reporting are effective.
Mergers and acquisitions of companies are inherently risky and, if we do not complete the integration of acquired businesses successfully and in a timely manner, we may not realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions to the extent anticipated, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We are subject to governmental laws, regulation and other legal obligations, particularly those related to privacy, data protection and information security, and any actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could impair our efforts to maintain and expand our customer base, causing our growth to be limited and harming our business.
We receive, store and process personal information and other data from and about customers in addition to our employees and services providers. Also, in connection with future feature offerings, we may receive, store and process additional types of data, including personally identifiable information, related to end consumers. Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, and various state, local and foreign agencies. Our data handling also is subject to contractual obligations and may be deemed to be subject to industry standards, including certain industry standards that we undertake to comply with.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of data relating to individuals, including the use of contact information and other data for marketing, advertising and other communications with individuals and businesses. In the United States, various laws and regulations apply to the collection, processing, disclosure, and security of certain types of data. Additionally, the FTC and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of data. The laws and regulations relating to privacy and data security are evolving, can be subject to significant change and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions.
17
Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with laws, regulations, policies, legal or contractual obligations, industry standards, or regulatory guidance relating to privacy, data protection, information security, marketing or consumer communications may result in governmental investigations and enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, and could cause our customers and partners to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards relating to privacy, data protection, marketing, consumer communications and information security in the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and we cannot determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. Future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations or any changed interpretation of existing laws or regulations could impair our ability to develop and market new features and maintain and grow our customer base and increase revenue. Future restrictions on the collection, use, sharing or disclosure of data or additional requirements for express or implied consent of our customers, partners or end consumers for the use and disclosure of such information could require us to incur additional costs or modify our platform, possibly in a material manner, which we may be unable to achieve in a commercially reasonable manner or at all, and which could limit our ability to develop new features. If our policies, procedures, or measures relating to privacy, data protection, information security, marketing, or customer communications fail, or are perceived as failing, to comply with laws, regulations, policies, legal obligations or industry standards, we may be subject to governmental enforcement actions, litigation, regulatory investigations, fines, penalties and negative publicity and could cause our application providers, customers and partners to lose trust in us, which could materially affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Future acquisitions may include an equity component that may dilute the positions of current stockholders.
We have traditionally used our equity to finance our acquisitions. As we search for additional companies to acquire, the components of the purchase price may include a combination of cash, debt and equity. The issuance of a substantial amount of equity may have a dilutive effect on our current shareholders upon such equity being deemed free-trading. This dilution may result in lower market prices, which may limit an investor’s ability to obtain a return on their investment.
In addition, the incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:
·default and foreclosure on our assets if our operating revenues are insufficient to repay our debt obligations;
·acceleration of our obligations to repay the indebtedness even if we make all principal and interest payments when due if we breach certain covenants that require the maintenance of certain financial ratios or reserves without a waiver or renegotiation of that covenant;
·our immediate payment of all principal and accrued interest, if any, if the debt security is payable on demand;
·our inability to obtain necessary additional financing if the debt security contains covenants restricting our ability to obtain such financing while the debt security is outstanding;
·increased vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; and
·limitations on our ability to borrow additional amounts for expenses, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our strategy and other purposes and other disadvantages compared to our competitors who have less debt.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR COMMON STOCK
Due to the low price and volume of our stock, a shareholder may be unable to sell shares, or may lose money on their investment.
The trading price of our common stock may be subject to wide fluctuations in response to quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in operating results, announcements of material adverse events, general conditions in our industry or the public marketplace and other events or factors, including the thin trading of our common stock. In addition, stock markets have experienced extreme price and trading volume volatility in recent years. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities of many technology-related companies for reasons frequently unrelated to the operating performance of the specific companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. In addition, if our operating results differ from our announced guidance or the expectations of equity research analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decrease significantly.
18
Our principal stockholders, officers and directors own a controlling interest in its voting stock and investors have a limited voice in our management.
Our principal stockholders, shareholders of our convertible preferred stock, officers and directors, in the aggregate, beneficially own approximately 60% of our outstanding common stock. As a result, these stockholders acting together, have the ability to control substantially all matters submitted to the Company's stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. In addition, sales of significant amounts of shares held by our principal stockholders, directors and executive officers, or the prospect of these sales, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Their stock ownership may discourage a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of the Company, which could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale of our company and might ultimately affect the market price of our common stock.
Our common stock is subject to the “penny stock” rules of the sec and the trading market in our securities is limited, which makes transactions in our stock cumbersome and may reduce the value of an investment in our stock.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has adopted Rule 15g-9 which establishes the definition of a "penny stock," for the purposes relevant to us, as any equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share or with an exercise price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions. For any transaction involving a penny stock, unless exempt, the rules require:
| ● | that a broker or dealer approve a person's account for transactions in penny stocks; and |
| ● | the broker or dealer receives from the investor a written agreement to the transaction, setting forth the identity and quantity of the penny stock to be purchased. |
In order to approve a person's account for transactions in penny stocks, the broker or dealer must:
| ● | obtain financial information and investment experience objectives of the person; and |
| ● | make a reasonable determination that the transactions in penny stocks are suitable for that person and the person has sufficient knowledge and experience in financial matters to be capable of evaluating the risks of transactions in penny stocks. |
The broker or dealer must also deliver, prior to any transaction in a penny stock, a disclosure schedule prescribed by the SEC relating to the penny stock market, which:
| ● | sets forth the basis on which the broker or dealer made the suitability determination; and |
| ● | that the broker or dealer received a signed, written agreement from the investor prior to the transaction. |
Generally, brokers may be less willing to execute transactions in securities subject to the "penny stock" rules. This may make it more difficult for investors to dispose of our common stock and cause a decline in the market value of our stock
We have never paid dividends and have no plans to pay dividends in the future. As a result, our common stock may be less valuable because a return on an investor’s investment will only occur if our stock price appreciates.
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 and we do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We intend to retain future earnings, if any, to provide funds for operations of our business. Therefore, any return investors in will be in the form of appreciation, if any, in the market value of our shares of common stock. There can be no assurance that shares of our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our stockholders have purchased their shares.
There is a limited trading market for our common stock, and investors may find it difficult to buy and sell our shares.
Our common stock is not listed on any national securities exchange. Accordingly, investors may find it more difficult to buy and sell our shares than if our common stock was traded on an exchange. Although our common stock is quoted on the OTC Pink, it is an unorganized, inter-dealer, over-the-counter market which provides significantly less liquidity than the Nasdaq Capital Market or other national securities exchange. Further, there is limited trading volume in our common stock, and any significant trading volume in our common stock may not be sustained. These factors may have an adverse impact on the trading and price of our common stock.
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We have a substantial number of convertible securities outstanding. The exercise of our outstanding warrants/options and conversion of our outstanding convertible notes can have a dilutive effect on our common stock.
We have a substantial number of convertible securities outstanding. The exercise of our outstanding options and convertible preferred stock can have a dilutive effect on our common stock. As of December 31, 2021, we had (i) outstanding options to purchase approximately 768 million shares of our common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $0.006 per share, (ii) outstanding shares of our Series, A, B, C, D, E, and G Preferred Stock that, upon conversion without regard to any beneficial ownership limitations or advance conversion notice, would provide the holders with an aggregate of 966 million shares of our common stock. The issuance of shares of common stock upon exercise of outstanding options or conversion of preferred stock could result in substantial dilution to our stockholders, which may have a negative effect on the price of our common stock.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
On August 1, 2017, the Company signed a lease for approximately 8,290 square feet at 321 Sixth Street, San Antonio, TX 78215, for $9,800 per month, expiring July 31, 2022. This office space is used by all employees in San Antonio, TX.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
The Company may be involved in legal actions and claims arising in the ordinary course of business from time to time in the future. However, at this time there are no current legal proceedings to which the Company or any of its subsidiaries is a party or of which any of their property is the subject that is material.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.
Not Applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON STOCK, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS, AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Common Stock
The Company’s common stock trades on the OTC Pink under the symbol “AIAD”.
As of December 31, 2021, there were approximately 2,000 holders of the Company’s common stock, not including shares held in “street name” in brokerage accounts, which are unknown.
Dividends
The Company has not declared or paid any cash dividends on its common stock and does not anticipate paying dividends for the foreseeable future.
Equity Compensation Plan Information
On November 26, 2021 the Company adopted the AiAdvertising, Inc. 2021 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Stock Plan”). The Stock Plan will be used as incentive for directors, executive officers, and employees of and key consultants to the Company. Pursuant to the Stock Plan, the Company may issue 200,000,000 shares of common stock. The plan is administered by the Company’s Board of Directors. The Company has from time to time issued non-qualified stock options to its officers and directors as set forth below.
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The following table provides equity compensation plan information as of December 31, 2021:
Plan category |
| Number of securities to be outstanding options |
|
| Weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options |
|
| Securities remaining available |
| |||
Equity compensation plan’s approved by security holders |
|
| — |
|
| $ | — |
|
|
| — |
|
Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders |
|
| — |
|
|
| — |
|
|
| 200,000,000 |
|
Total |
|
| — |
|
| $ |
|
|
|
| 200,000,000 |
|
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
There were no sales of unregistered securities during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 other than those transactions previously reported to the SEC on our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K.
ITEM 6. RESERVED.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OF OPERATIONS AND FINANCIAL CONDITION
The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere herein. The Management’s Discussion and Analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. When used, the words “believe,” “plan,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “target,” “estimate,” “expect,” and the like, and/or future-tense or conditional constructions (“will,” “may,” “could,” “should,” etc.), or similar expressions, identify certain of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this annual report. Our actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of several factors including, but not limited to, those noted under “Risk Factors” of the reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this annual report on Form 10-K, except as may be required under applicable law.
Overview-
AiAdvertising’s primary focus is to disrupt the digital advertising world by offering a solution that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to enable marketers to increase productivity, efficiency and performance.
Critical Accounting Policies
Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations, including the discussion on liquidity and capital resources, are based upon our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. On an ongoing basis, management re-evaluates its estimates and judgments, particularly those related to the determination of the estimated recoverable amounts of trade accounts receivable, impairment of long-lived assets, revenue recognition, and deferred tax assets. We believe the following critical accounting policies require more significant judgment and estimates used in the preparation of the financial statements.
21
Among the significant judgments made by management in the preparation of our financial statements are the following:
Revenue Recognition
On January 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2014-09 Revenue from Contracts with Customers and all subsequent amendments to the ASU (collectively, “ASC 606”), using the modified retrospective method applied to those contracts which were not completed as of January 1, 2018. Results for reporting periods beginning after January 1, 2018 are presented under Topic 606, while prior period amounts are not adjusted and continue to be reported in accordance with our historic accounting under Topic 605. Revenues are recognized when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to our customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. The adoption of ASC 606 did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. See footnote 3 for a disclosure of our use of estimates and judgement, as it relates to revenue recognition.
Included in revenue are costs that are reimbursed by our clients, including third party services, such as photographers and stylists, furniture, supplies, and the largest component, digital advertising. We have determined, based on our review of ASC 606-10-55-39, that the amounts classified as reimbursable costs should be recorded as gross, due to the following factors:
| ● | The Company is primarily in control of the inputs of the project and responsible for the completion of the client contract; |
| ● | We have discretion in establishing price; and |
| ● | We have discretion in supplier selection. |
Accounts Receivable
The Company extends credit to its customers, who are located nationwide. Accounts receivable are customer obligations due under normal trade terms. The Company performs continuing credit evaluations of its customers’ financial condition. Management reviews accounts receivable on a regular basis, based on contracted terms and how recently payments have been received to determine if any such amounts will potentially be uncollected. The Company includes any balances that are determined to be uncollectible in its allowance for doubtful accounts. After all attempts to collect a receivable have failed, the receivable is written off. The balances of the allowance account at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 were $4,469 and $742 respectively.
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets
The Company reviews its long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the assets may not be fully recoverable. To determine recoverability of a long-lived asset, management evaluates whether the estimated future undiscounted net cash flows from the asset are less than its carrying amount. If impairment is indicated, the long-lived asset would be written down to fair value. Fair value is determined by an evaluation of available price information at which assets could be bought or sold, including quoted market prices, if available, or the present value of the estimated future cash flows based on reasonable and supportable assumptions.
Indefinite Lived Intangibles and Goodwill Assets
The Company accounts for business combinations under the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with ASC 805, “Business Combinations,” where the total purchase price is allocated to the tangible and identified intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values. The purchase price is allocated using the information currently available, and may be adjusted, up to one year from acquisition date, after obtaining more information regarding, among other things, asset valuations, liabilities assumed and revisions to preliminary estimates. The purchase price in excess of the fair value of the tangible and identified intangible assets acquired less liabilities assumed is recognized as goodwill.
The Company tests for indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill impairment in the fourth quarter of each year and whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset exceeds its fair value and may not be recoverable. In accordance with its policies, at December 31, 2020 the Company performed a qualitative assessment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill related to WebTegrity and determined the fair value of each intangible asset and goodwill. Therefore, an impairment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill was recognized.
22
The impairment test conducted by the Company includes an assessment of whether events occurred that may have resulted in impairment of goodwill and intangible assets. Because it was determined that events had occurred which effected the fair value of goodwill and intangible assets, the Company conducted the two-step approach to determine the fair value and required adjustment. The steps are as follows:
| 1. | Based on the totality of qualitative factors, determine whether the carrying amount of the intangible asset may not be recoverable. Qualitative factors and key assumptions reviewed include the following: |
| ● | Increases in costs, such as labor, materials or other costs that could negatively affect future cash flows. The Company assumed that costs associated with labor, materials, and other costs should be consistent with fair market levels. If the costs were materially higher than fair market levels, then such costs may adversely affect the future cash flows of the Company or reporting units. |
| ● | Financial performance, such as negative or declining cash flows, or reductions in revenue may adversely affect recoverability of the recorded value of the intangible assets. During our analysis, the Company assumes that revenues should remain relatively consistent or show gradual growth month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter. If we report revenue declines, instead of increases or flat levels, then such condition may adversely affect the future cash flows of the Company or reporting units. |
| ● | Legal, regulatory, contractual, political, business or other factors that could affect future cash flows. During our analysis, the Company assumes that the legal, regulatory, political or business conditions should remain consistent, without placing material pressure on the Company or any of its reporting units. If such conditions were to become materially different than what has been experienced historically, then such conditions may adversely affect the future cash flows of the Company or reporting units. |
| ● | Entity-specific events such as losses of management, key personnel, or customers, may adversely affect future cash flows. During our analysis, the Company assumes that members of management, key personnel, and customers will remain consistent period-over-period. If not effectively replaced, the loss of members of management and key employees could adversely affect operations, culture, morale and overall success of the company. In addition, if material revenue from key customers is lost and not replaced, then future cash flows will be adversely affected. |
| ● | Industry or market considerations, such as competition, changes in the market, changes in customer dependence on our service offering, or obsolescence could adversely affect the Company or its reporting units. We understand that the market we serve are constantly changing, requiring us to change with it. During our analysis, we assume that we will address new opportunities in service offering and industries served. If we do not make such changes, then we may experience declines in revenue and cash flow, making it difficult to re-capture market share. |
| ● | Macroeconomic conditions such as deterioration in general economic conditions or limitations on accessing capital could adversely affect the Company. During our analysis, we acknowledge that macroeconomic factors, such as the economy, may affect our business plan because our customers may reduce budgets for our services. If there are material declines in the economy, which lead to reductions in revenue then such conditions may adversely affect the Company. |
| 2. | Compare the carrying amount of the intangible asset to the fair value. |
| 3. | If the carrying amount is greater than the fair value, then the carrying amount is reduced to reflect fair value. |
In accordance with its policies, the Company performed a qualitative assessment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill at December 31, 2020 and determined there was impairment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill from our WebTegrity acquisition. Accordingly, all intangible assets and goodwill related to the WebTegrity acquisition have been written off, amounting to $560,000. This amount was included in Operating Expenses on the Income Statement, for the year ended December 31, 2020.
23
Goodwill and Intangible assets are comprised of the following, presented as net of amortization:
December 31, 2021 |
|
|
| AiAdvertising |
|
| Total |
Domain name |
|
| 20,202 |
|
| 20,202 |
Total |
| $ | 20,202 |
| $ | 20,202 |
December 31, 2020 |
|
|
| AiAdvertising |
|
| Total |
Domain name |
|
| 26,582 |
|
| 26,842 |
Total |
| $ | 26,582 |
| $ | 26,582 |
Business Combinations
The Company allocates the fair value of purchase consideration to the tangible assets acquired, liabilities assumed and intangible assets acquired based on their estimated fair values. The excess of the fair value of purchase consideration over the fair values of these identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. Such valuations require management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates in valuing certain intangible assets include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows from acquired customer lists, acquired technology, and trade names from a market participant perspective, useful lives and discount rates. Management’s estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. During the measurement period, which is one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to earnings.
Fair value of financial instruments
The Company’s financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and accrued liabilities are carried at cost, which approximates their fair value, due to the relatively short maturity of these instruments. During year ended 2020, the Company’s notes payable had stated borrowing rates that were consistent with those currently available to the Company and, accordingly, the Company believes the carrying value of these debt instruments approximated their fair value. As of December 31, 2021 the Company has zero note payables.
Fair value is defined as the price to sell an asset or transfer a liability, between market participants at the measurement date. Fair value measurements assume that the asset or liability is (1) exchanged in an orderly manner, (2) the exchange is in the principal market for that asset or liability, and (3) the market participants are independent, knowledgeable, able and willing to transact an exchange. Fair value accounting and reporting establishes a framework for measuring fair value by creating a hierarchy for observable independent market inputs and unobservable market assumptions and expands disclosures about fair value measurements. Considerable judgment is required to interpret the market data used to develop fair value estimates. As such, the estimates presented herein are not necessarily indicative of the amounts that could be realized in a current exchange. The use of different market assumptions and/or estimation methods could have a material effect on the estimated fair value.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
None
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
The Company does not elect to delay complying with any new or revised accounting standards, but to apply all standards required of public companies, according to those required application dates.
Management reviewed accounting pronouncements issued during the year ended December 31, 2021, and no pronouncements were adopted during the period.
24
Management reviewed accounting pronouncements issued during the year ended December 31, 2020, and the following pronouncement was adopted during the period.
In January 2017, the FASB issued 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. The amendments in this ASU simplify the subsequent measurement of goodwill by eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test and eliminating the requirement for a reporting unit with a zero or negative carrying amount to perform a qualitative assessment. Instead, under this pronouncement, an entity would perform its annual, or interim, goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount and would recognize an impairment change for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value; however, the loss recognized is not to exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. In addition, income tax effects will be considered, if applicable. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. Due to the limited amount of goodwill and intangible assets recorded at December 31, 2021, the impact of this ASU on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures was immaterial.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted
In June 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-13 (ASU 2016-13) "Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments" which requires the measurement and recognition of expected credit losses for financial assets held at amortized cost. ASU 2016-13 replaces the existing incurred loss impairment model with an expected loss methodology, which will result in more timely recognition of credit losses. ASU 2016-13 is effective for annual reporting periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2022. We are currently in the process of evaluating the impact of the adoption of ASU 2016-13 on our consolidated financial statements.
In August 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2020-06, Debt – Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40). The intention of ASU 2020-06 update is to address the complexity of accounting for certain financial instruments with characteristics of liabilities and equity, including convertible instruments and contracts in an entity’s own equity. Under ASU 2020-06, the number of accounting models for convertible notes will be reduced and entities that issue convertible debt will be required to use the if-converted method for computing diluted Earnings Per Share. ASU 2020-06 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2021 and may be adopted through either a modified or fully retrospective transition. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this ASU on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.
Results of Operations for the Year Ended December 31, 2021, compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2020.
REVENUE
Total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 decreased by $2,534,943 to $6,868,261, compared to $9,406,204 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to a pivot of focus from professional services to SaaS revenue generated by our AiAd Platform. During this pivot, we strategically chose to discontinue parts of our business, such as our hosting business, that was not part of our core focus going forward. The hosting business is recorded separately as discontinued operations in the statement of operations for years ended 2021 and 2020.
COST OF REVENUE
Cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 decreased by $1,555,923 to $4,696,317, compared to $6,252,240 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in digital marketing advertising costs.
SALARIES AND OUTSIDE SERVICES
Salaries and outside services for the year ended December 31, 2021 increased by $1,574,792 to $4,048,508, compared to $2,473,716 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase was primarily due to increases of salary expense of non-cost of revenue employees, payments to contractors and professional services.
25
SELLING, GENERAL, AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES
SG&A expenses for the year ended December 31, 2021 increased by $3,117,909 to $4,767,334 compared to $1,649,425 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase was primarily due to an increase in warrant and stock option expense.
LOSS ON IMPAIRMENT OF GOODWILL AND INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Loss on impairment of goodwill and intangible assets for the year ended December 31, 2021 decreased by $560,000 to zero, compared to $560,000 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was due to the impairment and write-off of the goodwill and intangible assets from WebTegrity acquisition during 2020.
DEPRECIATION AND AMORTIZATION
Depreciation and amortization expenses for the year ended December 31, 2021 decreased by $66,752 to $46,535, compared to $113,287 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, as of December 31, 2020, which eliminated additional amortization of intangible assets in the current period.
OTHER INCOME AND EXPENSE
Total other income and expense for the year ended December 31, 2021 increased by $2,032,053 to net other expense of $1,865,952 compared to net other income of $166,101 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in net other expense was primarily due to an increase in finance charges and compensation expense related to the issuance of shares of common stock to a related party, partially offset by the sale of the hosting revenue stream.
NET LOSS
The net loss for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $8,482,771, compared to the net loss of $1,270,650 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in net loss for the period was primarily due to an increase in warrant and stock option expenses, increase in finance charges and SG&A expenses and decrease in third party revenue.
LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
The Company had a net working capital (i.e. the difference between current assets and current liabilities) of $2,706,377 at December 31, 2021 compared to a net working capital deficit of ($4,784,105) at December 31, 2020.
Cash flow used in operating activities was $4,958,822 for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to cash flow used in operating activities of $1,812,623 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in cash flow used in operating activities of $3,146,199 was primarily due to an increase in net loss, partially offset by finance charges and warrant and stock option expenses.
Cash flow provided by investing activities was $128,046 for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to cash flow used in investing activities of $5,253 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in cash flow provided by investing activities of $133,299 was primarily due to the sales of hosting revenue stream, partially offset by purchase of computers, printer, and videography equipment.
Cash flow provided by financing activities was $8,251,693 for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to cash flow provided by financing activities of $1,009,086 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in cash flow provided by financing activities of $7,242,607 was due to the issuance of our common stock, partially offset by debt repayments.
Liquidity is the ability of a company to generate funds to support its current and future operations, satisfy its obligations, and otherwise operate on an ongoing basis. Significant factors in the management of liquidity are funds generated by operations, levels of accounts receivable and accounts payable and capital expenditures.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had short-term borrowing relationships with two lenders. During the current period, one lender provides short-term financing under a stock purchase arrangement disclosed in footnote 10. The Company does not have any long-term sources of liquidity. As of December 31, 2021, there were no unused sources of liquidity, nor were there any commitments of material capital expenditures.
26
The Company has negative monthly cash flows from operations of approximately $300,000. The Company’s current cash is sufficient to sustain the Company’s operations for approximately 18 months without additional borrowings. To satisfy cash needs, the Company relies on various borrowing mechanisms to fund operations and service debt, as discussed above.
The Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared on a going concern basis of accounting, which contemplates continuity of operations, realization of assets and liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. Management believes that our current cash flow will sustain our operations and obligations as they become due, additionally will allow the development of our core business operations. Furthermore, the Company anticipates that it will raise additional capital through investments from our existing shareholders, prospective new investors and future revenue generated by our operations.
Any additional capital we may raise through the sale of equity or equity-backed securities may dilute current stockholders’ ownership percentages and could also result in a decrease in the fair market value of our equity securities. The terms of the securities issued by us in future capital transactions may be more favorable to new investors and may include preferences, superior voting rights and the issuance of warrants or other derivative securities which may have a further dilutive effect.
Furthermore, any additional debt or equity or other financing that we may need may not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. If we are unable to obtain required additional capital, we may have to curtail our growth plans or cut back on existing business. Further, we may not be able to continue operations if we do not generate sufficient revenues from operations.
We may incur substantial costs in pursuing future capital financing, including investment banking fees, legal fees, accounting fees, securities law compliance fees, printing and distribution expenses and other costs. We may also be required to recognize non-cash expenses in connection with certain securities we issue, such as convertible notes and warrants, which may adversely impact our reported financial results.
27
Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Not required for smaller reporting companies.
28
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA OF AIADVERTISING, INC.
AIADVERTISING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2021 AND DECEMBER 31, 2020
CONTENTS
|
| PAGE |
|
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|
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID: |
| 30 |
|
|
|
Consolidated Balance Sheets |
| 31 |
|
|
|
Consolidated Statements of Operations |
| 32 |
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|
|
Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity (Deficit) |
| 33 |
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Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows |
| 34 |
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Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements |
| 35-57 |
29
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and
Stockholders of AiAdvertising, Inc. and subsidiaries
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of AiAdvertising, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the related statements of operations, stockholders’ equity (deficit), and cash flows for each of the years in the two-year period ended December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the financial statements). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the two-year period ended December 31, 2021, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matter
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Revenue Recognition
As discussed in Note 2, the Company recognizes revenue upon transfer of control of promised services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company expects to receive in exchange for those products or services. The Company offers customers the ability to acquire multiple services. Significant judgment is exercised by the Company in determining revenue recognition for these customer agreements. Given these factors and due to the volume of transactions, the related audit effort in evaluating management's judgments in determining revenue recognition for these customer agreements was extensive and required a high degree of auditor judgment.
We tested the Company’s allocation of the transaction price and other variables that impact revenue recognition.
/s/ |
|
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2018. |
|
Houston, |
|
April 14, 2022 |
30
AIADVERTISING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
| December 31, 2021 |
| December 31, 2020 | |
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ASSETS |
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CURRENT ASSETS |
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Cash | $ | | $ | |
Accounts receivable, net |
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| |
Costs in excess of billings |
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Prepaid and other current Assets |
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TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS |
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PROPERTY & EQUIPMENT, net |
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RIGHT-OF-USE ASSETS |
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OTHER ASSETS |
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Lease deposit |
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Goodwill and other intangible assets, net |
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TOTAL OTHER ASSETS |
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TOTAL ASSETS | $ | | $ | |
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LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT) |
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CURRENT LIABILITIES |
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Accounts payable | $ | | $ | |
Accounts payable, related party |
| |
| |
Accrued expenses |
| |
| |
Operating lease liability |
| |
| |
Lines of credit | $ | | $ | |
Deferred revenue and customer deposit |
| |
| |
Convertible notes and interest payable, current, net |
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| |
Notes payable |
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Notes payable, related parties |
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TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES |
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LONG TERM LIABILITIES |
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Accrued expenses, long term |
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TOTAL LONG TERM LIABILITIES |
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TOTAL LIABILITIES |
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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES (see Note 14) |
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SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT) |
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Preferred stock, $ |
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Series A Preferred stock; |
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Series B Preferred stock; |
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Series C Preferred Stock; |
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Series D Preferred Stock; |
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Series E Preferred stock; |
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Series F Preferred stock; |
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Series G Preferred stock; |
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Series H Preferred stock; |
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Common stock, $ |
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| |
Additional paid in capital |
| |
| |
Common stock payable, consisting of |
| |
| |
Accumulated deficit |
| ( |
| ( |
TOTAL SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT) |
| |
| ( |
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT) | $ | | $ | |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
31
AIADVERTISING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
| Year Ended December 31, 2021 |
| Year Ended December 31, 2020 | |
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REVENUE | $ | | $ | |
REVENUE - related party |
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TOTAL REVENUE |
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COST OF REVENUE |
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Gross Profit |
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OPERATING EXPENSES |
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Salaries and outside services |
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Selling, general and administrative expenses |
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Loss on impairment of Goodwill and Intangible Assets |
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Depreciation and amortization |
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TOTAL OPERATING (INCOME) EXPENSES |
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INCOME (LOSS) FROM OPERATIONS BEFORE OTHER INCOME AND TAXES | $ | ( | $ | ( |
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OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE) |
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Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt |
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Gain (loss) forgiveness of PPP Loan |
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Gain (loss) on Sales of Discontinued Operations |
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Gain (loss) on changes in derivative liability |
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| |
Interest expense |
| ( |
| ( |
TOTAL OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE) | $ | ( | $ | |
|
|
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INCOME/(LOSS) FROM OPERATIONS BEFORE PROVISION FOR TAXES | $ | ( | $ | ( |
INCOME (LOSS) FROM DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS BEFORE PROVISION FOR TAXES | $ | | $ | |
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PROVISION (BENEFIT) FOR INCOME TAXES |
| |
| |
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NET INCOME/(LOSS) | $ | ( | $ | ( |
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PREFERRED DIVIDENDS |
| |
| |
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NET INCOME/(LOSS) ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON SHAREHOLDERS | $ | ( | $ | ( |
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NET LOSS PER SHARE |
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BASIC | $ | ( | $ | ( |
DILUTED | $ | ( | $ | ( |
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WEIGHTED-AVERAGE COMMON SHARES OUTSTANDING |
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BASIC |
| |
| |
DILUTED |
| 956,912,269 |
| 579,856,451 |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
32
AIADVERTISING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT)
|
| Preferred Stock |
| Common Stock |
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| Shares |
| Amount |
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Additional Paid-in Capital |
| Common Stock Payable |
| Accumulated Deficit |
| Total | |
For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 | ||||||||||||||||
Balance, December 31, 2019 |
| $ |
| $ | $ | $ |
| ( | $ | ( | ||||||
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Conversion of convertible note |
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Stock issuances to lenders |
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Exchange debt-for-equity |
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Series A preferred stock dividend declared ($ |
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Series D preferred stock dividend declared ($ |
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Series F preferred stock dividend declared ($ |
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Stock based compensation |
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Derivative settlement |
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Warrant Issuance |
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Other - RegA Investor Funds |
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Net loss |
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Balance, December 31, 2020 |
| $ |
| $ | $ | $ |
| ( | $ | ( | ||||||
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Conversion of convertible note, related party |
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Stock issuances to lenders |
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Stock issuances to related party |
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Series A preferred stock dividend declared ( $ |
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Series F preferred stock dividend declared ( $ |
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Stock based compensation |
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Stock option exercised - cashless basis |
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Stock option exercised - cash basis |
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Preferred stock conversion |
| ( |
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Warrant Issuance |
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Warrant exercise - cashless basis |
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Warrant exercise - cash basis |
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Other - RegA Investor Funds |
| ( |
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| ( |
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| ( |
Redemption of Series F Preferred Stock |
| ( |
| ( |
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| ( |
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| ( |
Redempion of Series H Preferred stock |
| ( |
| ( |
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Issuance of Series H Preferred stock |
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Common stock payable |
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Net Loss |
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Balance, December 31, 2021 |
| $ |
| $ | $ | $ |
| ( | $ | |||||||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
33
AIADVERTISING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
| Year Ended December 31, 2021 |
| Year Ended December 31, 2020 | ||||
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: |
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| |||
Net income (loss) from continued operations | $ | ( | $ | ( | |||
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Adjustment to reconcile net loss to net cash (used in) operating activities |
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Bad debt expense |
| ( |
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Depreciation and amortization |
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Finance charge, related party |
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Loss on impairment of goodwill & intangibles |
| |
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Amortization of Debt Discount |
| |
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Gain on settlemet of debt |
| ( |
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Gain on forgiveness of PPP loan |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Gain on Sale of Discontinued Operations |
| ( |
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Non-cash compensation expense |
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Non-cash service expense |
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Fair valuation of warrants as compensation |
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Issuance of Series H Pref to employee |
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(Gain)/loss on derivative liability valuation |
| |
| ( | |||
Derivative expense |
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Change in assets and liabilities: |
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(Increase) Decrease in: |
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Accounts receivable |
| ( |
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Prepaid expenses and other assets |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Costs in excess of billings |
| ( |
| | |||
Accounts payable |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Accrued expenses |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Customer Deposits |
| ( |
| ( | |||
NET CASH (USED IN) OPERATING ACTIVITIES - continued operations |
| ( |
| ( | |||
NET CASH PROVIDED BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES - discontinued operations |
| |
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NET CASH (USED IN) OPERATING ACTIVITIES |
| ( |
| ( | |||
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CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES: |
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Cash paid for purchase of fixed assets |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Proceeds from the sale of discontinued operations |
| |
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NET CASH (PROVIDED BY) INVESTING ACTIVITIES |
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| ( | |||
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CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES: |
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Payments on capital lease obligation |
| |
| ( | |||
Payment of dividend |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Proceeds of issuance of common stock, net |
| |
| | |||
Proceeds (payments) on line of credit, net |
| ( |
| | |||
Proceeds from issuance of notes, related party, net |
| ( |
| | |||
Proceeds (payments) of preferred stock |
| ( |
| | |||
Principal payments on debt, third party |
| ( |
| ( | |||
Proceeds from PPP loan |
| |
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Proceeds from issuance of notes payable |
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Principal payments on term loan |
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| ( | |||
NET CASH (PROVIDED BY) FINANCING ACTIVITIES |
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NET INCREASE / (DECREASE) IN CASH |
| |
| ( | |||
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CASH, BEGINNING OF PERIOD |
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CASH, END OF PERIOD | $ | | $ | | |||
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SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURES OF CASH FLOW INFORMATION |
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Interest paid | $ | | $ | | |||
Taxes paid | $ | | $ | | |||
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| |||
Non-cash financing activities: |
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| |||
Conversion of notes payable to common stock, related party | $ | | $ | | |||
Exchange of Debt-to-Equity (Preferred) | $ | | $ | | |||
Derivative settlement | $ | | $ | | |||
Right of use assets | $ | | $ | | |||
Derivative discount | $ | | $ | | |||
Conversion of preferred to common stock | $ | | $ | | |||
Exercise of stock options | $ | | $ | | |||
Exercise of warrants | $ | | $ | | |||
Issuance of common stock to lenders | $ | | $ | | |||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
34
AiADVERSTISING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2021
1.ORGANIZATION AND LINE OF BUSINESS
Organization
AiAdvertising, Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our” or the “Company”) is based in San Antonio, Texas, was incorporated in Nevada on January 22, 2002. The Company was formerly known as CloudCommerce, Inc., Warp 9, Inc., Roaming Messenger, Inc., and Latinocare Management Corporation (“LMC”). On July 9, 2015, we changed the name of the Company from Warp 9, Inc. to CloudCommerce, Inc.. On August 5, 2021 CloudCommerce changed its name to AiAdvertising, Inc. We develop solutions that help our clients acquire, engage, and retain their customers by leveraging cutting-edge digital strategies and AI. We focus on using data analytics to drive the creation of great user experiences and effective digital marketing campaigns.
The Company has six subsidiaries, CLWD Operations, Inc. (formerly Indaba Group, Inc.), Parscale Digital, Inc., which merged with Parscale Creative, Inc., as a result of an acquisition dated August 1, 2017, WebTegrity, LLC (“WebTegrity”), which was acquired November 15, 2017, Data Propria, Inc., which the Company launched February 1, 2018, Giles Design Bureau, Inc., which spun out from Parscale Digital in May, 2018, and aiAdvertising, Inc., which was formed January 14, 2021. The Company focuses on four main areas, artificial intelligence, digital marketing, creative design, and web development.
Going Concern
The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared on a going concern basis of accounting, which contemplates continuity of operations, realization of assets and liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements do not reflect any adjustments that might result if the Company is unable to continue as a going concern. As of December 31, 2021, Management reassessed going concern and found the Company will have sufficient liquidity for the next 12 months such that there is no substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. During the year ended 2021 the Company raised capital from investors through sales of securities and normal course of business operations, which allowed the company to improve cash flow and pay down obligations. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had positive working capital of $
2.SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
This summary of significant accounting policies of AiAdvertising is presented to assist in understanding the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. The Consolidated Financial Statements and notes are representations of the Company’s management, which is responsible for their integrity and objectivity. These accounting policies conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and have been consistently applied in the preparation of the Consolidated Financial Statements.
The Consolidated Financial Statements include the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries CLWD Operations, Inc a Delaware corporation (“CLWD Operations”), Parscale Digital, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“Parscale Digital”), WebTegrity, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“WebTegrity”), Data Propria, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“Data Propria”), and Giles Design Bureau, Inc., a Nevada corporation (“Giles Design Bureau). All significant inter-company transactions are eliminated in consolidation of the financial statements.
Reclassifications
During the year ended December 31, 2021 we recognized cost of revenue in the statement of operations. Certain prior periods have been reclassified to reflect current period presentation.
Accounts Receivable
The Company extends credit to its customers, who are located nationwide. Accounts receivable are customer obligations due under normal trade terms. The Company performs continuing credit evaluations of its customers’ financial condition. Management reviews accounts receivable on a regular basis, based on contracted terms and how recently payments have been received to determine if any such amounts will potentially be uncollected. The Company includes any balances that are determined to be uncollectible in its allowance for doubtful accounts. After all attempts to collect a receivable have failed, the receivable is written off. The balance of the allowance account at December 31, 2021 and 2020 are $
On
On
On
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires the use of estimates and assumptions by management in determining the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosures of contingent liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Estimates are primarily used in our revenue recognition, the allowance for doubtful account receivable, fair value assumptions in accounting for business combinations and analyzing goodwill, intangible assets and long-lived asset impairments and adjustments, the deferred tax valuation allowance, and the fair value of stock options and warrants.
35
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. As of December 31, 2021, the Company held cash and cash equivalents in the amount of $
Revenue Recognition
The Company recognizes income when the service is provided or when product is delivered. We present revenue, net of customer incentives. Most of the income is generated from professional services and site development fees. We provide online marketing services that we purchase from third parties. The gross revenue presented in our statement of operations includes digital advertising revenue. We also offer professional services such as development services. The fees for development services with multiple deliverables constitute a separate unit of accounting in accordance with ASC 606, which are recognized as the work is performed. Upfront fees for development services or other customer services are deferred until certain implementation or contractual milestones have been achieved. If we have performed work for our clients, but have not invoiced clients for that work, then we record the value of the work in an asset in costs in excess of billings. The terms of services contracts generally are for periods of less than one year. The deferred revenue and customer deposits as of December 31, 2021 and 2020 was $
We always strive to satisfy our customers by providing superior quality and service. Since we typically bill based on a Time and Materials basis, there are no returns for work delivered. When discrepancies or disagreements arise, we do our best to reconcile those by assessing the situation on a case-by-case basis and determining if any discounts can be given. Historically, no significant discounts have been granted.
Included in revenue are costs that are reimbursed by our clients, including third party services, such as photographers and stylists, furniture, supplies, and the largest component, digital advertising. We have determined, based on our review, that the amounts classified as reimbursable costs should be recorded as gross, due to the following factors:
·The Company is primarily in control of the inputs of the project and responsible for the completion of the client contract;
·We have discretion in establishing price; and
·We have discretion in supplier selection.
During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we included $
The Company records revenue into the following five categories:
·Data Sciences – Includes polling, research, modeling, data fees, consulting and reporting.
·Design – Includes branding, photography, copyrighting, printing, signs and interior design.
·Development – Includes website coding.
·Digital Advertising – Includes ad spend, SEO management and digital ad support.
·The Platform - Includes our existing clients creative assets and intelligently recommends enhancements to optimize performance by using artificial intelligence.
36
For the years ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, revenue was disaggregated into the five categories as follows:
| Year ended December 31, 2021 | Year ended December 31, 2020 | ||||||||||
| Third Parties |
| Related Parties |
| Total |
| Third Parties |
| Related Parties |
| Total | |
Data Sciences | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
Design |
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| |
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| |
| ||||
Development |
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| ||||||
Digital Advertising |
|
|
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| ||||||
The Platform |
|
|
|
|
|
| | |||||
Total | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
Research and Development
Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Total research and development costs were $
Advertising Costs
The Company expenses the cost of advertising and promotional materials when incurred. Total advertising costs were $
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The Company’s financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and accrued liabilities are carried at cost, which approximates their fair value, due to the relatively short maturity of these instruments. As of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, the Company’s notes payable have stated borrowing rates that are consistent with those currently available to the Company and, accordingly, the Company believes the carrying value of these debt instruments approximates their fair value.
Fair value is defined as the price to sell an asset or transfer a liability, between market participants at the measurement date. Fair value measurements assume that the asset or liability is (1) exchanged in an orderly manner, (2) the exchange is in the principal market for that asset or liability, and (3) the market participants are independent, knowledgeable, able and willing to transact an exchange. Fair value accounting and reporting establishes a framework for measuring fair value by creating a hierarchy for observable independent market inputs and unobservable market assumptions and expands disclosures about fair value measurements. Considerable judgment is required to interpret the market data used to develop fair value estimates. As such, the estimates presented herein are not necessarily indicative of the amounts that could be realized in a current exchange. The use of different market assumptions and/or estimation methods could have a material effect on the estimated fair value.
37
ASC Topic 820 established a three-tier fair value hierarchy which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (level 1measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (level 3 measurements). These tiers include:
· | Level 1, defined as observable inputs such as quoted prices for identical instruments in active markets; |
· | Level 2, defined as inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable such as quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets or quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active; and |
· | Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs in which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions, such as valuations derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant inputs or significant value drivers are unobservable. |
Property and Equipment
Property and equipment are stated at cost, and are depreciated or amortized using the straight-line method over the following estimated useful lives:
|
|
| As of December 31, | ||
Years |
| 2021 |
| 2020 | |
Equipment | $ | | $ | | |
Office furniture |
|
| |||
Leasehold improvements |
|
| |||
Less accumulated depreciation |
|
| ( |
| ( |
Net property and equipment |
| $ | | $ | |
The following table discloses fixed asset transactions and recordings during the years ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020:
| Year ended December 31, 2021 |
| Year ended December 31, 2020 | |
Depreciation expense | $ | $ | ||
Gain/(loss) on disposals |
|
| ||
Cash paid for fixed asset additions |
|
|
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets
The Company reviews its long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the assets may not be fully recoverable. To determine recoverability of a long-lived asset, management evaluates whether the estimated future undiscounted net cash flows from the asset are less than its carrying amount. If impairment is indicated, the long-lived asset would be written down to fair value. Fair value is determined by an evaluation of available price information at which assets could be bought or sold, including quoted market prices, if available, or the present value of the estimated future cash flows based on reasonable and supportable assumptions. During the year ended December 31, 2020, management reviewed the intangible assets and goodwill of WebTegrity, and determined that there were indications of impairment.
38
Indefinite Lived Intangibles and Goodwill Assets
The Company accounts for business combinations under the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with ASC 805, “Business Combinations,” where the total purchase price is allocated to the tangible and identified intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values. Significant estimates in valuing certain intangible assets include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows from acquired customer lists, acquired technology, and trade names from a market participant perspective, useful lives and discount rates. Management’s estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. The purchase price is allocated using the information currently available, and may be adjusted, up to one year from acquisition date, after obtaining more information regarding, among other things, asset valuations, liabilities assumed and revisions to preliminary estimates. The purchase price in excess of the fair value of the tangible and identified intangible assets acquired less liabilities assumed is recognized as goodwill.
The Company tests for indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill impairment in the fourth quarter of each year and whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset exceeds its fair value and may not be recoverable. In accordance with its policies, at December 31, 2020 the Company performed a qualitative assessment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill related to WebTegrity and determined there was impairment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill. Therefore, an impairment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill was recognized.
The impairment test conducted by the Company includes an assessment of whether events occurred that may have resulted in impairment of goodwill and intangible assets. Because it was determined that events had occurred which effected the fair value of goodwill and intangible assets, the Company conducted the two-step approach to determine the fair value and required adjustment. The steps are as follows:
| 1. | Based on the totality of qualitative factors, determine whether the carrying amount of the intangible asset may not be recoverable. Qualitative factors and key assumptions reviewed include the following: |
| ● | Increases in costs, such as labor, materials or other costs that could negatively affect future cash flows. The Company assumed that costs associated with labor, materials, and other costs should be consistent with fair market levels. If the costs were materially higher than fair market levels, then such costs may adversely affect the future cash flows of the Company or reporting units. |
| ● | Financial performance, such as negative or declining cash flows, or reductions in revenue may adversely affect recoverability of the recorded value of the intangible assets. During our analysis, the Company assumes that revenues should remain relatively consistent or show gradual growth month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter. If we report revenue declines, instead of increases or flat levels, then such condition may adversely affect the future cash flows of the Company or reporting units. |
| ● | Legal, regulatory, contractual, political, business or other factors that could affect future cash flows. During our analysis, the Company assumes that the legal, regulatory, political or business conditions should remain consistent, without placing material pressure on the Company or any of its reporting units. If such conditions were to become materially different than what has been experienced historically, then such conditions may adversely affect the future cash flows of the Company or reporting units. |
| ● | Entity-specific events such as losses of management, key personnel, or customers, may adversely affect future cash flows. During our analysis, the Company assumes that members of management, key personnel, and customers will remain consistent period-over-period. If not effectively replaced, the loss of members of management and key employees could adversely affect operations, culture, morale and overall success of the company. In addition, if material revenue from key customers is lost and not replaced, then future cash flows will be adversely affected. |
| ● | Industry or market considerations, such as competition, changes in the market, changes in customer dependence on our service offering, or obsolescence could adversely affect the Company or its reporting units. We understand that the markets we serve are constantly changing, requiring us to change with it. During our analysis, we assume that we will address new opportunities in service offering and industries served. If we do not make such changes, then we may experience declines in revenue and cash flow, making it difficult to re-capture market share. |
| ● | Macroeconomic conditions such as deterioration in general economic conditions or limitations on accessing capital could adversely affect the Company. During our analysis, we acknowledge that macroeconomic factors, such as the economy, may affect our business plan because our customers may reduce budgets for our services. If there are material declines in the economy, which lead to reductions in revenue then such conditions may adversely affect the Company. |
| 2. | Compare the carrying amount of the intangible asset to the fair value. |
| 3. | If the carrying amount is greater than the fair value, then the carrying amount is reduced to reflect fair value. |
In accordance with its policies, the Company conducted an impairment assessment during the year ended December 31, 2020 related to the WebTegrity acquisition and determined that impairment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill was necessary. Accordingly, all intangible assets and goodwill related to the WebTegrity acquisition have been written off, amounting to $
Goodwill and Intangible assets are comprised of the following, presented as net of amortization:
December 31, 2021 |
| AiAdvertising |
| Total | |
Domain name |
|
| ||
Total | $ | | $ | |
December 31, 2020 |
| AiAdvertising |
| Total | |
Domain name |
|
| ||
Total | $ | $ |
Business Combinations
The acquisition of subsidiaries is accounted for using the purchase method. The cost of the acquisition is measured at the aggregate of the fair value, at the acquisition date, of assets received, liabilities incurred or assumed, and equity instruments issued by the Company in exchange for control of the acquiree. Any costs directly attributable to the business combination are expensed in the period incurred. The acquiree’s identifiable assets and liabilities are recognized at their fair values at the acquisition date.
Goodwill arising on acquisition is recognized as an asset and initially measured at cost, being the excess of the cost of the business combination over the Company’s interest in the net fair value of the identifiable assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities recognized.
Concentrations of Business and Credit Risk
The Company operates in a single industry segment. The Company markets its services to companies and individuals in many industries and geographic locations. The Company’s operations are subject to rapid technological advancement and intense competition. Accounts receivable represent financial instruments with potential credit risk. The Company typically offers its customers credit terms. The Company makes periodic evaluations of the credit worthiness of its enterprise customers and other than obtaining deposits pursuant to its policies, it generally does not require collateral. In the event of nonpayment, the Company has the ability to terminate services. As of December 31, 2021, the Company held cash and cash equivalents in the amount of $3,431,455, which was held in the operating bank accounts. Of this amount, none was held in any one account, in amounts exceeding the FDIC insured limit of $250,000. For further discussion on concentrations see footnote 14.
Stock-Based Compensation
The Company addressed the accounting for share-based payment transactions in which an enterprise receives employee services in exchange for either equity instruments of the enterprise or liabilities that are based on the fair value of the enterprise’s equity instruments or that may be settled by the issuance of such equity instruments. The transactions are accounted for using a fair-value-based method and recognized as expenses in our statement of operations.
Stock-based compensation expense recognized during the period is based on the value of the portion of stock-based payment awards that is ultimately expected to vest. Stock-based compensation expense recognized in the consolidated statement of operations during the year ended December 31, 2021, included compensation expense for the stock-based payment awards granted prior to, but not yet vested, as of December 31, 2021 based on the grant date fair value estimated. Stock-based compensation expense recognized in the consolidated statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021 is based on awards ultimately expected to vest or has been reduced for estimated forfeitures. Forfeitures are estimated at the time of grant and revised, if necessary, in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates. The stock-based compensation expense recognized in the consolidated statements of operations during the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 were $
Basic and Diluted Net Income (Loss) per Share Calculations
Income (Loss) per Share dictates the calculation of basic earnings per share and diluted earnings per share. Basic earnings per share are computed by dividing income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares available. Diluted earnings per share is computed similar to basic earnings per share except that the denominator is increased to include the number of additional common shares that would have been outstanding if the potential common shares had been issued and if the additional common shares were dilutive. The shares for employee options, warrants and convertible notes were used in the calculation of the income per share.
For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company has excluded
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For the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company has excluded
Dilutive per share amounts are computed using the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding and potentially dilutive securities, using the treasury stock method if their effect would be dilutive.
Accounting for Derivatives
The Company evaluates all of its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives. For derivative financial instruments that are accounted for as liabilities, the derivative instrument is initially recorded at its fair value and is then re-valued at each reporting date, with changes in the fair value reported in the statements of operations. For stock-based derivative financial instruments, the Company uses a probability weighted average series Binomial lattice formula pricing models to value the derivative instruments at inception and on subsequent valuation dates.
The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is evaluated at the end of each reporting period. Derivative instrument liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement of the derivative instrument could be required within 12 months of the balance sheet date. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had no derivative liability.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
The Company does not elect to delay complying with any new or revised accounting standards, but to apply all standards required of public companies, according to those required application dates.
Management reviewed accounting pronouncements issued during the year ended December 31, 2021, and no pronouncements were adopted during the period.
Management reviewed accounting pronouncements issued during the year ended December 31, 2020, and the following pronouncement was adopted during the period.
In January 2017, the FASB issued 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. The amendments in this ASU simplify the subsequent measurement of goodwill by eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test and eliminating the requirement for a reporting unit with a zero or negative carrying amount to perform a qualitative assessment. Instead, under this pronouncement, an entity would perform its annual, or interim, goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount and would recognize an impairment change for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value; however, the loss recognized is not to exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. In addition, income tax effects will be considered, if applicable. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. Due to the limited amount of goodwill and intangible assets recorded at December 31, 2021, the impact of this ASU on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures was immaterial.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted
In June 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-13 (ASU 2016-13) "Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments" which requires the measurement and recognition of expected credit losses for financial assets held at amortized cost. ASU 2016-13 replaces the existing incurred loss impairment model with an expected loss methodology, which will result in more timely recognition of credit losses. ASU 2016-13 is effective for annual reporting periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2022. We are currently in the process of evaluating the impact of the adoption of ASU 2016-13 on our consolidated financial statements.
In August 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2020-06, Debt – Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40). The intention of ASU 2020-06 update is to address the complexity of accounting for certain financial instruments with characteristics of liabilities and equity, including convertible instruments and contracts in an entity’s own equity. Under ASU 2020-06, the number of accounting models for convertible notes will be reduced and entities that issue convertible debt will be required to use the if-converted method for computing diluted Earnings Per Share. ASU 2020-06 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2023 and may be adopted through either a modified or fully retrospective transition. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this ASU on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.
Discontinued Operations
On June 11, 2021, the Company entered into and closed an asset purchase agreement (the “Asset Purchase Agreement”) with Liquid Web, LLC (“Buyer”) under which it sold the web hosting and maintenance revenue stream (the “Asset Sale”) to the Buyer for a Purchase Price of, $251,966 which included the “Indemnity Holdback” amount of $25,197. The Buyer agreed to pay the Company the “Indemnity Holdback” amount within 45 days following the six-month anniversary of the closing date (June 11, 2021) in accordance with the Asset Purchase Agreement. As of December 31, 2021 the “Indemnity Holdback” amount has not been paid by the Buyer.
The Company did not classify any assets or liabilities specific to the Purchased Assets. Therefore, the purchase price from the Purchased Assets are recorded as a Gain on Sale of Discontinued Operations in our statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021. As a result of the Company entering into the Asset Purchase Agreement, the Company’s web hosting revenue stream has been characterized as discontinued operations in its financial statements as disclosed within the disaggregated revenue schedule in footnote 3.
Pursuant to the Asset Purchase Agreement, the Company will continue to maintain, support, and deliver on all customer services during the transition period of 90 days following the Closing Date. The Company will continue to invoice the hosting customers in the ordinary course of business. Any payments received from the customers, on or after the Closing Date are the property of Liquid Web. The Company will remit the payment for collected revenue less taxes collected and net of hosting expenses to the Buyer no later than the 15th day of the following month. The gain on the sale of assets is shown under other income in the Statement of Operations.
The following table summarizes the results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020.
| December 31, 2021 | December 31, 2020 | ||||||||||
| Third Parties |
| Related Parties |
| Total |
| Third Parties |
| Related Parties |
| Total | |
Hosting Revenue | $ | $ | | $ | $ | $ | | $ | ||||
Cost of Sales |
| ( |
| |
| ( |
|
| |
| ||
Net Income from Discontinued Operations | $ | $ | | $ | $ | $ | | $ | ||||
Income Taxes
The Company uses the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to financial statements carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases and operating loss and tax credit carry-forwards. The measurement of deferred tax assets and liabilities is based on provisions of applicable tax law. The measurement of deferred tax assets is reduced, if necessary, by a valuation allowance based on the amount of tax benefits that, based on available evidence, is not expected to be realized. For the year ended December 31, 2021, we used the federal tax rate of
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3.REVENUE RECOGNITION
On January 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2014-09 Revenue from Contracts with Customers and all subsequent amendments to the ASU (collectively, “ASC 606”), using the modified retrospective method applied to those contracts which were not completed as of January 1, 2018. Results for reporting periods beginning after January 1, 2018 are presented under Topic 606, while prior period amounts are not adjusted and continue to be reported in accordance with our historic accounting under Topic 605. Revenues are recognized when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to our customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. The adoption of ASC 606 did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.
The core principles of revenue recognition under ASC 606 includes the following five criteria:
1.Identify the contract with the customer
Contract with our customers may be oral, written, or implied. A written and signed contract stating the terms and conditions is the preferred method and is consistent with most customers. The terms of a written contract may be contained within the body of an email, during which proposals are made and campaign plans are outlined, or it may be a stand-alone document signed by both parties. Contracts that are oral in nature are consummated in status and pitch meetings and may be later followed up with email detail of the terms of the arrangement, along with a proposal document. No work is commenced without an understanding between the Company and our customers, that a valid contract exists.
2.Identify the performance obligations in the contract
Our sales and account management teams define the scope of services to be offered, to ensure all parties are in agreement and obligations are being delivered to the customer as promised. The performance obligation may not be fully identified in a mutually signed contract, but may be outlined in email correspondence, face-to-face meetings, additional proposals or scopes of work, or phone conversations.
3.Determine the transaction price
Pricing is discussed and identified by the operations team prior to submitting a proposal to the customer. Based on the obligation presented, third-party service pricing is established, and time and labor is estimated, to determine the most accurate transaction pricing for our customer. Price is subject to change upon agreed parties, and could be fixed or variable, milestone focused or T&M.
4.Allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract
If a contract involves multiple obligations, the transaction pricing is allocated accordingly, during the performance obligation phase (criteria 2 above).
5.Recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation
The Company uses several means to satisfy the performance obligations:
a.Billable Hours – The company employs a time tracking system where employees record their time by project. This method of satisfaction is used for time and material projects, change orders, website edits, revisions to designs, and any other project that is hours-based. The hours satisfy the performance obligation as the hours are incurred.
b.Media activation/Ad Spend – To satisfy ad spend, the company generates analytical reports monthly or as required to show how the ad dollars were spent and how the targeting resulted in click-throughs. The ad spend satisfies the performance obligation, regardless of the outcome or effectiveness of the campaign. In addition, the Company utilizes third party invoices after the ad dollars are spent, in order to satisfy the obligation.
c.Milestones – If the contract requires milestones to be hit, then the Company satisfies the performance obligation when that milestone is completed and presented to the customer for review. As each phase of a project is complete, we consider it as a performance obligation being satisfied and transferred to the customer. At this point, the customer is invoiced the amount due based on the transaction pricing for that specific phase and/or we apply the customer deposit to recognize revenue.
d.Monthly Retainer – If the contract is a retainer for work performed, then the customer is paying the Company for its expertise and accessibility, not for a pre-defines amount of output. In this case, the obligation is satisfied at the end of the period, regardless of the amount of work effort required.
e.Hosting – Monthly recurring fees for hosting are recognized on a monthly basis, at a fixed rate. Hosting contracts are typically one-year and reviewed annually for renewal. Prices are subject to change at management discretion. During the year ended December 31, 2021 web hosting services was discontinued from our operating revenue streams.
Historically, the Company generates income from four main revenue streams: data science, creative design, web development, and digital marketing. Each revenue stream is unique, and includes the following features:
Data Science
We analyze big data (large volume of information) to reveal patterns and trends associated with human behavior and interactions that can lead to better decisions and strategic business moves. As a result of our data science work, our clients are able to make informed and valuable decisions to positively impact their bottom lines. We classify revenue as data science that includes polling, research, modeling, data fees, consulting and reporting. Contracts are generated to assure both the Company and the client are committed to partnership and both agree to the defined terms and conditions and are typically less than one year. Transaction pricing is usually a lump sum, which is estimated by specific project requirements. The Company recognizes revenue when performance obligations are met, including, when the data sciences service is performed, polling is conducted, or support hours are expended. If the data sciences service is a fixed fee retainer, then the obligation is earned at the end of the period, regardless of how much service is performed.
Creative Design
We provide branding and creative design services, which we believe, set apart our clients from their competitors and establish them in their specific markets. We believe in showcasing our clients’ brands uniquely and creatively to infuse the public with curiosity to learn more. We classify revenue as creative design that includes branding, photography, copyrighting, printing, signs and interior design. Contracts are generated to assure both the Company and the client are committed to partnership and both agree to the defined terms and conditions and are typically less than one year. The Company recognizes revenue when performance obligations are met, usually when creative design services obligations are complete, when the hours are recorded, designs are presented, website themes are complete, or any other criteria as mutually agreed.
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Web Development
We develop websites that attract high levels of traffic for our clients. We offer our clients the expertise to manage and protect their website, and the agility to adjust their online marketing strategy as their business expands. We classify revenue as web development that includes website coding, website patch installs, ongoing development support and fixing inoperable sites. Contracts are generated to assure both the Company and the client are committed to the partnership and both agree to the defined terms and conditions. Although most projects are long-term (6-8 months) in scope, we do welcome short-term projects which are invoiced as the work is completed at a specified hourly rate. In addition, we offer monthly hosting support packages, which ensures websites are functioning properly. The Company records web development revenue as earned, when the developer hours are recorded (if time and materials arrangements) or when the milestones are achieved (if a milestone arrangement).
Digital Marketing
We have a reputation for providing digital marketing services that get results. We classify revenue as digital marketing that includes ad spend, SEO management and digital ad support. Billable hours and advertising spending are estimated based on client specific needs and subject to change with client concurrence. Revenue is recognized when ads are run on one of the third-party platforms or when the hours are recorded by the digital marketing specialist, if the obligation relates to support or services.
Included in creative design and digital marketing revenues are costs that are reimbursed by our clients, including third party services, such as photographers and stylists, furniture, supplies, and the largest component, digital advertising. We have determined, based on our review, that the amounts classified as reimbursable costs should be recorded as gross (principal), due to the following factors:
-The Company is the primary obligor in the arrangement;
-We have latitude in establishing price;
-We have discretion in supplier selection; and
The Company has credit risk included in creative design and digital marketing revenues are costs that are reimbursed by our clients, including third party services, such as photographers and stylists, furniture, supplies, and the largest component, digital advertising. We have determined, based on our review, that the amounts classified as reimbursable costs should be recorded as gross (principal), due to the following factors:
-The Company is the primary obligor in the arrangement;
-We have latitude in establishing price;
-We have discretion in supplier selection; and
-The Company has credit risk
During the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we included $
For the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, revenue was disaggregated into the five categories as follows:
| Year ended December 31, 2021 | Year ended December 31, 2020 | ||||||||||
| Third Parties |
| Related Parties |
| Total |
| Third Parties |
| Related Parties |
| Total | |
Data Sciences | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
Design |
|
| |
|
|
| |
| ||||
Development |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
Digital Advertising |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
The Platform |
|
|
|
|
|
| | |||||
Total | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
4. LIQUIDITY AND OPERATIONS
The Company had a net loss of $
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had a short-term borrowing relationship with two lenders. The lenders provided short-term and long-term financing under a secured borrowing arrangement, using our accounts receivable as collateral or uncollateralized term loans, disclosed in footnote 7, as well as convertible notes disclosed in footnote 8. As of December 31, 2021, there were no unused sources of liquidity, nor were there any commitments of material capital expenditures.
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While the Company expects that its capital needs in the foreseeable future may be met by cash-on-hand and projected positive cash-flow, there is no assurance that the Company will be able to generate enough positive cash flow or have sufficient capital to finance its growth and business operations, or that such capital will be available on terms that are favorable to the Company or at all. It could become difficult for the Company to obtain working capital and other business financing. There is no assurance that the Company would be able to obtain additional working capital through the sale of its securities or from any other source.
5. BUSINESS ACQUISITIONS
None
6.INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Domain Name
On June 26, 2015, the Company purchased the rights to the domain “CLOUDCOMMERCE.COM”, from a private party at a purchase price of $
Trademark
On September 22, 2015, the Company purchased the trademark rights to “CLOUDCOMMERCE”, from a private party at a purchase price of $
Customer List
On November 15, 2017, the Company acquired WebTegrity, and we have calculated the value of the customer list acquired at $
Brand Name
On November 15, 2017, the Company acquired WebTegrity, and we have calculated the value of the brand name at $
oExpected use – We expected to retain the name and brand, leveraging the good reputation and client following. Within the WordPress industry, the WebTegrity name was well known, and the founder of the company has been asked to speak at various conferences.
oExpected useful life of related group – The WebTegrity name does not relate to another intangible asset or group of intangible assets. Therefore, this criterion was not considered.
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oLimits to useful life – There was no legal, regulatory, or contractual limitation to this intangible asset’s life.
oHistorical experience – This asset does not require an extension or renewal, in order for it to remain on our balance sheet.
oEffects of other factors – We considered this criterion in determining useful life, especially since WebTegrity was in a highly competitive industry, mostly relying on the WordPress platform. We considered whether there was a chance of obsolescence or decline due to competition. We concluded that there was not a chance of obsolescence or decline due to competition. Even though there is much competition, WebTegrity produced a quality product with a great team, resulting in long term clients.
oMaintenance required – There is no maintenance expenditure to obtain future cash flows. Therefore, this criterion was not taken into consideration.
During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company performed our annual impairment analysis and we determined that the intangible assets of WebTegrity were impaired. Therefore, as of December 31, 2020, the remaining balance of this intangible asset of $
Goodwill
On November 15, 2017, the Company acquired WebTegrity, and we have calculated the value of the goodwill at $
The Company’s intangible assets consist of the following:
|
| December 31, 2021 |
| December 31, 2020 | ||||||||
| Gross |
| Accumulated Amortization |
| Net |
| Gross |
| Accumulated Amortization |
| Net | |
Domain name and Trade Mark |
| |
|
| |
| |
| ( |
| | |
Total | $ | | $ | $ | | $ | | $ | ( | $ | | |
Total amortization expense charged to operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, and 2020 were $
7. CREDIT FACILITIES
Lines of Credit
On
On
On
8. CONVERTIBLE NOTES PAYABLE
During fiscal year 2019, the Company issued convertible promissory notes with variable conversion prices, as outlined below. The conversion prices for each of the notes was tied to the trading price of the Company’s common stock. Because of the fluctuation in stock price, the Company is required to report derivative gains and losses each quarter, which was included in earnings, and an overall derivative liability balance on the balance sheet. The Company also records a discount related to the convertible notes, which reduces the outstanding balance of the total amount due and presented as a net outstanding balance on the balance sheet. During the year ended December 31, 2020, all convertible notes that contained embedded derivative instruments were converted, leaving a derivative liability balance of
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On
On
On
On
45
On
On
On
On
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On
9. NOTES PAYABLE
Related Party Notes Payable
On
On
On
On
On
On
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On
On
On
On
On January 17, 2020, the Company exchanged the below related party notes payable for
As of December 31, 2020, the balances of the exchanged notes were zero.
Note Date |
| Principal |
| Accrued Interest |
| Total Due |
| Gain on Exchange |
| Series G Preferred Shares |
$ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | |
Total | $ | | $ | | $ | | $ | |
| |
On January 28, 2021, the Company entered into an Unsecured Promissory Note (the “January 28, 2021 Note”), in the aggregate principal amount of $
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On February 17, 2021, the Company issued a promissory note (the “February 17, 2021 Note”) in the amount of $
As of December 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the notes payable due to related parties totaled
Third Party Notes Payable
On June 29, 2018, the Company issued a promissory note (the “June 2018 Note”), in the amount of $
On May 5, 2020, the Company issued a promissory note (the “May 2020 Note”) in the amount of $
On October 21, 2020, the Company issued a promissory note (the “October 2020 Note”) in the amount of $
On December 10, 2020, the Company issued a promissory note (the “December 2020 Note”) in the amount of $
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On February 4, 2021, the Company received loan proceeds of $
10. DERIVATIVE LIABILITIES
During the prior year, the Company determined that the convertible notes outstanding as of December 31, 2021 contained embedded derivative instruments as the conversion price was based on a variable that was not an input to the fair value of a “fixed-for-fixed” option as defined under FASB ASC Topic No. 815 – 40. During the quarter ended September 30, 2020, all convertible notes that contained embedded derivative instruments were converted, leaving a derivative liability balance of zero. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020 the derivative balance is
During the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company incurred losses of $
11.CAPITAL STOCK
At December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company’s authorized common stock consists of
Series A Preferred
The Company has designated
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Series B Preferred
The Company has designated
Series C Preferred
The Company has designated
Series D Preferred
The Company has designated
Series E Preferred
The Company has designated
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Series F Preferred
The Company has designated
Series G Preferred
The Company designated
Series H Preferred
On March 18, 2021, the Company designated
Registered Direct Offering
12.STOCK OPTIONS AND WARRANTS
Stock Options
On August 1, 2017, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
On September 18, 2017, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
On January 3, 2018, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
On January 17, 2020, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
On June 2, 2020, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
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On January 5, 2021, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
On August 18, 2021, we granted non-qualified stock options to purchase up to
The Company used the historical industry index to calculate volatility, since the Company’s stock history did not represent the expected future volatility of the Company’s common stock.
The fair value of options granted during the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, were determined using the Black Scholes method with the following assumptions:
| Year Ended December 31, 2021 | Year Ended December 31, 2020 |
Risk free interest rate | ||
Stock volatility factor | ||
Weighted average expected option life | ||
Expected dividend yield | ||
|
|
|
A summary of the Company’s stock option activity and related information follows:
| Year Ended December 31, 2021 | Year Ended December 31, 2020 | ||||||
|
| Options |
| Weighted average exercise price |
| Options |
| Weighted average exercise price |
Outstanding - beginning of year |
| | $ | |
| | $ | |
Granted |
| |
| |
| |
| |
Exercised |
| ( |
| |
| |
| |
Forfeited |
| ( |
| |
| ( |
| |
Outstanding - end of year |
| | $ | |
| | $ | |
Exercisable at the end of year |
| | $ | |
| | $ | |
Weighted average fair value of options granted during the year |
|
| $ | |
|
| $ | |
As of December 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the intrinsic value of the stock options was approximately $
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The Black Scholes option valuation model was developed for use in estimating the fair value of traded options, which do not have vesting restrictions and are fully transferable. In addition, option valuation models require the input of highly subjective assumptions, including the expected stock price volatility. Because the Company’s employee stock options have characteristics significantly different from those of traded options, and because changes in the subjective input assumptions can materially affect the fair value estimate, in management’s opinion, the existing models do not necessarily provide a reliable single measure of the fair value of its employee stock options.
The weighted average remaining contractual life of options outstanding, as of December 31, 2021 was as follows:
Exercise prices |
| Number of options outstanding |
| Weighted Average remaining contractual life (years) |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
$ |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
Warrants
During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 the Company issued
The fair value of warrants granted during the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, were determined using the Black Scholes method with the following assumptions:
Year Ended December 31, 2021 | Year Ended December 31, 2020 | |
Risk free interest rate | ||
Stock volatility factor | ||
Weighted average expected warrant life | ||
Expected dividend yield |
A summary of the Company’s warrant activity and related information follows:
| Year Ended December 31, 2021 | Year Ended December 31, 2020 | ||||||
| Warrants |
| Weighted average exercise price |
| Warrants |
| Weighted average exercise price | |
Outstanding - beginning of period |
| $ |
| $ | ||||
Issued |
|
|
|
| ||||
Exercised |
| ( |
|
|
| |||
Forfeited |
|
|
|
| ||||
Outstanding - end of period |
| $ |
| $ | ||||
Exercisable at the end of period |
| $ |
| $ | ||||
Weighted average fair value of warrants granted during the period |
|
| $ |
|
| $ | ||
Warrant expense for the year ended December 31, 2021, and 2020 were $
The weighted average remaining contractual life of warrants outstanding, as of December 31, 2021 was as follows:
Exercise prices |
| Number of warrants outstanding |
| Weighted Average remaining contractual life (years) |
$ |
|
| ||
$ |
|
| ||
$ |
|
| ||
|
|
|
13. RELATED PARTIES
As of December 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the notes payable due to related parties totaled
On August 1, 2017, Parscale Digital signed a lease with Bureau, Inc., a related party, to provide a workplace for the employees of Parscale Digital.
On August 1, 2017, Parscale Digital signed a lease with Parscale Strategy for computer equipment and office furniture. Parscale Strategy is wholly owned by Brad Parscale. Details of this lease are included in Note 15.
On March 18, 2021, the Company issued
14.CONCENTRATIONS
For the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company had three and two major customers that represented approximately
15.COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Leases
In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, “Leases” Topic 842, which amends the guidance in former ASC Topic 840, Leases. The new standard increases transparency and comparability most significantly by requiring the recognition by lessees of right-of-use (“ROU”) assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet for all leases longer than 12 months. Under the standard, disclosures are required to meet the objective of enabling users of financial statements to assess the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. For lessees, leases will be classified as finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern and classification of expense recognition in the income statement, over the expected term on a straight-line basis. Operating leases are recognized on the balance sheet as right-of-use assets, current operating lease liabilities and non-current operating lease liabilities. We determine if an arrangement is a lease at inception. Operating leases are included in operating lease right-of-use (“ROU”) assets and operating lease liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets. Finance leases are included in property and equipment, current liabilities, and long-term liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets.
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The Company adopted the new lease guidance effective January 1, 2019 using the modified retrospective transition approach, applying the new standard to all of its leases existing at the date of initial application which is the effective date of adoption. Consequently, financial information will not be updated and the disclosures required under the new standard will not be provided for dates and periods before January 1, 2019. The Company has elected the practical expedient to combine lease and non-lease components as a single component. We did not elect the hindsight practical expedient which permits entities to use hindsight in determining the lease term and assessing impairment. The adoption of the lease standard did not change our previously reported consolidated statements of operations and did not result in a cumulative catch-up adjustment to opening equity. As of December 31, 2021, the company recognized ROU assets of $
Operating lease ROU assets and operating lease liabilities are recognized based on the present value of the future minimum lease payments over the lease term at the commencement date. The operating lease ROU asset also includes any lease payments made and excludes lease incentives and initial direct costs incurred, if any. Our lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise that option.
Operating Leases
Total operating lease expense for the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 was $
Finance Leases
The following is a schedule of the net book value of the finance lease.
Assets | December 31, 2021 | December 31, 2020 | ||
Leased equipment under finance lease, | $ | $ | | |
less accumulated amortization |
| ( |
| ( |
Net | $ | $ | | |
Below is a reconciliation of leases to the financial statements.
| ROU Operating Leases | Finance Leases | ||
Leased asset balance | $ | | $ | |
Liability balance |
| |
| |
Cash flow (non-cash) |
| |
| |
Interest expense | $ | | $ | |
The following is a schedule, by years, of future minimum lease payments required under the operating and finance leases.
Years Ending December 31, | ROU Operating Leases | Finance Leases | ||
2021 |
| |
| |
2022 |
| |
| |
2023 |
| |
| |
Thereafter |
| |
| |
Total | $ | | $ | |
Less imputed interest |
| ( |
| |
Total liability | $ | | $ | |
Other information related to leases is as follows:
Lease Type |
| Weighted Average Remaining Term |
| Weighted Average Discount Rate (1) |
Operating Leases |
| |
| |
Finance Leases |
|
|
(1)
This discount rate is consistent with our borrowing rates from various lenders.
Legal Matters
The Company may be involved in legal actions and claims arising in the ordinary course of business, from time to time, none of which at the time are considered to be material to the Company’s business or financial condition.
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16. SUPPLEMENTAL STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS INFORMATION
During the year ended December 31, 2021, there were the following non-cash activities.
-Certain related party converted a total of $
-The values of the ROU operating leases assets and liabilities each declined $
-The holders of
-The holders of
-The holders of
-The holders of
-The Company issued
During the year ended December 31, 2020, there were the following non-cash activities.
-Certain lenders converted a total of $
-The values of the ROU operating leases assets and liabilities each declined $
-Recorded an initial derivative discount for notes that became convertible during the period, in the amount of $
-A related party lender exchanged $
-Recorded the value of shares issued to lenders in the amount of $
17.INCOME TAXES
The provision (benefit) for income taxes for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 were as follows, assuming a
| For the years ended December 31, | |||
| 2021 |
| 2020 | |
Deferred tax provision: |
|
|
|
|
Federal |
|
|
|
|
Deferred tax asset | $ | | $ | |
Valuation allowance |
| ( |
| ( |
Total deferred tax provision | $ | | $ | |
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had approximately $
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The Company provided a valuation allowance equal to the deferred income tax assets for the period from June 30, 2011 to December 31, 2021 because it is not presently known whether future taxable income will be sufficient to utilize the tax loss carryforwards.
The Company has no uncertain tax positions.
18. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS.
On
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ITEM 9.CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE.
None.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Management, with the participation of the Company's principal executive and principal financial officers, evaluated the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), as of the end of the period covered by this report to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that it files or submits under the Act is (i) recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Commission's rules and forms and (ii) accumulated and communicated to the Company's management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Based on that evaluation, our management concluded that, due to adjusting journal entries made by our independent auditor, as of December 31, 2021, our disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective.
Our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal controls will prevent all error or fraud. A control system, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Due to the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected.
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Our internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance to our management and board of directors regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of the financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the Company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the Company; and (iii) 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
Our management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. In making this assessment, our management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission ("COSO") in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013). A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Management has identified control deficiencies regarding adjusting journal entries. Management of the Company believes this weakness will be remediated as we continue to improve our processes and procedures to control deficiencies in the future.
Because of the above material weakness, management has concluded that we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on the criteria established in “Internal Control-Integrated Framework” issued by the COSO.
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No Attestation Report by Independent Registered Accountant
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 has not been audited by our independent registered public accounting firm by virtue of our exemption from such requirement as a smaller reporting company.
Changes in Internal Controls over Financial Reporting
There have been no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the Company’s last fiscal quarter of fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls
The Company’s management does not expect that its disclosure controls or its internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. The design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Further, because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Controls can also be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls is based in part on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Projections of any evaluation of controls effectiveness to future periods are subject to risks. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or deterioration in the degree of compliance with policies or procedures.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
None.
ITEM 9C. DISCLOSURE REGARDING FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS THAT PREVENT INSPECTIONS.
Not applicable.
PART III
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The following table lists the executive officers and directors of the Company:
Name | Age | Position |
Andrew Van Noy | 39 | Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman |
|
|
|
Isabel Gongora | 48 | Chief Financial Officer |
|
|
|
Kevin Myers | 59 | Director, Chief Marketing Officer |
|
|
|
Richard Berliner | 68 | Independent Director, Chairperson of the Audit Committee, Financial Expert |
|
|
|
Virginia Rose O’Meara | 37 | Independent Director, Chairperson of the Nominating Corporate Governance Committee |
|
|
|
Mark Fruehan | 60 | Independent Director, Chairperson of the Compensation Committee |
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Andrew Van Noy has been a director of the Company since November 2012. Mr. Van Noy has been the President of the Company since April 2012 and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company since August 2012. He was Executive Vice President of the Company from November 2011 to April 2012 and Vice President of Sales and Marketing of the Company from May 2011 to November 2011. From January 2009 to April 2011, Mr. Van Noy served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for PageTransformer, a company which provided web and software development for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Mr. Van Noy came to the Company with experience in digital marketing, private equity and investment banking. During his years at the Company, Mr. Van Noy led the efforts to rebrand and restructure the business and presided over the acquisition of a number of companies. Mr. Van Noy graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Science degree.
The Board of Directors believes that Mr. Van Noy is qualified to serve as a director because of his experience in executive roles and his experience with re-branding and re-structuring of the Company, including the launch of our Magento platform.
Isabel Gongora was appointed on October 7, 2021 to serve as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to her appointment as Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Gongora served as the Company’s Controller beginning in March 2018. From March 2015 to March 2018, Ms. Gongora was the Accounting Manager and Treasurer of Peveto Companies, LTD dba Brake Check, a multi-million-dollar family-owned and operated company since 1968. Ms. Gongora began her corporate accounting career working for Argo Group, Inc., a public multi-billion-dollar Property and Casualty Insurance Company. Ms. Gongora graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and the University of Incarnate Word with a Masters of Science in Accounting.
The Board of Directors believes that Ms. Gongora is qualified to serve as an officer because of her management and industry experience, in addition to her understanding of generally accepted accounting principles and financial reporting.
Kevin Myers, age 59, has been a director of the Company since December 2019 and has been chief marketing officer of the Company since August 26, 2021. Mr. Myers served as the chief marketing and information officer of Donatos Pizza, from February 2018 until March 2020. Prior to Donatos Pizza, Mr. Myers served as the General Manager of the brand division of Majority Strategies, a full-service data, digital and print agency, from November 2015 until February 2018. In this role, Mr. Myers was responsible for revenue growth and product development in the company’s corporate advertising division. Prior to Majority Strategies, Mr. Myers held various marketing and advertising roles for over 12 years. He holds a bachelor’s degrees from the Ohio State University in industrial and computer science engineering.
The Board of Directors believes that Mr. Myers is qualified to serve as a director because of his industry experience and his understanding of industry trends.
On October 7, 2021, the Board of Directors of AiAdvertising, Inc. (the “Company”) appointed Richard Berliner to serve on the Company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Berliner has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fifth Gen Media, Inc., a marketing and publishing company, owned by Mr. Berliner since 2016. Mr. Berliner’s prior experience was as Chief Executive Officer of a wireless construction company, Redwing Electric from 2012-2015, which was later sold to an investor group. Mr. Berliner did a one year consulting project for the Swedish equipment manufacturer Ericsson, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer in 2011. Mr. Berliner was the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Berliner Communications or BCI (BCI) which he started in 1995, which subsequently merged with another firm in 2010. Mr. Berliner handled the firm’s quarterly earnings calls and the annual meetings in his role as Chairman. Mr. Berliner graduated from Rutgers with a BA in Business in 1975. He is a Fellow in the Radio Club of America and was elected in 2004.
The Company’s Board of Directors has determined that Mr. Berliner is “independent” within the meaning of rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market and is qualified to serve on the Board of Directors because of his extensive senior management experience.
On October 26, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Virginia “Rose” O’Meara to serve on the Company’s Board of Directors. Mrs. O’Meara has been Chief Revenue Officer at GroundTruth, a location-based marketing and advertising technology company, since October 2020. Mrs. O’Meara was Senior Vice President of GroundTruth’s Platform Self-Serve business from October 2019 to September 2020. Mrs. O’Meara was Vice President of Customer Success at a4Media, the media division of Altice USA, from September 2018 to September 2019. Mrs. O’Meara was Chief Executive Officer of Zapp360 beginning in January of 2018 and led its acquisition by Altice USA in September of the same year. Prior to serving as Chief Executive Officer at Zapp360, Mrs. O’Meara also served as Chief Operating Officer from August 2017 to January 2018, Vice President of Customer Success from April 2016 to July 2017, and Director of Business Development from August 2013 to March 2016. Mrs. O’Meara held sales roles as a Director of Mobile Ad Sales at Verve Mobile from July 2012 to August 2013 and as a Digital Account Executive at ITN Digital from January 2010 to July 2012, selling digital and mobile advertising solutions to holding company agencies and brand direct clients on the East Coast in both roles.
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The Company’s Board of Directors has determined that Mrs. O’Meara is “independent” within the meaning of the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market and is qualified to serve on the Board of Directors because of her extensive industry experience within the ad-tech industry, her deep connections with advertisers and publishers, and her senior management experience.
On November 4, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Mark Fruehan to serve on the Company’s Board of Directors. Since September 30, 2021, Mr. Fruehan has served as Chief Executive Officer of First Screen of the Americas, which offers digital first brands and content creators alternative distribution and billing mechanisms to monetize content. From July 2020 to June 2021, Mr. Fruehan was Chief Revenue Officer of Tradeswell, the leading AI-driven eCommerce solution, which helps brokers and resellers sell on Amazon, Walmart, and Target. Prior to serving as Chief Revenue Officer at Tradeswell from April 2018 to July 2020, Mr. Fruehan served as President and Chief Revenue Officer at Verve Group, a Media and Games Invest SE portfolio company (Berlin) and a privacy-first omnichannel ad platform offering programmatic solutions that connects advertisers and publishers to people in real time. In October 2016, Mark co-founded Amplify.ai, a global enterprise chatbot platform funded by Costanoa Ventures, which was recently acquired by Triller.net; leading the sales and partner development through their start-up phase until March of 2018. Mr. Fruehan’s roots in the mobile and wireless industry run deep, with leadership roles at Opera Mediaworks & AdMarvel as President, and Head of Business development and innovation at VeriSign and CellStar. Mr. Fruehan has over 30 years of experience in the digital and mobile industry across cost per engagement, mobile content data service, media, monetization, including payments, and messaging. Mr. Fruehan has worked closely with brands, mobile operators, and media companies; in addition to holding several advisory seats and board memberships at early-stage ventures and established tech companies alike. Mr. Fruehan attended Penn State, earning a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and is a proud member of the 1982 NCAA Championship Football Team.
The Company’s Board of Directors has determined that Mr. Fruehan is “independent” within the meaning of the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market and is qualified to serve on the Board of Directors because of his extensive industry experience within the ad-tech industry, his deep connections with advertisers and publishers, and his senior management experience.
Family Relationships
There are no family relationships among our executive officers and directors.
Involvement in Certain Legal Proceedings
During the past ten years, none of our directors, executive officers, promoters, control persons, or nominees has been:
| ● | the subject of any bankruptcy petition filed by or against any business of which such person was a general partner or executive officer either at the time of the bankruptcy or within two years prior to that time; |
| ● | convicted in a criminal proceeding or is subject to a pending criminal proceeding (excluding traffic violations and other minor offenses); |
| ● | subject to any order, judgment, or decree, not subsequently reversed, suspended or vacated, of any court of competent jurisdiction or any Federal or State authority, permanently or temporarily enjoining, barring, suspending or otherwise limiting his involvement in any type of business, securities or banking activities; |
| ● | found by a court of competent jurisdiction (in a civil action), the Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to have violated a federal or state securities or commodities law; |
| ● | the subject of, or a party to, any Federal or State judicial or administrative order, judgment, decree, or finding, not subsequently reversed, suspended or vacated, relating to an alleged violation of (a) any Federal or State securities or commodities law or regulation; (b) any law or regulation respecting financial institutions or insurance companies including, but not limited to, a temporary or permanent injunction, order of disgorgement or restitution, civil money penalty or temporary or permanent cease-and-desist order, or removal or prohibition order; or (c) any law or regulation prohibiting mail or wire fraud or fraud in connection with any business entity; or |
| ● | the subject of, or a party to, any sanction or order, not subsequently reversed, suspended or vacated, of any self-regulatory organization (as defined in Section 3(a)(26) of the Exchange Act (15 U.S.C. 78c(a)(26))), any registered entity (as defined in Section 1(a)(29) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1(a)(29))), or any equivalent exchange, association, entity or organization that has disciplinary authority over its members or persons associated with a member. |
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Board Committees
On November 4, 2021 the Board formed and appointed Richard Berliner, Virginia Rose O’Meara, and Mark Fruehan as members of the Audit Committee , with Mr. Berliner serving as the Chairperson. The Board has determined that each of the members of the Audit Committee designated is independent pursuant to the required standards set forth in Rule 10A-3(b) of the Security Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, based on an evaluation of the relationships between the Company and each of the members.
Mr. Berliner is designated as the “audit committee financial expert” as defined by Item 407(d)(5) of Regulation S-K under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, based on the Board’s evaluation of his knowledge of accounting, qualifications and experience and has an appropriate background which results in his financial sophistication in accordance with the additional audit committee requirements of Rule 5605(c)(2)(A).
On November 4, 2021 the Board formed and appointed Richard Berliner, Virginia Rose O’Meara, and Mark Fruehan as members of the Compensation Committee , with Mr. Fruehan serving as the Chairperson.
On November 4, 2021 the Board formed and appointed Richard Berliner, Virginia Rose O’Meara, and Mark Fruehan as members of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee , with Mr. O’Meara serving as the Chairperson.
The Board has determined that each of the members of the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee is independent, pursuant to the definition of independence under Rule 5605(a)(2) of the Nasdag Listing Rules.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
The Company has adopted a Code of Conduct that applies to all of its directors, officers and employees. Any waiver of the provisions of the Code of Conduct for executive officers and directors may be made only by the Audit Committee, or the full Board of Directors and, in the case of a waiver for members of the Audit Committee, by the Board of Directors. Any such waivers will be promptly disclosed to the Company’s shareholders. A copy of our Code of Conduct is available on our website (www.aiadvertising.com) and will be provided to any person requesting same without charge. To request a copy of our Code of Conduct please make written request to our Chief Executive Officer c/o AiAdvertising, Inc. at 321 Sixth Street, San Antonio, TX 78215.
Changes in Nominating Procedures
None.
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Compensation Discussion and Analysis
The following Compensation Discussion and Analysis describes the material elements of compensation for our executive officers identified in the Summary Compensation Table (“Named Executive Officers”), and executive officers that we may hire in the future. As more fully described below, our Compensation Committee makes all decisions for the total direct compensation of our executive officers, including the Named Executive Officers.
Compensation Program Objectives and Rewards
Our compensation philosophy is based on the premise of attracting, retaining, and motivating exceptional leaders, setting high goals, working toward the common objectives of meeting the expectations of customers and stockholders, and rewarding outstanding performance. Following this philosophy, in determining executive compensation, we consider all relevant factors, such as the competition for talent, our desire to link pay with performance in the future, the use of equity to align executive interests with those of our stockholders, individual contributions, teamwork and performance, and each executive’s total compensation package. We strive to accomplish these objectives by compensating all executives with total compensation packages consisting of a combination of competitive base salary and incentive compensation.
On November 4, 2021 the Board formed and appointed Richard Berliner, Virginia Rose O’Meara, and Mark Fruehan as members of the Compensation Committee, with Mr. Fruehan serving as the Chairperson. The compensation committee applies the philosophy and policies described below.
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The primary purpose of the compensation and benefits described below is to attract, retain, and motivate highly talented individuals when we do hire, who will engage in the behaviors necessary to enable us to succeed in our mission while upholding our values in a highly competitive marketplace. Different elements are designed to engender different behaviors, and the actual incentive amounts which may be awarded to each Named Executive Officer are subject to the annual review of the Board of Directors. The following is a brief description of the key elements of our planned executive compensation structure.
·Base salary and benefits are designed to attract and retain employees over time.
·Incentive compensation awards are designed to focus employees on the business objectives for a particular year.
·Equity incentive awards, such as stock options and non-vested stock, focus executives’ efforts on the behaviors within the recipients’ control that they believe are designed to ensure our long-term success as reflected in increases to our stock prices over a period of several years, growth in our profitability and other elements.
·Severance and change in control plans are designed to facilitate the Company’s ability to attract and retain executives as we compete for talented employees in a marketplace where such protections are commonly offered. We currently have not given separation benefits to any of our Name Executive Officers.
Benchmarking
We have not yet adopted benchmarking but may do so in the future. When making compensation decisions, our Board of Directors may compare each element of compensation paid to our Named Executive Officers against a report showing comparable compensation metrics from a group that includes both publicly-traded and privately-held companies. Our Board believes that while such peer group benchmarks are a point of reference for measurement, they are not necessarily a determining factor in setting executive compensation as each executive officer’s compensation relative to the benchmark varies based on scope of responsibility and time in the position. We have not yet formally established our peer group for this purpose.
The Elements of AiAdvertising’s Compensation Program
Base Salary
Executive officer base salaries are based on job responsibilities and individual contribution. The Board reviews the base salaries of our executive officers, including our Named Executive Officers, considering factors such as corporate progress toward achieving objectives (without reference to any specific performance-related targets) and individual performance experience and expertise. None of our Named Executive Officers have employment agreements with us. Additional factors reviewed by the Board of Directors in determining appropriate base salary levels and raises include subjective factors related to corporate and individual performance. For the year ended December 31, 2021, all executive officer base salary decisions were approved by the Board of Directors.
Our Board of Directors determines base salaries for the Named Executive Officers at the beginning of each fiscal year, or during the year if needed, and the Board proposes new base salary amounts, if appropriate, based on its evaluation of individual performance and expected future contributions.
Equity Incentive Awards
Our 2003 Stock Option Plan for directors, officers, employees and key consultants (the “2003 Plan”) which authorized the issuance of up to 5,000,000 shares of our common stock pursuant to the 2003 Plan terminated upon the expiration of the remaining options granted under the 2003 Plan on May 24, 2014. In December 2020 the Company adopted the AiAdvertising, Inc. 2020 Equity Incentive Plan. The Board considers several factors in determining whether awards are granted to an executive officer, including those previously described, as well as the executive’s position, his or her performance and responsibilities, and the amount of options, if any, currently held by the officer and their vesting schedule. Our policy prohibits backdating options or granting them retroactively. As of December 31, 2021, 768,233,332 stock options granted are outstanding.
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Benefits and Prerequisites
At this stage of our business we have limited benefits and no prerequisites for our employees other than paid time off that are generally comparable to those offered by other small private and public companies or as may be required by applicable state employment laws. We may adopt retirement plans and confer other fringe benefits for our executive officers in the future if our business grows sufficiently to enable us to afford them.
Separation and Change in Control Arrangements
We do not have any employment agreements with our Named Executive Officers. No employee is eligible for specific benefits or payments if their employment or engagement terminates in a separation or if there is a change of control.
Executive Officer Compensation
The following summary compensation table sets forth certain information concerning compensation paid to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and its most highly paid executive officers whose total annual salary and bonus for services rendered in all capacities for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 was $100,000 or more.
Summary Compensation Table
Name and Principal Position | Fiscal Year | Salary | Option Awards | All Other Compensation | Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew Van Noy Chief Executive Officer, President, and Director | 2021 | $225,000 | -0- | $125,000(1) | $350,000 |
| 2020 | $225,000 | -0- | -0- | $225,000 |
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|
|
|
|
Isabel Gongora Chief Financial Officer | 2021 | $140,000 | -0- | -0- | $140,000 |
| 2020 | $100,000 | -0- | -0- | $100,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kevin Myers Chief Marketing Officer | 2021 | $250,000 | -0- | -0- | $250,000 |
(1) In consideration of Andrew Van Noy’s service and performance to the Corporation as the Chief Executive Office, Mr. Van Noy was awarded a bonus.
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Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End
The following table sets forth information with respect to unexercised stock options, stock that has not vested, and equity incentive plan awards held by the Company’s executive officers at December 31, 2021.
Name | Number of Securities Underlying Unexercised Options Exercisable | Number of Securities Underlying Unexercised Options Unexercisable | Option Exercise Price | Option Expiration Date |
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew Van Noy (1) Chief Executive Officer and President | 5,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.01 | August 13, 2022 |
| 30,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.01 | February 3, 2022 |
| 15,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.01 | March 20, 2022 |
| 20,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.02 | August 25, 2022 |
| 50,000,000 | - 0 – | $0.00 | January 17, 2025 |
| 50,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.01 | January 5, 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
Kevin Myers (2) Chief Marketing Officer | 10,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.00 | January 17, 2025 |
| 17,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.00 | June 2, 2025 |
| 100,000,000 | - 0 - | $0.01 | January 5, 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
Isabel Gongora (3) Chief Financial Officer | 10,000,000 | -0- | $0.00 | January 17, 2025 |
| 20,000,000 | -0- | $0.01 | January 5, 2026 |
(1)On August 13, 2012, Mr. Van Noy received stock options to purchase 5,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0053 per share exercisable for a period of seven years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On February 3, 2015, Mr. Van Noy received stock options to purchase 30,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0131 per share exercisable for a period of seven years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On March 20, 2015, Mr. Van Noy received stock options to purchase 15,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.013 per share exercisable for a period of seven years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On August 25, 2015, Mr. Van Noy received stock options to purchase 20,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.015 per share exercisable for a period of seven years from the date of grant. On January 17, 2020, Mr. Van Noy received stock options to purchase 50,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0019 per share exercisable for a period of seven years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On January 5, 2021, Mr. Van Noy received stock options to purchase 50,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0170 per share exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested.
(2)On January 17, 2020, Mr. Myers received stock options to purchase 10,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0019 per share exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On June 2, 2020, Mr. Myers received stock options to purchase 17,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0018 per share exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On January 5, 2021, Mr. Myers received stock options to purchase 100,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0068 per share exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant.
(3)On January 17, 2020, Ms. Gongora received stock options to purchase 2,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0019 per share exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested. On January 5, 2021, Ms. Gongora received stock options to purchase 10,000,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0068 per share exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant. These stock options vest at a rate of 1/36 per month commencing on the date of grant until all of the options are vested.
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Director Compensation
The Company’s directors receive compensation for their services rendered to the Company as directors. During the fiscal years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, this compensation totaled $30,000 and $30,000, respectively, to each director. Compensation to officers excluding compensation for serving on the board as set forth in table below is included in the summary compensation table above.
The following table sets forth compensation we paid to our directors during the year ended December 31, 2021 (excluding compensation under the Summary Compensation table above).
Name |
| Fees Earned or Paid in Cash |
| Stock Awards -2 |
| Option Awards |
| All Other Compensation |
| Total |
Andrew Van Noy |
| 30,000 |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| 30,000 |
Kevin Myers |
| 30,000 |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| 30,000 |
Richard Berliner |
| 30,000 |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| 30,000 |
Virginia Rose O’Meara |
| 30,000 |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| 30,000 |
Mark Fruehan |
| 30,000 |
| — |
| — |
| — |
| 30,000 |
Employment Agreements
The Company has not entered into any employment agreements with its executive officers to date. The Company may enter into employment agreements with its executive officers in the future.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
The following table sets forth the names of our executive officers and directors and all persons known by us to beneficially own 5% or more of the issued and outstanding common stock of AiAdvertising at March 31, 2022. Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In computing the number of shares beneficially owned by a person and the percentage of ownership of that person, shares of common stock subject to options held by that person that are currently exercisable or become exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022 are deemed outstanding even if they have not actually been exercised. Those shares, however, are not deemed outstanding for the purpose of computing the percentage ownership of any other person. The percentage ownership of each beneficial owner is based on 1,055,556,518 outstanding shares of common stock. Except as otherwise listed below, the address of each person is c/o AiAdvertising, Inc., 321 Sixth Street, San Antonio, TX 78215. Except as indicated, each person listed below has sole voting and investment power with respect to the shares set forth opposite such person’s name.
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Name, Title and Address | Number of Shares Beneficially Owned (1) | Percentage Ownership |
|
|
|
Andrew VanNoy Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President (2) | 137,665,838 | 11.5% |
|
|
|
Isabel Gongora Chief Financial Officer (3) | 5,578,082 | * |
|
|
|
Kevin Myers Director (4) | 60,541,553 | 5.4% |
Mark Fruehan Director (5) | 397,260 | * |
Virginia Rose O’Meara Director (6) | 397,260 | * |
|
|
|
Richard Berliner Director (7) | 397,260 | * |
|
|
|
All current Executive Officers and Directors as a Group (6 persons) | 204,977,254 | 16.2% |
|
|
|
Jerry Hug Director of Operations (8) | 144,898,630 | 12.1% |
|
|
|
Zachary Bartlett Vice President of Communications (9) | 67,533,303 | 6.0% |
|
|
|
Greg Boden (10) | 115,000,000 | 9.8% |
|
|
|
Bradley Parscale (11) | 225,000,000 | 17.6% |
|
|
|
* Less than 1%.
(1)Except as pursuant to applicable community property laws, the persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares of common stock beneficially owned.
(2)Includes 137,665,838 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Van Noy pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(3)Includes 5,578,082 shares which may be purchased by Ms. Gongora pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(4) Includes 60,541,553 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Myers pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(5) Includes 397,260 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Fruehan pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(6) Includes 397,260 shares which may be purchased by Ms. O’Meara pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(7) Includes 397,260 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Berliner pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(8)Includes 144,898,630 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Hug pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(9)Includes 35,000,000 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Bartlett pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022.
(10)Includes 115,000,000 shares which may be purchased by Mr. Boden pursuant to stock options that are exercisable within 60 days of March 31, 2022. Does not include Series C Preferred stock held by Bountiful Capital LLC, of which Mr. Boden serves as President. Such securities are subject to a 4.99% ownership blockers.
(11)Includes shares underlying 86,021 shares of Series D Preferred Stock. Each share of Series D Preferred Stock may be converted at any time upon ninety (90) days’ written notice, into 2,500 shares of the Company’s common stock.
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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions
None.
Director Independence
Our independent directors, as defined under Nasdaq Marketplace Rules. consist of Richard Berliner, Virginia Rose O’Meara, and Mark Fruhan,
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
M&K CPAs, PLLC (“M&K”) has served as the Company’s independent registered accountants since August 2018. M&K also is a provider of tax services to the Company.
Audit Fees
An aggregate of $95,000 was billed to us by our auditors for professional services, including audit of the annual financial statement of the Company for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, and review of the interim financial statements included in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended September 30, 2021, June 30, 2021, and March 31, 2021.
An aggregate of $73,300 was billed to us by our auditors for professional services, including audit of the annual financial statement of the Company for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and review of the interim financial statements included in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended September 30, 2020, June 30, 2020, and March 31, 2020.
Audit Related Fees
None.
Tax Fees
Our auditors billed the Company $3,000 for tax preparation services during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Our auditors billed the Company $1,500 for tax preparation services during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
All Other Fees
None.
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
1. Financial Statements
The AiAdvertising, Inc. financial statements are included in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
2. Financial Schedules
None.
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3. Exhibits.
Exhibit | Description |
3.1
| Articles of Incorporation (incorporated by reference from the exhibits included with the Company's Report on Form 10-KSB filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated April 10, 2002). |
3.2 | Certificate of Amendment to Articles of Incorporation (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated September 30, 2015). |
3.3 | Bylaws (incorporated by reference from the exhibits included with the Company's Report on Form 10-KSB filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated April 10, 2002). |
3.4 | Certificate of Designation of Series A Preferred Stock (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated October 6, 2015). |
3.5 | Certificate of Designation of Series B Preferred Stock (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated December 18, 2015). |
3.6 | Certificate of Amendment to Certificate of Designation of Series B Preferred Stock (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated June 28, 2016). |
3.7 | Certificate of Designation of Series C Preferred Stock (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated August 2, 2017). |
3.8 | Certificate of Designation of Series D Preferred Stock (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated August 2, 2017). |
3.9 | Certificate of Designation of Series E Preferred Stock (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed November 17, 2017) |
3.10 | Certificate of Designation of Series F Preferred Stock (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed January 3 ,2020) |
3.11 | Certificate of Designation of Series G Preferred Stock (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed February 12, 2020) |
Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934* | |
10.1 | Form of Stock Option Agreement (Incorporated by reference to exhibits filed with the Company's Current Report on Form 10-Q/A filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated February 17, 2015). |
10.2 | Form of Common Warrant (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed February 22, 2021) |
10.3 | Form of Securities Purchase Agreement (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed February 22, 2021) |
10.4 | Form of Amendment Agreement (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed March 8, 2021) |
10.5 | 2020 Incentive Stock Plan (incorporated by reference to S-8 filed February 18, 2021) |
10.6 | AiAdvertising 2021 Equity Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to 14C filed December 29, 2021) |
10.6 | Engagement Letter (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed February 22, 2021) |
10.7 | Purchase Agreement, dated March 28, 2022, between the Company and GHS Investments, LLC (incorporated by reference to 8-K filed on March 29, 2022) |
List of Subsidiaries | |
Consent of M&K CPAs, PLLC | |
Section 302 Certification of Principal Executive Officer | |
Section 302 Certification of Principal Financial/Accounting Officer | |
Section 906 Certification of Principal Executive Officer | |
Section 906 Certification of Principal Financial/Accounting Officer | |
EX-101.INS* | INLINE XBRL INSTANCE DOCUMENT - THE INSTANCE DOCUMENT DOES NOT APPEAR IN THE INTERACTIVE DATA FILE BECAUSE ITS XBRL TAGS ARE EMBEDDED WITHIN THE INLINE XBRL DOCUMENT. |
EX-101.SCH* | XBRL TAXONOMY EXTENSION SCHEMA DOCUMENT |
EX-101.CAL* | XBRL TAXONOMY EXTENSION CALCULATION LINKBASE |
EX-101.DEF* | XBRL TAXONOMY EXTENSION DEFINITION LINKBASE |
EX-101.LAB* | XBRL TAXONOMY EXTENSION LABELS LINKBASE |
EX-101.PRE* | XBRL TAXONOMY EXTENSION PRESENTATION LINKBASE |
104* | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained within Exhibit 101) |
* Filed herewith
** Furnished herewith
Item 16. Form 10-K Summary
Not applicable.
69
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 to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
| AIADVERTISING, INC. |
Date: April 14, 2022 | By: /s/ Andrew Van Noy |
| Andrew Van Noy |
| Chief Executive Officer and President |
|
|
| By /s/ Isabel Gongora |
| Isabel Gongora |
| Chief Financial Officer |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Andrew Van Noy, |
| Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman |
| April 14, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Isabel Gongora |
| Chief Financial Officer |
| April 14, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Kevin Myers, |
| Director |
| April 14, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Mark Fruehan |
| Director |
| April 14, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Richard Berliner, |
| Director |
| April 14, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
Signature |
| Title |
| Date |
/s/ Virginia Rose O’Meara |
| Director |
| April 14, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
70