We have recently and may in the future make acquisitions. If we fail to successfully select, execute or integrate our acquisitions, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
On December 1, 2022, we entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire certain assets from Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH. We expended significant management time and effort, as well as capital, identifying, evaluating, negotiating, and executing this transaction and, since the closing of the acquisition on January 31, 2023, we have invested additional time and capital working to integrate our new Hamburg- and Detroit-based teams and operations. We cannot guarantee that these integration efforts will be successful, that the goals of the acquisition will be realized, or that the increase to our operating expenses or cash requirements will be manageable.
In the future, we may again undertake acquisitions to add new products and technologies, acquire talent, gain new sales channels or enter into new markets or sales territories. In addition to possible stockholder approval, we may need approvals and licenses from relevant government authorities for the acquisitions and to comply with any applicable laws and regulations, which could result in increased delay and costs, and may disrupt our business strategy if we fail to do so. Furthermore, acquisitions and the subsequent integration of new assets, businesses, key personnel, customers, vendors and suppliers require significant attention from our management and could result in a diversion of resources from our existing business, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our operations. Acquired assets or businesses may not generate the financial results we expect. Acquisitions could result in the use of substantial amounts of cash, potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities, the occurrence of significant goodwill impairment charges, amortization expenses for other intangible assets and exposure to potential unknown liabilities of the acquired business. Moreover, the costs of identifying and consummating acquisitions may be significant.
Before our acquisition of assets from Ibeo, we had no experience with acquisitions or the integration of acquired technology and personnel. Failure to successfully identify, complete, manage and integrate acquisitions could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and could cause our stock price to decline.
Our suppliers’ facilities could be damaged or disrupted by a natural disaster or labor strike, either of which would materially affect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
A major catastrophe, such as an earthquake, monsoon, flood, infectious disease including the COVID-19 virus, or other natural disaster, labor strike, or work stoppage at our suppliers’ facilities or our customers, could result in a prolonged interruption of our business. A disruption resulting from any one of these events could cause significant delays in product shipments and the loss of sales and customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.
If we are unable to obtain effective intellectual property protection for our products, processes and technology, we may be unable to compete with other companies.
Intellectual property protection for our products, processes and technology is important and uncertain. If we do not obtain effective intellectual property protection for our products, processes and technology, we may be subject to increased competition. Our commercial success will depend, in part, on our ability to maintain the proprietary nature of our key technologies by securing valid and enforceable patents and effectively maintaining unpatented technology as trade secrets.
We protect our proprietary technology by seeking to obtain United States and foreign patents in our name, or licenses to third party patents, related to proprietary technology, inventions, and improvements that may be important to the development of our business. However, our patent position involves complex legal and factual questions. The standards that the United States Patent and Trademark Office and its foreign counterparts use to grant patents are not always applied predictably or uniformly and can change.
Additionally, the scope of patents is subject to interpretation by courts and their validity can be subject to challenges and defenses, including challenges and defenses based on the existence of prior art. Consequently, we cannot be certain as to the extent to which we will be able to obtain patents for our new products and technology or the extent to which the patents that we already own, protect our products and technology. Reduction in scope of protection or invalidation of our licensed or owned patents, or our inability to obtain new patents, may enable other companies to develop products that compete directly with ours on the basis of the same or similar technology.
We also rely on the law of trade secrets to protect unpatented know-how and technology to maintain our competitive position. We try to protect this know-how and technology by limiting access to the trade secrets to those of our employees, contractors and partners, with a need-to-know such information and by entering into confidentiality agreements with parties that have access to it, such as our employees, consultants and business partners. Any of these parties could breach the agreements and disclose our trade secrets or confidential information, or our competitors might learn of the information in some other way. If any trade secret not protected by a patent were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position could be negatively affected.
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