stockholders are not affiliates of such selling shareholder, such members, partners or shareholders would thereby receive freely tradeable shares of our common stock pursuant to the distribution through a registration statement.
The selling shareholders may enter into hedging transactions with broker-dealers or any other person, in connection with such broker dealer or other person who may in turn engage in short sales of the shares of common stock in the course of hedging the positions they assume. The selling shareholders also may sell shares short and deliver shares covered by this prospectus to close out the short positions or loan, pledge, or grant a security interest in, some or all the shares owned by them to broker-dealers that in turn may sell such shares.
The selling shareholders may also directly make offers to sell some or all of the shares of common stock included in this prospectus to, or solicit offers to purchase such shares from, purchasers from time to time.
If the selling shareholders use one or more underwriters in the sale, the underwriters will acquire the securities for their own account, and they may resell these securities from time to time in one or more transactions, including negotiated transactions, at a fixed public offering price or at varying prices determined at the time of sale. The securities may be offered and sold to the public either through underwriting syndicates represented by one or more managing underwriters or directly by one or more of such firms. In connection with those sales, underwriters may be deemed to have received compensation from the selling shareholders in the form of underwriting discounts or commissions and may also receive commissions from purchasers of the shares for which they may act as agents. Underwriters may resell the shares to or through dealers, and those dealers may receive compensation in the form of one or more discounts, concessions or commissions from the underwriters and commissions from purchasers for which they may act as agents.
From time to time, the selling shareholders may sell the shares of common stock included in this prospectus to one or more dealers acting as principals. The dealers, which may be deemed to be “underwriters” as that term is defined in the Securities Act, may then resell the shares to purchasers.
The selling shareholders may designate broker-dealers as agents from time to time to solicit offers from purchasers to purchase the shares of common stock included in this prospectus, or to sell such shares in ordinary brokerage transactions, on their behalf. Such broker-dealers may be deemed to be “underwriters” as that term is defined in the Securities Act in such offering.
The selling shareholders or their respective underwriters, broker-dealers, or agents may make sales of the shares of common stock that are deemed to be an at-the-market offering as defined in Rule 415 of the Securities Act, which includes sales of such shares made directly on or through any stock exchange on which the shares are listed, the existing trading market for the shares, or in the over-the-counter market or otherwise.
From time to time, one or more of the selling shareholders may pledge, hypothecate or grant a security interest in some or all of the shares of common stock owned by them. In the event of default, the pledgees, secured parties or persons to whom the shares have been hypothecated will, to the extent registration rights are transferable and are transferred upon foreclosure, be deemed to be selling shareholders under this prospectus. The number of shares offered under this prospectus by a given selling shareholder will decrease as and when such events occur. In addition, a selling shareholder may, from time to time, sell the shares short, and, in those instances, this prospectus may be delivered in connection with the short sales, and the shares offered under this prospectus may be used to cover short sales.
In addition to the transactions described above, the selling shareholders may sell the shares of common stock included in this prospectus in compliance with available exemptions from the registration requirements under the Securities Act, rather than pursuant to this prospectus.
The selling shareholders may decide to sell all or a portion of the securities offered by them pursuant to this prospectus or may decide not to sell any securities under this prospectus. In addition, the selling shareholders may transfer, sell or dispose of the securities by other means not described in this prospectus.
The selling shareholders and any other persons participating in the sale or distribution of shares of common stock will be subject to applicable provisions of the Exchange Act and the rules and regulations