FALC FalconStor Software Inc (PK)

Item 1A. Risk Factors

We are affected by risks specific to us as well as factors that affect all businesses operating in a global market. The significant factors known to us that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results are set forth below.

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition

We have had limited liquidity and our future prospects are dependent on our ability to execute our business plan of which there can be no assurance.

While we had net income for the year ended December 31, 2021 we have incurred an operating loss for the year ended December 31, 2022, Additionally, prior to 2021, we have incurred operating losses in ten of the previous twelve years and negative cash flow from operations in ten of the previous twelve years.

The Company is currently a party to an Amended and Restated Term Loan Credit Agreement, dated as of February 23, 2018, as amended December 27, 2019, by and between the Company and HCP-FVA, LLC (“HCP-FVA”), (the “Amended and Restated Loan Agreement”). In connection with the June Offering, we entered into a letter agreement with Hale Capital Partners, LP (“Hale Capital”), dated June 2, 2021 (the “Loan Extension Letter Agreement”), that provided for an extension of the maturity date on Hale Capital’s portion of the outstanding indebtedness owed under the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement to June 30, 2023. The remaining principal amount outstanding, which was owed to other lenders, was repaid in full. On July 19, 2022, we entered into a letter agreement with Hale Capital (the "Second Loan Extension Letter Agreement"), that provided for a subsequent extension of the maturity date on the outstanding indebtedness owed under the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement from June 30, 2023 to December 31, 2023. See Note (9) Notes Payable for more information. On February 10, 2023, the Company entered into a letter agreement with Hale Capital to further extend the maturity date of the senior secured debt to June 30, 2024, as described in Note (19), Subsequent Events, to the consolidated financial statements. Also, as described further in Note (12) Series A Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock, the effective date of the mandatory redemption right of the Company's Series A Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Stock”) held by HCP-FVA and Hale Capital was extended from July 30, 2021 to July 30, 2023 pursuant to that certain Amendment No. 1 to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Designations, Preferences and Rights of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock of the Company, dated as of June 24, 2021 (as amended, the “Certificate of Designations”). On July 19, 2022, the Company and Hale Capital entered into a letter agreement pursuant to which Hale Capital agreed not to exercise or to permit the exercise of the mandatory redemption right of the Series A Preferred Stock on or prior to December 31, 2023 unless the redemption is in accordance with Section 8(e)(z) of the Certificate of Designations or in accordance with a Breach Event (as defined in the Certificate of Designations). On February 10, 2023, the Company entered into a letter agreement with Hale Capital to further extend the redemption date of the Series A Preferred Stock to June 30, 2024, as described in Note (19), Subsequent Events, to the consolidated financial statements. If such Series A Preferred Stock was redeemed at December 31, 2022, the Company would have been required to pay the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock $16.0 million.

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As of December 31, 2022, we had a working capital deficiency of $0.3 million, which is inclusive of current deferred revenue of $3.7 million, and a stockholders' deficit of $16.4 million. Our cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2022 was $2.0 million, a decrease of $1.2 million compared to December 31, 2021. Our operating cash outflows for the year ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $1.2 million, and $0.9 million, respectively. There is no assurance that we will be successful in executing our business plan either through generating sufficient revenue or continuing to reduce operating costs. The failure to execute our business plan would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and or our ability to continue operations. In addition, to the extent that we continue to incur losses or want to expand our operations, we may need to seek additional financing. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain additional financing. Moreover, it is likely that the terms of the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement and Series A Preferred Stock will make it more difficult for us to obtain additional financing, and any additional financing could be dilutive to our stockholders.

Our revenues decreased in 2022 compared to 2021. There is no guarantee that we will be able or to maintain, profitability.

Consistent with the prior year, revenues continued to decline and decreased to $10.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, as compared with $13.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. If we are unable to stabilize or increase revenue, we will be unable to maintain profitability, we will deplete our available cash and we may not be able to continue to fund effective sales and marketing or research and development activities on which we are dependent.

We have undertaken a restructuring and other cost reduction initiatives to reduce our expenses and to better align our expenses with our business. There can be no assurance that we have made enough reductions or the right reductions.

For the past several years, we have taken several actions to reduce expenses significantly in an attempt to help return our company to profitability. These actions include a reduction in personnel; closing offices in geographic locations where our expenses have continued to outpace our revenue; and reducing other expenditures. To date, the reduction in expenses has not been sufficient to ensure that we can meet our ongoing cash needs for the foreseeable future. In addition, there can be no assurance that the reductions we have made are the right reductions for our business going forward. There is a risk that the restructuring, cost cutting initiatives and reduction in personnel will continue to make it more difficult to grow the business and service our customers.

We may not be able to fully utilize our net operating loss (“NOL”) and other tax carryforwards, which may have the effect of devaluing significant deferred tax assets of the company.

As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately $84.6 million of federal NOL carryforwards, $79.9 million of which will begin to expire in 2030 if not used to reduce taxable income. Our ability to utilize NOLs and other tax carryforwards to reduce taxable income in future years could be limited for various reasons, including as a result of one or more ownership changes under Section 382 (“Section 382”) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (“Code”), if future taxable income is insufficient to recognize the full benefit of such NOL carryforwards prior to their expiration and/or if the IRS successfully asserts that a transaction or transactions were concluded with the principal purpose of evasion or avoidance of United States federal income tax. There can be no assurance that we will have sufficient taxable income in later years to enable us to use the NOLs before they expire, or that the IRS will not successfully challenge the use of all or any portion of the NOLs.

Section 382 subjects us to limitations in the use of NOLs if we experience an “ownership change.” For the purposes of Section 382, an ownership change occurs if the aggregate stock ownership of certain stockholders (generally 5% stockholders, applying certain look through and aggregation rules) increases by more than 50% over such stockholders’ lowest percentage ownership during the “testing period”. If an ownership change occurs, we will be limited in our ability to realize a tax benefit from the use of our deferred tax assets, whether or not we are profitable in future years. These consequences include, without limitation, limiting the amount of federal NOL that can be used to offset taxable income to the Section 382 annual limitation. Generally, the annual limitation equals the product of (i) the fair market value of all of our outstanding equity immediately prior to the ownership change, multiplied by (ii) the applicable federal long-term, tax exempt rate.

In addition, if we have a net unrealized built-in gain (generally determined by comparing market capitalization plus total liabilities to the adjusted tax basis of assets) at the time of the ownership change, certain built-in gains recognized within five years after the ownership change (the “recognition period”) may increase the amount of the otherwise available annual limitation. Any such recognized

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built-in gains that are unused may be carried forward to later post-change years. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) Notice 2003-65 provides an approach which treats built-in gain assets of our Company as generating recognized built-in gain each year without regard to whether such assets are not disposed of at a gain during the recognition period. However, in September 2019 the IRS released proposed Section 382 regulations that would eliminate the beneficial provisions of IRS Notice 2003-65. If finalized as proposed, these regulations would limit the increase in the annual Section 382 limitation for recognized built-in gains to those gains that are actually realized through the disposition of built-in gain assets. These regulations have not been finalized but provide for an effective date of 30 days after the final regulations are published. For transactions that have been announced to the public or for which a binding commitment has been entered into when the final regulations are published, the provisions of IRS Notice 2003-65 should still be available.

The unused portion of the recognized built-in gain carries forward to later post-change years. We have not calculated any recognized built-in gain with respect to the potential ownership change but we expect to do so subsequent to such ownership change and would expect to apply for such recognition.

The Protective Provision contained in our certificate of incorporation, which is intended to help preserve the value of certain income tax assets, primarily tax net operating loss carryforwards, may have unintended negative effects.

Pursuant to Code Sections 382 and 383, use of our NOLs may be limited by an “ownership change” as defined under Section 382 of the Code, and the Treasury Regulations thereunder. In order to protect our company’s significant NOLs, we included a provision to protect our NOLs in our certificate of incorporation (the “Protective Provision”).

The Protective Provision is designed to assist us in protecting the long-term value of our accumulated NOLs by limiting certain transfers of our common stock. The Protective Provision’s transfer restrictions generally restrict any direct or indirect transfers (defined to exclude primary offerings of our common stock effected by the company) of the common stock if the effect would be to increase the direct or indirect ownership of our common stock by any person from less than 4.99% to 4.99% or more of our common stock, or increase the percentage of our common stock owned directly or indirectly by a person owning or deemed to own 4.99% or more of our common stock (with percentage ownership determined under applicable United States federal income tax rules). Any direct or indirect transfer attempted in violation of the Protective Provision will be void as of the date of the prohibited transfer as to the purported transferee.

The Protective Provision may have an unintended “anti-takeover” effect because our board of directors may be able to prevent any future takeover. Similarly, any limits on the amount of stock that a shareholder may own could have the effect of making it more difficult for shareholders to replace current management. Additionally, because the Protective Provision may have the effect of restricting a shareholder’s ability to dispose of or acquire our common stock, the liquidity and market value of our common stock might suffer.

We may be adversely affected by inflationary or market fluctuations in the cost of products consumed in providing our services or our cost of labor.

A continued increase in inflation or other market fluctuations could result in increases to the costs to provide our services and products, and we may be unable to pass these costs on to our customers. For example, our cost of labor may be influenced by factors in certain market areas. Our employees could be affected by increases in the federal or state minimum wage rates, wage inflation or local job market adjustments. We do not have a contractual right to automatically pass through all wage rate increases resulting from wage rate inflation or local job market adjustments, and we may be delayed in doing so. Our delay in, or inability to pass such wage increases or other market fluctuations through to our customers could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

If actual results or events differ materially from our estimates and assumptions, our reported financial condition and results of operations for future periods could be materially affected.

The preparation of consolidated financial statements and related disclosure in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles requires management to establish policies that contain estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the

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consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes. Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements this Form 10-K describes the significant accounting policies and estimates essential to preparing our financial statements. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual future results may differ materially from these estimates. We evaluate, on an ongoing basis, our estimates and assumptions.

Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our ability to report our financial results on a timely and accurate basis.

Failure to maintain appropriate and effective internal controls over our financial reporting could result in misstatements in our financial statements and potentially subject us to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, and could cause us to delay the filing of required reports with the SEC and our reporting of financial results. Any of these events could result in a decline in the market price of our common stock. Although we have taken steps to maintain our internal control structure as required, we cannot guarantee that a control deficiency will not result in a misstatement in the future.

Risks Related to Our Business, Products and Operations

Our future business, financial and operating results are substantially dependent on the market acceptance of our products.

We have spent considerable resources, both financially and in our research and development efforts, developing VTL, StorSafe, CDP and NSS. We currently do not have any other products in our pipeline with the same expectations that we had or which we believe have the same potential for market acceptance as VTL, StorSafe, CDP and NSS. If (i) either VTL, StorSafe, CDP and NSS do not gain additional market acceptance, (ii) sales of either VTL, StorSafe, CDP and NSS do not increase, or (iii) the ongoing future feature/functionality sets of both products are delayed, our results may suffer and it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have materially affected and may continue to materially affect how we and our customers are operating our businesses, and the duration and extent to which this will impact our future results of operations and overall financial performance remains uncertain.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we temporarily closed our office locations, introduced remote working for many of our employees that remains in effect, and implemented certain travel restrictions, all of which has caused disruptions to how we operate our business. Our operations have been negatively affected by a range of external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic that are not within our control. Many of our customers are non-essential businesses within the meaning of applicable regulations that have been forced, in some jurisdictions, to temporarily suspend or greatly reduce operations, resulting in a lay off or termination of workers. This has had a direct impact on our revenue, as this results in a decrease in overall product spend by our customers. Additionally, we have shifted certain of our customer events to virtual-only experiences and we may deem it advisable to similarly alter, postpone or cancel entirely additional customer, employee or industry events in the future. The conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected and may continue to affect the rate of IT spending and our customer's ability or willingness to attend our events or to purchase our offerings, our prospective customers' purchasing decisions, our ability to provide on-site consulting services to our customers and the provisioning of our offerings, and may lengthen payment terms, reduce the value or duration of our contracts, or affect attrition rates, all of which has and may continue to adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial information.

We continue to monitor the developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, including actions taken or recommended by governments and other authorities to reduce the spread of the virus and to assess its impact on our business. The future impact of the pandemic on us is uncertain and could have a material adverse impact on inflation, global financial markets, and our results of operations, financial position, and/or liquidity. The extent of the impact will depend on future developments, including actions taken to limit the spread of COVID-19 and the uncertain impact of potential judicial, legislative, and regulatory actions by local, state, and national governmental and regulatory bodies.

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We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.

U.S. and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the escalation of geopolitical tensions and the start of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops was reported. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict is highly unpredictable, the conflict in Ukraine could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions. We are continuing to monitor the situation in Ukraine and globally and assessing its potential impact on our business.

Additionally, Russia’s prior annexation of Crimea, recent recognition of two separatist republics in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and subsequent military interventions in Ukraine have led to sanctions and other penalties being levied by the United States, European Union and other countries against Russia, Belarus, the Crimea Region of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, and the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, including agreements to remove certain Russian financial institutions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication payment system. Additional potential sanctions and penalties have also been proposed and/or threatened. Russian military actions and the resulting sanctions could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets, potentially making it more difficult for us to obtain additional funds.

Any of the above mentioned factors could affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results. The extent and duration of the military action, sanctions and resulting market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial. Any such disruptions may also magnify the impact of other risks described in this Form 10-K.

The loss of any of our key personnel could harm our business.

Our success depends upon the continued contributions of our key employees, many of whom would be extremely difficult to replace. We do not have key person life insurance on any of our personnel, and worldwide competition for skilled employees in the network storage software industry is intense. In particular, our success is dependent on our executive management team, including Todd Brooks, our Chief Executive Officer. If we are unable to retain existing employees or hire and integrate new employees, our business, financial condition and operating results could suffer.

Due to the uncertain and shifting development of the data protection and network storage software markets and our reliance on our partners, we may have difficulty accurately predicting revenue for future periods and appropriately budgeting for expenses.

The rapidly evolving nature of the data protection and network storage software markets in which we sell our products, the degrees of effort and success of our partners’ sales and marketing efforts, and other factors that are beyond our control, reduce our ability to accurately forecast our quarterly and annual revenue. However, we must use our forecasted revenue to establish our expense budget. Most of our expenses are fixed in the short term or incurred in advance of anticipated revenue. As a result, we may not be able to decrease our expenses in a timely manner to offset any shortfall in revenue.

If we are unable to develop new products that achieve acceptance in the data protection and the network storage software markets, our operating results may suffer.

The data protection and the network storage software markets continue to evolve and as a result there is continuing demand for new products. Accordingly, we may need to develop new products that address additional data protection or network storage software market segments and emerging technologies to remain competitive in the data storage software industry. We are uncertain whether we will successfully qualify new data protection or network storage software products with our customers by meeting customer performance and quality specifications. Any failure to address additional market segments could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

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Our products must conform to industry standards in order to be accepted by customers in our markets.

Our current products are only one part of a storage system. All components of these systems must comply with the same industry standards in order to operate together efficiently. We depend on companies that provide other components of these systems to conform to industry standards. Some industry standards may not be widely adopted or implemented uniformly, and competing standards may emerge that may be preferred by OEM customers or end users. If other providers of components do not support the same industry standards as we do, or if competing standards emerge, our products may not achieve market acceptance and we may be required to invest considerable resources to shifting our products to meet such industry standards, either of which could adversely affect our business.

Our products handle mission-critical data for our end-customers and are highly technical in nature. If our products have defects, failures occur or end-customer data is lost or corrupted, our reputation and business could be harmed.

Our products are highly technical and complex and are involved in storing and replicating mission-critical data for our end-customers. Our products may contain undetected defects and failures when they are first introduced or as new versions are released. We have in the past and may in the future discover software errors in new versions of our existing products, new products or product enhancements after their release or introduction, which could result in lost revenue. Despite testing by us and by current and potential end-customers, errors might not be found in new releases or products until after commencement of commercial shipments, resulting in loss of or delay in market acceptance. Our products may have security vulnerabilities and be subject to intentional attacks by viruses that seek to take advantage of these bugs, errors or other weaknesses. If defects or failures occur in our products, a number of negative effects in our business could result, including:

Because our end-customers use our products to manage and protect their data, we could face claims resulting from any loss or corruption of our end-customers’ data due to a product defect. While our sales contracts contain provisions relating to warranty disclaimers and liability limitations, these provisions might not be upheld. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, is costly and may divert management’s attention from our business and could result in public perception that our products are not effective, even if the occurrence is unrelated to the use of our products. In addition, our business liability insurance coverage might not be adequate to cover such claims. If any data is lost or corrupted in connection with the use or support of our products, our reputation could be harmed and market acceptance of our products could suffer.

We rely on our resellers and our OEM partners for most of our sales.

The vast majority of our sales to end users come from sales by our resellers and by our OEM partners. These resellers and OEM partners have limited resources and sales forces and sell many different products, both in the data protection and the network storage software markets and in other markets. The resellers and OEM partners may choose to focus their sales efforts on other products in the data protection and the network storage software markets or other markets. The OEM partners might also choose not to continue to develop or to market products which include our products. This would likely result in lower revenue to us and would impede our ability to grow our business.

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The failure of our resellers to sell our products effectively could have a material adverse effect on our revenue and results of operations.

We rely significantly on our MSPs, value-added resellers, direct market resellers, systems integrators and corporate resellers, which we collectively refer to as resellers, for the marketing and distribution of our software products and our services. However, our agreements with resellers are generally not exclusive, are generally renewable annually and in many cases may be terminated by either party without cause. Many of our resellers carry products that are competitive with ours. These resellers may give a higher priority to other products, including those of our competitors, or may not continue to carry our products at all. If a number of resellers were to discontinue or reduce the sales of our products, or were to promote our competitors’ products in lieu of ours, it would have a material adverse effect on our future revenue. Events or occurrences of this nature could seriously harm our sales and results of operations. In addition, we expect that a significant portion of our sales growth will depend upon our ability to identify and attract new reseller partners. The use of resellers is an integral part of our distribution network. We believe that our competitors also use reseller arrangements. Our competitors may be more successful in attracting reseller partners and could enter into exclusive relationships with resellers that make it difficult to expand our reseller network. Any failure on our part to expand our network of resellers could impair our ability to grow revenue in the future.

Our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties.

Our future growth will depend on our ability to enter into successful strategic relationships with third parties. For example, our strategic relationships with DSI, Fujitsu and Hitachi Vantara are intended to enhance their software stack in order to offer data movement and protection services on their platform. In addition, we work with global distributors to streamline and grow our sales channel. These relationships may not result in additional customers or enable us to generate significant revenue. These relationships are typically non-exclusive and do not prohibit the other party from working with our competitors or from offering competing services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with these third parties, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our revenue could be impaired and our operating results could suffer.

We rely on channel partners to sell our solutions, and disruptions to, or our failure to develop and manage our channel partners would harm our business.

Our future success is partially dependent upon establishing and maintaining successful relationships with the right channel partners. A majority of our revenue is generated by sales through our channel partners, and we expect channel sales to continue to make up the majority of our total revenue in the future. Accordingly, our revenue is largely dependent on the effective sales and lead generation activities of these channel partners.

Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners and training them in our technology and product offerings requires significant time and resources. In order to develop and expand our distribution channel, we must continue to scale and improve our processes and procedures that support our channel, including investment in systems and training. Those processes and procedures may become increasingly complex and difficult to manage as we grow our organization. We have no minimum purchase commitments from any of our channel partners, and our contracts with these channel partners do not prohibit them from offering products or services that compete with ours. Our competitors may provide incentives to existing and potential channel partners to favor their products or to prevent or reduce sales of our solutions. Our channel partners may choose not to offer our solutions exclusively or at all. Establishing relationships with channel partners who have a history of selling our competitors’ products may also prove to be difficult. In addition, some of our channel partners are also competitors. Our failure to establish and maintain successful relationships with channel partners would harm our business and operating results.

We face intense competition in our market, especially from larger, well-established companies, and we may lack sufficient financial or other resources to maintain or improve our competitive position.

A number of very large corporations have historically dominated the data management market. We consider our primary competitors to be companies that provide enterprise storage products, including Dell Inc., Hitachi Vantara, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, CommVault, DataCore and Nexenta. We also compete to a lesser extent with a number of other private companies and certain other well-established companies. Some of our competitors have made acquisitions of businesses that allow them to offer more directly

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competitive and comprehensive solutions than they had previously offered. In addition, the emergence of cloud computing and software-defined-storage may impact both short-term and long-term growth patterns in the markets in which we compete. We expect to encounter new competitors domestically and internationally as other companies enter our market or if we enter new markets.

Many of our existing competitors have, and some of our potential competitors could have, substantial competitive advantages such as:

Our ability to sell our products is highly dependent on the quality of our services offerings, and our failure to offer high quality support and professional services would have a material adverse effect on our sales of our products and results of operations.

Our services include the assessment and design of solutions to meet our customers’ data protection and storage management requirements and the efficient installation and deployment of our products based on specified business objectives. Further, once our products are deployed, our customers depend on us to resolve issues relating to our products. A high level of service is critical for the successful marketing and sale of our software. If our partners or we do not effectively install or deploy our applications, or succeed in helping our customers quickly resolve post-deployment issues, it would adversely affect our ability to sell software products to existing customers and could harm our reputation with potential customers. As a result, our failure to maintain high quality support and professional services would have a material adverse effect on our sales of our products and results of operations.

Failure to achieve anticipated growth could harm our business and operating results.

Achieving our anticipated growth will depend on a number of factors, some of which include retention of key management, marketing and technical personnel, our ability to increase our customer base and to increase the sales of our products; and competitive conditions in the network storage infrastructure software market. We cannot assure you that the anticipated growth will be achieved. The failure to achieve anticipated growth could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

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Adverse economic conditions or reduced IT spending may adversely impact our business.

Our business depends on the overall demand for IT and on the economic health of our current and prospective customers. In general, worldwide economic conditions remain unstable, and these conditions make it difficult for our current and prospective customers and us to forecast and plan future business activities accurately, and they could cause our customers or prospective customers to reevaluate their decision to purchase our products or services. Also, global or national health concerns, including the outbreak of pandemic or contagious disease such as the recent coronavirus outbreak, can negatively impact the global economy and demand for our services. Weak global economic conditions, or a reduction in IT spending even if economic conditions improve, could adversely impact our business and operating results in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, lower prices for our products, reduced bookings and lower or no growth.

Our future quarterly results may fluctuate significantly, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Our previous results are not necessarily indicative of our future performance and our future quarterly results may fluctuate significantly. Our future performance will depend on many factors, including:

Many of our expenses are relatively fixed and difficult to reduce or modify. As a result, the fixed nature of our expenses will magnify any adverse effect of a decrease in revenue on our operating results.

The ability to predict our future effective tax rates could impact our ability to accurately forecast future earnings.

We are subject to income taxes in both the United States and the various foreign jurisdictions in which we operate. Judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes and there are many transactions and calculations where the tax determination may be uncertain. Our future effective tax rates could be affected by changes in our (i) earnings or losses; (ii) changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets; (iii) changes in tax laws; and (iv) other factors. Our ability to correctly predict our future effective tax rates based upon these possible changes could significantly impact our forecasted earnings.

Our business could be materially affected as a result of a natural disaster, terrorist acts, or other catastrophic events.

While our facilities contain redundant power supplies and generators, our domestic and foreign operations, and the operations of our industry partners, remain susceptible to fire, floods, power loss, power shortages, telecommunications failures, break-ins and similar events. Terrorist actions domestically or abroad could lead to business disruptions or to cancellations of customer orders or a general decrease in corporate spending on information technology, or could have direct impact on our marketing, administrative or financial functions and our financial condition could suffer. We continually look for alternatives to help mitigate any supply chain disruptions due to natural disasters, terrorist acts or other catastrophic events, including public health epidemics such as the recent outbreak of coronavirus, first identified in China. However, our failure to mitigate these supply chain disruptions could impact our ability to procure and deliver products to our customers, which could adversely impact our overall financial condition.

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We are dependent on a variety of IT and telecommunications systems, and any failure of these systems could adversely impact our business and operating results.

We depend on IT and telecommunications systems for our operations. These systems support a variety of functions including order processing, shipping, shipment tracking, billing, support center and internal information exchange. Failures or significant downtime of our IT or telecommunications systems could prevent us from taking customer orders, shipping products, billing customers, handling support calls, or communication among our offices. The Internet and individual websites have experienced a number of disruptions and slowdowns, some of which were caused by organized attacks. In addition, some websites have experienced security breakdowns. If we were to experience a security breakdown, disruption or breach that compromised sensitive information, it could harm our relationship with our customers. Our support centers are dependent upon telephone and data services provided by third party telecommunications service vendors and our IT and telecommunications system. Any significant increase in our IT and telecommunications costs or temporary or permanent loss of our IT or telecommunications systems could harm our relationships with our customers. The occurrence of any of these events could have an adverse effect on our operations and financial results.

United States government export restrictions could impede our ability to sell our software to certain end users.

Certain of our products enable end user to encrypt data. The United States, through the Bureau of Industry Security, places restrictions on the export of certain encryption technology. These restrictions may include: the requirement to have a license to export the technology; the requirement to have software licenses approved before export is allowed; and outright bans on the licensing of certain encryption technology to particular end users or to all end users in a particular country. As a result, certain of our products are subject to various levels of export restrictions, which could negatively impact our business.

The international nature of our business could have an adverse effect on our operating results.

We sell our products worldwide. Accordingly, our operating results could be materially adversely affected by various factors including regulatory, political, or economic conditions in a specific country or region, trade protection measures and other regulatory requirements, and acts of terrorism and international conflicts. Additional risks inherent in our international business activities generally include, among others, longer accounts receivable payment cycles, difficulties in managing international operations, decreased flexibility in matching workforce needs as compared with the U.S., and potentially adverse tax consequences. Such factors could materially adversely affect our future international sales and, consequently, our operating results.

Foreign currency fluctuations may impact our revenue.

Our licenses and services in Japan are sold in Yen. Many of our licenses and services in Australia, Canada, and in Europe are sold in Australian dollars, Canadian dollars and European Monetary Units (or Euros), respectively. Changes in economic or political conditions globally and in any of the countries in which we operate could result in exchange rate movements, new currency or exchange controls or other restrictions being imposed on our operations.

Fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar may adversely affect our results of operations. Because our consolidated financial results are reported in U.S. dollars, translation of sales or earnings generated in other currencies into U.S. dollars can result in a significant increase or decrease in the reported amount of those sales or earnings. Significant changes in the value of these foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.

Fluctuations in currencies relative to currencies in which our earnings are generated make it more difficult to perform period- to-period comparisons of our reported results of operations. For purposes of accounting, the assets and liabilities of our foreign operations, where the local currency is the functional currency, are translated using period-end exchange rates, and the revenue, expenses and cash flows of our foreign operations are translated using average exchange rates during each period.

In addition to currency translation risks, we incur currency transaction risk whenever we enter into either a purchase or a sales transaction using a currency other than the local currency of the transacting entity. Given the volatility of exchange rates, we cannot be assured we will be able to effectively manage our currency transaction and/or translation risks. Volatility in currency exchange rates may have a material effect on our financial condition or results of operations. Currency exchange rate fluctuations have not, in the past,

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resulted in a material impact on earnings. However, we may experience at times in the future an impact on earnings as a result of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, our business will suffer.

Our success is dependent upon our proprietary technology. We have thirty-seven patents and patent applications, numerous trademarks registered and multiple pending trademark applications related to our products. We cannot predict whether we will receive patents for our pending or future patent applications, and any patents that we own or that are issued to us may be invalidated, circumvented or challenged. In addition, the laws of certain countries in which we sell our products, including various countries in Asia, may not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States.

We also rely on trade secret, copyright and trademark laws, as well as the confidentiality and other restrictions contained in our respective sales contracts and confidentiality agreements to protect our proprietary rights. These legal protections afford only limited protection and if we are unable to protect our intellectual property our business and operating results may suffer.

FalconStor generally enters into confidentiality or license agreements with employees, consultants, and corporate partners and generally controls access to and distribution of its software, documentation, and other proprietary information. Despite the Company’s efforts to protect its proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use FalconStor’s products or technology. Monitoring unauthorized use of FalconStor’s products is difficult, and there can be no assurance that the steps FalconStor has taken will prevent misappropriation of its technology, particularly in foreign countries where laws may not protect its proprietary rights as fully as do the laws of the United States.

Our efforts to protect our intellectual property may cause us to become involved in costly and lengthy litigation, which could seriously harm our business.

In recent years, there has been significant litigation in the United States involving patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights. Any litigation, regardless of its outcome, would likely be time consuming and expensive to resolve and would divert management’s time and attention and might subject us to significant liability for damages or invalidate our intellectual property rights. Any potential intellectual property litigation against us could force us to take specific actions (any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business), including:

Cyber-attacks and breaches could cause operational disruptions, fraud or theft of sensitive information.

Aspects of our operations are reliant upon internet-based activities, such as ordering supplies and back-office functions such as accounting and transaction processing, making and accepting payments, processing payroll and other administrative functions, etc. Although we have taken measures to protect our technology systems and infrastructure, including employee education programs regarding cybersecurity, a breach of the security surrounding these functions could result in operational disruptions, theft or fraud, or exposure of sensitive information to unauthorized parties. Such events could result in additional costs related to operational inefficiencies, or damages, claims or fines.

Developments limiting the availability of Open Source software could impact our ability to deliver products and could subject us to costly litigation.

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Many of our products are designed to include software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties, including “Open Source” software. At least one intellectual property rights holder has alleged that it holds the rights to software traditionally viewed as Open Source. In addition, United States courts have not interpreted the terms of many open source licenses, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our appliances. We could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our software, to re-engineer our software, to discontinue the sale of our software in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis or to litigate any disputes relating to our use of open source software, any of which could harm our business. There can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on acceptable terms, if at all. The inability to obtain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain such licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Moreover, the inclusion in our products of software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties on a nonexclusive basis could limit our ability to protect our proprietary rights in our products.

Risks Related to Our Capitalization

Our redemption obligation under the Series A Preferred Stock and indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health.

Our redemption obligation and indebtedness could have important consequences to you. For example, it could:

In addition, the terms of the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement contain restrictive covenants that limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our long-term best interests which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or prospects.

To service our indebtedness, we will require a significant amount of cash. Our ability to generate cash depends on many factors beyond our control. As such, we may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service the Term Notes or our other indebtedness, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.

Our ability to make payments on and to refinance the term notes under our Amended and Restated Loan Agreement, (the “Term Notes”) to fund planned capital expenditures, maintain sufficient working capital and fund any redemption of our Series A Preferred Stock will depend on our ability to generate cash in the future. Our ability to generate cash is, to a certain extent, subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control.

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We cannot assure you that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations or future borrowings from other sources in an amount sufficient to enable us to service our obligations under the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement or our Series A Preferred Stock, or to fund our other liquidity needs. If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to allow us to make scheduled payments on our indebtedness, we may need to reduce or delay expenditures, sell assets, seek additional capital, restructure or refinance the Term Notes, on or before the maturity thereof or seek a waiver of any redemption rights under our Series A Preferred Stock, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operations. We cannot assure you that we will be able to refinance the Term Notes, on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that the terms of that indebtedness will allow any of the above alternative measures or that these measures would satisfy our scheduled debt service obligations. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to repay or refinance our debt on favorable terms, it could significantly adversely affect our financial condition, and our ability to make any required cash payments under our Term Notes or fund any redemption of our Series A Preferred Stock. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at that time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. In addition, any future credit facility may be secured by a priority lien on substantially all of our assets. As such, our ability to refinance our Term Notes or seek additional financing could be impaired as a result of such security interest.

We are subject to a number of covenants and other conditions, which may restrict our business and financing activities.

The Amended and Restated Loan Agreement has customary representations, warranties and affirmative and negative covenants. The Amended and Restated Loan Agreement also contains customary events of default, including but not limited to payment defaults, cross defaults with certain other indebtedness, breaches of covenants, bankruptcy events and a change of control. In the case of an event of default, as administrative agent under the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement, HCP-FVA may (and upon the written request of lenders holding in excess of 50% of the Term Loan, which must include HCP-FVA, is required to) accelerate payment of all obligations under the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement, and seek other available remedies.

The restrictions in the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement may prevent us from taking actions that we believe would be in the best interests of our business, and may make it difficult for us to successfully execute our business strategy or effectively compete with companies that are not similarly restricted. In addition, our ability to comply with the financial and other covenants and restrictions in the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement will largely depend on the pricing of our products and services, and our ability to successfully implement our overall business strategy. We cannot assure you that we will be granted waivers or amendments to the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement if for any reason we are unable to comply with these covenants and restrictions. The breach of any of these covenants and restrictions could result in a default under the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement, which could result in an acceleration of our indebtedness.

The likelihood of a change of control in our company could be impacted by the fact that we have a significant amount of authorized but unissued preferred stock, protective provisions in our charter, outstanding Series A Preferred Stock, a staggered board of directors and change of control agreements as well as certain provisions under Delaware law.

Our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our common stockholders, to issue up to an additional 1,100,000 shares of preferred stock on such terms and with such rights, preferences and designations, including, without limitation restricting dividends on our common stock, dilution of the voting power of our common stock and impairing the liquidation rights of the holders of our common stock, as the board may determine without any vote of our common stockholders. Issuance of such preferred stock, depending upon the rights, preferences and designations thereof may have the effect of delaying, deterring or preventing a change in control. Moreover, our outstanding Series A Preferred Stock provides the holders with certain rights in the event of a merger with a third party and if we are unable to redeem the Series A Preferred Stock prior to June 30, 2024 or if the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock elect to exercise their rights to require us to redeem the Series A Preferred Stock due to our failure to comply with the financial covenants covering the Series A Preferred Stock.

As discussed above, our certificate of incorporation includes certain provisions that restrict transfers of our common stock in order to protect our NOLs if the effect of such transfers would be to increase the direct or indirect ownership of stockholders from less than 4.99% to 4.99% or more of our common stock, or increase the ownership percentage of stockholders owning 4.99% or more of our

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common stock. Certain “anti-takeover” provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, among other things, may also restrict the ability of our stockholders to authorize a merger, business combination or change of control. Further, we have a staggered board of directors and have entered into change of control agreements through employment agreements with certain executives. In addition, proceeds received upon a change of control will generally be used first to repay outstanding principal and interest on the Term Loan and then to the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock, prior to the holders of the common stock, in an amount equal to the amount of unpaid principal and interest on the Term Loan and 100% of the stated value plus accrued and unpaid dividends with respect to the Series A Preferred Stock. As a result of the foregoing, our stockholders may lose opportunities to dispose of their shares at favorable prices generally available in takeover attempts or that may be available under a merger proposal, and the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of our stockholders may also be affected.

The conversion and exercise of our outstanding securities and the anticipated grant of restricted stock to our employees will dilute the then-existing stockholders’ percentage ownership of our common stock.

As of December 31, 2022, we have outstanding options to purchase 4,615 shares of our common stock, an aggregate of 1,316,933 outstanding unvested restricted shares and outstanding Series A Preferred Stock convertible into 87,815 shares of our common stock. Additionally, as of December 31, 2022, we have 68,148 shares of common stock that are potentially issuable as accumulated dividends with respect to the Series A Preferred Stock.

The exercise of all of the outstanding warrants, options and/or the vesting of all outstanding restricted shares, the conversion of our outstanding Series A Preferred Stock into common stock, the payment of dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock through the issuance of common stock and/or the grant and exercise of additional options and/or the grant and vesting of restricted stock and restricted stock units to our employees would dilute the then-existing stockholders’ percentage ownership of common stock, and any sales in the public market of the common stock issuable upon such exercise could adversely affect prevailing market prices for the common stock. Moreover, the terms upon which we would be able to obtain additional equity capital could be adversely affected because the holders of such securities can be expected to exercise or convert them at a time when we would, in all likelihood, be able to obtain any needed capital on terms more favorable than those provided by such securities.

There may be a limited public market for our securities; we presently fail to qualify for listing on any national securities exchanges.

Trading in our common stock is conducted in the over-the-counter market. In addition, we currently fail to qualify for listing on either the NASDAQ Capital Market or the NYSE American. As a result, an investor may find it difficult to dispose of or to obtain accurate quotations as to the market value of our common stock, and our common stock may be less attractive for margin loans, for investment by larger financial institutions, as consideration in possible future acquisition transactions or other purposes.

Our stock price may be volatile.

The market price of our common stock has been volatile in the past and may be volatile in the future. For example, during the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, the closing market price of our common stock as quoted on the OTC MKTS fluctuated between $0.50 and $3.90 and recently the closing trading price has been $0.82. The market price of our common stock may be significantly affected by the following factors:

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The stock market has experienced extreme volatility that often has been unrelated to the performance of particular companies. These market fluctuations may cause our stock price to fall regardless of our performance.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, or if our actual results differ significantly from our guidance, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

In addition, from time to time, we may release earnings guidance or other forward-looking statements in our earnings releases, earnings conference calls or otherwise regarding our future performance that represent our management’s estimates as of the date of release. Some or all of the assumptions of any future guidance that we furnish may not materialize or may vary significantly from actual future results. Any failure to meet guidance or analysts’ expectations could have a material adverse effect on the trading price or volume of our stock.

Our agreements with the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and/or the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement contain covenants that could limit our ability to obtain financing using our equity. In addition, if we engage in future financings, we may have to use the proceeds to redeem the preferred stock held by such holders. This could cause us to have difficulty in obtaining capital necessary to run our business.

Our agreements with the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement give such holders and lenders, as applicable, consent rights over certain future financings, Because of these covenants, if we determine that we are in need of additional capital, we will require the prior consent of the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and the lenders party to the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement to do so. In addition, our agreements with the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock provide that if, at the time of certain future debt or equity financings, the proceeds of which exceed $5 million, the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock still have outstanding Series A Preferred Stock, then we must offer to repurchase their Series A Preferred Stock. The holders of the Series A Preferred Stock have the right to accept the offer or to retain their Series A Preferred Stock. If we do a financing, and the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock elect to have their Series A Preferred Stock repurchased, then the capital raised in excess of $5 million will go to repurchase the holders’ Series A Preferred Stock, instead of being able to be used for our business.

Our agreements with the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement prevent us from undertaking certain transactions or incurring certain indebtedness without such holders’ consent or unless the Series A Preferred Stock held by such holders is repurchased and/or the Term Loan is repaid. This could hurt our ability to sell underperforming assets or lines of business or to obtain financing.

Our agreements with the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and the Amended and Restated Loan Agreement prevent us from undertaking certain transactions or incurring certain debt without such holders’ consent or unless the Series A Preferred Stock held by such holders’ is repurchased and/or the Term Loan is repaid. These transactions include, but are not limited to:

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This could limit our ability to sell off underperforming assets or business lines. It could also prevent us from obtaining financing we may need to run or to grow our business.

The holders of the Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock they hold. Depending on whether these dividends are paid in cash or stock, the payment of these dividends will either decrease cash that is available to us to invest in our business or dilute the holdings of all other stockholders.

Our agreements with the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock provide that such holders will receive quarterly dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock at prime rate plus 5%, subject to a maximum dividend rate of 10%. We also have the ability to accrue and roll over dividends. Due to the lack of sufficient surplus to pay dividends as required by the Delaware General Corporation Law, we were not permitted to pay the fourth quarter 2016 dividend in cash or common stock and have been accruing the quarterly dividends since then. As of December 31, 2022, the Company’s liability for dividends to the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock totaled $7.0 million. While the Term Loan is outstanding, we are only permitted to pay in-kind dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock. If in the future we pay cash dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock, it will reduce the cash that we have available to invest in our business. There can be no assurance that we will have enough cash to pay future dividends in cash. If future dividends are paid in kind, it will dilute the holdings of all other stockholders.

The potential concentration of equity ownership by Hale Capital and ESW Capital LLC may limit your ability to influence corporate matters.

Hale Capital currently owns approximately 50.6% of our outstanding common stock and ESW currently owns approximately 18.1% of our outstanding common stock. In addition, the beneficial ownership of Hale Capital and ESW Capital LLC is higher when calculated in accordance with Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act due to their ownership of derivative securities. In addition, Hale Capital and ESW have additional rights through their ownership of Series A Preferred Stock and their holdings of Company debt.

Such ownership could enable Hale Capital and ESW to exert significant influence over all corporate activities, including the election or removal of directors and the outcome of tender offers, mergers, proxy contests or other purchases of common stock that could give our stockholders the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price for their shares of common stock. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our stockholders do not view as beneficial. In addition, such concentrated control could discourage others from initiating changes of control. In such cases, the perception of our prospects in the market may be adversely affected and the market price of our common stock may decline.

Unknown Factors

Additional risks and uncertainties of which we are unaware or which currently we deem immaterial also may become important factors that affect us.