UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-Q
For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2005
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 0-51063
ARBINET-THEXCHANGE, INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
(State or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation or Organization)
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (732) 509-9100
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. Yes x No: ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.) Yes ¨ No: x
Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the Registrant’s classes of common stock, as of April 30, 2005:
Class
Number of Shares
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I.FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1.
Item 2.
Item 3.
Item 4.
PART II.OTHER INFORMATION
Item 6.
SIGNATURES
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PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1. Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited)
ARBINET-THEXCHANGE, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
March 31,
2005
Current Assets:
Cash and cash equivalents
Marketable securities
Trade accounts receivable (net of allowances of $900,000 and $800,000 at December 31, 2004 and March 31, 2005, respectively)
Other current assets
Total current assets
Property and equipment, net
Intangible assets, net
Goodwill
Other assets
Total Assets
Current Liabilities:
Loan payable and capital lease obligations-current portion
Accounts payable
Deferred revenue
Accrued expenses and other current liabilities
Total current liabilities
Loan payable and capital lease obligations—long-term
Other long-term liabilities
Total Liabilities
Stockholders’ Equity
Preferred Stock, 5,000,000 shares authorized
Common Stock, $0.001 par value, 60,000,000 shares authorized, 24,584,574 and 24,604,665 shares issued, respectively
Additional paid-in capital
Treasury stock, 68,673 shares
Deferred compensation
Accumulated other comprehensive loss
Accumulated deficit
Total Stockholders’ Equity
Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
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CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED MARCH 31, 2004 AND 2005
Trading revenues
Fee revenues
Total revenues
Cost of trading revenues
Costs and expenses
Operations and development
Sales and marketing
General and administrative
Depreciation and amortization
Total costs and expenses
Income from operations
Interest income
Interest expense (including $417,510 and –0- of interest on redeemable preferred stock for the three months ended March 31, 2004 and 2005, respectively)
Other income (expense), net
Income before income taxes
Provision for income taxes
Net income
Preferred stock dividends and accretion
Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders
Basic net income (loss) per share
Diluted net income (loss) per share
Shares used in computing basic net income (loss) per share
Shares used in computing diluted net income (loss) per share
Pro forma diluted net income per share
Pro forma shares used to compute diluted net income per share
Other comprehensive income (loss):
Foreign currency translation adjustment
Comprehensive (loss) income
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CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Amortization of deferred compensation
Non-cash interest on redeemable preferred stock
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Trade accounts receivable, net
Deferred revenue, accrued expenses and other current liabilities
Net cash provided by operating activities
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Purchases of property and equipment
Purchases of marketable securities
Net cash used in investing activities
CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
Issuance (repayment) of indebtedness, net
Issuance of common stock
Loans made to stockholders, net of repayments
Net payments on obligations under capital leases
Net cash used in financing activities
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash
Net (decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of year
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period
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NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
1. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Arbinet and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All material intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements of the Company have been prepared in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), consistent in all material respects with those applied in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004. Interim financial reporting does not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. The interim financial information is unaudited, but reflects all normal adjustments that are, in the opinion of management, necessary to provide a fair statement of results for the interim periods presented. Operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2005 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2005.
Reclassifications
Certain amounts in the comparative periods have been reclassified to conform to the current period’s presentation.
Effects of Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
In December 2004, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) issued Statement No. 123 (revised 2004), Share-Based Payment, which is a revision of FASB Statement No. 123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation. Statement 123(R) supersedes APB Opinion No. 25, Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees, and amends FASB Statement No. 95, Statement of Cash Flows. Statement 123(R) requires all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options, to be recognized in the financial statements based on their fair values. Historically, in accordance with SFAS 123 and SFAS 148, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation—Transition and Disclosure, the Company had elected to follow the disclosure only provisions of Statement No. 123 and, accordingly, continues to account for share based compensation under the recognition and measurement principles of APB Opinion No. 25 and related interpretations. Under APB 25, when stock options are issued with an exercise price equal to the market price of the underlying stock price on the date of grant, no compensation expense is recognized in the financial statements, and compensation expense is only disclosed in the footnotes to the financial statements. The Company will be required to adopt Statement No. 123(R) no later than the quarter beginning January 1, 2006. Since the Company is currently in the process of evaluating the option valuation methods and adoption transition alternatives available under Statement 123(R), it has not yet determined the impact Statement 123(R) will have on its consolidated results of operations, financial position and cash flows.
2. STOCK BASED COMPENSATION
The Company has elected under the provisions of SFAS No. 123, “Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation” (“SFAS No. 123”), to account for its employee stock options in accordance with Accounting Principle Board Opinion No. 25, “Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees” (“APB No. 25”), using an intrinsic value approach to measure compensation expense, if any. Companies that account for stock-based compensation arrangements for its employees under APB No. 25 are required by SFAS No. 123 to disclose the pro forma effect on net income (loss) as if the fair value based method prescribed by SFAS No. 123 had been applied. The Company plans to continue to account for stock-based compensation using the provisions of APB No. 25 and has adopted the disclosure requirements of SFAS No. 123, as amended by SFAS No. 148, “Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation—Transition and Disclosure”.
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Had the compensation cost for the Company’s stock options been determined based on the fair value of the options at the date of grant, the Company’s pro forma net income (loss) would have been as shown below.
Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders, as reported
Add: Stock-based compensation expense as reported
Deduct: Stock-based employee compensation expense determined under fair-value-based method, net of tax
Pro forma net income (loss)
Income (loss) per share:
Basic — as reported
Diluted — as reported
Basic — pro forma
Diluted — pro forma
The fair market value of each option grant for all years presented has been estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model with the following assumptions:
Expected option lives
Risk-free interest rates
Expected volatility
Dividend yield
Earnings Per Share
Basic earnings per share are computed by dividing net income available for common stockholders by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted earnings per share are calculated based on the weighted average number of outstanding common shares plus the dilutive effect of convertible preferred stock, options and warrants as if they were exercised. During a loss period, the effect of the convertible preferred stock and the potential exercise of stock options and warrants was not considered in the diluted earnings per share calculation since it would be antidilutive.
The following is a reconciliation of basic number of common shares outstanding to diluted number of common and common share equivalent shares outstanding:
Basic number of common shares outstanding
Dilutive effect of stock options and warrants
Dilutive number of common and common share equivalents
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The following is a summary of the securities outstanding during the respective periods that have been excluded from the calculations because the effect on earnings per share would have been antidilutive:
Redeemable convertible preferred stock
Stock options
Preferred stock warrants
Common stock warrants
The shares used in calculating the pro forma net income per share assume the conversion of the following mandatorily redeemable convertible preferred shares and warrants outstanding:
Weighted average common shares outstanding
Plus conversion of mandatorily redeemable convertible preferred stock
Total weighted average shares outstanding used in computing pro forma net income per share
Total common stock and common stock equivalents
Pro forma basic net income per share
3. MARKETABLE SECURITIES
Marketable securities have been classified as available-for-sale and are carried at fair value based on quoted market prices. Interest on marketable securities is recognized as income when earned. Realized gains and losses are calculated using specific identification. The fair value of marketable securities at March 31, 2005 approximates cost. All marketable securities at March 31, 2005 have a maturity of one year or less. The following is a summary of marketable securities at March 31, 2005 by type:
Commercial Paper
U.S. Government and federal agency obligations
Less: amounts classified as cash equivalents
Total marketable securities
4. INCOME TAXES
The Company recorded an income tax provision of approximately $91,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2005. The effective tax rate was 6.6%. The difference between the federal statutory tax rate and the effective tax rate is primarily related to the expected utilization of certain of the Company’s net operating loss carryforwards and the impact of state taxes.
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5. RESTRUCTURING CHARGES
During 2001 and 2002, the Company exited two separate facilities and accordingly recorded charges for the future lease obligations, net of estimated sub-lease income. The table below shows the amount of the charges and the cash payments related to those liabilities.
Balance at December 31, 2004
Cash payments
Balance at March 31, 2005
As of March 31, 2005, $0.9 million of the $4.3 million balance is recorded in accrued liabilities and $3.4 million is recorded in other long-term liabilities.
6. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Legal Proceedings
On March 18, 2003, World Access, Inc. f/k/a WAXS, Inc., WA Telcom Products Co., Inc., WorldxChange Communications, Inc., Facilicom International LLC and World Access Telecommunications Group, Inc. f/k/a Cherry Communications Incorporated d/b/a Resurgens Communications Group, or collectively the Debtors, filed a lawsuit against us in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. The Debtors had previously filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The Debtors seek recovery of certain payments they made to us as a buyer on our exchange, which total approximately $855,000. The Debtors claim that such payments were a preferential payment under the Bankruptcy Code. The Debtors also seek costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees and interest. We filed an answer to the complaint on April 18, 2003, denying the Debtors’ claims for relief and asserting several affirmative defenses. On August 12, 2003, we served discovery on the attorneys for World Access and its related entities. Shortly after we served our discovery, the bankruptcy judge entered an order stating that the cases of World Access and its related entities, which had been jointly administered, could not be substantively consolidated. Since then the majority of Debtors’ preference complaints in the case have been continued while the Debtors sort out their administrative problems. In September 2004, the Debtors have confirmed a Plan of Liquidation which created a trust to proceed with liquidating avoidance actions.
On May 27, 2003, we received a demand letter from counsel for Octane Capital Management and its affiliate, Octane Capital Fund I, L.P., or collectively Octane, demanding the right to purchase up to $2.8 million of our shares of series E preferred stock on the same terms as originally set forth in a Securities Purchase Agreement dated as of July 3, 2001. Additionally, the letter demanded the right to convert Octane’s investment in shares of our series D preferred stock into shares of series D-1 preferred stock pursuant to the terms of such purchase agreement. The Octane demand letter also alleged violations of Octane’s rights under a Second Amended and Restated Investors’ Rights Agreement dated as of March 7, 2000, or the Investors’ Rights Agreement, including, among other allegations, the allegation that Octane did not receive proper advance notice of the complete terms of our series E preferred stock offering. On May 28, 2003, we sent notice to all stockholders, including Octane, indicating our plan to defend against these claims.
On September 1, 2004, after no contact with us for over a year, Octane contacted our representatives to renew its demand against us. We responded to Octane’s demand, denying all allegations of wrongdoing.
On December 10, 2004, we received a complaint filed that day by Octane and Amerindo Technology Growth Fund II Inc., or ATGF, another investor of the Company, in the United States District Court for the Southern
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District of New York, entitled Octane Capital Fund, L.L.P. et al. v. Arbinet-thexchange, Inc., Civil Action No. 04-CV-9759 (KMW). Octane and ATGF filed an amended complaint with the court on December 13, 2004, amending and replacing the December 10, 2004 complaint. The amended complaint alleges, among other things, that we breached terms of the Investors’ Rights Agreement by failing to give Octane and ATGF proper advance notice of the complete terms of our series E preferred stock offering. The amended complaint seeks money damages for both Octane and ATGF for the alleged breach of contract. On February 11, 2005, we filed our answer to the amended complaint, denying all liability, and filed counterclaims against Octane and ATGF for, among other claims, breach of the Investors’ Rights Agreement in connection with their conduct seeking additional shares of stock and other relief.
It is our position that Octane waived the right to participate in the Series E Financing and to receive notice from us relating to such offering, and that, in addition, sufficient notice was provided to Octane and ATGF. Prior to the Series E Financing, we received notice from a representative of Octane indicating that Octane was planning not to exercise its rights to participate in the Series E Financing due to its capital constraints. In such notice, Octane did not reference that any potential terms would impact its decision not to participate in the Series E Financing. We believe, however, that sufficient notice of the terms of the Series E Financing was given to Octane and ATGF. In that regard, on June 15, 2001, we sent Octane and ATGF, along with other potential investors, notice of the general terms of the Series E Financing. Consistent with its earlier notice informing us that it did not intend to participate in the Series E Financing, Octane did not respond to this notice and contends that there was no waiver. ATGF did not indicate an interest in participating in the Series E Financing under the terms of the June 15, 2001 notice. The June 15, 2001 notice included a statement that we might change the pre-investment capitalization in order to incent previous investors to purchase series E preferred stock. However, Octane and ATGF allege that the notice was insufficient because it failed to disclose different and more favorable terms ultimately included in the Securities Purchase Agreement dated July 3, 2001.
On May 9, 2005, the plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion to dismiss this case in federal court without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion on the same day. There can be no assurance that the plaintiffs will not file a complaint relating to this matter in another jurisdiction. In such event, there can be no assurance that an adverse result in this litigation will not have a material adverse effect on the Company or its financial position. We intend to defend vigorously against such claims in the event they are brought by Octane or ATGF.
On December 13, 2004, we received a letter from legal counsel to Zarick Schwartz and his company, ATOS, with respect to his alleged intellectual property rights relating to telecommunications operating system technology. Among other matters, Mr. Schwartz and ATOS claimed that Mr. Schwartz is the sole inventor of technology that was subsequently claimed by Arbinet as the subject matter of certain of our patents. Arbinet denies all of the allegations. On December 14, 2004, we reached an agreement with Mr. Schwartz and ATOS to submit this dispute to binding arbitration. The parties have agreed that in the event the arbitrator determines that Mr. Schwartz is in fact the sole inventor of the subject matter claimed in at least one of Arbinet’s patents listed in the December 13, 2004 letter, and the operation of Arbinet’s business comes within the scope of such claim, then Arbinet shall pay Mr. Schwartz or ATOS an aggregate of $1.5 million over five years. In the event the arbitrator determines that Mr. Schwartz is not the sole inventor of the subject matter of any of the listed Arbinet patents, then Arbinet shall pay Mr. Schwartz or ATOS an aggregate of $500,000. Mr. Schwartz released all other claims against Arbinet, other than the inventorship claims to be arbitrated in the binding arbitration. Mr. Schwartz has agreed to assign any and all of his rights in the Arbinet patents, if it is determined that he has any rights, to Arbinet, and Mr. Schwartz will cooperate in executing any documents needed to perfect Arbinet’s interests in its patents worldwide. Each of the parties shall bear its own costs and expenses, including legal fees. Arbinet intends to vigorously defend itself during the arbitration to ensure that inventorship is properly determined.
On May 13, 2005, we received a letter from counsel representing Alex Mashinsky, our founder and a former officer and director, together with a draft complaint and a draft press release, threatening to commence litigation in the Southern District of New York against us, as well as against Communications Ventures III, L.P., one of our shareholders, our Chairman Anthony L. Craig, director Roland A. Van der Meer, and our President, Chief Executive Officer and director J. Curt Hockemeier, if we do not agree to an “amicable settlement” with him. Mashinsky alleges breach of fiduciary duty, self-dealing, fraud, and breach of contract in connection with our Series E preferred stock financing consummated in 2001, asserting over $90 million in damages. According to his correspondence he “is prepared to discuss settlement of this matter at an amount representing a significant discount.” We believe that his allegations are without merit and represent yet another attempt by him to seek financial rewards from us. Contrary to certain of his current allegations, just last year in a loan settlement agreement dated July 9, 2004, Mashinsky acknowledged and agreed that, in June 2001, he had consented to the Series E preferred stock financing. We deny Mashinsky’s claims and, if he commences litigation against us, we intend to vigorously defend against his claims. There can be no assurance that litigation, if brought, or an adverse result in such litigation, if any, will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial position.
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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Overview
We are the leading electronic market for trading, routing and settling communications capacity. Members of our exchange, consisting primarily of communications services providers, buy and sell voice calls and Internet capacity through our centralized, efficient and liquid marketplace. Communications services providers that do not use our exchange generally individually negotiate and buy access to the networks of other communications services providers to send voice calls and Internet capacity outside of their networks. We believe that we provide a cost-effective and efficient alternative to these direct connections. With a single interconnection to our exchange, members have access to all other members’ networks. Members place orders through our easy-to-use web-based interface. Sellers on the exchange post sell orders to offer voice calls and Internet capacity for specific destinations, or routes, at various prices. We independently assess the quality of these routes and include that information in the sell order. Buyers enter buy orders based on route quality and price and are matched to sell orders by our fully automated trading platform and our proprietary software. When a buyer’s order is matched to a seller’s order, the voice calls or Internet capacity are then routed through our state-of-the-art facilities. We invoice and process payments for our members’ transactions and manage the credit risk of buyers primarily through our credit management programs with third parties.
Revenue
We generate revenues from both the trading which members conduct on our exchange, which we refer to as trading revenues, and the fees we charge members for the ability to trade on our exchange, which we refer to as fee revenues. Our trading revenue represents the aggregate dollar value of the calls which are routed through our switches at the price agreed to by the buyer and seller of the capacity. For example, if a 10-minute call is originated in France and routed through our facilities to a destination in India for $0.11 per minute, we record $1.10 of trading revenue for the call. Generally, we do not generate any profit or incur any loss from trading revenues because in most cases we pay the seller the same amount that we charge the buyer. We occasionally offer our members contracts to buy and sell minutes to specific markets at fixed rates. We may generate profit or incur losses associated with trading revenue on these contracts. Historically, this profit or loss has not been material to our operating results. Our system automatically records all traffic terminated through our switches.
We record trading revenues because:
Our fee revenues represent the amounts we charge buyers and sellers for the following:
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Costs and Expenses
Our cost of trading revenues consists of the cost of calls which are routed through our switches at the price agreed to by both the buyer and seller of the capacity. In the preceding example, we would record cost of trading revenues equal to $1.10, an amount which we would pay to the seller.
Operations and development expense consists of costs related to supporting our exchange, such as salaries, benefits, bonuses and related costs of engineering, technical support, product and software development and system support personnel, as well as facilities and interconnect costs. Sales and marketing consists of salaries, benefits, commissions, bonuses and related costs of sales and marketing personnel, trade shows and other marketing activities. General and administrative costs consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses of corporate, finance and administrative personnel, bad debt expense and outside service costs, such as legal and accounting fees.
Business Development
We will continue to seek to increase our trading volume. We aim to achieve this by increasing participation on our exchange from existing members, increasing membership on our exchange, expanding our global presence, developing and marketing complementary services and leveraging our platform to allow the trading, routing and settling of other digital goods, such as Internet capacity. We currently have exchange delivery points, or EDPs in New York, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. We plan to expand our presence in the high-growth markets of Asia through our EDP in Hong Kong and Latin America with a new EDP in Miami, Florida or South America. We can initially establish an EDP in a new market without any additional capital by directly connecting the new EDP to one of our existing EDPs through a leased network, as we have accomplished for our EDPs in Hong Kong and Frankfurt. Once we have sufficient business in a new market, we may install a new switch for the EDP in that market for a cost of approximately $1.0 million. We plan to develop, market and expand services that are complementary to our existing offerings, including enhanced trading, credit and clearing services and switch partitioning. We may not be successful in doing so due to many factors, including the business environment in which we operate.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of our operations are based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these financial statements requires management to make estimates and judgments that affect the amounts reported for assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and the disclosure of contingent liabilities. Our significant accounting policies are more fully described in the Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Form 10-Q and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004.
Our critical accounting policies are those that we believe are both important to the portrayal of our financial condition and results of operations and often involve difficult, subjective or complex judgments, often as a result of the need to make estimates about the effect of matters that are inherently uncertain. Management evaluates these estimates, including those related to bad debts, income taxes, long-lived assets, restructuring, contingencies and litigation on an ongoing basis. The estimates are based on historical experience and on various assumptions about the ultimate outcome of future events. Our actual results may differ from these estimates.
We believe the following critical accounting policies affect our more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements:
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Results of Operations
The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, certain financial data for the three months ended March 31, 2004 and 2005:
Costs and expenses:
Total costs and expenses:
Interest expense
Other income (expense)
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Comparison of Three Months Ended March 31, 2004 and 2005
Trading revenues and cost of trading revenues
Trading revenues increased 15.5% from $107.8 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $124.4 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. The increase in trading revenues was due to both an increase in the volume traded by our members on our exchange and an increase in the number of members trading on our exchange. Specifically, the volume traded by our members increased approximately 28% from the period ended March 31, 2004 to the period ended March 31, 2005. Additionally, the number of members trading on our exchange increased from 302 on March 31, 2004 to 375 on March 31, 2005. As a result of increases in trading revenue, cost of trading revenue increased 15.3% from $107.7 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $124.2 million for the period ended March 31, 2005.
Fee revenues increased 21.6% from $10.1 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $12.3 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. Fee revenues increased as a result of trading revenues increasing 15.5% for the comparable period. During the three months ended March 31, 2005, we offered limited fee discounts to certain high-quality sellers in order to incent those sellers to add supply to certain markets which had higher demand within the exchange. Although we experienced an increase in the volume traded on our exchange, especially in the latter part of the quarter ended March 31, 2005, the fee discounts had a negative impact on our fee revenues for that quarter. Although the majority of these short term incentives ended at March 31, 2005, we may provide incentives to improve liquidity in our exchange in the future.
Operations and development costs increased 19.6% from $3.0 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $3.6 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. This increase was primarily the result of increased rent and related utilities of $0.3 million, increased compensation-related expense of $0.3 million. Most of the increase in compensation-related expenses is the result of increased headcount to support our data business.
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Sales and marketing expenses increased 37.9% from $1.3 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $1.8 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. This increase primarily resulted from ten additional personnel within the sales function.
General and administrative expenses increased 30.3% from $2.2 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $2.8 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. This increase was primarily the result of higher compensation expense of $0.2 million, higher litigation expense of $0.2 million and higher insurance expense of $0.2 million.
Depreciation and amortization increased 23.5% from $2.0 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $2.5 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. This resulted from additional capital expenditures of approximately $12 million which were made during the last nine months of 2004 and the first three months of 2005.
Interest and other income/expense
Interest income increased primarily due to the amount earned on invested cash proceeds from our initial public offering in December 2004. Interest expense decreased 82% from $0.8 million for the period ended March 31, 2004 to $0.1 million for the period ended March 31, 2005. This decrease resulted from $0.4 million of non-cash interest expense recorded in the 2004 period and not in the 2005 period related to Series B and B-1 Preferred Stock. Interest expense also decreased as a result of our repayment of approximately $14 million in outstanding loans during 2004. Other income (expense), net includes net gains (losses) resulting from foreign currency transactions of approximately $220,000 and $(250,000) for the three months ended March 31, 2004 and 2005. The loss from foreign currency transactions in the three months ended March 31, 2005 is primarily due to the strengthening of the US dollar versus the British Pound from December 31, 2004 to March 31, 2005 and its effect on a US dollar-denominated liability on the books of the Company’s UK subsidiary.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our primary source of liquidity had historically been cash received through the sale and issuance of equity and debt securities. We received equity investments between April 1999 and May 2003 in an aggregate amount of approximately $125.0 million. Our principal liquidity requirements have been for working capital, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes. On December 21, 2004, we completed our initial public offering and raised net proceeds of approximately $66.6 million.
During the quarter ended March 31, 2005, we made approximately $2.2 million of capital expenditures related to enhancements to our trading platform, including software development and hardware and the development of our trading platform for Internet capacity which was funded primarily from cash generated through operations. At March 31, 2005, we had cash and cash equivalents of $40.3 million and marketable securities of $14.2 million. We also are party to a $25.0 million lending facility with Silicon Valley Bank, under which we can borrow against our accounts receivable and general corporate assets. As of March 31, 2005, we had the full $25.0 million available to us as no amounts were outstanding under this facility. We believe that our current cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and cash flows from operating activities, should be sufficient for us to fund our current
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operations for the foreseeable future. To the extent we require additional capital to fund our working capital or capital expenditures, we intend to seek additional financing in the credit or capital markets, although we may be unsuccessful in obtaining financing on acceptable terms, if at all.
The following table sets forth components of our cash flows for the following periods:
Cash provided by operating activities
Cash provided by operations for the period ended March 31, 2005 was attributable to net income of $1.3 million and depreciation and amortization of $2.5 million partially offset by a decrease in operating net assets of $0.1 million. Cash provided by operating activities for the period ended March 31, 2004 was attributable to net income of $0.8 million, depreciation and amortization of $2.0 million and an increase in operating net assets of $2.5 million.
Cash used in investing activities
Total capital expenditures for the period ended March 31, 2005 were $2.2 million related primarily to the purchase of computer equipment and telecommunications switching equipment. Total capital expenditures for the period ended March 31, 2004 were $0.8 million related primarily to the purchase of computer equipment. Total purchases of marketable securities for the period ended March 31, 2005 were $14.2 million.
Cash provided by financing activities
Cash used in financing activities for the period ended March 31, 2005 was attributable to the repayment of approximately $0.5 million in debt. Cash used in financing activities for the period ended March 31, 2004 was attributable to the repayment of approximately $5.6 million in debt.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements or relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as special purpose entities, which are typically established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes.
Credit Risk Management
We manage the invoicing, credit risk and settlement of all traffic traded on our exchange. Since we are obligated to pay the seller regardless of whether we ultimately collect from the buyer, we assume the credit risk associated with all traffic traded on our exchange. As part of managing the credit risk associated with buyers on our exchange, we have an integrated credit risk management program under which the following arrangements assist in the mitigation of this credit risk:
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We occasionally issue internal credit lines to our members based on our review of a member’s financial statements and payment history with us. Typically, these internal credit lines are in excess of the credit lines issued by GMAC or Highbridge. We evaluate the credit risk, on a case-by-case basis, of each member who is not covered by our third-party credit arrangements, our netting policy, prepayments or other cash collateral. While there are no written procedures regarding the extension of credit lines, we have adopted written procedures to determine authority levels for certain of our officers to grant internal credit lines. For the quarter ended March 31, 2005, approximately 96% of our trading revenues were covered by GMAC and Highbridge credit lines, netting, prepayments or other cash collateral, of which 46% were covered by GMAC and Highbridge credit lines. However, our credit evaluations cannot fully determine whether buyers can or will pay us for capacity they purchase through our exchange. In the future, we may elect to increase the amount of our credit we extend to our customers we deem creditworthy in order to reduce our credit underwriting costs. If buyers fail to pay us for any reason and we have not been able or have elected not to secure credit risk protection with respect to these buyers, our business could be adversely affected. In the event that the creditworthiness of our buyers deteriorates, our credit providers and we may elect not to extend credit and consequently we may forego potential revenues that could materially affect our results of operations.
We have certain minimum annual commissions due pursuant to the terms of our agreements with each of GMAC and Highbridge. Pursuant to the terms of our agreement with GMAC we are required to pay a minimum annual commission of $725,000 and pursuant to the terms of our agreement with Highbridge we are required to pay a minimum quarterly commission of $150,000.
As of February 1, 2005, our credit risk agreement with GMAC automatically extended on a month-to-month basis. As of May 3, 2005, we signed a letter of intent to extend the agreement with GMAC for two years which, when the final agreement is executed, will amend certain terms, including reducing the minimum annual commission to $350,000.
Forward Looking Statements
The statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements (within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by, among other things, the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should” or “anticipates” or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy that involve risks and uncertainties. From time to time, we or our representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing. Such forward-looking statements may be included in various filings made by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of our authorized executive officers. These forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding
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anticipated future revenues, net income, capital expenditures, and other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, involve predictions. Our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from the results expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include those set forth in the section entitled “Additional Factors That May Affect Future Results” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Foreign currency exposure
The financial position and results of operations of our U.K. subsidiary are measured using GBP as the functional currency. Our exposure is mitigated, in part, by the fact that we incur certain operating costs in the same foreign currencies in which fee revenues are denominated. The percentage of fee revenues denominated in British Pounds was approximately 20% for the year ended December 31, 2004 and approximately 17% for the quarter ended March 31, 2005.
Interest rate exposure
We are exposed to interest rate fluctuations. We invest our cash in short-term interest bearing securities. Assuming an average investment level in short-term interest bearing securities of $40 million, which is the balance at March 31, 2005, a one-percentage point decrease in the applicable interest rate would result in a $400,000 decrease in interest income.
Under the terms of our credit agreement with Silicon Valley Bank, our borrowings bear interest at the prime rate. Therefore, a one-percentage point increase in the prime rate would result in additional annualized interest expense of $10,000 assuming $1 million of borrowings. At March 31, 2005, we had no outstanding borrowings under this agreement.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures.
Our management, with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of March 31, 2005. In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applied its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on this evaluation, our chief executive officer and chief financial officer concluded that, as of March 31, 2005, our disclosure controls and procedures were (1) designed to ensure that material information relating to us, including our consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to our chief executive officer and chief financial officer by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report was being prepared, and (2) effective, in that they provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by us in our reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms.
No change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) occurred during the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2005 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1. Legal Proceedings.
On December 10, 2004, we received a complaint filed that day by Octane and Amerindo Technology Growth Fund II Inc., or ATGF, another investor of the Company, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, entitled Octane Capital Fund, L.L.P. et al. v. Arbinet-thexchange, Inc., Civil Action No. 04-CV-9759 (KMW). Octane and ATGF filed an amended complaint with the court on December 13, 2004, amending and replacing the December 10, 2004 complaint. The amended complaint alleges, among other things, that we breached terms of the Investors’ Rights Agreement by failing to give Octane and ATGF proper advance notice of the complete terms of our series E preferred stock offering. The amended complaint seeks money damages for both Octane and ATGF for the alleged breach of contract. On February 11, 2005, we filed our answer to the amended complaint, denying all liability, and filed counterclaims against Octane and ATGF for, among other claims, breach of the Investors’ Rights Agreement in connection with their conduct seeking additional shares of stock and other relief.
It is our position that Octane waived the right to participate in the Series E Financing and to receive notice from us relating to such offering, and that, in addition, sufficient notice was provided to Octane and ATGF. Prior to the Series E Financing, we received notice from a representative of Octane indicating that Octane was planning not to exercise its rights to participate in the Series E Financing due to its capital constraints. In such notice, Octane did not reference that any potential terms would impact its decision not to participate in the Series E Financing. We believe, however, that sufficient notice of the terms of the Series E Financing was given to Octane and ATGF. In that regard, on June 15, 2001, we sent Octane and ATGF, along with other potential investors, notice of the general terms of the Series E Financing. Consistent with its earlier notice informing us that it did not intend to participate in the Series E Financing, Octane did not respond to this notice and contends that there was no waiver. ATGF did not indicate an interest in participating in the Series E Financing under the terms of the June 15, 2001 notice. The June
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15, 2001 notice included a statement that we might change the pre-investment capitalization in order to incent previous investors to purchase series E preferred stock. However, Octane and ATGF allege that the notice was insufficient because it failed to disclose different and more favorable terms ultimately included in the Securities Purchase Agreement dated July 3, 2001.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.
During the three months ended March 31, 2005, we granted options to purchase 698,600 shares of common stock and issued 10,000 shares of restricted common stock pursuant to our 2004 Stock Incentive Plan. Additionally, during the three months ended March 31, 2005, existing option holders exercised options for 10,091 shares of common stock for aggregate consideration of approximately $4,000 at exercise prices per share ranging from $0.16 per share to $8.32 per share. Such shares remain restricted securities within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. No underwriters were involved in the foregoing stock issuances or option grants. The issuance of these securities was exempt from registration pursuant to Section 4(2) of the Securities Act.
On December 21, 2004, we sold 4,233,849 shares of our common stock in connection with the closing of our initial public offering. The Registration Statement on Form S-1 (Reg. No. 333-117278) we filed to register our common stock in the offering was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 16, 2004. The initial public offering price was $17.50 per share and the aggregate purchase price was approximately $74.1 million.
The managing underwriters for the offering were Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers, SG Cowen & Co., William Blair & Company and Advanced Equities, Inc. We incurred direct expenses in connection with the offering of approximately $7.5 million, which consisted of: (i) approximately $2.0 million in legal, accounting and printing fees; (ii) approximately $5.2 million in underwriters’ discounts, fees and commissions; and (iii) approximately $0.3 million in miscellaneous expenses.
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After deducting expenses of the offering, we received net offering proceeds of approximately $66.6 million. We used approximately $15.2 million of our net proceeds to redeem the outstanding shares of our Series B and Series B-1 preferred stock and approximately $10.0 million to repay principal and interest outstanding under our credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank. Except with respect to the redemption of our Series B and Series B-1 preferred stock, none of the net proceeds were directly or indirectly paid to (i) any of our directors, officers or their associates, (ii) any person(s) owning 10% or more of any class of our equity securities or (iii) any of our affiliates. Approximately $40 million of the net proceeds of the offering have been invested into investment-grade marketable securities within the guidelines defined in our investment policy. Such funds remain invested in such securities as of March 31, 2005. The remaining proceeds have been used for working capital purposes. We regularly assess the specific uses and allocations for the remaining funds.
Item 6. Exhibits.
Description of Exhibit
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Pursuant to the requirements 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.
Date: May 16, 2005
By:
/s/ J. Curt Hockemeier
J. Curt Hockemeier, President, Chief
Executive Officer and Director
(Principal Executive Officer)
/s/ John J. Roberts
John J. Roberts
Chief Financial Officer
(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)
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