MOBQ Mobiquity Technologies Inc (QB)

Item 1A. Risk Factors

An investment in our securities is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk and should be made only by investors who can afford a complete loss. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with the other information in this Form 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes, before you decide to buy our securities. If any of the following risks actually occurs, then our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected, the trading of our common stock and warrants could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment therein. In addition to the risks outlined below, risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial may also impair our business operations. Potential risks and uncertainties that could affect our operating results and financial condition include, without limitation, the following:

Risks Relating to our Business Operations

We have a history of operating losses and our management has concluded that factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern and our auditor has included an explanatory paragraph relating to our ability to continue as a going concern in its audit report for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2021, and 2020.

To date, we have not been profitable and have incurred significant losses and cash flow deficits. For the fiscal years ended December 31, 2021, and 2020, we reported net losses of $35,213,541 and $15,029,395, respectively, and cash flow from operating activities of $(5,870,635) and $(4,750,443). As of December 31, 2021, we had an aggregate accumulated deficit of $221,116,625. Our operating losses for the past several years are primarily attributable to the transformation of our company into an advertising technology corporation. We can provide no assurances that our operations will generate consistent or predictable revenue or be profitable in the foreseeable future. Our management has concluded that our historical recurring losses from operations and negative cash flows from operations as well as our dependence on private equity and other financings raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, and our auditor has included an explanatory paragraph relating to our ability to continue as a going concern in its audit report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, and 2020.

Our consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. These adjustments would likely include substantial impairment of the carrying amount of our assets and potential contingent liabilities that may arise if we are unable to fulfill various operational commitments. In addition, the value of our securities, including common stock issued in this offering, would be greatly impaired. Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon generating sufficient cash flow from operations and obtaining additional capital and financing, including funds to be raised in this offering. If our ability to generate cash flow from operations is delayed or reduced and we are unable to raise additional funding from other sources, we may be unable to continue in business even if this offering is successful. For further discussion about our ability to continue as a going concern and our plan for future liquidity, see “Item 7.”

We cannot predict our future capital needs and we may not be able to secure additional financing.

From January 2013 through December 2021, we raised a total of over $60 million in private equity and debt financing to support our transformation from an integrated marketing company to a technology company. Since we might be unable to generate recurring or predictable revenue or cash flow to fund our operations, we will likely need to seek additional (perhaps substantial) equity or debt financing even following this offering to provide the capital required to maintain or expand our operations. We expect that we will also need additional funding for developing products and services, increasing our sales and marketing capabilities, and acquiring complementary companies, technologies and assets (there being no such acquisitions which we have identified or are pursuing as of the date of this Form 10-K), as well as for working capital requirements and other operating and general corporate purposes. We cannot predict our future capital needs with precision, and we may not be able to secure additional financing on terms satisfactory to us, if at all, which could lead to termination of our business.

If we elect to raise additional funds or additional funds are required, we may seek to raise funds from time to time through public or private equity offerings, debt financings or other financing alternatives. Additional equity or debt financing may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we will be prevented from pursuing operational development and commercialization efforts and our ability to generate revenues and achieve or sustain profitability will be substantially harmed.

If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our shareholders will experience dilution. Debt financing, if available, would result in increased fixed payment obligations and may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. Any debt financing or additional equity that we raise may contain terms, such as liquidation and other preferences, which are not favorable to us or our stockholders. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, it may be necessary to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. Should the financing we require to sustain our working capital needs be unavailable or prohibitively expensive when we require it, our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects could be materially and adversely affected, and we may be unable to continue our operations. Failure to secure additional financing on favorable terms could have severe adverse consequences to us.

The Company’s financial condition and results of operations have been and may continue to be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since March 2020, COVID -19 has caused a material and substantial adverse impact on our general economy and our business operations. It has caused there to be a substantial decrease in our sales, cancellations of purchase orders and has resulted in accounts receivables not being timely paid as anticipated. Further, it has caused us to have concerns about our ability to meet our obligations as they become due and payable. In this respect, our business is directly dependent upon and correlates closely to the marketing levels and ongoing business activities of our existing clients. If material adverse developments in domestic and global economic and market conditions adversely affect our clients’ businesses, such as COVID-19, our business and results of operations could (and in the case of COVID-19) equally suffer. Our results of operations are affected directly by the level of business activity of our clients, which in turn is affected by the level of economic activity in the industries and markets that they serve. COVID-19 future widespread economic slowdowns in any of these markets, particularly in the United States, may negatively affect the businesses, purchasing decisions and spending of our clients and prospective clients, and payment of accounts receivable due us, which could result in reductions in our existing business as well as our new business development and difficulties in meeting our cash obligations as they become due. In the event of continued widespread economic downturn caused by COVID-19, we will likely continue to experience a reduction in projects, longer sales and collection cycles, deferral or delay of purchase commitments for our data products, processing functionality, software systems and services, and increased price competition, all of which could substantially adversely affect revenue and our ability to remain a going concern.

In the event we remain a going concern, the impacts of the global emergence of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on our business, sources of revenues and the general economy, are currently not fully known. We are conducting business as usual with some modifications to employee work locations, and cancellation of certain marketing events, among other modifications. We lost a purchase order in excess of one million dollars with a major US sports organization. We have observed other companies taking precautionary and preemptive actions to address COVID-19 and companies may take further actions that alter their normal business operations. We will continue to actively monitor the situation and may take further actions that alter our business operations as may be required by federal, state or local authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers, partners, suppliers and stockholders. It is not clear what the potential effects any such alterations or modifications may have on our business, including the effects on our customers and prospects, although we do anticipate it to continue to negatively impact our financial results during fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

Forecasts of our revenue are difficult.

When purchasing our products and services, our clients and prospects are often faced with a significant commitment of capital, the need to integrate new software and/or hardware platforms and other changes in company-wide operational procedures, all of which result in cautious deliberation and evaluation by prospective clients, longer sales cycles and delays in completing transactions. Additional delays result from the significant up-front expenses and substantial time, effort and other resources necessary for our clients to implement our solutions. For example, depending on the size of a prospective client’s business and its needs, a sales cycle can range from two weeks to 12 months. Because of these longer sales cycles, revenues and operating results may vary significantly from period to period. As a result, it is often difficult to accurately forecast our revenues for any fiscal period as it is not always possible for us to predict the fiscal period in which sales will actually be completed. This difficulty in predicting revenue, combined with the revenue fluctuations we may experience from period to period, can adversely affect and cause substantial fluctuations in our stock price.

The reliability of our product solutions is dependent on data from third parties and the integrity and quality of that data.

Much of the data that we use is licensed from third-party data suppliers, and we are dependent upon our ability to obtain necessary data licenses on commercially reasonable terms. We could suffer material adverse consequences if our data suppliers were to withhold their data from us. For example, data suppliers could withhold their data from us if there is a competitive reason to do so; if we breach our contract with a supplier; if they are acquired by one of our competitors; if legislation is passed restricting the use or dissemination of the data they provide; or if judicial interpretations are issued restricting use of such data. Additionally, we could terminate relationships with our data suppliers if they fail to adhere to our data quality standards. If a substantial number of data suppliers were to withdraw or withhold their data from us, or if we sever ties with our data suppliers based on their inability to meet our data standards, our ability to provide products and services to our clients could be materially adversely impacted, which could result in decreased revenues.

The reliability of our solutions depends upon the integrity and quality of the data in our database. A failure in the integrity or a reduction in the quality of our data could cause a loss of customer confidence in our solutions, resulting in harm to our brand, loss of revenue and exposure to legal claims. We may experience an increase in risks to the integrity of our database and quality of our data as we move toward real-time, non-identifiable, consumer-powered data through our products. We must continue to invest in our database to improve and maintain the quality, timeliness and coverage of the data if we are to maintain our competitive position. Failure to do so could result in a material adverse effect on our business, growth and revenue prospects.

Our business practices with respect to data and consumer protection could give rise to liabilities or reputational harm as a result of governmental regulation, legal requirements or industry standards relating to consumer privacy, data protection and consumer protection.

Federal, state and international laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of data that we collect. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, self-regulatory requirements and legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection, including those relating to the use of data for marketing purposes. It is possible, however, that these requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. We cannot assure you that our practices have complied, comply, or will comply fully with all such laws, regulations, requirements and obligations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with federal, state or international laws or regulations, including laws and regulations regulating privacy, data security, marketing communications or consumer protection, or other policies, self-regulatory requirements or legal obligations could result in harm to our reputation, a loss in business, and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, consumers, retailers or others. We may also be contractually liable to indemnify and hold harmless performance marketing networks or other third parties from the costs or consequences of noncompliance with any laws, regulations, self-regulatory requirements or other legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection or any inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of data that we store or handle as part of operating our business. Any such proceeding or action, and any related indemnification obligation, could hurt our reputation, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of these proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business and cause consumers and retailers to decrease their use of our marketplace, and may result in the imposition of monetary liability. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the data and privacy laws, regulations, standards and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our clients may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our products.

A significant breach of the confidentiality of the information we hold or of the security of our or our customers’, suppliers’, or other partners’ computer systems could be detrimental to our business, reputation and results of operations. Our business requires the storage, transmission and utilization of data. Although we have security and associated procedures, our databases may be subject to unauthorized access by third parties. Such third parties could attempt to gain entry to our systems for the purpose of stealing data or disrupting the systems. We believe we have taken appropriate measures to protect our systems from intrusion, but we cannot be certain that advances in criminal capabilities, discovery of new vulnerabilities in our systems and attempts to exploit those vulnerabilities, physical system or facility break-ins and data thefts or other developments will not compromise or breach the technology protecting our systems and the information we possess. Furthermore, we face increasing cyber security risks as we receive and collect data from new sources, and as we and our customers continue to develop and operate in cloud-based information technology environments. In the event that our protection efforts are unsuccessful, and we experience an unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or the security of such information or our systems are compromised, we could suffer substantial harm. Any breach could result in one or more third parties obtaining unauthorized access to our customers’ data or our data, including personally identifiable information, intellectual property and other confidential business information. Such a security breach could result in operational disruptions that impair our ability to meet our clients’ requirements, which could result in decreased revenues. Also, whether there is an actual or a perceived breach of our security, our reputation could suffer irreparable harm, causing our current and prospective clients to reject our products and services in the future and deterring data suppliers from supplying us data. Further, we could be forced to expend significant resources in response to a security breach, including repairing system damage, increasing cyber security protection costs by deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, and litigating and resolving legal claims, all of which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations. In any event, a significant security breach could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

Significant system disruptions, loss of data center capacity or interruption of telecommunication links could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Our product platforms are hosted and managed on Amazon Web Service (AWS) and takes full advantage of open standards for processing, storage, security and big data technology. Significant system disruptions, loss of data center capacity or interruption of telecommunication links could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our business is heavily dependent upon highly complex data processing capability. The ability of our platform hosts and managers to protect these data centers against damage or interruption from fire, flood, tornadoes, power loss, telecommunications or equipment failure or other disasters is beyond our control and is critical to our ability to succeed.

We rely on information technology to operate our business and maintain competitiveness, and any failure to adapt to technological developments or industry trends could harm our business.

We depend on the use of information technologies and systems. As our operations grow in size and scope, we will be required to continuously improve and upgrade our systems and infrastructure while maintaining or improving the reliability and integrity of our infrastructure. Our future success also depends on our ability to adapt our systems and infrastructure to meet rapidly evolving consumer trends and demands while continuing to improve the performance, features and reliability of our solutions in response to competitive services and product offerings. The emergence of alternative platforms will require new investment in technology. New developments in other areas, such as cloud computing, could also make it easier for competition to enter our markets due to lower up-front technology costs. In addition, we may not be able to maintain our existing systems or replace or introduce new technologies and systems as quickly as we would like or in a cost-effective manner.

Our technology and associated business processes may contain undetected errors, which could limit our ability to provide our services and diminish the attractiveness of our offerings.

Our technology may contain undetected errors, defects or bugs. As a result, our customers or end users may discover errors or defects in our technology or the systems incorporating our technology may not operate as expected. We may discover significant errors or defects in the future that we may not be able to fix. Our inability to fix any of those errors could limit our ability to provide our solution, impair the reputation of our brand and diminish the attractiveness of our product offerings to our customers.  In addition, we may utilize third party technology or components in our products, and we rely on those third parties to provide support services to us. Failure of those third parties to provide necessary support services could materially adversely impact our business.

We need to protect our intellectual property, or our operating results may suffer.

Third parties may infringe our intellectual property and we may suffer competitive injury or expend significant resources enforcing our rights. As our business is focused on data-driven results and analytics, we rely heavily on proprietary information technology. Our proprietary portfolio consists of various intellectual property including source code, trade secrets, and know-how. The extent to which such rights can be protected is substantially based on federal, state and common law rights as well as contractual restrictions. The steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent the misappropriation of our proprietary information or deter independent development of similar technologies by others. If we do not enforce our intellectual property rights vigorously and successfully, our competitive position may suffer which could harm our operating results.

We could incur substantial costs and disruption to our business as a result of any claim of infringement of another party’s intellectual property rights, which could harm our business and operating results.

From time to time, third parties may claim that one or more of our products or services infringe their intellectual property rights. We analyze and take action in response to such claims on a case-by-case basis. Any dispute or litigation regarding patents or other intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming due to the complexity of our technology and the uncertainty of intellectual property litigation, which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations. A claim of intellectual property infringement could force us to enter into a costly or restrictive license agreement, which might not be available under acceptable terms or at all, or could subject us to significant damages or to an injunction against development and sale of certain of our products or services.

We face intense and growing competition, which could result in reduced sales and reduced operating margins, and limit our market share.

We compete in the data, marketing and research business and in all other facets of our business against small, medium and large companies throughout the United States. Some examples include companies such as LiveRamp, Beeswax and TradeDesk. If we are unable to successfully compete for new business our revenue growth and operating margins may decline. The market for our advertising and marketing technology operating system platform is competitive. We believe that our competitors’ product offerings do not provide the end-to-end solutions our product solutions do, and their minimum fees are substantially higher than ours for a comparative suite of solutions. However, barriers to entry in our markets are relatively low. With the introduction of new technologies and market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future. Some of these competitors may be in a better position to develop new products and strategies that more quickly and effectively respond to changes in customer requirements in our markets. The introduction of competent, competitive products, pricing strategies or other technologies by our competitors that are superior to or that achieve greater market acceptance than our products and services could adversely affect our business. Our failure to meet a client’s expectations in any type of contract may result in an unprofitable engagement, which could adversely affect our operating results and result in future rejection of our products and services by current and prospective clients. Some of our principal competitors offer their products at a lower price, which may result in pricing pressures. These pricing pressures and increased competition generally could result in reduced sales, reduced margins or the failure of our product and service offerings to achieve or maintain more widespread market acceptance.

Many of our competitors are substantially larger than we are and have significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources, and established direct and indirect channels of distribution. As a result, they are able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we can.

We can provide no assurance that our business will be able to maintain a competitive technology advantage in the future.

Our ability to generate revenues is substantially based upon our proprietary intellectual property that we own and protect through trade secrets and agreements with our employees to maintain ownership of any improvements to our intellectual property. Our ability to generate revenues now and in the future is based upon maintaining a competitive technology advantage over our competition. We can provide no assurances that we will be able to maintain a competitive technology advantage in the future over our competitors, many of whom have significantly more experience, more extensive infrastructure and are better capitalized than us.

No assurances can be given that we will be able to keep up with a rapidly changing business information market.

Consumer needs and the business information industry as a whole are in a constant state of change. Our ability to continually improve our current processes and products in response to these changes and to develop new products and services to meet those needs are essential in maintaining our competitive position and meeting the increasingly sophisticated requirements of our customers. If we fail to enhance our current products and services or fail to develop new products in light of emerging industry standards and information requirements, we could lose customers to current or future competitors, which could result in impairment of our growth prospects and revenues.

The market for programmatic advertising campaigns is relatively new and evolving. If this market develops slower or differently than we expect, our business, growth prospects and financial condition would be adversely affected.

A substantial portion of our revenue has been derived from customers that programmatically purchase and sell advertising inventory through our platform. We expect that spending on programmatic ad buying and selling will continue to be a significant source of revenue for the foreseeable future, and that our revenue growth will largely depend on increasing spend through our platform. The market for programmatic ad buying is an emerging market, and our current and potential customers may not shift quickly enough to programmatic ad buying from other buying methods, reducing our growth potential. Because our industry is relatively new, we will encounter risks and difficulties frequently encountered by early-stage companies in similarly rapidly evolving industries, including the need to:

If the market for programmatic ad buying deteriorates or develops more slowly than we expect, it could reduce demand for our platform, and our business, growth prospects and financial condition would be adversely affected.

Our failure to maintain and grow the customer base on our platform may negatively impact our revenue and business.

To sustain or increase our revenue, we must regularly add both new advertiser customers and publishers, while simultaneously keeping existing customers to maintain or increase the amount of advertising inventory purchased through our platform and adopt new features and functionalities that we add to our platform. If our competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated offerings that compete with or are perceived to compete with ours, our ability to sell access to our platform to new or existing customers could be impaired. Our agreements with our customers allow them to change the amount of spending on our platform or terminate our services with limited notice. Our customers typically have relationships with different providers and there is limited cost to moving budgets to our competitors. As a result, we may have limited visibility as to our future advertising revenue streams. We cannot assure you that our customers will continue to use our platform or that we will be able to replace, in a timely or effective manner, departing customers with new customers that generate comparable revenue. If a major customer representing a significant portion of our business decides to materially reduce its use of our platform or to cease using our platform altogether, it is possible that our revenue could be significantly reduced.

We rely substantially on a limited number of customers for a significant percentage of our sales.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, sales of our products to four customers generated 31% of our revenues. Our contracts with our customers generally do not obligate them to a specified term and they can generally terminate their relationship with us at any time with a minimal amount of notice. If we lose any of our customers, or any of them decide to scale back on purchases of our products, it will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and prospects. Therefore, we must engage in continual sales efforts to maintain revenue, sustain our customer relationships and expand our client base or our operating results will suffer. If a significant client fails to renew a contract or renews the contract on terms less favorable to us than before, our business could be negatively impacted if additional business is not obtained to replace or supplement that which was lost. We may require additional financial resources to expand our internal and external sales capabilities, although we plan to use a portion of the net proceeds from our December 2021 public offering for this purpose. We cannot assure that we will be able to sustain our customer relationships and expand our client base. The loss of any of our current customers or our inability to expand our customer base will have a material adverse effect on our business plans and prospects.

If we fail to innovate and make the right investment decisions in our offerings and platform, we may not attract and retain advertisers and publishers and our revenue and results of operations may decline.

Our industry is subject to rapid and frequent changes in technology, evolving customer needs and the frequent introduction by our competitors of new and enhanced offerings. We must constantly make investment decisions regarding our offerings and technology to meet customer demand and evolving industry standards. We may make wrong decisions regarding these investments. If new or existing competitors have more attractive offerings or functionalities, we may lose customers or customers may decrease their use of our platform. New customer demands, superior competitive offerings or new industry standards could require us to make unanticipated and costly changes to our platform or business model. If we fail to adapt to our rapidly changing industry or to evolving customer needs, demand for our platform could decrease and our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

We may not be able to integrate, maintain and enhance our advertising solutions to keep pace with technological and market developments. 

The market for digital video advertising solutions is characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and services. To keep pace with technological developments, satisfy increasing publisher and advertiser requirements, maintain the attractiveness and competitiveness of our advertising solutions and ensure compatibility with evolving industry standards and protocols, we will need to anticipate and respond to varying product lifecycles, regularly enhance our current advertising solutions and develop and introduce new solutions and functionality on a timely basis. This requires significant investment of financial and other resources. For example, we will need to invest significant resources into expanding and developing our platforms in order to maintain a comprehensive solution. Ad exchanges and other technological developments may displace us or introduce an additional intermediate layer between us and our customers and digital media properties that could impair our relationships with those customers.

If we fail to detect advertising fraud, we could harm our reputation and hurt our ability to execute our business plan.

As we are in the business of providing services to publishers, advertisers and agencies, we must deliver effective digital advertising campaigns. Despite our efforts to implement fraud protection techniques in our platforms, some of our advertising and agency campaigns may experience fraudulent and other invalid impressions, clicks or conversions that advertisers may perceive as undesirable, such as non-human traffic generated by computers designed to simulate human users and artificially inflate user traffic on websites. These activities could overstate the performance of any given digital advertising campaign and could harm our reputation. It may be difficult for us to detect fraudulent or malicious activity because we do not own content and rely in part on our digital media properties to control such activity. Industry self-regulatory bodies, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and certain influential members of Congress have increased their scrutiny and awareness of, and have taken recent actions to address, advertising fraud and other malicious activity. If we fail to detect or prevent fraudulent or other malicious activity, the affected advertisers may experience or perceive a reduced return on their investment and our reputation may be harmed. High levels of fraudulent or malicious activity could lead to dissatisfaction with our solutions, refusals to pay, refund or future credit demands or withdrawal of future business.

The loss of advertisers and publishers as customers could significantly harm our business, operating results and financial condition. 

Our customer base consists primarily of advertisers and publishers. We do not have exclusive relationships with advertising agencies, companies that are advertisers, or publishers, such that we largely depend on agencies to work with us as they embark on advertising campaigns for advertisers. The loss of agencies as customers and referral sources could significantly harm our business, operating results and financial condition. If we fail to maintain satisfactory relationships with an advertising agency, we risk losing business from the advertisers represented by that agency.

Furthermore, advertisers and publishers may change advertising agencies. If an advertiser switches from an agency that utilizes our platform to one that does not, we will lose revenue from that advertiser. In addition, some advertising agencies have their own relationships with publishers that are different than our relationships, such that they might directly connect advertisers with such publishers. Our business may suffer to the extent that advertising agencies and inventory suppliers purchase and sell advertising inventory directly from one another or through intermediaries other than us.

Our sales efforts with advertisers and publishers require significant time and expense.

Attracting new advertisers and publishers requires substantial time and expense, and we may not be successful in establishing new relationships or in maintaining or advancing our current relationships.

Our solutions, including our programmatic solutions, and our business model often requires us to spend substantial time and effort educating our own sales force and potential advertisers, advertising agencies, supply side platforms and digital media properties about our offerings, including providing demonstrations and comparisons against other available solutions. This process is costly and time-consuming. If we are not successful in targeting, supporting and streamlining our sales processes, our ability to grow our business may be adversely affected.

Changes in consumer sentiment or laws, rules or regulations regarding tracking technologies and other privacy matters could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate net revenues and could adversely affect our ability to collect data on consumer shopping behavior.

The collection and use of electronic information about users is an important element of our data intelligence technology and solutions. However, consumers may become increasingly resistant to the collection, use and sharing of information, including information used to deliver advertising and to attribute credit to publishers in performance marketing programs, and take steps to prevent such collection, use and sharing of information. For example, consumer complaints and/or lawsuits regarding advertising or other tracking technologies in general and our practices specifically could adversely impact our business. In addition to this change in consumer preferences, if retailers or brands perceive significant negative consumer reaction to targeted advertising or the tracking of consumers’ activities, they may determine that such advertising or tracking has the potential to negatively impact their brand. In that case, advertisers may limit or stop the use of our solutions, and our operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected.

Government regulation of the Internet, e-commerce and m-commerce is evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these laws and regulations could substantially harm our business and results of operations.

We are subject to general business regulations and laws as well as regulations and laws specifically governing the Internet, e-commerce and m-commerce in a number of jurisdictions around the world. Existing and future regulations and laws could impede the growth of the Internet, e-commerce, m-commerce or other online services. These regulations and laws may involve taxation, tariffs, privacy and data security, anti-spam, data protection, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts, electronic communications and consumer protection. It is not clear how existing laws and regulations governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes, libel and personal privacy apply to the Internet as the vast majority of these laws and regulations were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by the Internet, e-commerce or m-commerce. It is possible that general business regulations and laws, or those specifically governing the Internet, e-commerce or m-commerce may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. We cannot assure you that our practices have complied, comply or will comply fully with all such laws and regulations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation, a loss in business, and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. Any such proceeding or action could hurt our reputation, force us to spend significant resources in defense of these proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, and cause consumers and retailers to decrease their use of our marketplace, and may result in the imposition of monetary liability. We may also be contractually liable to indemnify and hold harmless third parties from the costs or consequences of noncompliance with any such laws or regulations. In addition, it is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on our websites and mobile applications or may even attempt to completely block access to our marketplace. Adverse legal or regulatory developments could substantially harm our business. In particular, in the event that we are restricted, in whole or in part, from operating in one or more countries, our ability to retain or increase our customer base may be adversely affected and we may not be able to maintain or grow our net revenues as anticipated.

We may be required to invest significant monies upfront in capital intensive project(s) which we may be unable to recover.

Failure to recover significant, up-front capital investments required by certain client contracts could be harmful to the Company’s financial condition and operating results. Certain of our client contracts require significant investment in the early stages, which we expect to recover through billings over the life of the contract. These contracts may involve the construction of new computer systems and communications networks or the development and deployment of new technologies. Substantial performance risk exists in each contract with these characteristics, and some or all elements of service delivery under these contracts are dependent upon successful completion of the development, construction and deployment phases. Failure to successfully meet our contractual requirements under these contracts over their life increases the possibility that we may not recover our capital investments in these contracts. Failure to recover our capital investments could be detrimental to the particular engagement as well as our operating results.

We are subject to payment-related risks and, if our customers do not pay or dispute their invoices, our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

We may be involved in disputes with agencies and their advertisers over the operation of our platform, the terms of our agreements or our billings for purchases made by them through our platform. If we are unable to collect or make adjustments to bills to customers, we could incur write-offs for bad debt, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations for the periods in which the write-offs occur. In the future, bad debt may exceed reserves for such contingencies and our bad debt exposure may increase over time. Any increase in write-offs for bad debt could have a materially negative effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. Even if we are not paid by our customers on time or at all, we are still obligated to pay for the advertising inventory we have purchased for the advertising campaign, and as a consequence, our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely impacted.

If we default on our credit obligations, our operations may be interrupted, and our business and financial results could be adversely affected.

Publishers extend us credit terms for the purchase of advertising inventory. We currently have outstanding payables to existing publishers. If we are unable to pay our publishers in a timely fashion, they may elect to no longer sell us inventory to provide for sale to advertisers. Also, it may be necessary for us to incur additional indebtedness to maintain operations of the Company. If we default on our credit obligations, our lenders and debt financing holders may, among other things:

If some or all of these events were to occur, our operations may be interrupted and our ability to fund our operations or obligations, as well as our business, financial results, and financial condition, could be adversely affected.

Our failure to recruit or the loss of management and highly trained and qualified personnel could adversely affect our operations.

Our future success depends in large part on our current senior management team and our ability to attract and retain additional high-quality management and operating personnel. Our senior management team’s in-depth knowledge of and deep relationships with the participants in our industry are extremely valuable to us. Our business also requires skilled technical and marketing personnel, who are in high demand and are often subject to competing offers. Our failure to recruit and retain qualified personnel could hinder our ability to successfully develop and operate our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and operating results.

The complexity of our data products, processing functionality, software systems and services require highly trained professionals to operate, maintain, improve and repair them. While we presently have a sophisticated, dedicated and experienced team of associates who have a deep understanding of our business, some of whom have been with Mobiquity for years, the labor market for these individuals has historically been, and is currently, very competitive due to the limited number of people available with the necessary technical skills and understanding, compensation strategies, general economic conditions and various other factors. As the business information and marketing industries continue to become more technologically advanced, we anticipate increased competition for qualified personnel. The loss of the services of highly trained personnel like the Company’s current team of associates, or the inability to recruit and retain additional, qualified associates, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or operating results.

Our substantial amount of indebtedness may adversely affect our cash flow and our ability to operate our business, remain in compliance with debt covenants and make payments on our indebtedness.

Our substantial level of indebtedness increases the possibility that we may be unable to generate cash sufficient to pay, when due, the principal of, interest on or other amounts due with respect to our indebtedness. Our indebtedness could have other important consequences to you as a shareholder. For example, it could:

Any of the above listed factors could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Relating to An Investment in Our Securities

Our common stock and warrants are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with Nasdaq Capital Market’s continued listing standards.

Our common stock in the past has been thinly traded on the over -the- counter OTCQB market. As a condition to consummating our December 2021 public offering of over $10 million, our common stock and warrants have become listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. There can be no assurance any broker will be interested in trading our stock and warrants. Therefore, it may be difficult to sell your shares of common stock or warrants if you desire or need to sell them. Our underwriters of our December 2021 offering in which we raised over $10 million in gross proceeds are not obligated to make a market in our common stock or warrants, and even if it makes a market, it can discontinue market making at any time without notice. We can provide no assurance that an active and liquid trading market in our common stock and/or warrants will develop or, if developed, that such market will continue.

Our common stock and warrants are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. However, there is no guarantee that we will be able to maintain such listing for any period of time by perpetually satisfying Nasdaq Capital Market’s continued listing requirements. Our failure to continue to meet these requirements may result in our common stock and warrants being delisted from Nasdaq Capital Market.

The market price of our common stock and warrants is likely to be highly volatile because of several factors, including a limited public float.

The market price of our common stock has been volatile in the past and the market price of our common stock and our warrants is likely to be highly volatile in the future. You may not be able to resell shares of our common stock or our warrants following periods of volatility because of the market’s adverse reaction to volatility.

Other factors that could cause such volatility may include, among other things:

Any of these factors could have a significant and adverse impact on the market price of our common stock and/or warrants. In addition, the stock market in general has at times experienced extreme volatility and rapid decline that has often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock and/or warrants, regardless of our actual operating performance.

Our future sales of common stock by management and other stockholders may have an adverse effect on the then prevailing market price of our common stock.

In the event a public market for our common stock is sustained in the future, sales of our common stock may be made by holders of our public float or by holders of restricted securities in compliance with the provisions of Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933. In general, under Rule 144, a non-affiliated person who has satisfied a six-month holding period in a fully reporting company under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, may, sell their restricted common stock without volume limitation, so long as the issuer is current with all reports under the Exchange Act in order for there to be adequate common public information. Affiliated persons may also sell their common shares held for at least six months, but affiliated persons will be required to meet certain other requirements, including manner of sale, notice requirements and volume limitations. Non-affiliated persons who hold their common shares for at least one year will be able to sell their common stock without the need for there to be current public information in the hands of the public. Future sales of shares of our public float or by restricted common stock made in compliance with Rule 144 may have an adverse effect on the then prevailing market price, if any, of our common stock.

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares are eligible to be sold into the market in the near future, which could cause the market price of our common shares to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.

We currently have approximately 4.2 million shares of common stock free trading out of a total of 6.5 million outstanding common shares. Any increase in freely trading shares or the perception that such securities will or could come onto the market could have an adverse effect on the trading price of the securities. No prediction can be made as to the effect, if any, that sales of these securities, or the availability of such securities for sale, will have on the market prices prevailing from time to time. Nevertheless, the possibility that substantial amounts of common stock and warrants may be sold in the public market may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of our equity securities or impair our shareholders’ ability to sell on the open market. Additionally, any substantial increase of our shares that are eligible to be sold into the market in the near future could cause the market price of our common shares to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.

Our common stock and our warrants (forming part of the units offered hereby) may be subject to the “penny stock” rules in the future. It may be more difficult to resell securities classified as “penny stock.”

Our common stock and warrants may be subject to “penny stock” rules (generally defined as non-exchange traded stock with a per-share price below $5.00) in the future. While our common stock and warrants are currently not considered “penny stock” since they are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, if we are unable to maintain that listing and our common stock and warrants are no longer listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, unless we maintain a per-share price above $5.00, our common stock and warrants will become “penny stock.” These rules impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers that recommend the purchase or sale of penny stocks to persons other than those who qualify as “established customers” or “accredited investors.” For example, broker-dealers must determine the appropriateness for non-qualifying persons of investments in penny stocks. Broker-dealers must also provide, prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from the rules, a standardized risk disclosure document that provides information about penny stocks and the risks in the penny stock market. The broker-dealer also must provide the customer with current bid and offer quotations for the penny stock, disclose the compensation of the broker-dealer and its salesperson in the transaction, furnish monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer’s account, provide 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.

Legal remedies available to an investor in “penny stocks” may include the following:

These requirements may have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity, if any, in the secondary market for a security that becomes subject to the penny stock rules. The additional burdens imposed upon broker-dealers by such requirements may discourage broker-dealers from effecting transactions in our securities, which could severely limit the market price and liquidity of our securities. These requirements may restrict the ability of broker-dealers to sell our common stock or our warrants and may affect your ability to resell our common stock and our warrants.

Many brokerage firms will discourage or refrain from recommending investments in penny stocks. Most institutional investors will not invest in penny stocks. In addition, many individual investors will not invest in penny stocks due, among other reasons, to the increased financial risk generally associated with these investments.

For these reasons, penny stocks may have a limited market and, consequently, limited liquidity. We can give no assurance at what time, if ever, our common stock or our warrants will not be classified as a “penny stock” in the future.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future and thus you must rely on stock appreciation for any return on your investment.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We may not have sufficient funds to legally pay dividends. Even if funds are legally available to pay dividends, we may nevertheless decide in our sole discretion not to pay dividends. The declaration, payment and amount of any future dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, and will depend upon, among other things, the results of our operations, cash flows and financial condition, operating and capital requirements, and other factors our board of directors may consider relevant. There is no assurance that we will pay any dividends in the future, and, if dividends are paid, there is no assurance with respect to the amount of any such dividend. As a result, you must rely on stock appreciation and a liquid trading market for any return on your investment. If an active and liquid trading market does not develop, you may be unable to sell your shares of common stock at or above the price in this offering at the time you would like to sell.

Our principal stockholders, directors and executive officers have a material level of control over us, which could delay or prevent a change in our corporate control favored by our other stockholders.

As of the date of this Form 10-K, our principal stockholders, directors and executive officers beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 37% of our outstanding common stock. The interests of our current directors and executive officers may differ from the interests of other stockholders. As a result, these current directors and officers could have the ability to exercise material influence over all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, irrespective of how our other stockholders may vote, including the following actions:

Our certificate of incorporation grants our board of directors the authority to issue a new series of preferred stock without further approval by our shareholders, which could adversely affect the rights of the holders of our common shares.

Our board of directors has the power to fix and determine the relative rights and preferences of preferred stock. Our board of directors also has the power to issue preferred stock without further shareholder approval, subject to applicable listing regulations. As a result, our board of directors could authorize the issuance of new series of preferred stock that would grant to holders thereof certain rights in preference to the rights of our common stockholders to:

In addition, our board of directors could authorize the issuance of new series of preferred stock that is convertible into our common shares, or may also authorize the sale of additional shares of authorized common stock, which could decrease the relative voting power of our common shares or result in dilution to our existing shareholders.

As a public company, we are subject to complex legal and accounting requirements that will require us to incur significant expenses and will expose us to risk of non-compliance.

As a public company, we are subject to numerous legal and accounting requirements, and the maintenance listing requirements if we become listed on NASDAQ, that do not apply to private companies. The cost of compliance with many of these requirements is material, not only in absolute terms but, more importantly, in relation to the overall scope of the operations of a small company. Our management team is relatively inexperienced in complying with these requirements, and our management resources are limited, which may lead to errors in our accounting and financial statements, and which may impair our operations. This inexperience and lack of resources may also increase the cost of compliance and may also increase the risk that we will fail to comply. Failure to comply with these requirements can have numerous adverse consequences including, but not limited to, our inability to file required periodic reports on a timely basis or comply with NASDAQ listing requirements, resulting in loss of market confidence and/or governmental or private actions against us, or delisting from NASDAQ. We cannot assure you that we will be able to comply with all of these requirements or that the cost of such compliance will not prove to be a substantial competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis our privately held and larger public competitors.

We could become subject to shareholder litigation, thereby diverting our resources that may have a material effect on our profitability and results of operations.

The market for our securities may be characterized by significant price volatility when compared to seasoned issuers, and we expect that our share price may continue to be more volatile than a seasoned issuer for the indefinite future.  In the past, plaintiffs have often initiated securities class action litigation against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. We may become the target of similar litigation. Securities litigation will result in substantial costs and liabilities and will divert management’s attention and resources.

We in the past identified significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that, if not corrected, could result in material misstatements of our financial statements.

We have concluded that we have not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting through the years ended December 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020. The Company determined that it has deficiencies over financial statements recording in areas of recording revenue and expenses in proper cut off as well as proper classification of accounts. Significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in our internal control could have a material adverse effect on us. Due to these deficiencies, there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We are working to remediate these deficiencies and material weaknesses. We are taking steps to enhance our internal control environment to establish and maintain effective disclosure and financial controls and procedures, internal control over financial reporting and changes in corporate governance. In this regard, the Company in December 2021 adopted several corporate governance policies, and it has established various committees of the Board of Directors, including an Audit Committee comprised of three independent directors in accordance with Nasdaq Rule 5605(c)(2). One of the Audit Committee’s priorities will be to begin the process of segregating tasks and processes to ensure proper internal controls. In connection with this process, the Company plans to implement the following initiatives under the oversight of the Audit committee.

We have hired Refidential One - SOX Consultants who have set up a time table to review testing procedures and analysis as follows:

Phase 1, which shall be completed on or about the Company filing its form 10-K for December 31, 2021, will be to identify the gaps and suggested remediations in 2021.

Phase 2, to be completed on or about June 30,2022, (contingent upon the Company implementing remediation plan) will have all the narratives updated and risk control matrixes (“RCM”) created and available for testing.

Phase 3, to commence on or about July 15th, 2021 and to be completed for the third quarter ending September 30,2022, will include the testing of all the key controls identified, implemented in Phases 1 and 2 above.

Phase 4, if necessary, will be to retest the failures in Phase 3. Phase 4 testing enables MOBI to rectify any fails from Phase 3 testing, thus reducing the likelihood of significant deficiencies.

Although we plan to undertake and complete this remediation process as quickly as possible, we are unable, at this time to estimate how long it will take; and our efforts may not be successful in remediating the deficiencies or material weaknesses.

A material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting could adversely impact our ability to provide timely and accurate financial information, and to timely or accurately report our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows or maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures. If we are unable to report financial information timely and accurately or to maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures, we could be subject to, among other things, regulatory or enforcement actions by the SEC, any one of which could adversely affect our business prospects.

If an active, liquid trading market for our publicly held warrants does not develop, you may not be able to sell your warrants quickly or at a desirable price.

Our publicly held warrants are immediately exercisable and expire on December 13, 2026. The warrants will have an initial exercise price per share equal to $4.98. In the event that the stock price of our common stock does not exceed the exercise price of the warrants during the period when the warrants are exercisable, the warrants may not have any value.

There is no established trading market for the warrants sold in this offering, and the market for the warrants may be highly volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance. Our warrants trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “MOBQW”. However, an active public market for our warrants may not develop or be sustained. We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in our company will lead to the development of an active trading market in our warrants or how liquid that market might become. If a market does not develop or is not sustained, it may be difficult for you to sell your warrants at the time you wish to sell them, at a price that is attractive to you, or at all.

Holders of our publicly held warrants will have no rights as a common stockholder until they acquire our common stock.

Until you acquire shares of our common stock upon exercise of your publicly held warrants, you will have no rights with respect to the common stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants. Upon exercise of your warrants, you will be entitled to exercise the rights of a common stockholder only as to matters for which the record date occurs after the exercise date.

General Risk Factors

Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and New York law make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us and make a takeover more difficult to complete, even if such a transaction were in the stockholders’ interest.

Our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and by-laws and New York law contain provisions that are intended to deter coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids by making such practices or bids unacceptably expensive to the raider and to encourage prospective acquirers to negotiate with our board of directors rather than to attempt a hostile takeover. In addition, provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, by-laws and New York law impose various procedural and other requirements, which could make it more difficult for shareholders to effect certain corporate actions. These provisions include, among others:

We believe these provisions may help protect our shareholders from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics by requiring potential acquirers to negotiate with our Board and by providing our Board with more time to assess any acquisition proposal. These provisions are not intended to make our Company immune from takeovers. In addition, although we believe these provisions collectively provide for an opportunity to receive higher bids by requiring potential acquirers to negotiate with our Board, they would apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some shareholders. These provisions may also frustrate or prevent any attempts by our shareholders to replace or remove our current management team by making it more difficult for shareholders to replace members of our Board, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management.

Our bylaws provide for limitations of director liability and indemnification of directors and officers and employees.

Our bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors, officers and employees to the fullest extent permitted by law. Our bylaws also provide that we are obligated to advance expenses incurred by a director or officer in advance of the final disposition of any action or proceeding. We believe that these provisions are necessary to attract and retain qualified persons as directors and officers.

Section 402(b) of the BCL permits a New York corporation to include in its certificate of incorporation a provision eliminating the potential monetary liability of a director to the corporation or its shareholders for breach of fiduciary duty as a director; provided that this provision may not eliminate the liability of a director (i) for acts or omissions in bad faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (ii) for any transaction from which the director receives an improper personal benefit or (iii) for any acts in violation of Section 719 of the BCL. Section 719 provides that a director who votes or concurs in a corporate action will be liable to the corporation for the benefit of its creditors and shareholders for any damages suffered as a result of an action approving (i) an improper payment of a dividend, (ii) an improper redemption or purchase by the corporation of shares of the corporation, (iii) an improper distribution of assets to shareholders after dissolution of the corporation without adequately providing for all known liabilities of the corporation or (iv) the making of an improper loan to a director of the corporation.

The limitation of liability in our bylaws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against directors for breach of their fiduciary duties. They may also reduce the likelihood of derivative litigation against directors and officers, even though an action, if successful, might provide a benefit to us and our stockholders. Our results of operations and financial condition may be harmed to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against directors and officers pursuant to these indemnification provisions.