WEBSITE ACCESS TO UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION REPORTS

 

 

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

 

 

 

 

The Securities Purchase Agreement with Chicago Venture will terminate if we file protection from its creditors, a Registration Statement on Form S-1 is not effective, and our market capitalization or the trading volume of our common stock does not reach certain levels. If terminated, we will be unable to draw down all or substantially all of our Chicago Venture Notes.

 

Our ability to require Chicago Venture to fund the Chicago Venture Note is at our discretion, subject to certain limitations. Chicago Venture is obligated to fund if each of the following conditions are met; (i) the average and median daily dollar volumes of our common stock for the twenty (20) and sixty (60) trading days immediately preceding the funding date are greater than $100,000; (ii) our market capitalization on the funding date is greater than $17,000,000; (iii) we are not in default with respect to share delivery obligations under the note as of the funding date; and (iv) we are current in our reporting obligations.

 

There is no guarantee that we will be able to meet the foregoing conditions or any other conditions under the Securities Purchase Agreement and/or Chicago Venture Note or that we will be able to draw down any portion of the amounts available under the Securities Purchase Agreement and/or Chicago Venture Note.

 

If we not able to draw down all due under the Securities Purchase Agreement or if the Securities Purchase Agreement is terminated, we may be forced to curtail the scope of our operations or alter our business plan if other financing is not available to us.

 

 

 

This action had a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we are unable to obtain additional financing when it is needed, we will need to restructure our operations, and divest all or a portion of our business.

 

 

We arehave been involved in thecertain disputes and legal proceedings as discussed in the section title “Legal Proceedings” within thisour Form 10-K for year ended December 31, 2017.2018. In addition, as a public company, we are also potentially susceptible to litigation, such as claims asserting violations of securities laws. Any such claims, with or without merit, if not resolved, could be time-consuming and result in costly litigation. There can be no assurance that an adverse result in any future proceeding would not have a potentially material adverse on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

 

 

 

Our proposed business is dependent on laws pertaining to the marijuana industry.

 

Continued development of the marijuana industry is dependent upon continued legislative authorization of the use and cultivation of marijuana at the state level.  Any number of factors could slow or halt progress in this area.  Further, progress, while encouraging, is not assured.  While there may be ample public support for legislative action, numerous factors impact the legislative process.  Any one of these factors could slow or halt use of marijuana, which would negatively impact our proposed business.

 

Currently, thirty three states and the District of Columbia allow its citizens to use medical cannabis.  Additionally, eightten states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for adult use.  The state laws are in conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act, which makes marijuana use and possession illegal on a national level. The Obama administration previously effectively stated that it is not an efficient use of resources to direct law federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute those lawfully abiding by state-designated laws allowing the use and distribution of medical marijuana.  The Trump administration position is unknown. However, there is no guarantee that the Trump administration will not change current policy regarding the low-priority enforcement of federal laws.  Additionally, any new administration that follows could change this policy and decide to enforce the federal laws strongly.  Any such change in the federal government’s enforcement of current federal laws could cause significant financial damage to us and its shareholders.

 

Further, while we do not harvest, distribute or sell marijuana, by supplying products to growers of marijuana, we could be deemed to be participating in marijuana cultivation, which remains illegal under federal law, and exposes us to potential criminal liability, with the additional risk that our business could be subject to civil forfeiture proceedings.

 

The marijuana industry faces strong opposition. 

 

It is believed by many that large, well-funded businesses may have a strong economic opposition to the marijuana industry.  We believe that the pharmaceutical industry clearly does not want to cede control of any product that could generate significant revenue.  For example, medical marijuana will likely adversely impact the existing market for the current “marijuana pill” sold by mainstream pharmaceutical companies.  Further, the medical marijuana industry could face a material threat from the pharmaceutical industry, should marijuana displace other drugs or encroach upon the pharmaceutical industry’s products.  The pharmaceutical industry is well funded with a strong and experienced lobby that eclipses the funding of the medical marijuana movement.  Any inroads the pharmaceutical industry could make in halting or impeding the marijuana industry harm our business, prospects, results of operation and financial condition.

 

Marijuana remains illegal under Federal law.  

 

Marijuana is a Schedule-I controlled substance and is illegal under federal law.  Even in those states in which the use of marijuana has been legalized, its use remains a violation of federal law.  Since federal law criminalizing the use of marijuana preempts state laws that legalize its use, strict enforcement of federal law regarding marijuana would harm our business, prospects, results of operation and financial condition.

 

 

We need additional financing to implement our business plan and to service our ongoing operations and pay our current debts. There can be no assurance that we will be able to secure any needed funding, or that if such funding is available, the terms or conditions would be acceptable to us.

 

If we raise additional capital through borrowing or other debt financing, we may incur substantial interest expense. Sales of additional equity securities will dilute on a pro rata basis the percentage ownership of all holders of common stock. When we raise more equity capital in the future, it will result in substantial dilution to our current stockholders.

 

If we are unable to obtain additional financing when it is needed, we will need to restructure our operations, and divest all or a portion of our business.

 

 

As a result of the regulatory environment, we have experienced the closing of several of our bank and merchant processing accounts since March 2014. We have been able to open other bank accounts. However, we may have other banking accounts closed. These factors impact management and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and/or results of operations.

 

 

Currently, there are thirty three states plus the District of Columbia that have laws and/or regulation that recognize in one form or another legitimate medical uses for cannabis and consumer use of cannabis in connection with medical treatment. Many other states are considering legislation to similar effect. As of the date of this writing, the policy and regulations of the Federal government and its agencies is that cannabis has no medical benefit and a range of activities including cultivation and use of cannabis for personal use is prohibited on the basis of federal law and may or may not be permitted on the basis of state law. Active enforcement of the current federal regulatory position on cannabis on a regional or national basis may directly and adversely affect the willingness of customers of GrowLife to invest in or buy products from GrowLife that may be used in connection with cannabis. Active enforcement of the current federal regulatory position on cannabis may thus indirectly and adversely affect revenues and profits of the GrowLife companies.

 

 

Our history of net losses has raised substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, and as a result, our independent registered public accounting firm included an explanatory paragraph in its report on our financial statements as of and for the yearyears ended December 31, 20172018 and 20162017 with respect to this uncertainty. Accordingly, our ability to continue as a going concern will require us to seek alternative financing to fund our operations. This going concern opinion could materially limit our ability to raise additional funds through the issuance of new debt or equity securities or otherwise. Future reports on our financial statements may include an explanatory paragraph with respect to our ability to continue as a going concern.

 

 

 

 

We must comply with corporate governance requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, as well as additional rules and regulations currently in place and that may be subsequently adopted by the SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. These laws, rules, and regulations continue to evolve and may become increasingly stringent in the future. We are required to include management’s report on internal controls as part of our annual report pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We strive to continuously evaluate and improve our control structure to help ensure that we comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The financial cost of compliance with these laws, rules, and regulations is expected to remain substantial.

 

We cannot assure you that we will be able to fully comply with these laws, rules, and regulations that address corporate governance, internal control reporting, and similar matters. Failure to comply with these laws, rules and regulations could materially adversely affect our reputation, financial condition, and the value of our securities.

 

 

Our strategy envisions growing our business. We plan to expand our product, sales, administrative and marketing organizations. Any growth in or expansion of our business is likely to continue to place a strain on our management and administrative resources, infrastructure and systems. As with other growing businesses, we expect that we will need to further refine and expand our business development capabilities, our systems and processes and our access to financing sources. We also will need to hire, train, supervise and manage new and retain contributing employees. These processes are time consuming and expensive, will increase management responsibilities and will divert management attention. We cannot assure you that we will be able to:

 

 

Our operating results may fluctuate significantly based on customer acceptance of our products. As a result, period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations are unlikely to provide a good indication of our future performance. Management expects that we will experience substantial variations in our net sales and operating results from quarter to quarter due to customer acceptance of our products. If customers don’t accept our products, our sales and revenues will decline, resulting in a reduction in our operating income.

 

Customer interest for our products could also be impacted by the timing of our introduction of new products. If our competitors introduce new products around the same time that we issue new products, and if such competing products are superior to our own, customers’ desire for our products could decrease, resulting in a decrease in our sales and revenues. To the extent that we introduce new products and customers decide not to migrate to our new products from our older products, our revenues could be negatively impacted due to the loss of revenue from those customers. In the event that our newer products do not sell as well as our older products, we could also experience a reduction in our revenues and operating income.

 

 

Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to expand our product and service offerings. To that end we have engaged in the process of identifying new product opportunities to provide additional products and related services to our customers. The process of identifying and commercializing new products is complex and uncertain, and if we fail to accurately predict customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends our business could be harmed. We may have to commit significant resources to commercializing new products before knowing whether our investments will result in products the market will accept. Furthermore, we may not execute successfully on commercializing those products because of errors in product planning or timing, technical hurdles that we fail to overcome in a timely fashion, or a lack of appropriate resources. This could result in competitors providing those solutions before we do and a reduction in net sales and earnings.

 

The success of new products depends on several factors, including proper new product definition, timely completion and introduction of these products, differentiation of new products from those of our competitors, and market acceptance of these products. There can be no assurance that we will successfully identify new product opportunities, develop and bring new products to market in a timely manner, or achieve market acceptance of our products or that products and technologies developed by others will not render our products or technologies obsolete or noncompetitive.

 

 

To date, our revenue growth has been derived primarily from the sale of our products and through the purchase of existing businesses. Our success and the planned growth and expansion of our business depend on us achieving greater and broader acceptance of our products and expanding our customer base. There can be no assurance that customers will purchase our products or that we will continue to expand our customer base. If we are unable to effectively market or expand our product offerings, we will be unable to grow and expand our business or implement our business strategy. This could materially impair our ability to increase sales and revenue and materially and adversely affect our margins, which could harm our business and cause our stock price to decline.

 

If we incur substantial liability from litigation, complaints, or enforcement actions resulting from misconduct by our distributors, our financial condition could suffer. We will require that our distributors comply with applicable law and with our policies and procedures. Although we will use various means to address misconduct by our distributors, including maintaining these policies and procedures to govern the conduct of our distributors and conducting training seminars, it will still be difficult to detect and correct all instances of misconduct. Violations of applicable law or our policies and procedures by our distributors could lead to litigation, formal or informal complaints, enforcement actions, and inquiries by various federal, state, or foreign regulatory authorities against us and/or our distributors. Litigation, complaints, and enforcement actions involving us and our distributors could consume considerable amounts of financial and other corporate resources, which could have a negative impact on our sales, revenue, profitability and growth prospects. As we are currently in the process of implementing our direct sales distributor program, we have not been, and are not currently, subject to any material litigation, complaint or enforcement action regarding distributor misconduct by any federal, state or foreign regulatory authority.

 

Our future manufacturers could fail to fulfill our orders for products, which would disrupt our business, increase our costs, harm our reputation and potentially cause us to lose our market.

 

We may depend on contract manufacturers in the future to produce our products. These manufacturers could fail to produce products to our specifications or in a workmanlike manner and may not deliver the units on a timely basis. Our manufacturers may also have to obtain inventories of the necessary parts and tools for production. Any change in manufacturers to resolve production issues could disrupt our ability to fulfill orders. Any change in manufacturers to resolve production issues could also disrupt our business due to delays in finding new manufacturers, providing specifications and testing initial production. Such disruptions in our business and/or delays in fulfilling orders would harm our reputation and would potentially cause us to lose our market. 

 

 

We may be unable to obtain intellectual property rights to effectively protect our business. Our ability to compete effectively may be affected by the nature and breadth of our intellectual property rights. While we intend to defend against any threats to our intellectual property rights, there can be no assurance that any such actions will adequately protect our interests. If we are unable to secure intellectual property rights to effectively protect our technology, our revenue and earnings, financial condition, and/or results of operations would be adversely affected.

 

We may also rely on nondisclosure and non-competition agreements to protect portions of our technology. There can be no assurance that these agreements will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that third parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or proprietary knowledge, or that third parties will not independently develop the technology.

 

 

 

We are involved in a highly competitive industry where we may compete with numerous other companies who offer alternative methods or approaches, may have far greater resources, more experience, and personnel perhaps more qualified than we do. Such resources may give our competitors an advantage in developing and marketing products similar to ours or products that make our products obsolete. There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully compete against these other entities.

 

 

Transfers of our common stock may be restricted under the securities or securities regulations laws promulgated by various states and foreign jurisdictions, commonly referred to as "blue sky" laws. Absent compliance with such individual state laws, our common stock may not be traded in such jurisdictions. Because the securities held by many of our stockholders have not been registered for resale under the blue sky laws of any state, the holders of such shares and persons who desire to purchase them should be aware that there may be significant state blue sky law restrictions upon the ability of investors to sell the securities and of purchasers to purchase the securities. These restrictions may prohibit the secondary trading of our common stock. Investors should consider the secondary market for our securities to be a limited one.

 

 

Our success depends to a significant degree upon the continued contributions of key management and other personnel, some of whom could be difficult to replace. We do not maintain key man life insurance covering our officers. Our success will depend on the performance of our officers and key management and other personnel, our ability to retain and motivate our officers, our ability to integrate new officers and key management and other personnel into our operations, and the ability of all personnel to work together effectively as a team. Our failure to retain and recruit officers and other key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

 

We have limited directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and limited commercial liability insurance policies. Any significant claims would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.  

 

Risks Related to our Common Stock

 

 

 

As a result of funding from Chicago Venture, Iliad and St. George as previously detailed, they exercise significant control over us.

 

If these persons were to choose to act together, they would be able to significantly influence all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, as well as our officers, directors, management and affairs. For example, these persons, if they choose to act together, could significantly influence the election of directors and approval of any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. This concentration of voting power could delay or prevent an acquisition of us on terms that other stockholders may desire.

 

 

Our stock is categorized as a penny stock The SEC has adopted Rule 15g-9 which generally defines "penny stock" to be any equity security that has a market price (as defined) less than US$ 5.00 per share or an exercise price of less than US $5.00 per share, subject to certain exclusions (e.g., net tangible assets in excess of $2,000,000 or average revenue of at least $6,000,000 for the last three years). The penny stock rules impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell to persons other than established customers and accredited investors. The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer, prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from the rules, to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document in a form prepared by the SEC, which provides information about penny stocks and the nature and level of risks in the penny stock market. The broker-dealer also must provide the customer with current bid and offer quotations for the penny stock, the compensation of the broker-dealer and its salesperson in the transaction, and monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer's account. The bid and offer quotations, and the broker-dealer and salesperson compensation information, must be given to the customer orally or in writing prior to effecting the transaction and must be given to the customer in writing before or with the customer's confirmation. In addition, the penny stock rules require that prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from these rules, the broker-dealer must make a special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and receive the purchaser's written agreement to the transaction. Finally, broker-dealers may not handle penny stocks under $0.10 per share.

 

These disclosure requirements reduce the level of trading activity in the secondary market for the stock that is subject to these penny stock rules. Consequently, these penny stock rules would affect the ability of broker-dealers to trade our securities if we become subject to them in the future. The penny stock rules also could discourage investor interest in and limit the marketability of our common stock to future investors, resulting in limited ability for investors to sell their shares.

 

 

In addition to the “penny stock” rules described above, FINRA has adopted rules that require that in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative low priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA believes that there is a high probability that speculative low priced securities will not be suitable for at least some customers. The FINRA requirements make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our common stock, which may limit your ability to buy and sell our stock and have an adverse effect on the market for our shares.

 

 

The market price of our common stock has been and is likely in the future to be volatile. Our common stock price may fluctuate in response to factors such as: 

 

 

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

 

 

 

During the three months ended December 31, 2017,2018, we had the following sales of unregistered sales of equity securities.

 

DuringOn October 15, 2018, we closed the three months ended December 31, 2017, wePurchase and Sale Agreement with EZ-Clone and issued 5,000,000107,307,692 restricted shares to three directors. The shares were valuedof our common stock at the fair marketa price of $0.005$0.013 per share or $25,000.$1,395,000.

 

 

During the three months ended December 31, 2017,2018, Chicago Venture converted principal and accrued interest of $535,000$367,000 into 171,381,90456,185,736 shares of our common stock at a per share conversion price of $0.0031.$0.00652.

 

EQUITY COMPENSATION PLAN INFORMATION

 

The following table provides information as of December 31, 20172018 related to the equity compensation plan in effect at that time.